Polish Contributions to Computing

CHC60 IEEE Computer Society Competition Project

FGCU Project Team:

Rick Szatkowski, Jr (Team Leader)

Ryan Firtell

Richard Chin Quee

Dr. Janusz Zalewski (Faculty Mentor)

Abakanowicz's Integraph
Source: CNRS Museum
Paris, France

Jakobson's Machine
Source: Lomonosov Museum
Sankt Petersburg, Russia

Stern's Machine Prototype
Source: Museum of Industry
Krakow, Poland (1920s)

Slonimski's Machine
Source: Illustrierte Zeitung,
Germany (1845)

Staffel's Machine
Source:Museum of Technology
Warsaw, Poland

Abakanowicz's Integraph
Source: CNRS Museum
Paris, France

Jakobson's Machine
Source: Lomonosov Museum
Sankt Petersburg, Russia

Stern's Machine Prototype
Source: Museum of Industry
Krakow, Poland (1920s)

Welcome to the Polish Contributions to Computing website. This site brings to you the history of the contributions that the Poles have made over the years. We have done heavy research on each of the Polish contributors, have made several simulators to help describe the theory or applications, and have gathered a large amount of resources.

This site was developed for the IEEE Computer Society's Computing History Competition CHC60. The goal was to design a website with in-depth information related to the history of computing. The website is to clearly convey to others the information we researched. It is also built according to the W3C web standards.

This website is a living entity. When new material comes or some errors are noticed (typos, inconsistencies, broken links, etc.), the information will be automatically updated.

Below is a brief overview of the site describing each of the menu links in the top navigation bar.

Contributions

Simulator Example

The major contributors are highlighted in this section. It is divided into 3 categories: Hardware, Theory, and Post-War Developments. To access pages on the contributors, simply click on one of the photos in these categories to receive information on the contributor. The main text is the summarization of our findings. On the right side there is a box with images that relate to this contributor.

Below the box for a couple of the contributors, you will see "Simulator:" This is a simulator that we have developed to help you understand the theory or application that this man contributed. When it first opens, the help system for this simulator will display first. For help using simulators, click here or in the bottom right corner of the simulator screen.

Timeline

Timeline Preview

Many different contributions have been made to computing in the past 400 years by inventors from many countries. Our focus is on the Polish contributions in comparison to other major contributions to computing. The goal is to help you understand where do the Polish contributions fit, in addition to providing information about the history of computing in general. This page will help you learn and find more information about computing history in other areas of the world. Above the timeline are instructions on how to use this informative tool.

Links

Links:
These links will lead you to other important sources of information on the history of computing.

Development:
Here we have described parts of the development process that we went through to develop this site. It contains information about how the team worked together and what kinds of technologies were used to develop this site.

Contact Us:
This page is here for you to have the option to give us feedback. We welcome all feedback and would like to know if you have any suggestions or comments about any aspect of this site.

Acknowledgements:
There are many people and institutions to thank for helping us in this project. This page is here to honor them all.