Here are the people, whom I think, had the biggest hand in shaping the

development of what we know of as computers today.

First is Charles Babbage. He was a polymath and became a mathematician,

mechanical engineer, inventor, and philosopher. He contributed to many different
scientific fields but his most famous work is designing a programmable computing
device.

During the mid-1830s Babbage developed plans for the Analytical Engine, the
forerunner of the modern digital computer. In that device he envisioned the
capability of performing any arithmetical operation on the basis of instructions
from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential
control, and most of the other basic elements of the present-day computer.
Charles Babbage is considered the “father of computer” and is given credit for
devising the first ever mechanical computer. His design served as the blue print
for other, more complex machines.

Next, Tim Berners-Lee, he is the inventor of the World Wide Web and HTML. He
was born in England and has an engineering background, through developing
computer systems in the 80s. He is indeed a true pioneer in the field of Computer
Science, and without Tim’s ideas and development work, we simply wouldn’t
have the internet as we know it today.

Next, Claude Elwood Shannon, an American mathematician and computer

scientist who conceived and laid the foundations for information theory. His
theories laid the groundwork for the electronic communications networks that
now lace the earth. He is also known as "the father of information theory".
Next, Alan Turing, he is often called the father of modern computing. He was a
brilliant mathematician and logician. He developed the idea of the modern
computer and artificial intelligence. During the Second World War he worked for
the government breaking the enemies codes.

Next, John von Neumann. One of his important contributions in this field was the
development of a logical design for computers that paid attention to such
concerns as data storage and the processing of instructions. This design, called
“von Neumann architecture,” became the basic concept of most computers.

Next, William Shockley, he headed the team at Bell Telephone Laboratories that
studied semiconductors and invented the transistor. A transistor is a
semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical
power. The operation of the vast majority of the equipment we use on a daily
basis (including televisions, mobile phones and computers) is based on the
properties of the transistors with which they are built.

Next, Douglas Engelbart, best known as the inventor of the computer mouse.
During his lifetime, Engelbart made numerous groundbreaking contributions to
the computing industry, paving the way for videoconferencing, hyperlinks, text
editing, and other technologies we use daily.

Next, Robert Noyce, nicknamed as “the Mayor of Silicon Valley,” co-founded

Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. He is also credited (along with
Jack Kilby) with the invention of the integrated circuit or microchip.

Next, Grace Hopper, she joined the U.S. Navy during World War II and was
assigned to program the Mark I computer. She continued to work in computing
after the war, leading the team that created the first computer language
compiler, which led to the popular COBOL language. Hopper is best known for her
trailblazing contributions to the development of computer languages.

Lastly, Vinton Cerf, an American computer scientist who is considered one of the
founders, along with Robert Kahn, of the Internet. In 2004 both Cerf and Kahn
won the A.M. Turing Award, the highest honour in computer science, for their
“pioneering work on internetworking, including the design and implementation of
the Internet’s basic communications protocols, TCP/IP, and for inspired leadership
in networking.”

These computer scientists made a significant contribution to the field and will be
forever remembered for their work.