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Download Article (PDF) Nonlinear Engineering 2015; 4(1): 39–41 Majid Khan*, Tariq Shah, and Ali Shahab A brief description about the fathers of computer and information sciences Abstract: In this article, we are mainly presenting a trib- 1985) [1]. We will utilize both this book [1] and the life story ute to the fathers of computer and information sciences, composed by O’connor and Robertson for the Mactutor George Boole and Claude Elwood Shannon with their hard- History of Mathematics document [2]. Also, we have taken ships and achievements. This piece of writing also elabo- some of historical memories from the book of Thomas [3]. rates the applications of George Boole’s and Claude Shan- George Boole was born in November 1815 in Lincoln, non’s works in dierent disciplines. England. His father was an ordinary tradesman. He gave Boole his rst mathematics lessons and planted in him the Keywords: George Boole; Computer Science; Claude Shan- passion of learning. A family friend ,who was a local book- non; Information Science seller, helped him learn basic Latin. By the age of 12, Boole was beginning to translate Latin poetry. By 14, the adoles- DOI 10.1515/nleng-2014-0029 cent Boole was uent in French, German, and Italian as Received December 31, 2014; accepted February 27, 2015. well. His love for poetry and novels was remarkable. His capabilities in higher maths did not indicate un- til he was 17 years of age . He read his maiden progressed arithmetic book, in particular Lacroix’s Dierential and 1 The Contributions of George Integral Calculus. Since his father’s business zzled, he Boole was compelled to earn his bread to look after his family. At 16, he turned into an assistant master in a non-public school at Doncaster, and before reaching 20 years of age, he opened his own school. In 1838, Boole was oered to assume control over the Hall’s Academy in Waddington, after its organizer, Robert Hall, passed on. The members of his family also shifted to Waddington and assisted him to run the school. Uti- lizing mathematical journals obtained from the nearby Mechanic’s Institute, Boole perused over the Principia of Isaac Newton and the works of French mathematicians Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827) and Joseph Louis La- grange (1736–1813). In the wake of realizing what these creators formerly composed, Boole, at 24, distributed his Fig. 1. Picture reprinted from MacTutor History of Mathematics: http: rst paper (Studies on the notion of analytical transfor- //www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/ mations) in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal (CMJ). It Boole.html started a kinship between George Boole and the editor of CMJ, Duncan F. Gregory, which sustained until the unex- The most reliable biography of Boole is “George Boole: pected demise of Gregory in 1844. Gregory motivated Boole His Life and Work”, by Desmond Machale (Boole Press, to study algebra. In view of his family’s nancial circum- stance, Boole was not able to act upon Gregory’s advice to attend courses at Cambridge. Truly, in the late spring of *Corresponding Author: Majid Khan: Department of Sciences and 1840, he opened a residential school in Lincoln and again Humanities, National University of Computer and Emerging Sci- the entire family shifted with him. ences, Islamabad, Pakistan When his father kicked the bucket, Boole assumed Tariq Shah: Department of Mathematics, Quaid-i-Azam University, the charge of Mathematics Professorship at Queen’s Col- Islamabad Pakistan lege in 1849 , where he stayed and educated for what- Ali Shahab: Department of Sciences and Humanities, National Uni- ever is left of his life. It was there he saw Mary Everest, a versity of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan 40 Ë Majid Khan et al., A brief description about the fathers of computer and information sciences niece of Sir George Everest. She was 17 years more youthful It was an ominous day in 1864, Boole was strolling than him, however, they turned into companions quickly. from his home to the college and was getting in a down- George started giving Mary lessons on the dierential cal- pour storm. Yet he taught in wet wears and caught a cold. culus, and in 1855, after her father passed away, Mary wed- It was a black day for mathematics when he passed away, ded George Boole. They were very upbeat together and ve he was just 49 years of age. girls were conceived: Mary Ellen (b. 1856), Margaret (b. 1858), Alicia (later Alicia Stott) (b. 1860), Lucy Everest (b. 1862), and Ethel Lilian (b. 1864). 