Okay, fellow readers, nicely folded into the usual baking, library thoughts, and travel news, there will be some tech-based entries for a few months for my IT class. Since it has been a few years that I had done my yearly "women doing awesome stuff" post - my topic for these tech posts are "Women in Technology - Doing Awesome Stuff".
I cannot even begin to write anything about technology unless I begin with the woman who taught computers to understand words.
December in 2013, was the 107th
birthday of the first female computer programmer, Rear Admiral Grace MurrayHopper, USNR, (1906-1992).
Hold on! If you dare to call yourself a "super awesome computer geek" and do not know who she is,
stop and take a moment to slap yourself (really hard). Feel the burn? Continue reading.
Grace Hopper graduated with her degree
in mathematics at Vassr College (and taught there from 1931-1943) and then got
her PhD at Yale University in 1934. That same year she joined the Navy Reserve.
Immediately she was assigned to work on the embryonic electronic computer (means that they can think for themselves). She
worked her way up the ranks and finally became Rear Admiral in 1985. Top this
day, she is the oldest woman in the armed forces at the age of 76. After she
retired in 1986, she stayed teaching about computers, programming and concepts
related to time (such as nanoseconds [see below for video]) until her death in 1992.
Her only regret
was not being able to see the 21st century. She wanted to celebrate
December 31, 1999, and look back at how far computers had developed, thanks to
her knowledge, skill, and dedication.
She loved numbers and puzzles, and
coined the term “bug in the computer”, because when she was working at Harvard
in 1945 on an experimental machine called the Mark I, something malfunctioned.
Opening it up, she found an actual bug in the computer.
She changed the world of early computers
by creating COBOL (Common Business Orientated Language), which means that the
computers can respond to commands typed in words rather than a number sequence.
She worked on Mark II and Mark III and designed and created another computer
called UNIVAC I (still in use).
 |
| USS Hopper (DDG-70) |
USS Hooper (DDG-70), a Arleigh Burke-class
guided missile destroyer, is named after her.
I so want a battleship named after me!
When she retired in 1986, she said this,
“Our young people are the future. We must provide for them. We must give them
the positive leadership they're looking for.”
That day, she was given the
highest award possible by the Department of Defense - the Defense Distinguished
Service Medal - one of many awards she received from both the Navy and
computing industry.
Today, there is a foundation named after
her to celebrate women in the computing field and the same organization pairing
up with the Anita Borg Institute to host a convention bringing women, who
are far and few, in the computing field, together, to be empowered, share
ideas, and network.
Grace Hopper explaining nanoseconds.
Props: For my instructor, citations are below.
Alter, Charlotte. (2013). GoogleDoodle Honors Grace Hopper, Early Computer Scientist: Kicks off Computer Science Education Week with Tribute to Woman Who Taught Computers to Use Words. Time News Feed. Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/09/google-doodle-honors-grace-hopper-early-computer-scientist/#ixzz2rEUNKmkE
Anita Borg Institute. (2014) Grace Hopper: Celebrating Women in Technology. Retrieved from http://gracehopper.org
Dickason, Elizabeth. (1992). Looking Back: Grace Murray Hopper's Younger Years. Biographies in Naval History: Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USN, 9 December 1906 - 1 January 1992. Retrieved from http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm
Dickason, Elizabeth. (1992). Remembering Grace Murray Hopper: A Legend in Her Own Time. Biographies in Naval History: Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, USN, 9 December 1906 - 1 January 1992. Retrieved from http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm
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