Heroes Unsung
Stories of People from Underrepresented Groups in Computer Science
Throughout the history of computer science, there have been and continue to be pioneers who belong to groups that were – and still are – underrepresented in this field, e.g., women, people from the LGBTQ+ community, or people of colour. The information campaign aims to tell their stories, honour their achievements, and ensure that their work is not forgotten. This project is part of the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy's (MPI-SP) Equal Opportunities Plan (EOP).
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper (1906) was one of the first programmers of IBM's Mark I computer. In 1952, Hopper developed the first compiler program that translated human-readable commands into machine language. She also developed the FLOW-MATIC and COBOL programming languages, the latter of which is still in use today. In 2016, the ‘Queen of Code’ was posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace (1815) worked on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and saw the potential of the machine beyond the calculation of mathematical numbers. In ‘Notes’, she described an algorithm to calculate a specific number from the Bernoulli series. This is comparable to today's computer programs, which is why Lovelace is regarded as the world's first female programmer.
Gertrude Blanch
Gertrude Blanch (1897) studied mathematics, physics, and algebraic geometry. From 1938, she led teams of ‘human computers’ as part of the Mathematical Tables Project. During this time, Blanch developed algorithms to optimize the calculation process of complicated mathematical tables for scientific, technical and military purposes, work that was later adopted by the National Bureau of Standards. A pioneer in her field, she became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1963.
Lynn Conway
Lynn Conway (1938) sparked the global very-large-scale integration (VLSI) revolution in the 1970s with her colleague Carver Mead and co-authored the bestseller ‘Introduction to VLSI Systems’, which became the reference work for chip designers. Conway, who underwent gender reassignment surgery and came out in 1999, has since become a public activist for the rights of transgender people. For her pioneering work in computer science, she became a Fellow of the AAAS in 2016 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023.