ALAN TURNINGA COMPUTER SCIENCE PIONEER

BY: JOURDAN D. BEVERLY

EARLY LIFE

• Born June 23 1912 by Julius Mathison and Ethel Sara Turing in Maida Vale, London England

• Youngest of two children: Brother John F. Turing

• Attended Sherborne School at the age of 13

• Enrolled at King’s College (University of Cambridge) from 1931 to 1934

WORKS

• Wrote at dissertation that proved the central limit theorem (CLT)

• CLT states that, given certain conditions, the arithmetic mean of a sufficiently large number of iterates of independent random variables, each with a well defined expected value and well-defined variance, will be approximately normally distributed, regardless of the underlying distribution.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvoxEYmQHNM

• 1936 paper “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungs problem”

• Presented the notion of a universal machine (Universal Turing Machine)

• Capable of computing anything that is computable

WORKS (CONT’D)

• Studied mathematics and cryptology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ for 2 years

• Received a Ph. D from Princeton 1938

• Took a part-time job with Government Code and Cypher School

• Worked as a German code-breaker during WW2

• Made five major advancements in cryptanalysis (the study of analyzing information systems in order to study the hidden aspects of the systems.)

• Ex. Specifying the bombe, an electromechanical device used to help decipher German Enigma encrypted signals

• Wrote two papers on mathematical approaches to code-breaking; important assets to CCS.

German Enigma Machine

Turing Machine 1936

Turing’s Bombe Machine

WORKS (CONT’D)

• Worked for National Physical Laboratory in 1940’s

• Designed the Automatic Computing Engine (blueprint for store-program computers)

• Concept model for the English Electric DEUCE and the American Bendix G-15 (some of the world’s first personal computers)

• Wrote a paper in 1950 that addressed A.I. called “Computing machinery and intelligence” (1949 Manchester University)

• “Turing Test” experiment-a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.

Automatic Computing Engine

Turing test experiment

English DEUCEAmerican Bendix G-15

LATER IN LIFE; DEATH

• Arrested for Homosexuality in 1952

• Condemned to chemical castration

• Died June 7, 1954

AWARDS

• Order of the British Empire

• English Heritage (plaque)

• Life-size statue at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England

• Another statue at the University of Surrey

• Named the second most significant alumnus in the history of Princeton University

• Time magazine named him “100 Most Important People of the 20th century.”

• Ranked one of “100 Greatest Britons” in 2002

WORKS CITIED

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/alan_turing

• http://www.biography.com/people/alan-turing-9512017

• http://www.alanturing.net/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia