Introduction to Computing: History and Modern Computing

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering the history of computing from ancient civilizations to notable pioneers, as well as modern computing concepts including cloud computing, IoT, big data, AI, and edge computing.

Computing

Any activity that utilizes computers to manage, process, and communicate critical information that is an integral part of modern industrial technology.

Counting Board

An early calculation tool made of wood with grooves that allowed beads to be placed at any point, used by the Babylonians in Mesopotamia from about 2000 BC to 500 BC.

Abacus

A calculation device that differs from a counting board in that its beads have holes enabling them to be placed on a specific rod.

Rhind Papyrus

A famous Egyptian papyrus writing surface that includes examples of all types of arithmetic and geometric problems used to prepare students for the Pharaoh's building program.

Egyptian Numerals

A base $10$ number system used by ancient Egyptians that utilized distinct symbols for one, ten, a hundred, a thousand, a ten thousand, and a hundred thousand.

Thales' Theorem

A theorem in Euclidean geometry stating that if A, B, and C are points on a circle, where the line AC is the circle's diameter, then the angle <ABC is a right angle.

Pythagoreans

A secret society established by Pythagoras comprising men and women who believed in the transmigration of souls and that number was the essence of all things.

Roman Numerals

A number system influenced by Greek culture that uses a sequence of letters (such as I, V, X, L, C, D, and M) to symbolize numbers.

Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz

A German philosopher and mathematician who developed the binary number system used in digital computers and created The Step Reckoner.

The Step Reckoner

The first calculator built by Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz between 1672 and 1964 that could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots.

Charles Babbage

A mathematician considered one of the grandfathers of computing who designed the Difference Engine in 1821 to compute polynomial, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions.

Difference Engine

A device designed by Charles Babbage in 1821 to produce mathematical tables designed to precisely compute polynomial functions and logarithmic & trigonometric functions.

Ada Lovelace

An analyst who worked on Charles Babbage's analytical engine and is considered by many as the first computer programmer.

George Boole

A mathematician considered one of the grandfathers of the computing field who developed Boolean algebra and symbolic logic, using $1$ to symbolize thinkable objects and $0$ to symbolize the absence of objects.

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper

A computer pioneer and naval officer who promoted and led the development of COBOL in 1959.

COBOL

Common Business-oriented Language, developed in 1959, which became the most extensively used computer language by the 1970s.

Katherine Johnson

A NASA human computer who studied geometry for space travel to calculate paths for spacecraft to orbit Earth and land astronauts on the moon in 1962.

Gladys Mae West

A mathematician hired at the Naval Proving Ground in 1956 who programmed the computer calculating Earth's geoid, creating the geodetic model for the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Cloud Computing

The application of hardware and software to deliver readily available, on-demand, and measured computing services over the Internet.

Virtualization

A technology that simulates hardware functions by creating multiple virtual machines on a physical server to detach software from hardware.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A network of an extensive range of physical objects that automatically share data over the Internet.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

A key technology used in IoT found in electronic tags and smart cards for tracking and data exchange.

Sensor Technology

An IoT key technology that detects and collects environmental signals such as temperature, humidity, and speed.

Embedded Systems

Integrated hardware and software systems designed to provide specific functions, such as automated teller machines (ATMs), digital cameras, and calculators.

Big Data

Massive and complex datasets characterized by high volume, variety of data types, and velocity as data are collected and analyzed at ever-increasing rates.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A technology that allows machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like activities.

Fog Computing

An expansion of cloud computing proposed by Cisco where data and application sets are stored in edge devices closer to end-users rather than distant clouds.

Edge Computing

Decentralized and distributed cloud computing infrastructure where raw data is analyzed locally near data sources rather than being transferred to the cloud.

Sophia the Robot

A social humanoid robot created by Hanson Robotics, first activated in February 2016, known for its human-like abilities in communication and expression.