Results for: pioneers in tech

Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Carol Shaw, Atari video game designer

Pioneers in Tech: Carol Shaw, Atari video game designer

“I was good at math. I entered a bunch of math contests and won awards. Of course, people would say, “Gee, you’re good at math—for a girl. That was kind of annoying. Why shouldn’t girls be good at math?” This...

/ March 8, 2024
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Gladys West, the “hidden figure” of GPS

Pioneers in Tech: Gladys West, the “hidden figure” of GPS

We all rely on GPS nearly every day and may frequently marvel at how much easier it makes life. (Think about it: When was the last time you were lost?) But how often do we think about the people behind...

/ February 9, 2024
Pioneers in Tech: Aaron Swartz, co-developer of RSS

Pioneers in Tech: Aaron Swartz, co-developer of RSS

When you consider the life story of Aaron Swartz, many questions come to mind. Most notably, what if? What if Swartz had lived past age 26? What might have he accomplished? Let’s take a closer look at this month’s edition...

/ January 12, 2024
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Happy birthday to code-breaker W.W. Chandler

Pioneers in Tech: Happy birthday to code-breaker W.W. Chandler

This month marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of W.W. Chandler. In this edition of Pioneers in Tech, we will look into his impact on technology. Chandler was responsible for installation and maintenance of the World War II-era code-breaking...

/ December 8, 2023
Pioneers in tech
Pioneers in Tech: Gene Amdahl, “father” of mainframe computing

Pioneers in Tech: Gene Amdahl, “father” of mainframe computing

When you walk around with a computer in your hand or on your wrist, it’s easy to forget how much of the world still runs on mainframe computers. In this Pioneers in Tech, we look at how an estimated 10,000...

/ November 10, 2023
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Happy birthday to AI pioneer John McCarthy

Pioneers in Tech: Happy birthday to AI pioneer John McCarthy

This week’s Pioneers in Tech takes a look at John McCarthy, the technology pioneer who coined the term “AI” back in 1955. Born Sept. 4, 1927, McCarthy first used “AI” in his proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference, a gathering...

/ September 8, 2023
Pioneers in Tech
Pioneers in Tech: Logging birthday greetings to Gordon Bell

Pioneers in Tech: Logging birthday greetings to Gordon Bell

In this month’s edition of Pioneers in Tech, we wish a happy birthday to technology visionary Gordon Bell, who turns 89 August 19. Born in Kirksville, Missouri, Bell is a co-founder of what is today the Computer History Museum in...

/ August 11, 2023
Pioneers in Tech: Joan L. Mitchell, co-inventor of the JPEG

Pioneers in Tech: Joan L. Mitchell, co-inventor of the JPEG

This week’s Pioneers in Tech looks at how today’s social media influencers owe much to Joan L. Mitchell, a self-professed “Sputnik baby” who came of age during the space race and ended up co-creating one of the file formats most...

/ July 14, 2023
Pioneers in Tech: LGBTQ+ activist Edith Windsor’s first career

Pioneers in Tech: LGBTQ+ activist Edith Windsor’s first career

The late Edith Windsor is best known as the plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor, which struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and helped paved the way for the legalization of same-sex...

/ June 9, 2023
Pioneers in Tech: Kao Chung-chin and Lois Lew, who brought IBM’s typewriter to China

Pioneers in Tech: Kao Chung-chin and Lois Lew, who brought IBM’s typewriter to China

In today’s globalized, always-connected society, another innovation we take for granted is the universality of computers despite language differences. And some of us in English-speaking countries will even go a step further and assume computers all over the world have...

/ May 12, 2023