Programming Contest Central

Welcome students

Resources

Competition

Profiles

FAQ

IBM Internship Students   People in Computing: Overview

People in Computing: Profiles

	Overview
	Related Activities

1700 - 1920

Charles Babbage 1791-1871, British "Father of Computing"
	Sketch of Charles Babbage
British inventor, philosopher and mathematician Charles Babbage devised the first modern "computer" in 1822, the Difference Engine No.1. The crank-powered machine used variables and a series of calculations to solve a complex problem. The solution was produced by applying the single operation to all of the data registers containing the original data. This genius was the first to suggest that tree rings could be used to determine respective weather patterns, and Babbage also had passions for mechanical dolls, keys, and astronomy. Imagine a difference engine built right in your own home...made out of Lego! Read about Andrew Carol's experience building a Lego model of the difference engine that can actually do calculations, complete with detailed descriptions of its construction and pictures!

	Andrew Carol's experience
	Back to top

Ada Lovelace 1815-1852, British "Enchantress of Numbers"
	Portrait of the Lady of Lovelace
The Right Honourable Ada Augusta, Lady of Lovelace, dazzled the world as the first computer programmer. Ada was interested in the idea of a machine with abstract thought. After Charles Babbage proposed his newest machine, called the difference engine, Ada translated an Italian man's memoir on the subject and added her own notes, including an extensive description of a method that could calculate a type of number theory using the difference engine, which was later recognized by historians as the first computer program. Near the end of her life, Ada was caught up in many scandals, involving flirtatious connections with several male acquaintances. Gambling, drinking and horses became more than passions and she even thought about creating a study of effects of opium and wine. Find out more about the history of women in computing by visiting The Ada Project.

	The Ada Project
	Back to top

Herman Hollerith 1860-1929, American "Father of Information Processing"
	An old punch card without holes- used in the 1970's to enter Fortran programs into the system at the University of Missouri.
A pioneer in the engineering field of statistics, Hollerith revolutionized the way censuses were conducted with his invention of the census-tabulating machine. A punchcard, tabulator and sorter were used and this process saved millions of dollars and years of manual work. The binary system of 0's and 1's was imitated using the hole punch system, where a hole could either represent true or false, which made information much easier and simpler to read by an electric counter. Hollerith also founded the Tabulating Machine Company, which later developed into the International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM. Spelling did not come easily to Hollerith as a child although he was bright. This caused him to be miserable and eventually leave school to be private tutored after running away from school several times. How fast can you convert binary numbers to our every day numbers? See if you can beat the grand master!

	Game- Binary to Base 10
	Back to top

Grace Murray Hopper 1906-1992, American "Grandmother of the Computer Age"- Charlene Billings
	Mark II Computer log entry: "First actual case of bug being found", with moth affixed to the paper.
Nicknamed "Amazing Grace" by friends and admirers, this remarkable woman is credited with coining what is now a household term in the computing world- a "bug", after seeing a moth fly into the circuits of a Mark I calculator and consequently stop it from functioning. Grace was very involved in the programming of the Mark I, which was an automatic calculator, and also worked on the Mark II machine. Her greatest contribution was inventing the compiler, which translates programming languages into machine language. Grace retired at 79 years old as the oldest active officer in the U.S. Navy in 1986.
Back to top

Konrad Zuse 1910-1995, German "Inventor of the Modern Computer"
	Z1 Model
German engineer Konrad Zuse created the first programmable computer, functioning in binary, using 0's and 1's. His first computer of a series of four named the Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4, used the same parts as a modern computer. The operations of logic (AND, OR, NOT) were connected to the design of the circuit. The Z3 was used in World War II, as the world's first program-controlled processor, but unfortunately it was destroyed during the war. Zuse was also the creator of the first algorithmic programming language, named Plankalkul. Zuse once said, "The rattling of the Z4 is the only interesting thing about the Zurich nightlife". He often referred to suggestions made about his work as "schnapsidees", meaning "crazy ideas".
Back to top

Alan Turing 1912-1954, British "Questioner of the Human Mind"
	"Founder of computer science and cryptographer, whose work was key to breaking the wartime Enigma codes, lived and died here"- Plaque on Turing's former home
Mathematician, biologist, philosopher, and logician, Alan Turing designed a machine that would carry out a computation after the user described a set of rules, and this Turing Machine formed the precursor to the universal computing machine. It functioned using an input and output tape and memory, along with the machine itself. Turing explored the ideas of intelligence and time combined in this machine, suggesting what would now be called a hard drive with infinitely fast search abilities. During the last few years of his life, Turing worked on what we now call artificial life, researching how to model the control of genes on anatomy. However, Turing was suddenly found dead apparently of cyanide poisoning, and with no other apparent motive the verdict was officially suicide. Try out your own program on a Turing Machine!

