Maroc - THECEKODOK.COM - A La Une - 09/Dec 08:14

10 Science and Technology Figures Who Died in 2024

Death is something that cannot be avoided by all humans. Only the practices in this world can determine the fate in the next world. This year there were many prominent figures in the world of science and technology who went to meet God. Here are 10 science and technology figures who died this year but their impact on the world will not be forgotten.1. Datuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim – Chief Architect of the National MosqueDatuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim – Photo by atsa.comThe chief architect of the National Mosque, Datuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim, passed away at the age of 95 last August. He, along with Howard Ashley and Ikmal Hisham Albakri, was involved in designing the mosque which opened in 1965 with a capacity of 15,000 worshippers.The National Mosque held the status of the largest mosque in Malaysia until 1988 when it was overtaken by the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque in Shah Alam. The deceased was also the chief architect of the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque.Apart from designing the National Mosque and the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque, he was also the architect of the Malaya Islamic College Mosque, the An-Nur Jamek Mosque in Labuan, and the State Mosque, Negeri Sembilan, all of which have iconic designs. For his contributions to national architecture, Datuk Baharuddin Abu Kassim was awarded a gold medal by the Malaysian Architects Association (PAM) in 2009.2. Niklaus Emil Wirth – Creator of the Pascal Programming Language and Wirth's LawNiklaus Emil Wirth, a computer scientist who created seven programming languages ​​and popularized Wirth's Law, passed away on January 1 at the age of 89. Throughout his career, Wirth was involved in the development of the Euler programming languages, PL360, ALGOL, Modula, Modula-2, Oberon, Oberon-2, Oberon-07 and Pascal.Apart from leaving a huge impact on the world of programming languages, he also introduced Wirth's Law which states that software will be faster and slower than hardware that is getting faster. He realized that software was becoming increasingly cumbersome because various features that may not be really needed were added so that they could not be used on existing hardware.For his contributions to the world of computing, Wirth received the Turing Award in 1984. The cause of his death is unknown at the time of writing.3. Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan – Founder of Maxis, Astro and MEASATPhoto – Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan's FacebookTan Sri Ananda Krishnan, a prominent business figure and one of the richest tycoons in Malaysia, passed away last November at the age of 86. His passing was confirmed by his investment holding company, Usaha Tegas Sdn Bhd but the cause of death has not yet been announced.Ananda Krishnan is known as the founder and chairman of several large companies such as Maxis Bhd, Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, MEASAT Satellite Systems and Bumi Armada Bhd. He is also listed as the 6th richest individual in Malaysia and 667th in the world by Forbes with a net worth of $5.1 billion (RM22.7 billion).Ananda was born in Brickfield, Kuala Lumpur in 1938 and received his early education at the Vivekananda Tamil School Kuala Lumpur and later at the Victoria Institution. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia before pursuing his Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard University. He is survived by three children.4. Shigeichi Negishi – Inventor of KaraokeInventor of the karaoke machine Shigeichi Negishi passed away last March. He invented the karaoke machine in 1967 after coming up with the idea of ​​producing a machine that would allow anyone to sing their favourite songs again when needed.Shigeichi Negishi had a habit of listening to the radio show Pop Songs without Lyrics every morning in Japan which was broadcast on minus one in Japan. One morning he was reprimanded by the staff of the Nichiden Kogyo company where he worked for singing alone when entering the office. He then got the idea of ​​using an 8-track tape recording of the Pop Songs without Lyrics broadcast which was then combined with a speaker system, microphone and a cash register. With this machine he could sing with the support of background music when needed.Karaoke is a combination of the two words “kara” for empty and “oke” for orchestra. The first karaoke machine produced by Shigeichi was the Sparko Box with flashing lights on the front and an 8-track tape player that could be changed according to the song you wanted to play. It came with a lyric book that ensured the songs were sung correctly. Users only had to pay 100 Yen for one song using the Sparko Box.Although he was the inventor of the karaoke machine, Shigeichi Negishi never received any profits because he never patented the design due to the process being too complicated and expensive.5. Kabosu – The Dog That Became the Doge MemeDogecoinKabosu, the dog that became the basis for the popular Doge meme, died in May at the age of 18. His owner Atsuko Sato said Kabosu had passed away after a long illness in an announcement made on her Instagram page.This Shiba Inu dog began to become a meme after his picture was shared on Atsuko Sato's blog in 2010. He was adopted by Atsuko Sato from an animal shelter after Kabosu's