UNIVAC: The Early Computer, 1955 UNIVAC, a giant electronic computing system, was designed by Engineering Research Associates and built by the Remington Rand Corporation. It grew out of codebreaking machines developed during World War II. The U.S. Census Bureau used it to tabulate results of the 1954 Census. A. Ross Echler, deputy director of the Census Bureau, stands at the computer instrument panel with two of his staff.