PIONEERS OF COMPUTING
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage was an English mathematician,philosopher,mentor and mechanical engineer who is best remembered for originating the concept of the programmable computer.He is considered to be the father of computer science
InventionsHe is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer.His invention was called the difference engine.It was an automatic mechanical calculator used to calculate polynomial functions.Although he never got to finish it.The invention was later finished.
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Alan Turing
Alan Turing was a British cryptanalyst,logician,
philosopher and mathematician.He is also considered the father of artificial intelligence.He worked in breaking German ciphers and worked for Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park.He was credited for breaking the Enigma code and was pivotal to the allied war effort.The prime minister at the time Winston Churchill stated that Alan Turing made the single greatest contribution to the war effort. He is also credited for developing the Turing test,a system used to test intelligent agents.His life was later marred by the fact that he was accused and convicted of sexual indecency.He later died of what was thought of at the time as suicide. InventionsIt is regularly said that Turing created the Colussus but it was not Turing that created the Colussus but Turing's use of cryptanalysist contributed to its design.Turing was actually credited for the creation of the electromechanical bombe which was used to help decipher the enigma code
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Al Khwarizmi
He was a Persian mathematician , astronomer and a geographer.The term algorithim is derived form the term algorism, the technique of performing Hindu-Arabic numerals developed by Al-Khwarizmi. The Al Khwarizmi principle of breaking up problems into smaller chunks is still used today in computing.
Golden Principle of Al Khwarizmi
Al Kwarizmi believed that all complex problems of computer science can be broken down into five simple steps:
1.Break down each problem into a number of elemental or ‘atomic’ steps. An elemental or atomic step is one, which cannot be simplified any further. 2.Second, arrange all the elements or steps of the problem in an order or sequence, such that each element can be taken up and solved one at a time, without affecting other parts of the problem. 3.Next, find a way to solve each of the elements separately. Because each element has been simplified to the maximum, it is very likely that the solution of an elemental step will itself be extremely simple or elemental making it available with relative ease. 4.Then proceed to solve each element of the problem, either one at a time or several at a time, but in the correct order. 5.Thus, when all steps are solved, the original problem itself has also been solved. |
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Doug Engelbart
Doug Engelbart was an American engineer,inventor and an early computer an Internet pioneer.He was born in Portland,Oregon and did a bachelor's in electrical engineering at Oregon State collection. Engelbart is most remembered for 'The Mother of All Demos'.It was simply a live demonstration of his inventions.These included the computer mouse, the development of hypertext and precursors to graphical user interfaces.He also did work on human-computer interaction while at Augmentation Research Center at the Stanford Research Institute.He believed that computers will allow humans to do work more efficiently and faster.
InventionsDoug Engelbart was credited with the creation of the the computer mouse.All mice today are modeled after this same design.The mouse was a wooden shell with two metal wheels.It was described as a x-y position indicator for a display system. At the mother of all demos Engelbart showed of the first use of the GUI(graphical user interface),Ethernet,hypertext, video conferencing,word processing,dynamic file linking and collaborative real time editing
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John Vincent Atansoff
John Vincent Atanstoff was an american physicist and inventor and is best known for the invention of the first electronic digital computer. He was born in October 4,1903 in Hamilton,New York.He received a bachelor of science degree in electronic engineering at the university of Florida.In 1936 he invented the analog calculator. Inventions
He created the first electronic digital computer.This was called the Atanstoff-Berry Computer.The main purpose of the (ABC) was to solve up to 29 simultaneous linear equations using binary math and Boolean logic.It was designed using vacuum tubes for digital computation.
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