Alan Turing

While I initially learned of Alan Turing through the movie "The Imitation Game," I came to appreciate his influence on computer science once I started taking this class. By learning just the simple functions that go into programming, I came to understand how difficult it must be to create a programming language, let alone the very first one with no precedent off of which to work. Turing's original computer, used to break codes written by the Nazi army during World War II, ended up being the basis for far more developments in the world of computer science.


The wheels used to compute solutions on the Collosus computer.

Turing worked for the British army during World War II, developing the Collosus computer, which was used to break German codes. The Collosus is understood to be the first programmable computer. By studying a lapse in German coding, the British programmers, including Turing, were able to understand that they could use the equation ∆Z₁ ⊕ ∆Z₂ ⊕ ∆₁ ⊕ ∆₂ = • , counting the number of "false" interpretations returned, to decipher the code. 

Turing was initially discredited for his efforts due to discriminatory homophobia. He was, however, later acknowledged by the British government for not only his contributions to World War II, but the field of computer science in general.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#Early_computers_and_the_Turing_test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer#/media/File:SZ42-6-wheels-lightened.jpg