Google doodles for Boole to mark his bicentenary

Internet search giant Google marked the 200th birthday of maths genius George Boole with a doodle yesterday as UCC honoured four education pioneers.

Thousands of students around the world took part in online logic lessons as part of Boole Day celebrations.

And contracts between Cork City Council and UCC have also been finalised for the restoration of Boole’s now derelict lodgings at 5 Grenville Place in Cork City, with hopes that works will go to tender within weeks.

A happy 11001000th birthday to the father of Boolean logic George Boole #GoogleDoodles pic.twitter.com/vTMjnoeKmd

— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) November 2, 2015

The details emerged as a wide range of Boole Day events came to a close.

Google’s doodle on its homepage logo was viewed every time someone on the planet googled.

“As one of the most important scientists to have ever worked in Ireland, Boole effectively laid the foundations of the entire Information Age while working from UCC. So it’s fair to say that without George Boole, there’d be no Google,” the company said.

Happy birthday #GeorgeBoole! 39 countries & almost 65,000 students are taking part in today's @Boole2School! pic.twitter.com/uBXU0WOuD2

— Embassy of Ireland, USA (@IrelandEmbUSA) November 2, 2015

UCC later conferred honorary doctorates on four maths and science education pioneers, including Anant Agarwa, the CEO of non-profit edX, a massive open online course provider which offers free classes from top universities to anyone in the world, and which aims to educate a billion people globally for free.

American computing pioneer Donald Knuth, known for his influential multi-volume work, The Art of Computer Programming, and widely considered the father of the analysis of algorithms, was conferred with a doctor of science. “Boole’s 200th birthday is especially important to me because I’ve used his name more than 700 times in my books on The Art of Computer Programming,” he said.

No bull: @UCC academic George Boole a quiet man of literary taste https://t.co/GIJhiPdWQY (DOD) pic.twitter.com/2ck5AepNLI

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) November 2, 2015

Desmond MacHale, emeritus professor of mathematics at UCC, who has been teaching for more than 40 years and who wrote the first biography of Boole, dedicated his degree of doctor of literature to the team behind the year-long George Boole 200 celebrations.

Sr Mercedes Desmond, 93, the former principal of St Aloysius School in Cork city, and who has championed science education in Ireland for more than 60 years, was conferred with a degree of doctor of education.