The history of computer science in persons

The Euclidean algorithm, the Fenwick tree, the Bodot code — the list of named concepts in computer science is practically inexhaustible. It is no secret that most of us (and the author of the topic is by no means an exception) use such names simply as a convenient means of identifying objects. He said “the Rabin-Karp algorithm” and everyone understands it (and for whom it is not clear, Google will help). However, as it is not surprising, real people are hiding behind the names in the names.

Usually, when preparing presentations for my lectures, I try to insert photos of the people mentioned in the slides. I do not know how the students, but I like this idea - in my opinion, the best methodology of any science is the history of its development. But informatics has a very rich history. And so, a bright idea came to my mind to make a poster with portraits of people that I mentioned in various courses.

The first natural question is how many portraits to do (no, no, the first most important question is what color the poster background will be). As far as computer science is concerned, the natural choice is 256. Or 1024? In general, 2 ⁿ , where n is something not very big and natural. After a brief reflection, n = 8 was chosen (and a dozen were left as a backup). Then the portrait format (3x4) is selected and, thus, the most difficult has already been done (as it seemed to me on that warm spring day). It remains to pick up the staff ...
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The beginning was simple. Shannon, Turing, von Neumann, Whip. Of course, Babbage (with Ada Lovelace), Boole ... Hmm, just a portrait is not interesting, let's insert small visual clues related to the person being portrayed. The first hitch, however, short-lived - Hemming, Huffman, Shell, Hoar, Dijkstra. We are switching to the history of technology - Jacquard, Cholerit, Forest, Fleming, Bonch-Bruvich (yes, this is one person), Aiken, Atanasoff, Bardin. Yeah, there were Braille, Morse, Bodo. Do not forget about cryptography - Caesar, Vizhener, Vernam, Rivest, Adleman, Shamir. So, how many have run over us? Like, only 20 !!! It seems with 256 portraits I got excited (1024 is definitely not an option). May be limited to thirty-two?

We connect external memory in the form of Google and Wikipedia. Things are getting better right away, label 64 flies by with a bang. However, at around 128, the replenishment rate of the gallery drops again. Suddenly a bright thought comes to mind that maybe someone had done something like that once. And he certainly did, and more than once ... I am glad only that most of the people in these lists are already with me. Unfortunately, after some time, this resource is drying up. In the course are paper encyclopedias on computer science and mathematics. The finish is close! A little more, a little more, to include Conan Doyle with his dancing little men? No question, of course include ... Napier, Sierpinski, Koch, Brooks - and here he is the finish! However, the train cannot be stopped so easily - we remember smiles (which is informatics without them), then about Maxwell (the first RGB photo), then about someone else. Permutations begin. In the best traditions of football, I decide to stop on three substitutions. Everything! No more changes. With the last effort of will, the name of the poster is invented and inserted and the name of the originator is ciphered (just in case). Voila! Less than two months, as the poster is ready.

In general, despite the time spent on time, for me it was undoubtedly a positive experience. In parallel with the preparation of pictures, one had to read the accompanying texts, biographies, view original articles, etc. I learned a lot of new things ... True, one half of this new one has already been forgotten, and the other one is mixed up in a heap ... As it turned out, the visual memory works better - this person has definitely been with me, however, what is his name? Several people (or rather, their portraits) could not be found. For example, Scheffer (Sheffer stroke) and Corassic (Aho-Corasic algorithm). By the way, who from readers knows that Corassic is a woman?

That's all. The preview is on Habrastoraj, but you can't see the most delicious on it. The full version (about 20 MB, A1 format) is still here . I have not found a single host of images that would accept such a large format. I would be grateful if someone puts the poster in a more suitable place (or at least says where there is such a place). For a more constructive discussion, below is another thumbnail with numbered columns and rows (for example, e7 is Wolfram).



Have a nice view and a good weekend!

UPD : The original poster is now available here and here (for which many thanks go to Progrik and Staser ).