Vannevar Bush. Portrait of the American electrical engineer Vannevar Bush (1890-1974). Bush served as a US navy research engineer during the First World War. From 1919-1971 he held various teaching posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and the Carnegie Institute, Washington, USA. Bush developed the digital analyser and other analogue computers. These forerunners of digital computers could solve complex mathematical problems. During the Second World War Bush was chairman of the National Defence Research Committee. He had a major part in the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bomb.