Howard Aiken, Grace Hopper and the Mark I Computer

Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard University beginning in 1944.   The Mark I   The MARK computers began with the Mark I. Imagine a giant room full of noisy, clicking metal parts, 55 feet long and eight feet high. The five-ton device contained almost 760,000 separate pieces. Used by the U.S. Navy for gunnery and ballistic calculations, the Mark I was in operation until 1959. The computer was controlled by pre-punched paper tape, and it could carry out addition, subtraction, multiplication and division functions. It could refer to previous results and had special subroutines for logarithms and trigonometric functions. It used 23 decimal place numbers. Data was stored and counted mechanically using 3,000 decimal storage wheels, 1,400 rotary dial switches and 500 miles of wire. Its electromagnetic relays classified the machine as a relay computer. All output was displayed on an electric typewriter. By todays standards, the Mark I was slow, requiring three to five seconds to accomplish a multiplication operation. Howard Aiken   Howard Aiken was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in March 1900. He was an electrical engineer and physicist who first conceived of an electro-mechanical device like the Mark I in 1937. After completing his doctorate at Harvard in 1939, Aiken stayed on to continue the computers development. IBM funded his research. Aiken headed a team of three engineers, including Grace Hopper. The Mark I was completed in 1944. Aiken completed the Mark II, an electronic computer, in 1947. He founded the Harvard Computation Laboratory that same year. He published numerous articles on electronics and switching theories and ultimately launched Aiken Industries.   Aiken loved computers, but even he had no idea of their eventual widespread appeal. Only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States, he said in 1947. Aiken died in 1973 in St, Louis, Missouri.   Grace Hopper   Born in December 1906 in New York, Grace Hopper studied at Vassar College and Yale before she joined the Naval Reserve in 1943. In 1944, she started working with Aiken on the Harvard Mark I computer. One of Hoppers lesser-known claims to fame is that she was responsible for coining the term bug  to describe a computer fault. The original bug was a moth that caused a hardware fault in the Mark I. Hopper got rid of it and fixed the problem and was the first person to debug a computer.   She began research for the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1949  where she designed an improved compiler and was part of the team which developed Flow-Matic, the first English-language data processing compiler. She invented the language APT and verified the language COBOL.   Hopper was the first computer science Man of the Year in 1969, and she received the National Medal of Technology in 1991. She died a year later, in 1992, in Arlington, Virginia.

Asian American Culture - 925 Words

Asian American/Chinese Culture Theresa Chambers Webster University Abstract A Chinese American is an American who is of ethnic Chinese descent. Most Chinese Americans are descended from Chinas majority ethnic group, the Han. The rest are usually members of one of Chinas 56 minorities, such as the Hui. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and are also one group of Asian Americans. Asian American/ Chinese Culture Immigration Chinese immigration to the United States has come in several waves. Legend says that the first Chinese came to the Americas as early as 1421, the time when several Chinese generals went sailing around the world. According to the records from the United States government, the first†¦show more content†¦However, these barriers can be broken down with the education of patients and the training of the primary doctors can improve the quality of care for the Asian Americans. New York has developed a model that involves training and education in the early detection of the common disorders. This training is offering a culturally responsive care and early results suggest that these interventions may be improving detections rates of disorders for the Asian American Conclusion Based upon this culture there are many barriers the Asian American must overcome in order to receive assistance from the mental health counselors. These people are very proud and believe that whether good or bad happens it affects the entire family. In this culture today many still believe that having a mental illness brings shame to the family. As a mental health counselor we have to be aware of their feelings and culture so that when working with them they are not offended or feel that shame has been brought to their family. Many times in the Asian culture they will nod out of respect to the person addressing them and in the western culture a nod is a statement of understanding. 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Network Assignments Free Essays

Kim Doe Jung is a commercial attachà © in the Korean embassy. She works as an investment and financial consultant providing useful information and data to those interested to invest in Korea. Prior to the interview we had met at a luncheon organized in our college by the Korean Embassy. We will write a custom essay sample on Network Assignments or any similar topic only for you Order Now The luncheon was targeting students wishing to take their post graduate studies in a foreign country. Also invited along with students were business persons with an interest of investing in the expanding economy of Korea. Kim Doe Jung was a guest speaker and I was able to secure an interview through the help of one of my father’s friend who works in the embassy. She is an MBA graduate from a Korean University specializing in financial matters. The mere thought of interviewing was exciting and inspiring too. She had been able to accomplish what I have always looked forward to; she has my dream career. The interview took place inside the Korean Embassy’s expansive offices. She has a beautiful office facing the oval offices from afar. I was taken right up to her 3rd floor office by a security officer and she received me cordially which was rather flattering as I believed she had to be a very busy person. I had a large interest in knowing what her work duties and responsibilities entail. A commercial attachà © she told me was generally an agent of her own country, sent to a foreign land to represent her country’s commercial and financial affairs in that foreign land, I was hoping for a more specific answer and to get it I asked her to describe her typical average day to me. She arrives early in the morning, the first thing she does is to update the ambassador on any developments in her field. Then businessmen and women start coming in with all manner of issues. Some would wish to enquire on the likely trend that the inflation in Korea is taking and what the government is doing about it, how their investments are doing, any viable investment opportunities available. Koreans also drop by just for a casual visit, others have solid reasons like wishing the Korean government to negotiate for   trading concessions and low export duties for their goods. This is her typical day. Day in day out she is supposed to have answers to these questions as well as be able to analyze the recommendations she receives from the public. Her answers enabled me to have an idea of what to expect in my career dreams and was able to get from her responsibilities the enormity of the challenges a career diplomat goes through. To her, being a diplomat job is quite a challenge and ideal candidates for the job have to exercise diligence and good work ethics. One has to have high analytical and communication skills, be a team player, have a willingness to learn new things, physical stamina to withstand long working hours and ability to cope and interact with persons of diverse communities. This was very helpful, and this being my dream career, I was able to know the areas I needed to improve on as well as appreciating my strengths (Zachary Bromer, n.d). The working conditions are just marvelous as I could discern from what I could see: her office was smart and exotically furnished with expensive Korean rugs, she was also expensively dressed. She told me that her job is well paying as one has to be well compensated for accepting to work overseas away from her family. This interview, I must say, was an eye opener. It was my first interview with a person of such a high social standing and who represents interest of a far away state. Her confidence and intelligence were equally inspiring. Now I have a strong conviction to follow my intended career path, armed with the information that she gave to me.I have to act with reasonable diligence, work to improve on my strengths and weaknesses to achieve my life time goal of a career diplomat. Reference: Zachary Bromer, Salary.com contributor; Dream job: diplomat Available online at http://www.salary.com/careers/layouthtmls/crel-display-cat10-ser136-par236.html Accessed How to cite Network Assignments, Essay examples