Category Archives: Home & Family

October 1, 2014 · 11:15 pm

Listing: “Notable Women in Computing” Playing Cards – GHC14

As of January 2015, these cards are available for sale on Notable Technical Women. See the 3 January 2019 listing for the updated 4th edition.

This is my second blog post featuring cards from the “Notable Women in Computing” Playing Cards set. Professor Susan Rodger (Duke University), my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and I sent them off to be manufactured for delivery at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing (aka GHC14) next week. This work is associated with the long-term “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing” project. We encourage you to use this information to write or improve Wikipedia pages – especially creating new pages about remarkable women who have none!

Duke University and Everwise are sponsors. The full card listing follows. Cards will be for sale $6/deck (our cost) at the GHC14 Duke University table (8 October to 10 October 2014) – one deck per person!

23 October 2014 note: Please watch the Kickstarter video about why we picked these 54 women from among all of the remarkable technical women.

The Notable Women in Computer Science project is a labor of love for the women behind it, which is why we are licensing the card deck under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 U.S. License. We have done a number of things to ensure this deck only helps, and does not hurt, women in computing. Our efforts included: using public domain images, seeking individual permission for images, seeking to represent the reality of diversity of women in computing, and seeking input on the project from women leaders in technology.

If you have a concern (don’t like the public domain photo we found of you, don’t think the photo you took can be licensed in the way we did, decided you did not want to be included, want to provide a better photo or more correct text) we want to know and we will do our best to help you. Please contact Katy Dickinson (katy dot dickinson at gmail dot com) with questions.

All 54 cards:

Suit	Honoree Name	Position, Honors, Awards	Wikipedia Link (if any)
*Joker*	Maria Klawe	Harvey Mudd College President, ACM Fellow, Canadian Information Processing Society founding Fellow	Linked Here
Joker	Mitchell Baker	Exec. Chair Mozilla, ABI Women of Vision, Internet Hall of Fame	Linked Here
Hearts	Queen– Frances Allen	IBM Fellow Emerita, Turing Award, Computer History Museum Fellow, IEEE Fellow	Linked Here
❤	King– Barbara Liskov	MIT Professor, Turing Award, ACM Fellow, SWE Achievement Award	Linked Here
❤	Jack– Shafrira Goldwasser	MIT Professor, Turing Award, ACM-W Athena Lecturer	Linked Here
❤	Ace– Hessa Sultan Al Jaber	Qatar ICT Minister, Chair CS Department – Qatar Univ.	Linked Here
❤	10- Mary Jane Irwin	Pennsylvania State Univ. Professor, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, NAE Member, ACM-W Athena Lecturer	Linked Here
❤	9- Irene Greif	IBM User Experience Group, ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, Formed Lotus Research 1992	Linked Here
❤	8- Duy-Loan Le	Senior Fellow-Texas Instruments, WITI Hall of Fame, ABI Women of Vision	Linked Here
❤	7- Grete Hermann	Univ. of Göttingen mathematician, 1926 foundational paper for computerized algebra	Linked Here
❤	6- Manuela Veloso	Carnegie Mellon Univ. Professor, IEEE Fellow, AAAS Fellow	Linked Here
❤	5- Lila Ibrahim	Chief Business Officer Coursera, ABI Women of Vision, Purdue University-Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer	*none yet*
❤	4- Padmasree Warrior	Cisco CTO, WITI Hall of Fame, Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi	Linked Here
❤	3- Genevieve Bell	Intel Director of Interaction and Experience Research, ABI Women of Vision, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
❤	2- Marilyn Wescoff	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
*Diamonds*	Queen– Anita Borg	Founder Anita Borg Institute, WITI Hall of Fame, Fellow ACM, EFF Pioneer	Linked Here
♦	King– Deborah Estrin	Professor Cornell NYC Tech, ACM, AAAS and IEEE Fellow, ABI Women of Vision, ACM-W Athena Lecturer	Linked Here
♦	Jack– Yuqing Gao	IBM Senior Manager, ABI Women of Vision, IEEE Fellow	*none yet*
♦	Ace– Susan Graham	Univ. California Berkeley Distinguished Professor, ACM Fellow, NAE Member, AAAS Fellow	*none yet*
♦	10- Cristina Amon	Univ. of Toronto Dean-Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, IEEE Fellow, SWE Achievement Award, Canadian Academy of Eng., Spanish Royal Academy, Royal Society of Canada, US NAE	Linked Here
♦	9- Betsy Ancker-Johnson	1st observation of microwave emission without the presence of an external field (1967), Fellow Am Physical Society, Fellow AAAS, IEEE Fellow, Member NAE	Linked Here
♦	8- Arati Prabhakar	US DARPA Director, IEEE Fellow, Head National Institute of Standards and Technology (US NIST)	Linked Here
♦	7- Sophie Vandebroek	CTO Xerox, IEEE Fellow, WITI Hall of Fame, Royal Flemish Academy for Arts & Sciences Member	*none yet*
♦	6- Ruzena Bajcsy	Univ. California Berkeley Professor, NAE Member, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, AAAI member, AAAS member	Linked Here
♦	5- Laurie Hendren	Professor McGill Univ., ACM Fellow, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada	*none yet*
♦	4- Lixia Zhang	Univ. California, Los Angeles Professor, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow	*none yet*
♦	3- Betty Snyder	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
♦	2- Kay McNulty	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
Spades	Queen– Grace Hopper	US Navy Admiral, 1st compiler for a programming language 1952, Computer History Museum Fellow, Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, Fellow AAAS	Linked Here
♠	King– Chieko Asakawa	IBM Fellow, ABI Women of Vision, Japan Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon	*none yet*
♠	Jack– Denice Denton	Univ. California Santa Cruz Chancellor, AAAS Fellow, IEEE Fellow	Linked Here
♠	Ace– Radia Perlman	Intel Fellow, IEEE Fellow, 1st ABI Women of Vision award winner	Linked Here
♠	10- Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza	Professor PUC Rio de Janeiro, CHI Academy	*none yet*
♠	9- Linda Petzold	Univ. California Santa Barbara Professor, ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, NAE Member	*none yet*
♠	8- Jennifer Widom	Professor Stanford Univ., ACM Fellow, AAAS Member, NAE Member	Linked Here
♠	7- Jean Sammet	IBM Researcher, 1st woman ACM President, ACM Fellow, Computer History Museum Fellow	Linked Here
♠	6- Helen Greiner	CEO of CyPhy Works, ABI Women of Vision, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
♠	5- Anuradha Annaswamy	MIT Senior Research Scientist, IEEE Fellow, Hay Medal – Indian Institute of Science	*none yet*
♠	4- Qiheng Hu	Founder, China Internet Network Information Center, Internet Hall of Fame, Research Professor – Chinese Academy of Sciences	*none yet*
♠	3- Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
♠	2- Fran Bilas	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
Clubs	Queen– Katherine Johnson	NASA Mathematician, calculated the trajectory of early space launches 1959	Linked Here
♣	King– Augusta Ada Lovelace King	Mathematician, 1st computer programmer 1843	Linked Here
♣	Jack– Jennifer Chayes	Microsoft Research Distinguished Scientist, ACM Fellow, ABI Women of Vision	Linked Here
♣	Ace– Vicki Hanson	Professor Univ. of Dundee, ACM Fellow, SIGCHI Social Impact Award, ABI Women of Vision, Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh	*none yet*
♣	10- Ellen Ochoa	NASA Astronaut and Johnson Space Center Director, 1st Hispanic woman in space, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Harvard Foundation Science Award, San Diego State Univ. Alumna of the Year	Linked Here
♣	9- Tova Milo	Professor Tel Aviv Univ., ACM Fellow	Linked Here
♣	8- Valerie Taylor	Professor Univ. Texas A&M, IEEE Fellow	*none yet*
♣	7- Kathleen McKeown	Professor Columbia Univ., ACM and AAAI Fellow, Founding Fellow Association for Computational Linguistics, ABI Women of Vision	*none yet*
♣	6- Susan Landau	Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, ABI Women of Vision	Linked Here
♣	5- Mary Lou Jepsen	Google X Head of the Display Division, ABI Women of Vision, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here
♣	4- Kristina Johnson	Undersecretary US Dept. of Energy, IEEE Fellow, ABI Women of Vision, SWE Achievement Award	Linked Here
♣	3- Sophie Wilson	Broadcom Director IC Design, Designer Acorn Microcomputer, Computer History Museum Fellow, Fellow Royal Society-London	Linked Here
♣	2- Jean Bartik	ENIAC computer programmer team 1946, WITI Hall of Fame	Linked Here

A project by: Susan Rodger (Duke University Computer Science Professor of the Practice), Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and Katy Dickinson (Everwise Vice President – Mentoring)

Updated 4 January 2019.

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Filed under Home & Family, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, News & Reviews

Tagged as Jessica, technical women, TechWomen, Wikipedia

September 26, 2014 · 8:46 pm

Notable Women in Computing Playing Cards – GHC14

Professor Susan Rodger (Duke University), my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman, and I are almost done with our Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing (aka GHC14) project “Notable Women in Computing and Wikipedia”. We are collaborating on both a formal GHC14 conference poster plus playing cards featuring 54 notable technical women. This has taken a long time to prepare but they are looking good. The honorees we have worked with have been entirely supportive and excited about this project.