2 The Role of Claude Elwood There are 50 articles that contain the work of Boole , besides a couple of dierent publications. A rundown of Shannon to Revive Boole’s Works Boole’s diaries and papers, on logical and mathematical topics, is found in the Catalog of Scientic Memoirs dis- tributed by the Royal Society, and in a volume on dieren- tial equations (altered by I. Todhunter). Boole composed 22 articles in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and its successor, the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Jour- nal. He further wrote 16 papers in the Philosophical Mag- azine, six diaries in the Philosophical Transactions (The Royal Society), and a couple of others in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Irish Academy, in the Bulletin de l’ Academie de St-Petersbourg (in 1862, under the alias. Boldt), and in Crelle’s Journal, and a paper on the mathematical basis of logic published in the Mechanics Magazine (1848). In 1844, the Royal Soci- Fig. 2. Picture reprinted from the Notices of AMS paper by ety bestowed him with a decoration for his commitments Golomb et al., available at http://www.ams.org/notices/200201/ to analysis, as a result of his work on utilizing algebra feashannon.pdf (courtesy of the MIT Museum). and calculus to analyze innitely small and large gures. Analytics of thinking, which Boole was engrossed with, Two great accounts of Shannon were composed by thought that it was’ route into his 1847 work, The Math- Sloane and Wyner, and by Liversidge in the altered book ematical Analysis of Logic, that developed the work of the by Sloane and Wyner containing Shannon’s gathered pa- German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646– pers [6]. 1716) and pushed the thought that logic was a mathemati- Boole’s work on mathematical rationale was censured cal discipline, instead of philosophy. This paper won him and/or disregarded by his counterparts, aside from an the profound respect of the recognized logician Augus- American rationalist, Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), tus de Morgan, and a spot among the talent of Ireland’s who gave a discourse at the American Academy of Arts and Queen’s. Sciences, portraying Boole’s thoughts. Peirce put in more The publication of Boole’s “An Investigation into the than 20 years chipping away at these thoughts and their Laws of Thought”, on which the Mathematical Theories applications in electronic hardware; at last, he composed of Logic and Probabilities are based, is considered to be a hypothetical electrical logic circuit. his most critical work in 1854. Boole advanced logic in an Sadly, Boolean algebra and Peirce’s work remained alternative way, lessening it to a straightforward algebra, generally obscure and unused for decades, until the 1940s, fusing rationale into science, and establishing the frame- when a youth called as Claude Elwood Shannon found works of the now acclaimed parallel methodology. Logi- Boole’s and Peirce’s works and perceived their importance cal statements are presently spoken to utilizing a scientic to hardware design. structure called as a part of his honor Boolean Algebra. Claude E. Shannon opened his eyes in Petoskey, Boole’s virtuoso was immensely perceived and he Michigan, on April 30, 1916. His father was a representa- got honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford and tive and, for a period, Judge of Probate. His mother was a Dublin. He was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society in dialect instructor and for various years Principal of Gay- 1857.For his work in the long run guided individuals to step lord High School, in Gaylord, Michigan. Shannon stayed on the Moon, it is just a compliment that Boole is the name with Gaylord until he was 16 when he moved on from sec- of a lunar cavity. Majid Khan et al., A brief description about the fathers of computer and information sciences Ë 41 ondary school. He demonstrated a liking for science and 3 Conclusion mathematics and kept himself occupied by building model planes, a radio-controlled model watercraft, and a broad- In this article, we have discussed two well-known scien- cast framework for a companion’s home a large portion of tists Boole and Shannon. Their contributions still give new a mile away [6]. inspiration to computer science and modern information Taking after his sister, in 1932, he took admission in security which is a growing area of research nowadays. University of Michigan (UM), where he was exposed to the Such geniuses could never be seen even after hundreds of work of George Boole. Shannon moved from UM in 1936 years. Their work directly inuenced channel coding, in- with double Bachelor’s Degrees of Science in Electrical En- formation security, cryptography and cryptanalysis. This gineering and Science in Mathematics. Immediately, toler- article is written only to acknowledge these two highly ating an examination associate position at Massachusetts intellect personalities of computer and information sci- Institute of Technology to help himself, he started his grad- ences. uate studies. In 1940, he completed his master degree in Electrical Engineering and a Phd in Mathematics.
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