Google Doodle Honors ‘Father Of Computer Science’ Alan Turing

Known as the “Father of Computer Science”, fellow geeks all over the world are celebrating the life of one of the most influential minds of our time as June 23rd marks the birth of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing.

Choosing to honor the man in the unique way that they do, Google has offered up a “code your own doodle day” in which Google has created an interactive puzzle that was inspired by the Turing Machine, a machine meant to help computer scientists understand the limitations and restrictions of mechanical computation.

Wanting to do something complex for the highly respected scientist, the Google Doodle team decided that his 100th birthday would be perfect

“We first had the idea to celebrate Turing more than a year ago but decided to wait for his 100th” says Sophia Foster-Dimino, an artist on the Doodle team.

“As one of the fathers of computer science, we thought he was a really fitting person to celebrate.”

As reported by USA Today, the basic tech behind many Google’s Doodle’s is just simply JavaScript on a webpage.

“The novel part is how do you explain programming to people who maybe have never seen programming before?” says engineer Jered Wierzbicki.

In the Official Google Blog, U.K. Engineering Director Andrew Eland describes Turing’s life as a roller coaster consisting of many high’s and many low’s.

“While his wartime code-breaking saved thousands of lives, his own life was destroyed when he was convicted for homosexuality,” says Eland.

“But the tragedy of his story should not overshadow his legacy. Turing’s insight laid the foundations of the computer age. It’s no exaggeration to say he’s a founding father of every computer and Internet company today.”

Have you been able to solve all of the puzzles on the Google Doodle dedicated to Alan Turing?