This work is associated with the “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing” project that Susan and I have worked on for years. Jessica has been our creative designer, production staff, and GHC14 project manager. Duke University and Everwise are project sponsors. Information is not complete on all of the honorees (so there will be some cards featuring just a silhouette) but dozens of the featured women have sent us photos or given us permission to use photos from their professional pages.

Hearts cards shown here:

Queen – Frances Allen – IBM Fellow Emerita, Turing Award, Computer History Museum Fellow, IEEE Fellow
King – Barbara Liskov – MIT Professor, Turing Award, ACM Fellow, SWE Achievement Award
Jack – Shafrira Goldwasser – MIT Professor, Turing Award, ACM-W Athena Lecturer
Ace – Hessa Sultan Al Jaber – Qatar ICT Minister, Chair CS Department – Qatar Univ.
10 – Mary Jane Irwin – Pennsylvania State Univ. Professor, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, NAE Member, ACM-W Athena Lecturer

Because I am mentoring a TechWomen Emerging Leader from Jordan who is arriving just as GHC14 starts, for the first time in ten years I cannot attend the Hopper Conference myself, but Dr. Susan Rodger will present our poster and she will be distributing the decks of cards from the Duke University table. The cards will be marked Creative Commons * and we will provide instructions if folks want to create another deck with different people honored. We expect that this deck will be a First Edition and that there will be corrections and updates as a result of GHC14 discussions, resulting in a Second Edition.

* The Notable Women in Computer Science project is a labor of love for the women behind it, which is why we are licensing the card deck under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 U.S. License. We have done a number of things to ensure this deck only helps, and does not hurt, women in computing. Our efforts included: using public domain images, seeking individual permission for images, seeking to represent the reality of diversity of women in computing, and seeking input on the project from women leaders in technology.

If you have a concern (don’t like the public domain photo we found of you, don’t think the photo you took can be licensed in the way we did, decided you did not want to be included) we want to know and we will do our best to help you. Please contact Katy Dickinson (katy dot dickinson at gmail dot com) with questions.

5 Comments

Filed under Home & Family, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Jessica, Jordan, technical women, TechWomen, Wikipedia

September 6, 2014 · 9:25 pm

Why Ideas are Killed

I was reminded during a recent meeting of this sign that my father, Wade Dickinson, had on his desk for decades. The quote is from one of his role models: Charles Kettering – American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents:

Why Ideas are Killed
Man is so constituted as to see what is wrong with a new thing – not what is right. To verify this, you have but to submit a new idea to a committee. They will obliterate ninety per cent of rightness for the sake of ten per cent of wrongness. The possibilities a new idea opens up are not visualized because not one man in a thousand has imagination.

My father was granted over three dozen US patents during his life in a wide variety of fields. Five more patents have issued since he died in San Francisco at age 85, in 2011. I hope that I can continue to be creative – and to see new things – as long as he did!

Wade Dickinson’s US Patents – Issued Since 2011
8,420,042 Process for the production of carbon graphenes and other nanomaterials
8,377,408 Process for the production of carbon nanoparticles and sequestration of carbon
8,277,145 Engineered, scalable underground storage system and method
8,256,992 Underground sequestration system and method
8,256,991 Engineered, scalable underground storage system and method

