Tag Archives: technical women

November 19, 2009 · 10:17 pm

Famous Women in Computer Science

A version of this was published on: 25 January 2010. A further updated and expanded web resource based on this was published on 8 March 2012 (International Women’s Day): “Famous Women in Computer Science”.

I recently read a University of Bristol (UK) web page about women behind important advancements in Computer Science: “Famous Women in Computer Science”. I don’t know the University of Bristol’s selection criteria (other than “women” and “Computer Science”) but their list seems too short. Last week, I sent email to Sun’s Women in Engineering to ask, for curiosity’s sake, “Who would you add to this list?”

Below is the original list, the names added by the Sun women, plus some references. The list is uneven and I am sure there are many more who should be added but here is what I have so far…

Original List (alphabetized, not original order):

  • Frances E. Allen, 1st female IBM Fellow, 1st female recipient of ACM’s A. M. Turing Award 2006, WITI Hall of Fame 1997, IEEE Fellow 1991, ACM Fellow 1994
  • Anita Borg, founding director of the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT), which became the Anita Borg Institute, EFF Pioneer Award 1995, WITI Hall of Fame 1998, ACM Fellow 1996
  • Carly Fiorina, CEO Hewlett-Packard 1999-2005
  • Adele Goldstine, authored the Manual for the ENIAC in 1946
  • Shafi Goldwasser, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and of computer science and applied mathematics at Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award 1996
  • Grace Murray Hopper, developed the 1st compiler for a computer programming language, US Navy Rear Admiral, in 1973 became the 1st person from the USA and the 1st woman of any nationality to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, IEEE Fellow 1962 (1st woman awarded), Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award 1964
  • Augusta Ada King (Countess of Lovelace), 1843 wrote a description of Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is credited with being the 1st computer programmer.
  • Barbara H. Liskov, Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT School of Engineering’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award 1996, IEEE John von Neumann Medal 2004, 2nd woman to win ACM’s A. M. Turing Award 2008, 1st US woman to be awarded a PhD from a computer science department in 1968, ACM Fellow 1996
  • Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jennings, and Fran Bilas, original programmers of the ENIAC starting in 1946, WITI Hall of Fame 1997
  • Jean E. Sammet, IBM computer languages FORMAC and COBOL, 1st woman ACM President 1974, ACM Fellow 1994
  • Erna Schneider, in 1971 awarded one of the 1st software patents ever issued, at Bell Labs, she became the 1st female supervisor of a technical department
  • Eva Tardos, Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Cornell University,
    ACM Fellow 1998
  • Meg Whitman, CEO eBay 1998-2008

List Additions (suggested by Sun Microsystems’ Women in Engineering)

  • Carol Bartz, President and CEO of Yahoo! (starting in 2009), previously Chairman, President, and CEO at Autodesk (1992-2009), WITI Hall of Fame 1997
  • Lenore Blum, Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science,
    Carnegie Mellon University
  • Safra A. Catz, President Oracle Corporation since 2004, CFO Oracle since 2005,
    Member Oracle Board since 2001
  • Diane Greene, VMWare co-founder and CEO (1998-2008)
  • Helen Greiner, 1990-2008 Co-founder, Board Chair of iRobot, Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision – Innovation award winner 2008, WITI Hall of Fame 2007
  • Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK, 2008 ACM President, 2009 Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), 2009 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
  • Mary Lou Jepsen, Founding Chief Technology Officer of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pixel Qi, WITI Hall of Fame 2008
  • Maria Klawe, 5th president of Harvey Mudd College (1st woman in that role), previously Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University, 2002 ACM President, ACM Fellow 1996
  • Sandra Kurtzig, founder and CEO of ASK computers (1972-1991)
  • Susan Landau, Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision – Social Impact award winner 2008, Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Distinguished Engineer Association for Computing Machinery
  • Evi Nemeth, Associate Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Co-author of the best-selling UNIX System Administration Handbook (Prentice Hall, 1995)
  • Radia Perlman, the ‘Mother of the Internet’, 1st Sun Microsystems female Fellow, 1st Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision – Innovation award winner 2005, IEEE Fellow 2008
  • Janie Tsao Co-Founder of Linksys (1988-2003), 1st Anita Borg Institute Woman of Vision – Leadership award winner 2005
  • Jeanette Wing, President’s Professor of Computer Science (former CS Department Head), Carnegie Mellon University, Assistant Director, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, National Science Foundation, IEEE Fellow 2003, ACM Fellow 1998

