Charles Babbage Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's analytical engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century. Parts of Babbage's incomplete
Kenneth Falconer (mathematician) Kenneth Falconer (mathematician) Kenneth John Falconer FRSE (born 25 January 1952) is a mathematician working in mathematical analysis and in particular on fractal geometry . He is Regius Professor of Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews. He is known for his work on the mathematics of fractals and in particular sets and measures arising from iterated function systems, especially self-similar and self-affine sets. Closely related is his research on Hausdorff and other fractal dimensions. He formulated "Falconer's conjecture" on the dimension of distance sets and conceived the notion of a digital sundial.