	Turing Machine
	Back to top

1920 - 1940

John Backus 1924-2007, American "Innovation is a constant process of trial and error"- Backus
	Punch card from a typical Fortran program- created in the late 1960's or early 1970's.
As a young man, Backus was a rule breaker and had an apitutde for problem solving. He drifted from career to career when, on a whim, he visisted IBM headquarters and was hired as a programmer. Later, he handpicked a team of ten to work with him towards a goal of simplifying programming. In the 1950's, the IBM Mathematical FORmula TRANslation or FORTRAN was developed. This programming language is widely used in engineering, science (physics in particular) and math, and is said to have led the way for modern computing. On June 1st, 2007, asteroid 6830 (discovered in 1991 by S. Otomo and O. Muramatsu at Kiyosato) was renamed to 6830 Johnbackus in his honour.
Back to top

Benoit Mandelbrot 1924-present, French and American "Father of Fractal Geometry"
	Benoit Mandelbrot during his speech at the ceremony where he was made an officer of the Legion of Honour with a display of the Mandelbrot set on September 11th, 2006.
"Mandelbrot is one of the few living mathematicians whose originality has given birth to entire disciplines," said physicist Philip Morrison. Mandelbrot had an unconventional early education, never learning the alphabet or his times tables; he had a geometric and visual mind. During and after attending university, he began collecting eclectic knowledge in numerous fields such as aeronautics, astronomy, geology and engineering. He joined IBM in 1958, where he began to explore processes involving unusual statistical and geometricl patterns, which eventually paved the way for his contributions to fractal geometry. A fractal is defined as "a mathematically generated pattern reproducible at any magnification or reduction". In 1967, he published an article in Science named "How Long is the Coast of Britain?" which was considered a milestone in the field of math and science. This paper explored how measurements changed depending on the size of the increment it was measured in- the smaller the increment, the larger the measurement ended up. Investigate fractal patterns with these interactive Java applets! On the webpage, click the button "Go to Full Version" to see instructions and more info.

	1 2 3 4 5
	Back to top

Douglas Engelbart 1925-present, American Inventor of the Mouse
	Photo of Doug Engelbart with two mice. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
Engelbart pioneered many inventions such as email, word processing, and an infamous device- the mouse. These inventions revolutionized the way computers were used, and many of the things we take for granted today were considered luxuries at the time they were first invented. In 1989, along with his daughter, he founded the Bootstrap Institute, which develops technology that enables users to more easily collaborate with each other. During his lifetime, Engelbart invented many other useful and intruiging computer devices, such as a chordal keyboard, which is designed to type all letters of the keyboard with one hand so the user can simultaneously use the mouse. Since Engelbart's invention, many other creative thinkers have thought of innovative new computer gadgets. Introducing the Tenkey Optical Mouse- check out a new EzKey invention- an optical mouse combined with a number keypad!

	The EzKey invention
	Back to top

Joseph Engelberger 1925-present, American "Father of Robotics"
	First industrial robot- Unimate.
"You end up with a tremendous respect for a human being, if you're a roboticist." This famous quote from Engelberger embodies his quest to create robots to help humanity. Along with his colleague George Devel, in 1954 they founded the first robot company in the world, named Unimation, and they soon created the first robot- called the Unimate. He also founded HelpMate Robotics Inc. and this company created a service robot, the first successful one in the industry, another step in advancing his vision. Robotic technologies today are all around us- for example, in the health care and home care industries and in space exploration, and Engelberger has helped pave the way for future generations of robots to continue advancing in automation. In 1977, the Engelberger Robotics Award was created and is now considered the most prestigious robotics honour in the world. Currently, Engelberger is working on a robot that will help people who are infirm or elderly. In addition, Engelberger and Devol's robot Unimate was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003. Visit the Robot Hall of Fame's page for Unimate, and mouseover the picture to see a 360 representation of the robot! Visit the second page to look at a brief into to robotics and see the "Three Laws of Robotics".

