The
“Women Pioneers and Trailblazers in Computing”
panel celebrates some of computer science’s greatest
achievers. This panel is an opportunity for attendees
of the Grace Hopper Celebration to recognize, learn, and
share experiences of trailblazers in the computer science
(CS) community. The women featured on the panel are innovators
who have excelled in technical and/or entrepreneurial
areas of computer science. They are also diverse in technical
area, age, and nationality, thus creating an international
and inter-generational dialog about the history and future
of women in computing. They will discuss their achievements,
the obstacles they faced and overcame, as well as give
advice and perspectives on the changing environment for
women in the computing profession.
The
ensuing discourse should prove both educational and entertaining
due to the variety of backgrounds and expertise represented
by the panelists, which includes: programming the world’s
first computing machines, developing biomedical applications
for computers, inventing programming languages, hypermedia
technology, and performance evaluation languages, starting
their own high-tech companies, and becoming some of the
first women leaders in professional computing societies.
This
panel serves two purposes. First, it will educate and
showcase some of the accomplishments of women in early
computing. History plays an important role in any scientific
field where it provides the context and knowledge to allow
us to learn from past mistakes, understand the current
achievements (both technical and social), and provide
a vision for the future. This is especially true for the
field of computer science that is constantly and rapidly
evolving. Second, this workshop will provide role models
for current and up and coming women computer scientists.
Role models help to reinforce girls’ and women’s
sense of selves as scientists, essential to enable women
to function confidently within current scientific communities.
They can also decrease negative stereotypes about people
who are good at science, decrease feelings of isolation,
and strengthen commitments to careers in computer science.
An
introductory presentation will describe each pioneer's
accomplishments and the state of the computing field and
society at the time. As part of the introduction, a short
and inspiring documentary will be shown on the world’s
first programmers of an electronic computing machine (the
ENIAC), produced by Kathy Kleiman and David Roland. A
panel discussion will follow the introduction and the
session will end with questions from the audience. Topics
will include: What intellectual and social obstacles did
these pioneers overcome? What interested them in computer
science and inspired them to continue? What background
was needed to pursue their work? What technical problems
did they work on, and how were they solved? Did they have
mentors? How did they balance work and their private lives?
What changes have they seen in the field over time? The
pioneers will also be asked to offer advice to the audience
on topics such as how to choose a fruitful research project
and how to find and be a good mentor.
