There are many people who influenced the study of computer science for the better. Here are a few of our favorite:
1912-1954
1957-Present
1815-1852
1952-Present
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist. He was born in Maida Vale, London. His father was part of a family of merchants from Scotland. His mother, Ethel Sara, was the daughter of an engineer. Turing went to St. Michael's, a school at 20 Charles Road, St Leonards-on-sea, when he was six years old. Turing was one of the people who worked on the first computers. He was the first person to think of using a computer to do things that were too hard for a person to do. He created the Turing machine in 1936. The machine was imaginary, but it included the idea of a computer program. Turing was interested in artificial intelligence. He proposed the Turing test, to say when a machine could be called "intelligent". A computer could be said to "think" if a human talking with it could not tell it was a machine. During World War II, Turing worked to break German secret messages.
Famous Computer Scientists
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Sophie Wilson
Sophie Wilson is a British computer scientist and a software engineer. Born in Leeds, England, 1957, she designed the first British, home build microcomputers, the Acorn System 1. She was the main source of ideas behind much of Acorn’s software. The computer that she created was the first one of the long line of Acorn Computers. She received her education from the University of Cambridge. Currently, she works for Broadcom in the DSL Business Unit. Some of Sophie’s favorite hobbies include photography and drama. The subjects of her pictures vary from snaps of her garden to photos of her family and friends. To look at some of her pictures, visit her website.
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King Lovelace was an English writer who became the world's first computer programmer. She wrote the program for Charles Babbage's mechanical computer, the analytical engine. She wrote the first algorithm that was meant to be processed by a machine. She had no relationship with her father, who died when she was nine. As a young adult she took an interest in mathematics, and in particular Babbage's work on the analytical engine. Between 1842 and 1843 she translated an article by Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea on the engine. She added her own notes on the engine. These notes contain what is considered the first computer program. Though Babbage's engine was never built, Lovelace's notes are important in the early history of computers. She realized that computers would be able to do more than just calculating or number-crunching.
Wendy Hall
Wendy Hall is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, England. Wendy Hall was born in west London and educated at Ealing Grammar School for Girls. She studied for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in mathematics at the University of Southampton. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in 1974 and her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1977. Hall returned to the University of Southampton in 1984 to join the newly formed computer science group there. Her team invented the Microcosm hypermedia system. Hall was appointed the University's first female professor of engineering in 1994. She then served as Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002–07.