Famous People (Quiz/Exam) Facts Flashcards

(32 cards)

1
Q

Who won the first Turing Award

A

Alan Perlis

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2
Q

Who wrote the merge sort algorithm?

A

John von Neumann

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3
Q

Test to determine a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior similar to an actual human

A

Alan Turing

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4
Q

Credited as father of computer science?

A

Alan Turing

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5
Q

Proposed early stored-program (general purpose) digital computer whose architecture is named after him?

A

John von Neumann

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6
Q

Did Grace Hopper win a turing award?

A

No

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7
Q

Known as the father of analysis of algorithms?

A

Donald Knuth

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8
Q

Apologized for inventing the null reference?

A

C.A.R. Hoare

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9
Q

Has an algorithm named after him/her?

A

Edsger Dijkstra

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10
Q

Inventor of quicksort

A

C.A.R. Hoare

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11
Q

Proved that what is now known as the halting problem is undecidable.

A

Alan Turing

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12
Q

Coined the term “artificial intelligence.”

A

John McCarthy

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13
Q

Main notation for expressing context-free grammars in programming

A

John Backus

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14
Q

Helped popularize the term “debugging.”

A

Grace Hopper

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15
Q

null reference self-described as a billion-dollar mistake.

A

C.A.R. Hoare

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16
Q

Shortest-Path algorithm.

A

Edsger Dijkstra

17
Q

Invented Merge sort algorithm.

A

John von Neumann

18
Q

Co-authored Concrete Mathematics (a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE math) with Ron Graham.

19
Q

“Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.”

A

Nikalaus Wirth

20
Q

A case against the goto statement author.

A

Edsger W.Dijkstra

21
Q

Conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL

22
Q

A theoretical device representing a computing machine to understand limits of computation.

A

Truing Machine

23
Q

“Will a program complete?”

A

Halting Problem

24
Q

“Can machines think?”

25
What does the shunting-yard algorithm do?
Converts infix notation to RPN
26
Who invented the shunting-yard algorithm?
Edsger Dijisktra
27
What did Grace Hopper use a piece of wire just under one foot to demonstrate?
Distance radio waves travels in one nanosecond
28
Father of Fortran
John Backus
29
Father of Lisp
John McCarthy
30
Father of Pascal
Niklaus Wirth
31
Father of Garbage Collection
John McCarthy
32
Credited as being the theoretical father of computer virology for his design of a self-reproducing program
John von Neumann