Alan Turing Facts
Alan Turing Facts
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| Interesting Alan Turing Facts: |
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| Turing is credited with creating the formalized concept of the terms "computation" and "algorithm," as they pertain to computer science. |
| With his invention, the Turing machine, he used those concepts in what can be called the first computer. |
| He showed tremendous talent in school, but was a student at an institution that placed greater emphasis on the classics of education rather than on innovation or experimentation. |
| This educational disconnect caused his headmaster to write to his parents and warn the that Turing needed to decide what was more important, education or scientific specialities. |
| Turning began his career working for the British government during World War II in their codebreaking center, specifically as a leader of the infamous Hut 8, which focused its efforts on cryptanalysis of the German navy. |
| He later designed the ACE computer while working at the National Physical Laboratory, which was the first model to store programs. |
| Turing teamed up with Max Newman at Machester University's Computing Laboratory; there, he worked on the development of the Manchester computer. |
| Due to his ingenious work on the advancement of computers and computer science and due to his attendance as both a student and a Fellow, the computer lab at King's College, Cambridge, is named in his honor. |
| Turing is widely considered to be the "father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence." |
| In his personal life, Turing was arrested for a social crime and convicted, but was decades later granted a formal apology by the British Prime Minister; an official state pardon followed in 2013, granted by Queen Elizabeth II. |
| This event plagued him, and there are conflicting reports that it may have led to his death. |
| While many consider his death by cyanide poisoning to have been an act of suicide, possibly prompted by the controversy in his personal life, other more knowledgeable sources indicate that he was working on an experimental computer component that required significant amounts of cyanide. |
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