Showing results for "computer science" in Biographies

In 1949, Dorothy Vaughan became the first African American woman to lead a team at NASA's Langley Research Center. Her work as a mathematician was an important part of helping the United States explore space. Learn more about Vaughan's life as a famous mathematician!

Katherine knew it was wrong that African Americans didn't have the same rights as others - as wrong as 5+5=12. She knew it was wrong that people thought women could only be teachers or nurses - as wrong as 10-5=3. And she proved everyone wrong by zooming ahead of her classmates, starting college at 15, and eventually joining NASA, where her calculations helped pioneer America's first manned flight into space, its first manned orbit of Earth, and the world's first trip to the moon!

This illuminating biography reveals how the daughter of Lord Byron, Britain's most infamous Romantic poet, became the world's first computer programmer.

Steve Jobs, adopted in infancy by a family in San Francisco, packed a lot of life into 56 short years. In this Who Was...? biography, children will learn how his obsession with computers and technology at an early age led him to cofound and run Apple in addition to turning Pixar into a groundbreaking animation studio. A college dropout, Jobs took unconventional steps in his path to success and inspired the best and the brightest to come with him and "change the world".

Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, a poet, and Anna Isabella Milbanke, a mathematician. Her parents separated when she was young, and her mother insisted on a logic-focused education, rejecting Byron's mad love of poetry. But Ada remained fascinated with her father and considered mathematics poetical science.

On October 5, 2011, the news of the death of technology innovator Steve Jobs rocked the world. The failing health of the Apple cofounder and Pixar CEO was no secret. Jobs had given up his role as Apple's CEO just a few months prior because of his struggle with pancreatic cancer. But his death still drew a huge reaction. From Apple employees and fans to political and business leaders, people honored Jobs' passing by reflecting on his prolific life that greatly influenced the way technology is used.

David Karp developed Tumblr after he tried to start a blog and found the process daunting. With most platforms a blogger faces a huge, empty text box that begs to be filled with words. It was intimidating for a guy who'd never blogged before. Karp had the idea for tumblelogging - creating short blog posts - and built Tumblr as a platform. It lets users easily post both text and images, making Tumblr highly visual and expressive.

When Minecraft creator Markus Persson was young, he wasn't very interested in the games themselves. He was more interested in the programing instructions in the computer's manual. By the time Persson was eight years old, he was writing code for his own computer games. When he was 18, Persson landed his dream job as a video game programmer. In 2009, he designed Minecraft in a single weekend. In the game, players use blocks to build whatever they choose. Persson wanted to let players use their imaginations, and the idea paid off.

Do you ever wonder how video gaming was invented? What came before your PlayStation or Xbox? This is the story of Ralph Baer, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who used his skills—and a lot of ingenuity and persistence—to make life a little more fun.