Computer Science Superheroes

Alan Turing

He went to an exceptional private school as a child. He went to the University of Cambridge in 1931. Once he graduated in 1934, he was elected to a fellowship at King's College because of the research he did in probability theory. In 1936, he went to Princeton to get his Ph.D. in mathematical logic. He is considered the father of modern computer science. he was famous for helping develop the first modern computers. During World War II, he decoded the encryption on German Enigma machines. He also created a procedure called the Turing Test which is the base for artificial intelligence. He invented CAPTCHA, the thing that verifies if you are a robot or a human when logging in to some websites.

Ada Lovelace

She was educated by high level tutors because women weren't allowed in universities. She is considered the first computer programmer. She analyzed a concept for a computer that was never built and realized that it could follow a set of simple instructions to make advanced calculations. She also wanted to make a mathematical model for how the brain thinks and a way to guarantee a win in gambling. She has a programming language called Ada named after her.

Mark Dean

Mark Dean was born March 2, 1957 in Jefferson Citty, Tennessee. He liked building things his whole life and made a tractor from scratch with the help of his father who was a supervisor for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He got all As and graduated from Jefferson City High School. He then sstudied engineering at the University of Tennessee, graduating the top of his class. He began work at IBM, developing the Industry Standard Architecture systems bus that allowed peripherals to be plugged into computers. This made computers more efficient with better integration. He eventually helped to develop the color PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip. He has more than 20 patents associated with his name. He got his masters and doctorate in electrical engineering from Florida Atlantic University and earned many awards for technological innovation.