Report on Person in The History of Computers assignment

Worth 15% in the final grade

• Due – End of week 2 – submit a request for the person of your choice. (worth 5%)
• Due – End of week 6 – your final report (formatted as below) (worth 10%)

There are a lot of important and interesting individuals that have contributed to the history of computers and
technology. Learning about some of these will help us to be more appreciative of the history of technology,
especially computers.
This assignment will have you selecting an important person from the history of computers and writing up a short
report on that person. There is a list of names below that you can select from, or you can suggest another person.
The report should address a few things.
First, give a biographical history of the person. When did they live? What did they do? What was their
contribution to the history of technology?
Second, discuss the contribution that they made to technology. What is so important about what the person did?
How did it change the world of technology? Why is this contribution unique?
Third, discuss how their contribution has changed the world. How was the contribution your person made
important in their day? How is it still important in our day? How has it impacted your life?
Finally, as a believer, we often can see that the Lord is behind many of the important things that happen in
history. How do you think that God has intending this contribution to be useful to mankind, or to our world?
What are some biblical principles that the contribution either helps, or disagrees with? Try to use one or more
bible verses to back this up.
This report should be approximately 1000 words in length, in a double-spaced document. You should make use
of at least two references, other than Wikipedia or our textbook, and please use the APA style of citations to the
reference. Here is a rubric to give you an idea of the way this assignment will be graded.
1. Length, spacing, format, appearance. 10 pts
2. References, grammar, and following the APA style. 10 pts
3. Biographical information about your person. 20 pts
4. Description of the important contribution. 20 pts
5. Discussion of the impact the contribution has made. 20 pts
6. Faith integration – discussing the biblical perspective. 20 pts

List of potential persons that have made an impact in Technology

Al-Kwarizmi Steve Jobs John von Neumann
Charles Babbage Katherine Johnson Blaise Pascal
Alexander Graham Bell Brian Kernighan Dennis Ritchie
Tim Berners-Lee Donald Knuth Claude Shannon
Bill Gates Ada Lovelace Alan Turing
James Gosling John McCarthy Steve Wozniak
Margaret Hamilton Marvin Minsky
Grace Hopper Samuel Morse
Rubric for grading the Historic Person Report for Information Systems
Graded Item Not addressed at all Poorly Addressed Fully Addressed
Length, spacing, format 0 5 10
(1000 words is fully
addressed)
References, grammar, 0 8 10
in APA style
Biographical 0 10 20
information about topic
Description of the 0 10 20
important contribution
of your topic
Discussion of the 0 10 20
impact the contribution
has made
Faith Integration – 0 10 20
biblical perspective
(fully addressed is with
Bible references)