	Unimate
	Intro to Robotics
	Back to top

Monty Newborn 1938-present, American Computer Chess Enthusiast
	A computer chess game.
Newborn is famous for his expertise in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer chess, along with automated theorem proving. His computer playing chess program, Ostrich, barely missed winning the first world computer chess championship. In 1996, Newborn organized a match between the world's best chess player, Kasparov, and IBM Deep Blue, the best computer chess player of its time. The match Newborn organized between Kasparov and Deep Blue inspired a computer engineer named Omar Syed to invent a game similar to chess called Arimaa. Currently, Arimaa has remained so computer-resistant that no computer has triumphed over a human. Visit an IBM site featuring the rematch between Kasparov and Deep Blue to view commentary, match overviews and replays, and interviews. To download a computer version of Arimaa, read a tutorial, or to find out more about the game, visit the second site!

	IBM site- Kasparov vs IBM Deep Blue Rematch
	Arimaa
	Back to top

Richard Rosenberg 1939-present, Canadian Computer Ethics Expert Born in Toronto, Ontario, Rosenberg is a professor emeritus from the computer science department at the University of British Columbia, and has researched many controversial topics that relate directly to society today. He has explored many areas including universal access to computers, intellectual property issues, artificial intelligence and other social impacts of computers. Rosenberg has published a book named The Social Impact of Computers, a "study of how computers and associated technologies have affected and will continue to affect societies around the world" (excerpt from page 1). On the subject of Wikipedia and online encyclopedias, Rosenberg commented, "the biggest reason to read Wikipedia critically [...] impossible to tell what the authors' backgrounds are, or what slant or bias they are presenting in their article".

Back to top

1940 - Present

Neil Arnason 1940-present, American Expert on Zoology Arnason began his career with summer jobs at the Statistical Research Service of Canada Agriculture, where he developed skills by combining his love for biology with application of mathematics, statistics, and computing. During his career, he developed software that incorporated animal abundance, survival and recruitment rates along with environmental and various effects, and his POPAN software (POPulation ANalysis) is used worldwide. In addition, Arnason was a professor of Zoology and further developed software for statistical ecology, and did work that included research about methods used in managing aquaculture and new methods used in demography. At the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Arnason did a thesis on ways to "estimate the parameters of stochastic migration models with and without marking (i.e. including the use of animal tagging and recovery data)". Play the Game of Life- a "cellular automaton" where populations of virtual cells live and die based on certain conditions, forming patterns over generations- and get the source code to make this java applet yourself!

	Game of Life
	Source Code
	Back to top

Nolan Bushnell 1943-present, American "Founding Father of the Video Game Industry"
	Computer Space- Early arcade game. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
The legendary computer game Pong was created by Bushnell in 1971, and in the year of its birth, this electronic ping pong game was so popular that often the machine broke because its coin slots had been over-filled. A year before, he created one of the first computerized games, called Computer Space, the precursor to Pong. He began this computer game legacy as a young man, when he decided to combine his love for computers, graphics, fun and above all, entrepreneurship. Bushnell's philosophy is that computer games are an excellent means to encourage more creative thinking and curiousity from a social perspective, to better the world. Bushenll has founded over 20 companies, including the well loved Chuck E. Cheese's chain. His latest creation, uWink, Inc., is a restaurant that combines food, drinks and media to offer an interactive entertainment experience as never seen before. Try a multicoloured game of Pong- Or think you can play the world's smallest version of Pong?

	Mulitcoloured Pong
	Pong- World's Smallest Version
	Back to top

Whitfield Diffie 1944-present, American "Pioneer of Public Key Cryptography"
	Photo of Whitfield Diffie Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
In 1975, Diffie came up with the public key cryptography concept and introduced new methods to solve the key distribution issue, the fundamental problem in cryptography. In public key cryptography, the user has a set of keys that are related mathematically- one secret, private key and one distributed public key. To decrypt a message within the public key, the corresponding private key must be used. In the 90's, Diffie became more invovled in the public policy aspect of cryptography, and testfied to the Senate and to the House about security policy in computers, on the subject of "crypto-politics". "Is America Ready for an Electronic War?"- On July 3rd, 2007, Diffie starred on a television show called Cranky Geeks (episode 71), talking about various issues invovling cryptography and security. Learn more about a concept called Visual Cryptography, and send self-decrypting emails and experiment with visual cryptography and other effects!

