a Turing was a British mathematician and a pioneer in computer theory.  He was one of the first to approach the topic of Artificial Intelligence but his ideas were considered outlandish at the time

Honours and Awards:  Smiths Prize, OBE, Fellow of Kings College, Royal Society

Born: 23^rd June 1912 in London. 

Education: Sherborne School, 1926-31, Cambridge,1931,  Princeton University, 1938

School Subjects:  He was only ever interested in Mathematics and sciences.

During WWII He worked as a code breaker against Germany.  Germany had developed the Enigma a computer that created constantly changing code making it very difficult for the Allies to decipher quickly.  However Turing was part of the team that built a rival machine called the Colossus, which speedily deciphered the Enigma’s codes.

He envisioned a machine that would read in binary and follow a series of instructions to get a correct answer ‘the Turing Machine.  ’The concept of the Turing Machine which, which could theoretically perform any mathematical calculation, was important in the development of the digital computer.  

He went to continue developing an Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) one of the first attempts at developing a digital computer.  His article ‘Intelligent Machinery’ published 1969 was the first time the concept of AI had been brought up.

He believed a computer could created following the blueprints of the human brain and then came up with the Turing test the one test that is believed to be correct even today. 

He came up with a  method called the Turing test, to decide whether machines have the ability to think.

The Turing test was basically –

Imagine there are 2 identical terminals in a room, one is connected to a computer and the other is operated by a person.  If someone using the two terminals couldn't to decide which is connected to the computer and which is worked by the person then the computer can be credited with Intelligence.

Death: Turing died on June 7, 1954 from what the medical examiners described as, "self-administered potassium cyanide while in a moment of mental imbalance."  Other reasons for his death have surfaced. His mother claimed that he used to experiment with household chemicals, trying to create new substances and became careless.

Today’s computer Scientist still refer to his papers

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