There's the Turing award, which is an equivalent prize for computing. Could add an acknowledgement for strange and unusual applications of computer science.
That's kind of insulting honestly. Getting Linux to run on an i4004 is bona fide engineering. More real than engineering that we're paid to do most times. Looking at the list of Ig Nobel Prize winners it sounds like The Onion but not funny.
Many things which receive an Ig Nobel (but not all) are bona fide <thing> that just happen to be funny or have a particularly strong aspect (not necessarily in their entirety) of triviality. I'd be honored if I did a project like this that got enough attention and generated enough amusement to deserve an Ig Nobel instead of offended I'm on the same list as projects that weren't all genuinely representative works of the field.
Running a modern kernel on a 4004 just doesn't sound too far from running it on an incandescent light bulb or on a potato. No doubt sorcerer level engineering.
