Katherine Johnson was a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. Katherine, an African-American, was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and died in 2020. During her 35-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned […]
Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician and computer scientist, made significant contributions to the United States aeronautics and space programs with her work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and later at NASA. Dorothy, an African American, was born in 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri and died in 2008. Vaughan was a part of the West […]
Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer who is best known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Ada was born Augusta Ada Byron in 1815 and died in 1852. She was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke. Ada’s contributions to the […]
Discussing the work of Alan Turin. In this video, Paul Hazelden, discusses why Alan Turing, the subject of many films and documentaries and often referred to the father of modern computing science, should be considered one of the most influential people in computing. Born in 1912 Alan was an English mathematician and his contribution to […]
The IAP at 50. Reflections from an IAP Member. This story sounds better when told. But here goes… It concerns a Pick system. Pick used file hashing based upon a given module number. The speed of the file search depended upon having this value correctly specified when the file was first created. At the time, […]
The IAP at 50. Reflections from an IAP Member. I started out as a programmer in 1981 for a software house who wrote bespoke systems and installed 3rd party software for DEC/Systime systems for customers. My first application was for a bespoke invoicing system for a new customer. The customer also had installed the Systime […]