Late Additions

1 December 2009 –
Here are more additions from people responding to the original blog entry:

  • Cynthia Breazeal, pioneer of social robotics at MIT Media Lab, US Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigators Award
  • Lynn Conway, Mead & Conway revolution in VLSI design, invention of generalised dynamic instruction handling, IEEE Fellow 1985, Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award 1990
  • Susan Dumais, leadership in bridging the fields of information retrieval and human computer interaction, ACM Fellow 2006, ACM SIGIR Salton Award 2009-lifetime achievement in IR
  • Adele Goldberg, co-developer of Smalltalk at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, ACM President 1984, ACM Fellow 1994
  • Leah Jamieson, Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award – Social Impact 2007, IEEE Fellow 1993, Purdue University Dean of Engineering, IEEE President 2007
  • Katherine Johnson, research mathematician and scientist who worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center 1953 to 1986, calculated the trajectory of the early space launches
  • Karen Spärck Jones, pioneer of the science behind information retrieval,
    ACM SIGIR Salton Award 1988, BCS Lovelace Medal 2007, the ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award 2007
  • Hedy Lamarr, co-invention of spread-spectrum broadcast communications technologies 1940, EFF Special Pioneer Award 1997
  • Rosalind W. Picard, credited with starting the entire field of Affective Computing, MIT Director of Affective Computing Research, IEEE Fellow 2005
  • Barbara Simons, 1st woman to receive the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from the College of Engineering of U.C. Berkeley 2005, ACM Fellow 1993, EFF Pioneer Award 1998, ACM President 1998
  • Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox Chief Technology Officer, IEEE Fellow 2005
  • Padmasree Warrior, Cisco Chief Technology Officer, former Motorola Chief Technology Officer (Semiconductor Products), Motorola’s 1st female executive, Distinguished Alumni Award from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi 2004, WITI Hall of Fame 2007
  • Beatrice Helen Worsley, Canada’s Female Computer Pioneer, a witness to several great moments in computing history, one of the first women to earn a doctorate in Computer Science in 1951

Later Additions

24 January 2010 –
Here are still more additions from people responding to the original blog entry:

  • Irene Greif, IBM Fellow, 1st woman to earn a PhD in computer science at MIT, MIT Professor of electrical engineering and computer science, ACM Fellow, Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, WITI Hall of Fame 2000
  • Betsy Ancker-Johnson, 1st observation of microwave emission without the presence of an external field (1967), Fellow American Physical Society, Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow Society of Automotive Engineers, IEEE Fellow, Member National Academy of Engineering
  • Mary Jane Irwin, Evan Pugh Professorship Pennsylvania State University, ACM Distinguished Service Award, IEEE Fellow 1995, ACM Fellow 1996, National Academy of Engineering member 2003, 2005 ACM Distinguished Service Award, 2006 Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award, 2007 Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award, American Academy of Arts and Sciences member 2009
  • Ellen Ochoa, Dr. Ochoa has logged over 978 hours in space, earning the US Distinguished Service Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, Outstanding Leadership Medal, and four NASA Space Flight Medals. 1st Hispanic woman in space. She designed optical systems for Sandia National Laboratory and at NASA’s Ames Research Center developed computer systems designed for aeronautical expeditions. Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX)
  • Lucy Sanders, CEO and Co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, Bell Labs Fellow Award (1996), WITI Hall of Fame (2007)
  • Manuela Veloso, Portuguese Computer Scientist and Roboticist, Herbert A. Simon Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, President of the International RoboCup Federation. Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, National Science Foundation CAREER award (1995), CMU Allen Newell Medal for Excellence in Research (1997)

