Alan turing picture

Esoc 210 Timeline - Alan Turning

  • Alan Turing's Birth

    Alan Turing's Birth
    Alan Turing was born June 23rd, 1912 in London, where he spent most of his early life.
  • Alan Turing's College

    Alan Turing's College
    Alan Turing attended King's College in Cambridge as an undergrad. During his time their Alan studied mathematics and graduated with distinction! Alan did so well in his college career that he was elected to be a Fellow of King's College after his studies.
  • Turing's first publication

    Turing's first publication
    In the year 1937, Alan Turing's published a proof titled "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entschedungs problem. This publication further inspired his career in knowledge and later returned back to school. In this publication, he described what would later be named, the Turing machine.
  • Idea of hypothetical computing Device

    Idea of hypothetical computing Device
    In Turing's publication, he began to articulate what a hypothetical computing device would be. This device later became known as the universal Turing machine. After his work at Government Codes and Ciphers School, Turing came back to this idea and how to implement it.
  • Turing's PhD

    Turing's PhD
    After Alan's publication, he went back to school inspired to gain his PhD. Alan Turing attended Princeton University and was still aspiring to advance in his mathematics degree.
  • Working at Government Code and Cypher School

    Working at Government Code and Cypher School
    After Alan received his PhD, he traveled back to Cambridge and took a part-time position at the Government Code and Cypher School. This was an organization that focused on breaking codes. This organization was established just after the First World War and is still being used today.
  • The Battle of the Atlantic

    The Battle of the Atlantic
    Upon working with the Government Code and Cyphers school, Turing and his associated were tasked to break the enigma code. This code was created by the Germans as a way to send encrypted messages during the war.
  • The devolpment of the Bombe

    The devolpment of the Bombe
    The bombe was a device that allowed the decryption of messages sent by the Germans through their enigma machine. The bombe allowed the decryption of the ever-changing enigma machine's codes. This invention aided in the Battle of the Atlantic
  • Turing Machine

    Turing Machine
    In 1942, Alan Turing and his associated decrypted the second version of the Enigma decrypting system. This system was created by the German Navy and was crucial for them to send encrypted messages during World War II.
  • Working with top level Intelligence

    Working with top level Intelligence
    In 1943 Alan Turing was invited to work with an intelligence agency in the USA. He was one of the key people aiding in the idea of cryptology. Turing was asked to share his knowledge of encrypted information
  • Gained the OBE award for his efforts

    Gained the OBE award for his efforts
    After the war, Alan Turing was awarded the OBE award for his efforts during the war. The OBE award is the second-highest-ranking order for the British Empire's awards.
  • Joining the National Physical Laboratory

    Joining the National Physical Laboratory
    In 1946, Alan Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory. During his time there Alan published papers and developed ideas for the first computer that could store programmed information.
  • Gaining honor at Manchester University

    Gaining honor at Manchester University
    Alan Turing was given the opportunity to hold a high-ranking position at the University of Manchester. He was appointed to the mathematics department, where he did most of his studies during his collegiate career. After a year in this position, Alan Turing was made the director of the computing laboratory.
  • Computing machinery and intellignece

    Computing machinery and intellignece
    Alan had another publication titled "Computing Machinery and Intelligence". This publication focused on the idea of artificial intelligence. It also showed the first development of the Turing Test.
  • The Turing Test

    The Turing Test
    The turning test was developed by Alan Turing as a way of testing the intelligence of a computer. This test is passed when a human is unable to distinguish a machine from another human being.
  • Alan Turing's Death

    Alan Turing's Death
    Alan Turing was found dead in his home. He committed suicide by eating an apple that was laced with cyanide. People believe that this was largely due to his arrest for being homosexual and the hormone treatment that he endured. This treatment affected him very negatively.
  • The Turing Awards

    The Turing Awards
    There is now an annual prize of the Turing award first started in 1966. The award is given to recipients selected for their contributions of lasting and major technical importance in the computer field.
  • Remembrance of Turing

    Remembrance of Turing
    After Alan Turing's death, he was remembered by the creation of multiple statues and plaques scattered across the places he worked. There is a plaque in his birthplace, a statue at Manchester University, and a Sculpture at Bletchley park
  • The Alan Turing Building

    The Alan Turing Building
    In 2007 the University of Manchester renamed their school of mathematics to the Alan Turing Building in remembrance of the positive impact he did for their university.