(Computer) Scientist Spotlight

The purpose of this assignment is to showcase diversity in computer science. Diversity comes in many forms.

You will do some research on a scientist that you identify with. This person must have made a contribution to computing (theoretical, software development, inventor, etc.). The scientist can be from the past (Charles Babbage’s analytic engine was created in 1822!) or present. All students will present different scientists.

There are many scientists to chose from, which are impossible to all list here. I encourage you to do some digging first to pick one. But, if you’re not sure where to start, here are just a few ideas of potential scientists (and at least one contribution to computing).

• Alan Turing (artificial intelligence)
• Grace Hopper (inventor of one of the first linkers; COBOL)
• Fernando J. Corbató (operating systems; time sharing systems)
• Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (algorithms)
• Jerry Lawson (chief hardware engineer for an video game system)
• Katherine Johnson (NASA flight path computing)
• Andrew C. Yao (analysis of algorithms)
• Barbara Liskov (programming languages)
• Edward A. Feigenbaum (artificial intelligence; expert systems)
• Linus B. Torvalds (operating systems; Linux; Git)
• Dabbala B. (“Raj”) Reddy (artificial intelligence; speech recognition)
• Donna Auguste (helped create personal digital assistant)
• Manuel Blum (computational complexity theory; cryptography; CAPTCHA)
• Carlotta Berry (co-founder of Black In Robotics)
• Mark E. Dean (operating systems)
• Adi Shamir (cryptography)
• Martin E. Hellman (cryptography)
• Virginia Vassilevska Williams (graph algorithms and fast matrix multiplication)
• Joy Adowaa Buolamwini (founder of Algorithmic Justice League)
• Kathleen Booth (assembly language)
• Timnit Gebru (algorithmic bias)
• Whitfield Diffie (cryptography)
• Ayanna Howard (robotics)
• Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. (operating systems)
• Richard M. Karp (computational complexity theory; edmonds-karp algorithm)
• Leonard Adleman (computational complexity theory; cryptography)
• Vinton G. Cerf (network design; TCP/IP)
• Charles Lee Isbell Jr. (machine learning and artificial intelligence)
• Frances E. Allen (compilers; program optimization; parallel computing)
• Victoria Chibuogu Nneji (autonomous transportation)
• Timothy J. Berners-Lee (network design; world wide web; HTTP)
• Shafrira (Shafi) Goldwasser (computational complexity theory; cryptography; number theory)
• Radia J. Perlman (network design)
• Cynthia Solomon (artificial intelligence; programming languages)

Presentation

Nearly each lecture day, one student will present at the beginning of class. I will give the first presentation on Ada Lovelace to give you an idea of what I’m expecting. You will have an opportunity to select in advance which day you want to present. You are expected to obtain instructor approval for your scientist, to be ready to present on your presentation day, to submit your slides to Moodle the Friday before your presentation.

Construct a 1.5 - 2 minute (90 - 120 second) presentation which contains the following:

• title page: name of the scientist, portrait of the scientist, “Presented by (your name)”
• summary of background information you found about the scientist. This may include answers to questions such as
  • when were they born?
  • are they still alive? if not, when did they die?
  • did they attend school? where?
  • what was their background?
  • any fun facts you find interesting, not necessarily related to computing
• description of their contribution to the field of computing
  • what did they do?
  • include a high-level description of any necessary terminology needed to understand their contribution
  • you do not have to list ALL contributions; pick the most interesting one(s)
• a slide containing a list of resources used to gather information.

I suggest you practice/rehearse your presentation several times before your presentation day. Be sure it falls within the alotted time.

How to submit

1. Sign up for your timeslot in class. Only 1 student will present per day. Each scientist must be unique (no duplicates). You must have instructor approval for your scientist.

2. Submit your slides to Moodle the Friday before your presentation. I will bring up your presentation on my computer for you to present from. Be prepared to present immediately as class begins on your presentation day. I will not remind you of your presentation day, so write it in your calendar.

Grading

Briefly introduce yourself, then introduce your scientist. You will be graded based on the following rubric. Common reasons for missing points include: speaking too softly, having too much or not enough information on the slides, difficulty reading the slides based on color/font choices (do not use dark backgrounds), or reading directly from notes/slides rather than maintaining a connection with the audience.