“Computer
Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” - Edsger Dijkstra
As the quote above suggests, Computer Science is not a
narrow field but encompasses a wide variety of topics, including, but not
limited to, algorithms, data structures, databases, artificial intelligence,
game theory, computer graphics and computer architecture. The ultimate aim of computer
science is to study and understand problems and then harnessing this
understanding to provide a workable solution.
Let’s take a look at the notable contributors to various
fields in Computer Science –
Donald Knuth -
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| Donald Knuth |
Donald Knuth’s contribution to Computer Science is humongous
and has been recognized with an A.M Turing award, a prestigious award that is
only given to people who have made significant and lasting contributions to the
field of computer science. He made contributions in the field of analysis of
algorithms, LR parsing and many other fields.
John von Neumann –
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| John von Neumann |
John von Neumann’s contribution to
computer science is an architectural scheme which is as shown below. It consists
a trio of memory, ALU and a control unit which work together operate on the
given input to produce an output.
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| John von Neumann architecture |
Alan Turing –
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| Alan Turing |
Alan Turing is largely considered to be the
father of computer science. his contributions include the Turing machine which is defined as -
“A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates
symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its
simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any
computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a
CPU inside a computer” [2]
His other notable contributions are in the field of cryptography where his work helped build the "Bombe" machine which was instrumental in breaking the enigma cipher.
References and Image References -
[1] - Turing Machine,
[1] - Turing Machine,
[2] - Wikipedia
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