Computer science courses teach software engineering design, algorithmic thinking, human-computer interaction, programming languages, and the history of computing. A computer scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems. In the past years, Computer Science has been viewed as a male dominated field. This can be linked to the fact that women in this field gain little to no attention or appreciation for their contributions. Here is a list of women who have revolutionized the programming world in one way or the other:
1. Ada Lovelace
She was a gifted Mathematician and is considered to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s created by Charles Babbage. In her notes, Ada described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping. Looping is a process that is still in use today in computer programs.
Her Legacy
Lovelace and the women who worked on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer are long gone. But every time you write on a computer, play a music file or add up a number with your phone’s calculator, you are using tools that might not exist without the work of these women. Her contributions in the computer world has perhaps led to her being considered to be the first computer programmer.
2. Dr Grace Murray Hopper
Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, like Ada was a mathematician and physicist. This remarkable woman grandly rose to the challenges of programming the first computers. During her lifetime as a leader in the field of software development concepts, she contributed to the transition from primitive programming techniques to the use of sophisticated compilers.
Her Legacy
Amazing Grace Hopper is remembered to have written the first compiler and also coined the term “debug”, after some of her colleagues discovered that one of the computers did not worked correctly because of a moth. She believed that “we’ve always done it that way” was not necessarily a good reason to continue to do so.
3. Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton is a mathematician and computer science pioneer. It is important to note that Margaret is a self-taught programmer who had risen to become director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed the computer under contract to NASA.
Her Legacy
She is well-known for her contribution in the Apollo 11 mission that enabled the first moon landing in history. It was also one of the first time that software was ever entrusted with such a mission-critical, real-time task. It was thanks to her that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could take a walk on the Moon.
New generation women programmers
4. Sara Haider
She is known to have spent a considerable amount of her time with PA Consulting Group, followed by a brief stint with Google. Presently, at Twitter, Sara is known for focusing her attention on android related programs at large. Overall she has spent a considerable amount of her time in the field of development.
5. Jade Raymond
She is the Managing Director of Ubisoft Toronto. She is well known across the world as one of the most popular video game executives. She began her career with Sony where she worked as a programmer on shows like Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit. Later she joined hands with Ubisoft Montreal as a producer and eventually moved to G4. However, it was only in the year 2009 that her association with Ubisoft Toronto kick started.
6. Amanda Wixted
She is well known all over the world as one of the most effective and efficient mobile developers. Amanda has worked for both Zynga and Instagram for a considerable amount of time. She has also taken part in development of Farmville.
7. Tracy Chou
We all know Pinterest, but do we know that this female programmer is behind Pinterest? Before joining hands with Pinterest, Tracy Chou is known to have worked as a software engineer with Quora.
8. Corrinne Yu
At present, this lady works as a principle engine architect with Microsoft Studios internal studio 343 industries. Corrinne is a well known game programmer. She has played a central role in development of Halo 4, which happens to be a very popular video game of the year 2012 and has also given her contribution in development of various famous games like Brothers in arms, Borderlands, Zombie, Unreal Engine 3.
Other Well-known women in computer science include:
9. Fran Allen, a pioneer in compilers and winner of the 2006 Turing Award
10. Elisa Bertino, a widely cited database and security researcher.
11. Anita Borg, an American computer scientist and Women in Computing advocate who founded multiple organisations for women in computing.
12. Deborah Estrin, a networking researcher, one of the most widely cited computer scientists with an h-index of nearly 100 (an h-index is the highest h such that the researcher has published 100 papers each with h citations)
13. Sally Floyd who is also a widely cited networking researcher and developer of key TCP specifications
14. Adele Goldberg well known for co-developing Smalltalk language.
15. Shafi Goldwasser, a theoretical computer scientist and 2012 Turing Award winner
16. Sara Kiesler, widely cited human-computer interactions researcher
17. Daphne Koller, widely cited artificial intelligence researcher
18. Barbara Liskov, programming languages researcher and 2008 Turing Award winner
19. Mary Kenneth Keller, believed to be the first female PhD in computer science
20. Radia Perlman, invented Spanning Tree Protocol
21. Karen Spärck Jones, computational linguistics and information retrieval pioneer
22. Lixia Zhang, widely cited networking researcher
23. Jamie Faye Fenton, a game programmer best known for the 1981 hit arcade game Gorf.
25. Molly E. Holzschlag, US author, lecturer and advocate for the Open Web. She has written or co-authored over 35 books on web design and open standards, including The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web and Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design with Andy Clarke.
26. Frances Elizabeth “Betty” Holberton, one of the six original programmers of ENIAC and the first general-purpose electronic digital computer.
27. Rebecca Ann Heineman, video game programmer, founding member of Interplay Productions, Logicware and Contraband Entertainment.
The ball is in your court.
To every woman and man out there, be unapologetic about following your passions no matter the world thinks you can or cannot do it. Even if you become an unsung hero/ heroine like all these woman, it doesn’t matter, only the difference you make to the world does.
Citations:
- http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Anita_Borg
- https://medium.com/@verne/margaret-hamilton-the-engineer- who-took-the-apollo-to-the-moon-7d550c73d3fa#.kv5sy59rk
- http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/06/345799830/the-forgotten-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech
- http://www.techtricksworld.com/5-famous-female-programmers/
- http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-female- programmers/reference?page=2
TalafricA Initiative 