Computers and Mobile Devices

Computers and Mobile Devices Honor Helps

Honor Requirements

Computers and Mobile Devices
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LINK: Pathfinders Online Honor Information
LINK: SWAU Department of Computer Science

Some internal parts of a computer (from our club meeting)

Some Computer Peripherals

Cell Phone Parts from club meeting, and other Mobile Devices

Navigating a Smart Phone, and assessing usage

For requirement #8, obviously the history of computers is vast and complicated. Some possible approaches that may make it more manageable:

Look at the stages of computer development, identify key technologies that facilitated the transition of stages, and the key individuals connected to those technologies
Pick a key event, technology, or individual for each decade of the 20th and 21st Centuries, using them as benchmarks of computer and mobile device development
Consider the key parts of a computer from requirement #2, and look into the development and key individuals related to these components, looking at how multipole developments were necessary to pave the way for modern computers
Look into the role of women and minorities ion the history of computers, exploring a less obvious approach to computer history, and considering the context of the times with the achievements of the individuals
Go broad, and pick two technologies or individuals from each century from the 1600s through the 2000s, looking at the similarities and differences in the pace and impact of technology change over the long duration
Focus on key companies that have been instrumental in the personal computer and mobile device industry, highlight the important individuals, technologies and interactions with business and society

General resources for exploring the history of computers:

Short biographies on several hundred computer scientists considered significant in the development of computers and related technology. LINK (From the IT History Society)
A timeline of computer history, listing key developments and milestones of modern computer development from 1937 to near the present. LINK (From the Computer History Museum)
A robust collection of biographies, technologies and other information about the history of computers and computing, and broken into categories to assist in searching for information. LINK (From Georgi Dalakov’s History Computer)
A timeline of the history of computers, from the 1600s to the 2010s. LINK (From the Centre for Computing History)
A timeline of computers tracing key “firsts” in computer history. LINK (From Comp Sci Central)
A timeline of computer history, from Joseph Marie Jacquard’s 1801 punchcards for programable looms to the late twenty-teens. LINK (From Live Science)
A brief timeline charting the history of personal computers, from the 1975 launch of the IBM 5100 to the dominance of laptops over desktops in 2008. LINK (From Reuters)
A brief narrative history of the personal computer, focusing on key enabling technologies that made personal computing viable and accessible. LINK (From the Science Museum, London)
A history of computers from mechanical calculating devices to the impact of the internet of the expansion of personal computers and mobile devices. Includes a list of sources. LINK (From Chris Woodford at Explain That Stuff)
A brief history of computing from the 14th Century to the mid 1990s, including a few short bios of key individuals in computer history and key women in computer history, and a section of links to other resources. LINK (From Virginia Montecino at George Mason University)
A brief history of computing and computers, with images, focusing primarily on older technologies that paved the way for modern computing. LINK (From Dr. Rick Coleman at the University of Alabama in Huntsville)
A history of the development of computers, from the 1800s to the 2019 introduction of IPadOS. The timeline is broken down into ever shorter periods, highlighting the increasing pace of development. LINK (From G2)
A concise history of computers, highlighting key milestones from Herman Hollerith’s 1890 punch-card computer to speed the tabulation of the U.S. census to the 1976 founding of Apple Computers. LINK (From ZDNet)
An informative, narrative, five-part history of the microprocessor and the personal computer, offering quite a bit of insight into key individuals, companies, and technologies that facilitated the development and expansion of personal computers. LINK (From TechSpot)
An article on the origins of the personal computer, key developments and individuals, and the complexity of trying to attribute the development to any single individual or company. LINK (From Are Technica)

Some key individuals, Technologies, Companies, and Themes in the history of Computers

Themes of Exploration

Generations of computers
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. (PDF)

Women in computer history
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4.

Pioneers of Mechanical Computers

Joseph-Marie Jacquard - punch cards and programable looms
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Charles Babbage - ideas for Difference Engine and Analytical Engine
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4. (Video)

Ada Lovelace - one of the “first” computer programers, developed algorithms, worked with Babbage and others
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4. (Video)

Herman Hollerith - Tabulating machine, and predecessor of IBM
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4. LINK5.

Pioneers of Early Electronic Computers and Facilitating Technologies

Dr. John Ambrose Fleming - Diode Vacuum Tube (oscillation valve)
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Lee De Forest - Triode Vacuum Tube (audion tube)
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

George Stibitz - Bell Labs - boolean logic circuits and digital computer
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4.

John Vincent Atanasoff - ABC - first electronic digital computer
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4.

John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert - ENIAC and UNIVAC - first electronic digital computer
Mauchly: LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. (Interview)
Eckert: LINK1.
Mauchly and Eckert: LINK1. LINK2.
ENIAC: LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.
UNIVAC: LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Sir Freddie Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill - Manchester Baby/SSEM, first digital electronic program stored and run on a computer.
Williams: LINK1
Kilburn: LINK1. LINK2.
Tootill: LINK1. LINK2. (interview)
Manchester Baby: LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Calvin Mooers - information retrieval theory and Moores Law
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. (PDF)

William Higinbotham - Tennis for Two (possibly first video game)
LINK1. LINK2.

Pioneers of Technologies of Modern Computers and Mobile Devices

Christopher Lathan Sholes, Samuel W. Soule, Carlos S. Clidden - QWERTY keyboard on Sholes and Glidden Typewriter
LINK1.   LINK2.   LINK3.   LINK4.   LINK5.   LINK6.   LINK7.

Douglas Engelbart - The Mouse
LINK1.   LINK2.   LINK3.

William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain - The Transistor
Shockley: LINK1
Bardeen: LINK1
Brattain: LINK1
Transistor: LINK1. LINK2.

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce (Co-founder of Intel). - Microchip (TI and Fairchild)
Kilby: LINK1.   LINK2.
Noyce: LINK1.   LINK2.
Microchip: LINK1.   LINK2.

Federico Faggin, Marcian (Ted) Hoff, Stanley Mazor, and Masatoshi Shima - Intel’s 4004 Microprocessor chip
Faggin: LINK1.   LINK2.
Hoff: LINK1.   LINK2.   LINK3.
Mazor: LINK1.   LINK2.
Shima: LINK1.   LINK2. (interview transcript)
Microprocessor: LINK1.   LINK2.   LINK3.

Robert H. Dennard - DRAM
LINK1.   LINK2.   LINK3.

Henry Edward “Ed” Roberts - Altair 8800
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Adam Osborne - Osborne 1 - first marketable portable computer
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

William Hewlett and David Packard - Co-founders of Hewlett Packard
Hewlett: LINK1. LINK2.
Packard: LINK1. LINK2.
HP: LINK1. LINK2.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - Co-founders of Apple
Jobs: LINK1. LINK2.
Wozniak: LINK1. LINK2.
Apple: LINK1. LINK2. (timeline)

Bill Gates - Co-founder of Microsoft
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. LINK4.

Linus Torvalds - LINUX and open source code
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3. (interview)

Robert Elliot Kahn, Vincent Cerf - TCP/IP
Khan: LINK1. LINK2.
Cerf: LINK1. LINK2.
TCP/IP: LINK1. LINK2.

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee - “inventor” of the Internet
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.

Martin "Marty" Cooper - first handheld portable cellular phone
LINK1. LINK2. LINK3.