Other References

Blog entry by Katy Dickinson

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September 23, 2009 · 12:36 pm

2-Page “Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009” Report Overview

Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009 Sun Labs Technical Report

We have just created a two-page overview handout about the new “Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009” technical report from Sun Labs. This handout and copies of the report will be available at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC09) which starts next week in Tucson, Arizona. Sun is a Platinum Sponsor of the Hopper Conference. It starts out:

“Overview Sun Microsystems has benefited from a long-term successful culture of mentoring, especially in its worldwide engineering divisions. About 7,300 mentoring pairs have participated in one of Sun’s formal mentoring programs since 1996. Sun has developed several internal formal world-wide mentoring programs in which mentoring pairs focus on a business problem or goal of the mentee. To create this report, the authors analyzed Sun’s 1996-2009 mentoring program data, Sun-wide data, plus information from a Gartner report on Sun mentoring which focused on the ROI of Sun’s mentoring programs.

Mentoring has paid off for Sun in increased productivity, efficiency, and greater satisfaction among participants. This report presents what Sun did and how Sun did it to allow others to take advantage of the company’s extensive and successful experience with this remarkably effective and versatile business method. So far as is known, this report is unique: no other company has published a long-term detailed analysis about its corporate mentoring program.”

Also included in the two-page handout are the first five conclusions, plus expert mentoring advice from the report (Best and Worst Practices). The three report authors are:

Image Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson
Originally published: 23 August 2009
Updated: 8 April 2016

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September 8, 2009 · 5:44 pm

A Tribute to Sun Microsystems

On 11 June, Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing, asked Sun’s staff to “commemorate and celebrate the rich history and contributions that Sun’s made over the past 27 years” on “a virtual site called thenetworkisthecomputer.com to house the digital artifacts of Sun’s story for the long term”.  On 2 September,  A Tribute to Sun Microsystems was announced. It has been interesting to read everyone else’s stories and I was pleased to see three of my own included:

 

Regardless of the wonders our future may hold, like my What I Love About Sun – After 25 Years blog entry on 1 May, thenetworkisthecomputer.com is a way for staff to find closure on our Sun history and hopes during this long and confusing time of transition to Sun-Oracle.

Some pictures from my Sun history entries:

Certified Black Belt

Certified Sun Sigma Black Belt, Katy Dickinson, signed by Scott McNealy<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

 Hopper 2007 Poster

Hopper 2007 Poster signed by Sun attendees<br /> photo: copyright 2007 Katy Dickinson

 Hopper 2008 Conference

Hopper 2008 Conference<br /> photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

 1984 Sun Tshirt

1984 Sun Tshirt<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2007-2009 by Katy Dickinson

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April 30, 2009 · 1:46 pm

Two Talks

I recently gave two talks here at Sun Menlo Park:

 

    • To TechBridge, for “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” on 23 April
    • To the annual Sun Design Summit (27-28 April), on “One time vs. Cyclic Survey” design

For “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” on 23 April, I talked with a group of 30 teen girls from the TechBridge after-school program for girls, sponsored by the  Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California. I was the last speaker in their busy day at Sun. I told them about my work with SEED Engineering Mentoring but also about my kids and WP668, the
1916 railroad caboose in my backyard where I have my office. I showed them photos on my blog and  my daughter’s blog. After my talk, the girls tried to program a peanut butter and jelly robot, which was very funny. At the end, they said what they enjoyed most about their Sun day. The Executive Briefing Center tour and Nicole Yankelovich’s Collaborative Environments project from Sun Labs were tops. One girl even said that learning about having an office caboose was her favorite!

