Alfonso Farina, one of the world's leading experts on RADAR, provides a personal reflection on the major leading technical advancements during his distinguished career in academia and industry. Ultimately the author is looking to find beauty at the intersection of mathematics and engineering. He coins the term algolet as a small algorithm that he has used in his career which can be used to produce an illustration suitable for printing on a T-shirt. In doing so, he uses the 700-plus publications he has authored as his source. In the first of a 3-part series he looks at the major developments in Adaptive Arrays for RADAR and Tracking Algorithms. He puts historical context around the findings and highlights some of the most successful techniques and their applications. The reader is treated to a gentle stroll through the career of a leading researcher whose quest has been to help humanity improve its quality of life on earth through engineering and technology. An ambitious goal that he is still pursuing.