Presented at Music City Code 2017 on June 2, 2017

1. THE IMPACT OF THE
WOMEN TRAILBLAZERS OF
TECH
Presented by:
Sarah Dutkiewicz
@Sadukie

2. WHILE THERE ARE A FEW…
• There have been many significant contributions from women in tech:
• Documenting the Analytical Engine
• Programming the ENIAC
• Discovery of the first “bug” in a program
• Making computing more approachable with an English-looking
language called FLOW-MATIC
• Mother of COBOL
• Patent on a secret communication system
• Spanning-tree protocol
• Co-founder of historical gaming company Sierra On-Line
• Codebreakers of Enigma codes in World War 2
• Lead Software Engineer on the Apollo 11 lunar module landing

3. BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!
• Worked on games such as River Raid and Super Breakout
• Augmented reality system castAR
• Worked on developing standards in FORTRAN
• Making electrical engineering and the makerspace FUN!
• Mother of CLU, Argus
• Compiler optimization
• Making low-cost, low-power LCD screens
• Co-founded One Laptop per Child

4. AND YES… THERE ARE OTHERS!

5. LET’S MEET SOME OF THE TRAILBLAZERS

6. ERNA SCHNEIDER HOOVER

7. ERNA SCHNEIDER HOOVER
• One of the first women to be awarded a software patent
• Invented a computerized telephone switching method – came up with the idea
while giving birth to one of her three daughters!
• Prevented system overloads, monitoring call traffic, and prioritizing tasks on phon
switching systems
• First female supervisor of a technical department within Bell Labs
• Retired from Bell Labs after 32 years of service
• Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008

8. “WHEN I WAS HIRED, THE GLASS CEILING WAS
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE BASEMENT AND
THE SUB-BASEMENT.”
- Erna Hoover

9. JOAN CLARKE

10. ENIGMA CYPHERS AND ALAN TURING
• Code breaker of German Enigma cyphers
• Worked alongside Alan Turing and Hugh
Alexander as part of The Hut 8 team
• First and only senior female cryptanalyst at the
time
• Appointed MBE in 1947 for her work during
WW2
• Played by Keira Knightly in The Imitation
Game (2014)

11. OTHER WOMEN CODEBREAKERS AT
BLETCHLEY
• Mavis Lever Batey – codebreaking
assisted in the Battle of Cape Matapan in
World War 2, worked with Margaret
Rock on breaking Abwehr Enigma cipher
• Margaret Rock – cracked the Abwehr
Engima cipher in 1943
• (Audrey) Ruth Briggs – part of the Z
Watch in Hut 4 that decrypted messages
after Hut 8 cracked the Enigma ciphers
• Learn more at the Bletchley Park
Research Women Codebreakers notes.

12. BARBARA LISKOV

13. CLU – A FOUNDATION FOR OO
PROGRAMMING
• Created – with her students - in 1974-1975
• Used constructors and abstract data types
• Also featured iterators, exception handling, multiple assignments in one line
• Automatic memory management
• Paved the way to modular programming

14. MORE ABOUT BARBARA LISKOV
• Creating the Venus operating system – allowed timesharing and supported 16
teletypes, with users in their own virtual machines.
• Created the Argus language – supported nested transactions and eased
implementation of deploying programs over a network
• With Jeannette Wing, developed a subtyping concept now known as the Liskov
substitution principle
• ACM Turing Award in 2009, many other ACM accolades

15. "MY ADVICE TO YOUNG WOMEN WHO ARE THINKING
ABOUT A CAREER IN ENGINEERING IS TO FIND OUT
WHAT IS INTERESTING TO YOU AND WHAT YOU ARE
GOOD AT. AND BE PREPARED TO CHANGE YOUR
GOALS IF THAT TURNS OUT TO BE THE RIGHT THING
FOR YOU."
- Barbara Liskov

16. LIMOR FRIED

17. PROMOTING COMMUNITY
• Their kits encourage them to please play around and share their fun.
• People try things at home and contribute back to the community. They update their
instructions. They have an ecosystem of innovation.
• Whatever makers are doing for fun now is what everybody will be doing in 10-15
years.
• Ask an Engineer – Show & Tell with the community

18. THE GOAL OF ADAFRUIT IS TO TEACH PEOPLE
ABOUT HOW COOL IT IS TO BE AN ELECTRICAL
ENGINEER, HOW MUCH FUN IT IS TO MAKE STUFF. …
BY BUILDING THESE KITS, THEY LEARN THE SKILLS
THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR ENGINEERING, SCIENCE,
TECHNOLOGY, AND MATH.
Meet the Makers: Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries (Popular Mechanics)

19. RADIA PERLMAN
“Mother of the Internet”
Spanning Tree Protocol

20. NOT JUST THE “MOTHER OF THE
INTERNET”
• Created TORTIS – Toddler’s Own
Recursive Turtle Interpreter
System – a device that let
preschoolers program the turtle
(LOGO) – back in 1974!
• The Impact of Radia Perlman’s
TORTIS on OZNAKI

21. SHIRLEY ANN JACKSON

22. TELECOMMUNICATIONS GROWTH
• She invented technology responsible for caller ID and call waiting.
• Research in theoretical physics, solid state, and quantum physics
• Advancements also related to:
• Solar cells
• Fiber optic cables
• Portable fax
• Touch-tone telephone

23. SUSAN KARE
Created many of the icons on the Mac
and humanizing Windows 3.0

24. “IT IS POSSIBLE TO TEACH MOST PEOPLE TO
USE ONE OF THESE COMPUTERS IN ABOUT 20
MINUTES. A LOT OF THAT IS BECAUSE YOU
CAN EXPLAIN WHAT AN ICON MEANS AND A
PERSON CAN REMEMBER IT EASILY.” (WHY
MACS ARE SO USER FRIENDLY)
- Susan Kare

25. BREAKING THE CODE (TV MOVIE)

26. CODEBREAKER (MOVIE)

27. THE IMITATION GAME (MOVIE)

28. GROUPS AND SITES
SUPPORTING WOMEN IN TECH

29. https://anitaborg.org/

30. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/programs/digigirlz

31. http://sheplusplus.org/

32. https://www.womenwhocode.com/

33. https://www.girldevelopit.com/

34. RAILS GIRLS
http://railsgirls.com/

35. http://www.blackgirlscode.com/

36. https://lesbianswhotech.org/

37. http://shecodesnow.com/

38. https://girlswhocode.com/

39. https://thewcc.com/

40. http://women.acm.org/

41. CONTACT INFORMATION
• Twitter: @sadukie
• Blog: http://codinggeekette.com