To the designers and usability experts at Sun, I talked about surveys in general, and the difference between one-time and cyclic surveys. Six years ago, I created Sun’s “How to Survey” web page in self defense. As a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, I was getting too many requests for information about survey design, tools, policies, etc. So, I put together and maintain a SunWeb page which covers:

 

    • Key Questions
    • Reference Documents by Sun Experts
    • Additional Resources:
      Policies, Helpful External Tools, Books and Articles,
      Survey Tools & Services
    • Example Surveys

Most of my presentation was drawn from information and resources I have posted on “How to Survey”. I chose to submit this topic for Kartik Mithal’s Design Summit because usability and design staff are so frequently involved in customer data collection. Also, because so much of the good advice in this area comes from Usability Engineers, such as:

Robin Jeffries, Jakob Nielsen, and Jared Spool. The second page of my presentation was:

Why Should You Care? cat ear and eye<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson
Listening to the

Voice of the Customer

Makes Your Work More Effective. 

Surveys are One Good Way to Listen.

 .

 

I think both talks went well: the audience and I learned something. One of the TechBridge teachers told me about the fun and interesting Algebra vs. The Cockroaches computer game*. Several of the Design Summit audience members sent me additional information to post on the “How to Survey” SunWeb page.

* Algebra vs. The Cockroaches is now on my Good Free Games list.

Katy Dickinson speaking at Sun Design Summit 2009<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Terri Yamamoto Katy Dickinson's badge Sun Design Summit 2009<br /> photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson and Terri Yamamoto

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June 15, 2008 · 9:39 pm

MAGIC in Newsweek

On 21 May, I wrote about the new MAGIC girls’ mentoring program working with The Girls’ Middle School (GMS) in Mountain View, CA. Last week, I was pleased and surprised to find MAGIC mentioned in the June 16, 2008 issue of Newsweek in an article called “Revenge of the Nerdette”. I knew about the article in advance because my daughter Jessica was interviewed for it (alas, she did not get mentioned). In fact, I wrote a blog entry on 10 April called “How to Talk with the Press” because Jessica called me for advice on that subject. (Jessica called from from Carnegie Mellon and left me a voice mail message, something like: “Mom, Mom Newsweek wants to interview me, what do I do?“.)

“Revenge of the Nerdette” By Jessica Bennett and Jennie Yabroff is interesting and worth reading. MAGIC got mentioned in the last paragraph:

      Outreach programs such as TechBridge, an after-school workshop for middle- and high-school girls, and MAGIC (More Active Girls In Computing), a national mentoring program for aspiring computer scientists, are among the dozens of programs aimed at getting girls to think about futures in science and technology. The Nerd Girls also conduct weekly outreach: “We try to give them real examples of what engineers do,” says Panetta. “You love watching special effects in ‘Harry Potter’? That’s an engineer. You like the iPhone? An engineer made that. Cheerleading? Dancing? How about sports engineering?” Because you know, girls: the geeks really are inheriting the earth.

We on the MAGIC core team are still forming the program. It is gratifying if strange to get such high visibility press so early. Not that I am complaining!

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April 10, 2008 · 12:08 pm

How to Talk with the Press

My daughter Jessica is a Freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When she was in High School, one of her essays was published in a book called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff, edited by Annalee Newitz, and Charlie Anders (2006, ISBN-10: 1580051901, ISBN-13: 978-1580051903). Jessica is also an enthusiastic blogger. All of which may be why she was called for a press interview last week for a major article on Girl Geeks. Jessica called John and me anxious for advice on how to talk with the press. Here is what we told her:

    1. Answer the question asked, ask for clarification if you don’t understand what is being asked. Ask to skip ahead to the next if a question is too private.
    2. Keep positive and avoid speaking ill of anyone; damnation by faint praise is OK if you really feel strongly.
    3. Think about what simple message you want to convey and stay on message, it can be “tech is good for girls and girls are good at tech” or “women have great ideas in computer science” or even just “read my blog!” Your message may have nothing to do with the question or subject of the interview.
    4. Express opinions in opinion words like “I think that…” or “What I see is…” rather than statements of fact and sweeping statements that are open to broad interpretation.
    5. Be very polite and appreciative of the interview, send a thank you email after, no matter how the interview went.
    6. Ask if the reporter will tell you when the article is published (it sometimes takes months).
    7. Don’t be upset if they misquote you or take your words out of context or even distort or make up words for you, it often happens.
    8. Provide solid facts and references if you have them.
    9. Enjoy the experience!

