Beatrice Helen Worsley: Canada's female computer pioneer

Campbell, Steven

doi:10.1109/mahc.2003.1253890

Cited by 21 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…By the beginning of 1950s, women had made some remarkable part on the development of Computer Science all over the world: Canadian scientist Beatrice Worsley had ran, along with her team, the first program on the Electronic delay storage automatic calculator, also known as the EDSAC computer in 1949 (Campbell 2003); Edith Clarke, an American electrical engineer, had filed patents for a graphical calculator and became the first female professor of Electrical Engineering in the United States in 1947 (Layne 2009); and Austrian mathematician Johanna Piesch published two pioneering papers on Boolean algebra, one of the fundamentals of digital computing (Zemanek 1993). Even proving their importance, women kept being taken for granted.…”

Section: The Early Computer Machines (Before 1900)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Women in Computer Science History

Mochetti¹

2019

Transversal

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Women have always played an important role in Computer Science findings, but their importance has always been overshadowed by men. Nowadays, men outnumber women by 3 times on computing occupations in the US, but still women prove to be essential on the development of technological fields. This work intends to place women at the forefront of computer science’s history. In order to demonstrate that their work was essential for the development of current technologies, a broad historical overview is given. This overview is chronologically and thematically structured in several periods, from the early computer machines (before 1900) to our current digital society (after 2010). Finally, an outlook on the role of women in computing is given. A detailed discussion of individual contributions by women would go beyond the scope of this work. Nor can a sociological analysis of the reasons for the gender gap be provided. Nevertheless, the work wants to be more than a mere quantitative enumeration of women’s contributions to computer sciences. The essay wants to plea for the integration of these women in the literature, i.e., in the historiography of computer sciences, which requires to reconsider the self-image of this discipline.

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Section: The Early Computer Machines (Before 1900)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Women in Computer Science History

Mochetti¹

2019

Transversal

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“…Worsley helped to write the first program to run on the EDSAC computer at Cambridge. She was subsequently a very early computer science academic based in Canada before her premature death in 1972 at only 50 years old[44]. Douglas Hartree was himself supervised by the eminent New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937, discoverer of the proton and known as the father of nuclear physics), who in turn was supervised by Joseph Thomson (1856-1940, discoverer of the electron), both at Cambridge and both Nobel prize winners, so Beatrice Worseley had an outstanding supervision pedigree.Robin Gandy supervised 27 students, three at the University of Manchester and the rest at Oxford.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Impact of Alan Turing: Formal Methods and Beyond

Bowen

2019

Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems

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In this paper, we discuss the influence and reputation of Alan Turing since his death in 1954, specifically in the field of formal methods, especially for program proving, but also in a much wider context. Although he received some recognition during his lifetime, this image was tarnished by the controversy at the time of his death. While he was known and appreciated in scientific circles, he did not enter the public's consciousness for several decades. A turning point was the definitive biography produced by Andrew Hodges in 1983 but, even then, the tide did not turn very rapidly. More recent events, such as the celebrations of his birth centenary in 2012 and the official British royal pardon in 2013, have raised Turing's fame and popularity among the informed general public in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Cultural works in the arts featuring Turing have enhanced his profile still further. Thus, the paper discusses not only Turing's scientific impact, especially for formal methods, but in addition his historical, cultural, and even political significance. Turing's academic 'family tree' in terms of heritage and legacy is also covered.

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Beatrice Helen Worsley: Canada's female computer pioneer

Cited by 21 publications

References 12 publications

The Impact of Women in Computer Science History

The Impact of Women in Computer Science History

The Impact of Alan Turing: Formal Methods and Beyond

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