Wade Dickinson’s US Patents (1965-2011)
7,914,749 Clathrate hydrate modular storage, applications and utilization processes
6,206,112 Multiple lateral hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
6,142,246 Multiple lateral hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
5,035,285 Gravel packing system for a production radial tube
4,991,667 Hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
4,974,672 Gravel packing system for a production radial tube
4,872,509 Oil well production system using a hollow tube liner
4,865,128 Gravel packing system for a production radial tube
4,852,668 Hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
4,790,394 Hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
4,787,465 Hydraulic drilling apparatus and method
4,763,734 Earth drilling method and apparatus using multiple hydraulic forces
4,750,561 Gravel packing system for a production radial tube
4,715,128 Curvature probe and method
4,693,327 Mechanically actuated whipstock assembly
4,560,934 Method of transporting a payload in a borehole
4,527,639 Hydraulic piston-effect method and apparatus for forming a bore hole
4,524,324 Downhole instrument including a flexible probe which can travel freely around bends in a borehole
4,501,337 Apparatus for forming and using a bore hole
4,497,381 Earth drilling apparatus and method
4,431,069 Method and apparatus for forming and using a bore hole
4,091,807 Intra-vaginal device and method of use
3,938,504 Method for measuring vagina dimensions
3,854,476 INTRA-VAGINAL DEVICE AND METHOD
3,811,443 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION
3,811,424 ARTIFICIAL METHOD FOR MODIFYING THE REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE IN ANIMALS
3,811,423 DEVICE FOR INSERTION INTO THE REPRODUCTIVE TRACT AND METHOD OF USING SAME
3,546,927 ULTRASONIC TESTING APPARATUS
3,460,492 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING SEEDS COATED WITH A MAGNETIC MATERIAL
3,407,650 Ultrasonic apparatus for detecting flaws
3,407,649 Method and apparatus for generating a high power ultrasonic burst pulse signal
3,407,122 Solar still with a cassegranian optical system
3,299,696 Apparatus for generating, directing and receiving ultrasonic wave trains
3,299,695 Ultrasonic testing apparatus
3,299,694 Method and apparatus for detecting flaws using ultrasonic helical waves
3,282,087 Apparatus for generating ultrasonic waves
3,250,120 Method and apparatus for determining flaw locations
3,186,216 Method and apparatus for generating and receiving ultrasonic helical waves
One more from the 1950s… Still looking

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as San Francisco, Wade

September 1, 2014 · 6:31 pm

Home Winemaking

Our friend Murf just held one of his home winemaking parties in Boulder Creek, California. John, Paul, and I got together with a group of family and friends in Murf’s combination HO scale model train layout and winemaking room to help clean equipment, roll barrels, fill and cork bottles, and taste some chemistry. The Cabernet Franc from the last party and the Merlot bottles from yesterday are delicious and will keep this group in table wine until the next party. We are discussing Zinfandel and Barbera grapes for the next buy.

What I Learned in Brazil

For many months, I have been enjoying working with the InovAtiva Brasil team – developing an entrepreneurship mentoring pilot program. Even though the Everwise team was only in Brazil for a week, I took away three new cultural ideas:

Never put your purse on the floor – purses should be placed on a chair or table.
It is OK to use your whole name in business correspondence – including all of those middle names that your mother only uses when you are really in trouble.
Do not touch your food – use a napkin or toothpick when you cannot use a knife, fork, or spoon.

This last learning reminds me of my grandmother, Evelyn Louise Van Gilder Creekmore, who never broke a rule of politeness in her life. When the family was talking late at night at her home in Knoxville, Tennessee, she would sometimes share her secret plan. Grandma told us that one day she would give a formal dinner party. She would send out written invitations to all of her stuffiest social friends. Her table would be set with crystal, silver, china, linens and flowers. When the guests were seated and the dinner was served, it would be corn on the cob, olives, barbecued ribs and every food she could think of that was almost impossible to eat without fingers. Of course, Grandma Creekmore never did such a thing – but sometimes she liked to think about it.

Evelyn Louise Van Gilder Creekmore in 1940

Rock People

We are rock people. When my family travels or goes camping, we come home with rocks. We send each other photos of the rocks we have collected, and give garden stones for holiday and birthday presents. I have shipped rocks home from trips to Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. (When a Customs agent asked “What do you have in there – rocks?” I replied “Of course!”) After a trip to Brasil and a week camping in the Sierras, I gave my mother a necklace with a natural Brasilian agate pendant, plus a river rock from the Sierras. These were much appreciated!

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Tagged as Brazil, Eleanor, Lair of the Bear

August 8, 2014 · 11:07 am

21 Years at the Lair of the Bear – Camp Blue

Last night, we celebrated Paul’s 22nd birthday at the University of California’s Lair of the Golden Bear Camp Blue. We have been Lair campers since before Paul could walk! We started in 12th Week and have slowly moved to earlier weeks as school start dates crept back into August. This is our second year as 9th Week campers. My niece and nephew start classes on Monday. Paul starts at San Jose State University in a few weeks.

My brother Pete, sister-in-law Julie and kids, with friends Steve and Olivia and their son are also with us. This week, other members of the family have been going on hikes, running, and swimming in Pinecrest Lake. We also went rafting on the Stanislaus River out of Knights Ferry. Our immediate family has mostly been playing board games and enjoying Advanced Lounging with Electronics. Jessica and Matthew celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary with pinatas full of candy and little plastic dinosaurs.

Jessica and I have been in email communication from Camp Blue Lodge with Susan Rodger (Professor, Computer Science at Duke University), collaborating on the design and content of our Notable Women in Computer Science and Wikipedia poster for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, to be held in October 2014. GHC14 is almost sold out – as it has been every year since at least 2009.