I passed this list by Carrie Motamedi, a friend here at Sun who has a great deal of experience with the press. Carrie’s additions:

    • Make sure to call out any information you are giving as background but don’t want to be quoted on. (In general there is no such thing as “off the record” but most reporters will respect background if you call it out.)
    • What is the topic? If it is something controversial or a trend – do your homework and see what else has been written and what point you can make that will add to the overall conversation happening.
    • You can always go back to the reporter after the call if you feel you misspoke on something or want to add.
    • Read some articles of the reporter before your interview so you know something about them, how they write (can also use this as an icebreaker).
    • If there is a specific point you want to make, try and think of an analogy that would make sense to a broad audience (think 4th grade level).
    • Don’t be disappointed if the piece doesn’t come out at all or you aren’t in the final cut – there are lots of edits which happen and interviews that get cut.

Jessica had a two hour interview and said she thought it went well. We are looking forward to reading what gets published…

For what happened next, read my blog entry MAGIC in Newsweek, 15 June 2008. For still another followup, check out What Have I Been Up To? Causing Trouble (mostly), Jessica’s blog entry from 21 March 2011.

She's Such a Geek book cover

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October 9, 2006 · 12:18 pm

Wrapping up the Hopper Conference

More than 30 Sun women attended and worked at the Hopper conference in San Diego last week. Working at Sun’s recruiting table and at the Treasure Hunt table gave us opportunities not only to talk with potential new Sun staff but also to get to know each other better. I think I have seen two dozen enthusiastic emails just this morning from the Sun Engineers, executives, and managers who attended the Hopper conference and came home with a buzz.

Several names got inadvertently left off of the presenters’ list on Sun’s press release “Sun Microsystems’ Executives Among Leading Presenters at 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing”. The whole list of Sun presenters was:

  • Katy Dickinson (Director, Business Process Architecture, CTO and Sun Labs) and Carol Gorski (Director, CTO and Sun Labs HR) 4 October: talk on mentoring at the TechLeaders Workshop on “5 Years of Mentoring by the Numbers”
  • Ingrid Van Den Hoogen (Sun Sr. Vice President, Brand, Global Communications and Integrated Marketing), and Emily Suter Ransford (Sun Business Development Manager, Marketing) 4 October: “It Takes a Village (and Vision): The Role of Communities and Interoperability in Next Generation Networks” poster session
  • Dr. Radia Perlman (Distinguished Engineer, Sun Labs) 5 October: “What’s a PKI, why would I want one, and how should it be designed?” invited speech 6 October: introducing keynote speech by Dr. Sally Ride
  • Katy Dickinson (Director, Business Process Architecture, CTO and Sun Labs) 5 October: “Mentoring by the Numbers” panel by Katy Dickinson, with Dr. Carol Muller (Founder, MentorNet), and Dr. Mary Jean Harrold (Georgia Tech)
  • Dr. Gilda Garreton (Staff Engineer, Sun Labs) 5 October: “Latinas in Engineering” BOF (Birds of a Feather)6 October: “Research in Industrial Labs: How Collaboration Aid Innovation” talk by Tarik Ono and Dr. Gilda Garreton
  • Tarik Ono (Staff Engineer, Sun Labs)6 October: “Research in Industrial Labs: How Collaboration Aids Innovation” talk by Tarik Ono and Dr. Gilda Garreton
  • Dr. Susan Landau (Distinguished Engineer, Sun Labs) 6 October: “Non-Traditional Ways to Advance Your Career” panel

Links and references updated 28 March 2014

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