IT Legends: Technology's Most Pioneering and Innovative Heroes

Jean Bartik: The Pioneer of Computer Programming Who Helped Build the ENIAC Computer The world of computing would not be the same were it not for Jean Bartik, a pioneering computer programmer who helped build the first all-electronic, general-purpose computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Born in December 1924, Jean, who was originally named Betty Jean Jennings, grew up in the southwestern Missouri town of Neosho. After graduating from high school, she attended Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, receiving an Associate of Arts degree in secretarial science. Jean's role as a pioneering computer programmer was a major step in the direction of computing as we know it today. In 1943, during the height of World War II, the US Army commissioned the construction of the first all-electronic, general-purpose computer, the ENIAC. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert were the lead inventors on the team, but they needed a team of highly qualified women...

John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert: The Fathers of Computers Who Built the First Programmable Machine Who are the pioneers behind the creation of the first programmable machine? American engineers John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert are often referred to as the fathers of computers. As graduate students in physics at the University of Pennsylvania, they invented the world’s first general-purpose, fully electronic digital computer, which was called the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). This invention put an end to the slow and tedious process of computers, and Mauchly and Eckert's invention of the computer remains a landmark of modern technology. Mauchly and Eckert were two educated and innovative scientists who by no means achieved their invention by sheer luck. Born in Philadelphia in 1907 and 1909, respectively, Mauchly and Eckert first met at Penn in 1934, where Mauchly was a teaching assistant for a course in electrical engineering. Eckert, a independent s...