THE DAYSTROM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Dr Leah Brahms was a graduate of the Daystrom Institute, as noted in [TNG: Booby Trap]. She was heavily involved in the Galaxy-Class Starship Development Project at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in 2358. Brahms made major contributions to the Theoretical Propulsion Group, far beyond her official role as a junior team member, and was responsible for much of the warp engine design on the Galaxy-class starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. In [TNG: Booby Trap], in an attempt to learn more about the engine design of the USS Enterprise-D, chief engineer Commander Geordi La Forge (seen in [#100 Timeless] commanding the USS Challenger in an eventually unrealised timeline) re-created Dr Brahms' image on the holodeck. While he did learn a great deal about the engines, La Forge also, unfortunately, developed a romantic attraction for Brahms' image. By 2367, Brahms was married and had been promoted to senior design engineer of the Theoretical Propulsion Group. She visited the Enterprise-D in that year, in [TNG: Galaxy's Child] (her picture is from that episode), to inspect the field modifications made to that ship's engines by La Forge. To his dismay, Brahms was highly critical of La Forge's work and she strongly objected to him having programmed a holographic replica of herself, noting that doing so without her permission constituted an invasion of privacy. Nevertheless, the two engineers pulled together in a crisis and became friends. In the anti-time future portrayed in [TNG: All Good Things], Geordi La Forge was married to a woman named Leah. It was not made clear if, in this alternate timeline, Leah Brahms had married Geordi, but it seems to be likely, although no mention was made of what happened to her first husband. This La Forge was an author, and his wife was Director of the Daystrom Institute. Behind-the-scenes: In an early script draft of [TNG: Booby Trap] Brahms was named Navid Daystrom, presumably a descendant of Dr Richard Daystrom. But the casting department did not realise that this would require a Black actress to play the part until after Susan Gibney had been hired. At the suggestion of script co-ordinator Eric A. Stillwell, the character was renamed, but the Daystrom tie-in was kept by adding a line stating that she had graduated from the Daystrom Institute. Susan Gibney was a strong contender for the part of Captain Janeway in [Star Trek: Voyager]. She also played Commander Benteen in [DS9: Paradise Lost].

Behind-the-scenes: How Susan Gibney Almost Played Captain Janeway (part of TIDBIT STORAGE LOCKER)

Vash in Quark's Bar, Deep Space 9, [DS9: Q-Less] Vash on the Promenade, [DS9: Q-Less]

The archaeologist named Vash, who continued Dr Samuel Estragon's work to locate the fabled Tox Uthat after his death in 2366, promised Estragon that she would present the Uthat to the Daystrom Institute if she did find it, ref. [TNG: Captain's Holiday]. In 2369, Vash, having been away from Earth for 12 years, visited the Starfleet space station Deep Space 9. She was invited to speak at the Daystrom Institute concerning her travels in the Gamma Quadrant. This came as quite a surprise, since her membership to the Institute's Archaeological Council had been suspended twice for illegally selling artifacts. Vash was tempted but declined the offer to continue exploring archaeological ruins throughout the galaxy, as noted in [DS9: Q-Less]. Professor Woo worked at the Daystrom Institute. Commander Benjamin Sisko, in [DS9: Q-Less], told Vash that Professor Woo was especially eager for her to return to the Institute to speak on her travels through the Gamma Quadrant.

An annexe of the Daystrom Institute was located on the planet Galor IV, ref. [TNG: The Offspring]. Admiral Haftel, upon learning that Data, of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D, had constructed a daughter android in 2366, strongly advocated that the new android be placed at the Galor IV annexe for programming and study. The daughter android, named Lal, became the focus of the resulting heated custody battle. Data is mentioned by Torres in [#29 Prototype]

In 2365, Commander Bruce Maddox served as Chair of Robotics at the Daystrom Institute* and also worked with the Cybernetics Division, ref. [TNG: The Measure Of A Man] [TNG: Data's Day]. Maddox also studies the works of Noonien Soong, the pioneer cyberneticist, which therefore include Data of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D. Maddox was the only member of the entrance committee who opposed the android Data's entrance into Starfleet Academy in 2341 because of his belief that Data was not a sentient being. In 2365, Maddox attempted to use legal means to coerce Data to submit to a disassembly procedure, in an effort to learn more about the android's construction. This effort was blocked when Judge Advocate General Phillipa Louvois ruled that Data was indeed a sentient being, in [TNG: The Measure of a Man].

Cmdr. Bruce Maddox, in Data's quarters on the USS Enterprise-D, [TNG: The Measure Of A Man]

(The subject of what constitutes a sentient being is partly arbitrated on by the Federation in 2377, as regards Voyager's holographic Doctor, in [#166 Author Author].) Data nevertheless held no ill will against Maddox, and in fact remained in correspondence with him, providing Maddox with information to help further understand Data's mind, such as a record of one of his typical days in [TNG: Data's Day].

* I note that in [TNG: The Measure Of A Man], the hearing's computer calls it "the Daystrom Technological Institute" rather than "the Daystrom Institute of Technology" or even, in short, "the Daystrom Institute".

