Pioneering Women In Computer Science by Denise Giirer Reprinted by permission. D. Gtirer (1995) "Pioneering Women in Computer Science" Communications of the ACM. 38(1), pp. 45-54. See end of article. Although their contributions are not well documented, women have played an important role in the development of computer science. A survey of women pioneers demonstrates their influence in designing and programming the first electronic computers and languages, while laying the ground- work for women ~ expanding involvement in science. A lthough the history of computer science is well- documented, one finds very few, if any, women mentioned in the standard texts on the history of this field. One might believe that women did not play an important role in the beginnings of computer sci- ence, but in reality they have made significant contributions in many areas, starting from the early days. This article documents the involvement of pioneering women in the beginning days of computer science, from their work on the first machines to their development of the early programming languages. The pioneers are women who were involved in original work that resulted in ground-breaking technical development or helped to gener- ate new ideas or methods in the realm of computer science. Two Well-Known Pioneers In any discussion of pioneers in computing, the names of two visionaries immediately come to mind: Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace and Grace Murray Hopper. Both exhibit- ed an ability to see the future directions of computer science: Lovelace was the first conceptual programmer, while Hopper foresaw the importance of higher-level program- ming languages in the future of computing. Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, was a math- ematician who collaborated with Charles Babbage on the Difference and Analytical Engines, which are regarded as the theoretical foundation for the modem computer [8, 17]. Lovelace was born in 1815 to the poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke, who were legally separated one year later. Raised and tutored by her mother, who was a proficient mathematician, Lovelace excelled in mathematics. Later, William Frend, a graduate of Cambridge, gave her further tutelage in mathematics. She was married in 1835 to the future first Earl of Lovelace, who supported her interest in mathematics. Beginning in 1840, Lovelace studied with Augustus DeMorgan; their topics included Leibniz's infini- tesimal calculus and the convergence of infinite series. Lovelace was 17 years old when she first met Babbage. When he showed her the Difference Engine, she immediate- ly dubbed it a "thinking machine," [ 18] recognizing its value as a tool for science and mathematics. Lovelace was best known for her 1843 translation from French to English of Menabrea's report on Babbage's Turin lecture; to which she added her own voluminous notes. Her paper discussed ihe Difference Engine, the first automatic calculating device, and the Analytical Engine, which con- tained the first set of principles for a general-purpose programmable computing machine. Lovelace's series of notes included a table describing the operations necessary for solving mathematical problems. She therefore became the first conceptual programmer for Babbage's Analytical Engine. In subsequent writings, she developed the "loop" and "subroutine" concepts-a century before electronic com- puting machines appeared. Lovelace was a strong-willed, creative, intelligent, woman during the Victorian Era, when women in science were rare. Even so, her work was highly regarded by Babbage and DeMorgan, and she associated with intellectu- als of her time, such as Faraday, Wheatstone, and Herschel. The Department of Defense's high-level programming lan- guage, Ada, is named in honor of her contributions and pio- neering spirit. Grace Murray Hopper was admired and respected not only for her technological achievements but also for her energy, enthusiasm, and willingness to serve as a mentor [1]. Hopper received a B.A. degree in mathematics and physics from Vassar College and a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from Yale. After teaching at Vassar, she joined the Navy and was assigned to a project with Commander Howard Aiken on the Mark I at Harvard University, where she designed and implemented a program that computed the coefficients of the arctangent series. In this way, Hopper was introduced to Vol. 34, No. 2, 2002 June 175 ~-~-~J~ SIGCSE BulletinThe first conceptual programmer, Augusta Ada Byron collaborated with Charles Babbage on the Difference and Analytical Engines. (Courtesy Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota) programming and became, in her words, "the third program- mer on the world's first large-scale digital computer." While Hopper was working on the Mark II in the sum- mer of 1945 under the command of Aiken, an unlucky moth caused a relay to fail. Hopper and the other programmers taped the deceased moth in the logbook with a note, "First actual case of bug being found," which is currently on dis- play at the Naval Museum in Dahlgren, Virg Aiken had the habit of coming into the room and asking, "Are you making any numbers?" Now, during a slow time, the programmers could reply that they were "debugging" the computer, thus introducing this term into computing language. In 1949, Hopper joined the newly formed Eckert-Mauchly Corporation where Binac and UNIVAC I, the first commercial electronic computers, were being devel- oped. While at Eckert-Mauchly, Hopper supervised the department that developed the first compiler, A-0, and its successor, A-2. Hopper was also responsible for developing the FLOW-MATIC programming language, the only imple- mented business data processing language at the time. The COBOL community, an industry-wide group, partially supervised by Hopper, used FLOW-MATIC as the model [14]. For this rea- son, Hopper is often referred to as the grandmother of COBOL. One of the characteristics that made Hopper a pioneer was her technical vision. She foresaw many applications for computing, including artificial intelligence, say- ing;. "It is the cur- rent aim to replace, as far as possible, the human brain by an
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