March marks Women’s History Month, a time for us to celebrate the contributions that both historical and contemporary women have made to impact society and the tech industry more specifically. As we wrap up the month and in honor of Women’s History Month, the SourceCode team has highlighted three women in tech whose amazing contributions to society continue to serve as great sources of inspiration for us. 

Grace Hopper, “Amazing Grace” (1906-1992): Pioneer of Computer Programming

Grace was born in NYC and graduated from Vassar College, and then went on to earn her Masters Ph.D from Yale University. 

She is described as “irreverent, sharp-tongued, and brilliant.” In addition to being a pioneer of computer programming, promoting COBOL (“common business-oriented language”), the first standardized general business computer language, she was an active member of the Navy. Although initially rejected because of her age and small stature, her persistence landed her in the U.S. Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve) in December 1943. 

During her life, Grace was awarded 40 honorary degrees and the National Medal of Technology by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Her legacy lives into the present – in 2016, she posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of her remarkable contributions to the field of computer science. 

Annie J. Easley (1933-2011): The NASA Rocket Scientist

Annie J. Easley was a NASA rocket scientist, and a trailblazer for gender and racial diversity in STEM. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she initially sought out to be a nurse but switched to pharmacy when she started high school. After two years at Xavier University, Easley returned to Birmingham and became a substitute teacher

When NASA was created in 1958, Easley applied to be a computer scientist and mathematician. At the time, she was one of only four black employees. Easley was on the front line of space research and future space missions that began with the launch of astronaut John Glenn in 1962. Throughout her career, she contributed to numerous programs as a computer scientist, tutored and inspired younger students in what would be later known as the STEM field, and broke down barriers addressing race, gender, and age discrimination as an equal employment opportunity counsellor. Easley’s vital work on the Centaur rocket project while at NASA laid the foundations for space shuttle launches in the future and her legacy continues to inspire students to make an impact in the STEM field. 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li (1976-): Co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a pioneer of artificial intelligence and one of today’s most influential women in technology. Dr. Li was born in Beijing, China and moved to the U.S. with her mother when she was 16. She studied physics at Princeton and received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Caltech. Dr. Li is currently a professor at Stanford. 

Dr. Li co-founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit aimed at improving diversity in the field of AI but is most known for her work on the ImageNet project, a database of over 15 million images. The database helped “train” the first computer to recognize and understand what’s in a picture. Dr. Li continues to be the national leading voice for advocating diversity in STEM and AI. She was selected as a 2017 Women in Tech by the ELLE Magazine, a 2017 Awesome Women Award by Good Housekeeping, a Global Thinker of 2015 by Foreign Policy, and one of the “Great Immigrants: The Pride of America” in 2016 by the Carnegie Foundation, where past winners include Albert Einstein and Yoyo Ma. 

These are just a few of the amazing women who have positively contributed to the tech industry. To learn more about what this month means, check out https://womenshistorymonth.gov/ to see more about the history of this month along with access to additional resources.

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