Women in Technology
Women have played a major role in computing for centuries as well as men. The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge on women involved in technology who for some reason do not gain as much recognition as do men. There are numerous women within this field worth talking about, but the ones chosen were Ada Byron, Grace Hopper, Evelyn Granville, and Krisztina Holly. The history of each individual will be discussed as well as what form of influence they had in computers.
Introduction
The revolution of computers had begun centuries ago. It has been the work of many over the course of years to bring computers where they are today. For quite some time it entailed people with bright imaginations to come up with
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Lady Lovelace had then suggested to Babbage to write a formal plan on how an engine could calculate Bernoulli numbers. It was this plan that the two of them worked on that is now considered the first computer program. Because of her foresight, the Unites States Department of Defense developed a software program and named it Ada in honor of her in 1979.
Unfortunately, her life was short lived and died at the age of 36. She is formally known as “The Enchantress of Numbers” and her precognition of computers by more than a century is what many of us believe is new computing. Her passion for Babbage’s ideas were intense and had people during that era lived longer, there is no telling what she and Babbage may have invented.
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
Grace Hopper was born on December 9, 1906 in New York City. She lived a normal upbringing and loved to do conventional childhood things with the exception of her fondness for devices. She truly enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked and put them back together again. According to Danis, “When grace was seven, she had taken apart seven alarm clocks in her house” (1997). Grace’s parents taught her and her siblings to be unique and not do what is customary of women. Grace went on to Graduate with her BA in Mathematics and Physics and completed her MA and Ph.D. by the age of 28. Hopper married in 1930, separated in 1940, and divorced in 1945. Hopper decided to join the service and became a
Computers were once humans. Men and women had the job of sitting at a desk so they could calculate numbers that would get astronauts into space. Katherine Johnson was famous for what she did and became.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Science & Technology have grown-up a radical contribution to industry, and the personal computer has become a defining symbol of our age. In 1940, it was not recognized that Science & Technology would develop into an innovative way that would intensely affect business, trade, the monetary world, administration, discipline, education, communications, entertainment, and society as a whole. Today, information technology and its applications persist to go forward progressively. Computers and communication technology will become even more precious to civilization as they are ever more able to distinguish
The ENIAC was invented by John Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert, Jr.and built from 1943-1945. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), often referred to as the first computer, was built to supply the need for faster calculations. It started the information age and led to the development of the first commercial computers (The ENIAC).
He was now focusing on designing an “Analytic Engine”, which would be a machine that could perform calculations without user input. Ada immediately grasped the potential significance of such a machine and impressed Babbage with her ideas on the concept of a calculating engine. Her friend, Sophia Frend, later wrote, “Miss Byron, young as she was, understood its working, and saw the great beauty of the invention” (Toole 51). Ada requested that Babbage send her the blueprints for the machine so that she could further understand it. This was the beginning of a long intellectual relationship between the two and they would continue to correspond and collaborate for the next nine years. However, her mother disagreed with Babbage’s metaphysical views on mathematics and “preferred that Ada be grounded in what she considered the facts” (Toole 52). Despite this, Ada continued to meet and write with Baggage. She would go against her mother’s wishes by deciding to “not destroy her imagination but use it in her own way” (Toole 53). Ada’s work no longer focused on studying what had already been learned, but instead imagined new
The earliest conception of a computer could be credited to Pascal. Blaise Pascal had invented
An innovative era of technological advancements and radical new concepts swept the nation by storm. The revolution was steered by a collaboration of boundless minds and problem solvers. Through a series of trial and error, computers were transformed from small sprockets and motors to machines that could unravel most of society’s problems. In 1946, Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, two military commissioned American inventors, constructed one of the world’s first computers using vacuums and enormous air conditioners. The two men started an industry in machine processing speed and power. Eckert and Mauchly’s invention defined all new aspects of the future. By the 1950s computers were a public attraction; they were being used for military purposes, business management, and the advancement of networking.
Charles wanted to make plans for a new calculating machine in 1834 called Analytical Engine, but his sponsors refused to support the second machine until the first on was done. In 1842 an Italian mathematician published a memoir in French on the Analytical Engine. Charles asked Ada to translate it and in a nine-month period in 1842-43 she worked on the article.
Charles Babbage, aka the “Father of the Computer,” had invented the computer by the early 9th century. The size of computers has changed drastically.
Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage to develop what would become the first computer by writing the algorithms needed to make computers work. She checked Babbage’s work and found errors in his system, helping to design the computer. Lovelace is considered the first
Ockham, Surrey County, England, the Summer of 1843. Lady Ada Lovelace frantically prepares her “Notes” to Sir Charles Babbage. This 19,136 words document will hold the first description of the term “computer” a century before this idea will come to fruition.
“Grace Hopper was known as “Amazing Grace”, the “Grand Old Lady of Software”, the “First Lady” of data processing, the “Mother of Modern Naval Computing” and Grandma COBOL. She was utterly dedicated to the service of her country and served in the U.S Navy for forty-three year, rising to the high rank of rear admiral. She was a mathematical genius at a time when women weren’t even expected to go to college, achieving honors and degrees that only a few other women of her time managed to accomplish. She was instrumental in developing many of the vital procedures that have made modern computers possible. In this field she has a long string of first and unusual accomplishments, from being the first woman to program the first computer in the United Staes to being the first woman and sometimes the first American to win certain
Once the Allies triumphantly claimed victory 1945, advancements in computers dwindled. It was only in 1958, thirteen years later, that the computing
Ada Lovelace – born Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace in 1815 – is widely considered to the world’s first programmer. Being the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and Lady Byron, Ada Lovelace was afforded the ability to study math and science from a young age. This was a rare affordance, even for women from aristocratic families. At 17, Ada met another famous figure of computer science, Charles Babbage, who helped shape the work she would do. Unfortunately, Ada spent much of her life in poor health due to contracting cholera at the age of 22 (Biography.com Editors, "Ada Lovelace Biography", 2016). Despite the obstacles, Ada Lovelace has gone down in the annals of history as one of the founders of computer science.
Contrary to popular belief, computing has been in existence for ages. “Man started off by counting on his digits, he needed ways to measure the months and seasons in order to perform religious festivals and ceremonies at the correct time, which resulted in counting notches on sticks or marks on the wall” (Hoyle).These were some of the struggles that catapulted efforts towards computing. However the first computing device to be made “was the abacus, helping the ancient Technorati gain an edge over trading partners still counting cows and amphorae by hand”(science festival).Since then computing has taken great strides and became a fundamental part of our lives. Today, we use computer science products in everything we do from just turning
The key period of the evolution of modern electronic computer is in between the late 1930s and the early 1950s. Not all of them were invented by the mathematician or physician. Among those machines were pioneering computers put together by english academics notably Manchester/Ferrenti Mark 1, built at Manchester University by Frederic Williams and Thomas Kilburn. And the EDSAC, Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University.