There are many pivotal personalities in Technology History. My students are currently working on PowerPoint Research project about these inspired techies. Some have been gone a while but many still are in our midst shaping and dreaming of the future. Who are some of your favorite technology experts living or dead?
This is a great topic. We have our students study inventors, but we neglect the pioneers of technology and computer science, which has been the transformational science of the 20th century.
Alan Turing is one of the greatest computer scientists of all time. His work on algorithms laid the foundation for modern computer science. He was also one of the British codebreakers who cracked the Germans' Enigma code, which helped turned the tide of World War II in the Allies' favor. Unfortunately, Turing died early in life at the age of 41. Who knows what he might have accomplished if he had lived longer.
Ed Codd is another pivotal figure. He formulated the theory for the modern relational database. Relational databases are used in just about every critical application that runs today, including all the e-commerce applications, such as amazon.com.
Speaking of e-commerce, database pioneer Jim Gray is responsible for developing the theory behind database transactions, database locking, and other ideas that paved the way for online shopping and other e-commerce applications.
Terry Hawthorne
Director of Technology
Smyth County School Board
Location: Ohio
Joined: 2008-09-26