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
George Springer (mathematician) George Springer (mathematician) George Springer (born September 3, 1924) is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is professor emeritus of computer science at Indiana University Bloomington. Springer is perhaps best known as the coauthor with Daniel P. Friedman of the widely used textbook "Scheme and the Art of Computer Programming". Scheme is one of the two main dialects of LISP. Three of the pioneering books for Scheme are "The Scheme Programming Language" (1982) by R. Kent Dybvig, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (1985) by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman, and "Scheme and the Art