	Visual cryptography
	Back to top

Edwin Catmull 1945-present, American "Pixar's Unsung Hero"- BusinessWeek
	Photo of Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California
As a child, Catmull adored "The Wonderful World of Disney" TV show and dreamed of becoming a Disney animator. He went on to study computer graphics in university and while still only a student, he invented many new concepts in animation and graphics. He even contributed to the first film with 3D computer graphics by creating an animation version of his left hand. Catmull's aspiration to create animated films moved him to join Lucasfilm, where George Lucas was creating the famous trilogy Star Wars. Steve Jobs later bought a division of Lucasfilm which became Pixar, where Catmull was largely responsible for developing the RenderMan software, used in films including Jurassic Park, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo. Catmull has received two Academy Awards for developments to digital imaging and RenderMan, and in 2001, he received an Oscar for "significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar's RenderMan."
Back to top

Doug Carlston 1947-present, American "Creator of Edutainment Software" (Educational Entertainment) Carlston and his brother Gary founded the company Broderbund in 1982, selling simple game software. Two years after, they came out with their first hit: "The Print Shop", a program that made web design easier. Later, they shifted focus to creating software that combined the aspects of entertainment and education. Broderbund developed the very famous game "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", a game both fun and educational, teaching geography. Its most recent version was released back in 2001, by The Learning Company. Carlston combined his skills in business, programming and software to ultimate create many startup companies, including GlobalEnglish in 1997, which teaches non-native English speakers the language online to help them to be able to better communicate their needs in the home and work environment.

Back to top

Sir Tim Berners-Lee 1955-present, British "You affect the world by what you browse"- Berners-Lee
	Photo of Tim Berners-Lee Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
Educated at Oxford University, Berners-Lee has been credited with the development of the World Wide Web, and is responsible for coining the terms "HTTP", "HTML" and "URL". His creation debuted in 1991 and allowed people worldwide to share their information and link it with each other. It became instantly popular and the number of users rapidly expanded. He has received numerous awards and recognition for these achievements, such as the Millenium Technology Prize (worth €1 million) by a Finnish foundation. Tim named the World Wide Web's precursor "Enquire" after a encyclopedia on how to live a domestic life, named Enquire Within Upon Everything.
Back to top

John Lasseter 1957-present, American "Every animator is a toy nut"- Lasseter
	Photo of John Lasseter with a Cars tie, taken by John Mueller Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
Lasseter began his career working at Walt Disney Feature Animation as an animator and while working was invited to see a feature that had new technology and state-of-the-art imagery generated by a computer, a "light cycle" sequence from the film Tron. This led him to think of the concept of 3D backgrounds with animated characters interacting with each other to add depth, an unheard idea of the time. He wanted to make a whole film this way, and began developing this new concept with Ed Catmull, creating short computer animated films. Eventually, they made their first big hit with Toy Story, the first computer animated feature. In addition to the Toy Story series, Lasseter also directed many Pixar films including Cars and A Bug's Life. One day, Lasseter passed by a furniture shop and saw a lamp in the window, and with that inspiration came the creation of Luxo and Luxo Jr., the famous hopping desk lamps shown in Pixar's corporate logo and other Pixar creations. The ball that Luxo Jr. plays with has been featured in many Pixar films such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc. View or download the Luxo animation!

	Luxo animation
	Back to top

Jeff Bezos 1964-present, American TIME's Person of the Year, 1999, Creator of Amazonbooks.com
	Photo of Jeff Bezos Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
As a child, Bezos developed an aptitude for tinkering with mechanics, using a screwdriver to take apart his crib when merely a toddler. Later, he made electric alarms to keep his siblings away and he continued to pursue his love of computers throughout his adulthood. After attending a booksellers' convention, he realized there was a need for one place where customers could buy their books by browing comprehensive directories online and then placing orders on the web. Thus, Amazonbooks.com was born, named after the Amazon River. It was called "one of the smartest strategies in business history" as more and more convenient features were developed. "If the Internet was the new rock and roll, Jeff Bezos was its Elvis ... [Today he's] the ultimate dotcom survivor. " -BBCNews.com Watch Jeff Bezos as he discusses the "dot-com boom and bust" in comparison to the 1849 gold rush.

	Jeff Bezos' video
	Back to top

David Filo and Jerry Yang 1966-present and 1968-present, both American Creators of Yahoo!
	Jerry Yang and David Filo Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle", created in 1994 by Filo and Yang. Yahoo! started off as an online guide to the World Wide Web, with a goal of linking useful websites for users worldwide to browse through. After abandonning pursuits in doctoral degrees in electrical and computer engineering, the two developed Yahoo! into just more than a hobby. Its audience quickly expanded well beyond their fellow colleagues at Stanford University, and the company went public in 1996 and received worldwide recognition immediately. San Jose Mercury News remarked: "Yahoo! is closest in spirit to the work of Linnacus, the 18th century botanist whose classification system organized the natural world." "If Yahoo! users joined hands to form a chain, they would wrap around Earth eleven times."- Yahoo! Press Room Did you know Yahoo! has a blog? Visit the Yodel Anecdotal!

Yodel Anecdotal

Back to top