Alan Turing was born on 23 June 1912. In his 42 years of life Turing showed himself to be a gifted mathematician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist who is most widely recognised for breaking the German Enigma codes at Bletchley Park during World War II. So significant was his role as a code breaker that Winston Churchill credited him as having made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory against Nazi Germany.
In addition to cracking the Enigma during the War, Turing also made significant inroads in modern computer science, designing the ACE computer and then software for Mark I at Manchester University. When Turing started his academic career in Cambridge in the 1930, the word "computer" was used to refer to a human working to solve scientific and technical problems using mechanical calculating devices. However, Turing wrote a paper setting the basis for a machine capable of solving many problems that could be expressed algorithmically, thus paving the way for the modern computer.
By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Nate Lanxon
Continue reading...
via Wired.co.uk
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/18/turing-week-introduction
No comments:
Post a Comment