A tomographic imaging scanner was developed at the Daystrom Institute. This is a sensor scan which involves a series of narrow-beam X-rays to scan objects in a multiphasic mode. The tomographic imaging scanner was still in the theoretical stage in 2364. By 2370 the scanners were in general use aboard starships. In Q's anti-time reality depicted in [TNG: All Good Things], Data used a tomographic imaging scanner to map the internal structure of the temporal anomaly discovered in the Devron system. From the results of the scan he concluded that the rift was created by the convergence of the three identical inverse tachyon beams, each originating from a different time period. Data is mentioned by Torres in [#29 Prototype] and Q appears in [#34 Death Wish], [#53 The Q And The Gray] and [#165 Q2].

THE DAYSTROM PRIZE

Troi: "But if there were and you wanted to save his program. He probably wouldn't let you near him. He wouldn't care that you'd won the Daystrom Prize for Holography. From his perspective, you'd be out of date. But what if you knew you could save him?"
Doctor: "Thank you, Counsellor, for extending that olive branch. I'm willing to see past our differences, if he is."
Zimmerman: "Alright. He can start by purging the plasma conduits on deck 6."

Troi, Zimmerman and the Doctor, in Zimmerman's laboratory on Jupiter Station in the Alpha Quadrant, [#144 Life Line]

In [#166 Author Author], Janeway and several others are in Voyager's Astrometrics Lab receiving the first live audio-visual communication between them from Project Pathfinder at Starfleet's Headquarters.

Janeway: "Lieutenant Barclay, my congratulations on establishing the first trans-galactic comlink. You've earned a place in the history books."
Barclay: "I can't take all the credit, Captain. It was Harry and Seven suggested bouncing a tachyon beam off of the quantum singularity."
Kim: "Just be sure to thank us when you accept the Daystrom Prize."

Lieutenant Barclay (left) and Admiral Owen Paris conversing with Kim, Janeway and other Voyager officers, [#166 Author Author]

IMPLANTATION OF ENGRAMS

Dr Richard Daystrom implanted his engrams (in neurophysiology, an engram is a specific complex memory) into the M-5 computer in 2268 in an effort to give the machine the ability to reason like a human. As noted in [#13 Cathexis], study of an individual's memory engrams can be used to analyse brain activity. The Delta Quadrant species called the Baneans, whom Voyager encounters in [#8 Ex Post Facto], punish convicted murderers by implanting engrams from the victim into the murderer, thereby forcing the murderer to experience the last few minutes of the victim's life every 14 hours for the rest of their natural life. It is this procedure that Paris was subjected to when he was unjustly convicted of murdering Professor Tolen Ren in 2371.

Paris suffers the horrific "memories" of murdering Tolen Ren, [#8 Ex Post Facto]

Torres about to be operated on and undergo an engrammatic purge, [#78 Random Thoughts]

By 2372, technology in the Alpha Quadrant existed to permit a person's engrams to be selectively erased, as noted in [DS9: Sons of Mogh]. This worked with Klingon memories but it is not known if this can work on other species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. In the Delta Quadrant, in 2374, in [#78 Random Thoughts], Voyager's chief engineer Torres narrowly avoids being subjected to an engrammatic purge by the telepathic Mari species in order to erase violent thoughts. Therefore it seems that the technology exists in the Delta Quadrant to erase selective engrams.

A year earlier, in 2373, again in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager scientists discover a memory virus parasite that is able to evade the body's immune system by disguising itself as an engram, thriving on the peptides generated by the host's brain, as experienced by Tuvok whose experiences are portrayed in [#44 Flashback].

Tuvok's repressed memory of the traumatic experience of, as a boy, failing to save a girl from plunging to her death, turns out to be a memory virus parasite, [#44 Flashback]

Dr Richard Daystrom, a pioneer and an inspiration [TOS: The Ultimate Computer]

Daystrom's concept of implanting or imprinting human engrams onto computer circuitry was very revolutionary for its time, and was the forerunner of the sophisticated bio-neural computer technology which is a feature of advanced Federation starships such as the Intrepid-class USS Voyager. Bio-neural circuitry does not use direct engram imprinting but utilises synthetic neural cells for data processing, which can organise and process complex information faster and more efficiently than traditional optical processors. The computer systems on Voyager use bio-neural gel packs to supplement its Optical Data Network, as noted in [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. In fact, USS Voyager is the first Federation starship to have had bio-neural fibres incorporated into its systems, as noted in [#11 State Of Flux].

SHIP USS VOYAGER: Computers

The Daystrom legacy  Dr Richard Daystrom may not have invented bio-neural circuitry or come close to its ultimate realisation as installed in starships of the 24th century, but he contributed substantially to the concept and his pioneering breakthroughs provided starships with duotronic computers for decades, led to multitronics being used in computer programs, while he and his work supplied a source of inspiration for many Federation scientists after him, providing one of the most influential legacies that a single scientist can leave.