original owner's dog breeding center was closed. Kabosu is the name of a type of lime used in cooking in Japan.Kabosu's picture was later shared on Reddit and has since become an image synonymous with the doge meme. His human-like facial expression quickly spread to all corners of the internet. His popularity also became the basis for two cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.6. Susan Wojcicki – Former YouTube CEO and Google Founding FigureSusan Diane Wojcicki, who served as YouTube CEO from 2014 to 2023, died last August at the age of 56 due to cancer.The late Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google in 1998 when she rented out her garage in Menlo Park to be used as an office by the Google founder. She also became Google's first marketing manager in 1999, and later led the online advertising and video services business.In addition, Wojcicki was the person who suggested that Google buy YouTube in 2006. She was appointed CEO in 2014 and resigned in February 2023 but at that time the reason was not given but has now been revealed to be for treatment.7. Gordon Bell – Inventor of the MinicomputerPhoto by – Queensland University of TechnologyThe world's first modern computer was ENIAC, which weighed 27 tons and required 1800 square feet of floor space. Because of its size, the idea of ​​a personal computer (PC) was considered impossible. The path to the creation of the PC began to become a reality with the creation of the minicomputer. Its inventor Gordon Bell passed away on May 17 due to pulmonary edema at the age of 89.Gordon Bell was born in 1934 in Missouri, United States. From the beginning, he was involved in his father's electrical equipment business before receiving a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.While working at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), he was involved in producing the PDP-8 minicomputer, which was the first minicomputer to be sold in large quantities and was sold at an affordable price of $18,000 each. The PDP-8 was labeled a minicomputer because it was only 10.5 x 19 x 24 inches in size. Advances in minicomputer technology paved the way for the creation of smaller desktop PCs and now portable computers in your hands.8. Robert Dennard – Inventor of DRAMRobert Heath Dennard, the man who invented DRAM and a former researcher at IBM, passed away on April 23 at the age of 91. He started his career at IBM in 1958 and was involved in the development of early computers.In 1977, he discovered a way to store a single digital bit in a single transistor. This was the beginning of the Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) technology that is now used in all computers, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and various other electronic devices that require temporary memory. He also indirectly opened the door to the creation of Flash and SRAM memory.In addition to creating DRAM, he was also affected by Dennard Scaling, which states that as transistors get smaller, their power density remains constant so that power consumption remains directly proportional to the area.9. Ward Christensen– Inventor of the Bulletin Board System (BBS)Ward Christensen – Image via Wikipedia CommonsTwitter, mIRC, forums, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp are messaging platforms that have been used since the internet was created in 1989. The origins of all these platforms can be traced back to the Bulletin Board System (BBS) that existed since the proto-internet era. Ward Christensen, one of the creators of BBS, died at the age of 78 in October.Ward Christensen and Randy Suess created the BBS in 1978, which allowed individuals with computers to connect to the system using telephone lines. Through the BBS, files could be uploaded and downloaded. There were message board services and chat rooms for sharing with other BBS users. Among the early uses of the BBS was to share early software and also to view the inventory of books that could be borrowed from public libraries.During his lifetime, Christensen worked at IBM from 1968 until he left in 2012. For his contributions to telecommunications systems using PCs, Christensen and Suess received the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.10. Richard Slayman – First Pig Kidney RecipientRichard Slayman – MGHLast March, Richard Slayman from Massachusetts became the first living person to receive a pig kidney. But unfortunately, in May, he passed away. However, doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital who performed the xenotransplant surgery on him said that his death was not due to complications with the organ he received.He suffered from end-stage kidney failure and was having trouble getting a replacement organ due to his age. Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital made him the first living person to receive a pig kidney that had been genetically edited to make it suitable for human use. After more than a week, the organ was found to be functioning normally with no signs of rejection.Before Slayman, two pig kidney transplants into humans had been performed, but the recipients were brain dead. After two weeks, the organs were removed and they died.The kidney was the first major organ to be successfully transplanted from one human to another, in December 1954. The liver, heart and pancreas followed suit. Although the technology has been around for nearly 70 years, it has not yet been able to save the lives of all patients in need of organs due to a shortage of donors.