Ali Almossawi (born December 1, 1984) is an author of books on critical thinking and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

education, and the creator of '' An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments''. He is also a principal engineer at

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

, and was formerly a

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz/vis or info viz/vis) is the practice of designing and creating Graphics, graphic or visual Representation (arts), representations of a large amount of complex quantitative and qualitative data and i ...

engineer at

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

. He has stated that his day job helps his writing by constraining his time.

Education

He graduated from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering in 2005 and holds a Master of Science in Software Engineering from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

as well as a Master of Science in Engineering and Management from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Illustrated books

Almossawi published the first edition of '' An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments'' in July 2013, by sharing it online for free and supporting the project with donations and sales of a print edition. In December 2013, the book was acquired by Experiment Books who released a second edition in September 2014. Volunteers have translated the book into twelve languages and the book's website has been visited by 2.6 million visitors. The book has appeared in print in Russian, Italian, Korean, Slovak, French,

simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

, and

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...

. In 2016, Almossawi announced that his second book ''Bad Choices'', an introduction to computer science, had been acquired by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

and was to be published the following year. He also shared that it was to be translated into Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Complex Chinese, Russian, and Turkish. Internet pioneer

Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...

described the book as "one of the more clever ways of introducing computational thinking to the general public" and

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

professor and physicist Cesar Hidalgo described it as "perfect for anyone wanting to understand the basics of Computer Science."

Data visualization

Almossawi's data visualization work has received press coverage. The Firefox Hardware Report, which he codeveloped while at Mozilla, was covered by

Engadget Engadget ( ) is a technology news, reviews and analysis website offering daily coverage of gadgets, consumer electronics, video games, gaming hardware, apps, social media, streaming, AI, space, robotics, electric vehicles and other potentially ...

and '' SD Times''. His visualization of the Big Five US publishers and their imprints was featured on Tor and shared over 5,000 times on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. His visualization of the education level of world leaders has received over 47,000 visits and was among 20 great visualizations of 2012. In 2015, Almossawi gave his only recorded talk on the practice of data visualization at Google's San Francisco office.

Personal life

Almossawi has stated that he identifies with humanist values.

Publications

Publications by Almossawi

* * *

Publications with contributions by Almossawi

*"Visualizing ambiguity in an era of data abundance and very large software systems" by Almossawi in ''New challenges for data design.'' London, UK: Springer, 2015. . *"Don’t Just Teach Kids How to Code, Teach Them Algorithms, Too" by Almossawi in '' Bright.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Almossawi, Ali 1984 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Carnegie Mellon University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Bahraini non-fiction writers 21st-century Bahraini writers