CS SUPERHEROES
Karlheinz Brandenburg
Birth: June 20, 1954
Death: Still Alive
Major Academic Events: Brandenburg won the German Insitiute Award NEO in 2001, congratualting his contribution to the internet. The International Electrotechnical commission titled him one of the 120 most important inventors, highlighting his role in advancing digital audio technologies.
Contributions to Computer Science: Brandenburg developed the widespread MP3 method for audio data compression while maintaining sound quality. Brandeburg made music and audio more accessible to billions of people online. This enabled efficient compression and distribution of audio files. Brandenburg's research forms the basis of MPEG-2 advanced audio recording and many audio compressions.
Sources:
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/meet-the-finalists/karlheinz-brandenburg
https://champions-speakers.co.uk/speaker-agent/karlheinz-brandenburg
https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/karlheinz-brandenburg/
Kathleen Booth
Birth: July 9, 1922
Death: September 29, 2022
Major Academic Events: Kathleen received a BSC in Mathematics from the University of London in 1944 which became helpful for her logic, analytical skills, and understanding systems. She also has a PhD in applied mathematics from the King's College London which led to her work shaping the foundations of computer programming and algorithm design.
Contributions to Computer Science: Kathleen and her husband co-deisgned early computers such as the ARC, SEC, and the APE(X)C series which defined how computers work and shaping architecture of modern computing. She co-authored two of the earliest books on computer programming and design such as "Programming For an Automatic Digital Calculator
Sources:
https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32489/Kathleen-Booth/
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Booth_Kathleen/
Grace Hopper
Birth: December 19, 1906
Death: January 1, 1992
Major Academic Events: Grace's disstertation, titled "The Irreducibility of Algebraic Equations", allowed her to be one of the seve people awarded a PhD in Yale University and the only woman. By 1931, she was teaching algebra, trigonometry, calculus, probability theory, and statistics. As a teacher, she probed unique, using cards and dice to teach probability and having her students stimulate building cities.
Contributions to Computer Science: Until Grace developed FLOW-MATIC, computer programs were machine specific and very complicated. She created the first compiler programming language, which allowed computers to accept programs not written in machine-specific code.She also developed early on that allowed the programmer to write in a higher-level symbolic language. She also developed the COBOL programming language.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/scientist/grace-hopper/
