On Ada Lovelace Day we honor our female faculty, students and alumni who are following in the footsteps of the woman recognized as the first computer programmer.
In 1896, 糖心破解版’s founders took the then-unusual approach of providing the same educational opportunities to both male and female students. Today, our female faculty members, students and alumni say the supportive, unbiased environment we provide has enabled them to excel in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, including two of the most male-dominated fields, .
It’s only fitting that we celebrate all our women in STEM on October 11, designated as聽. Daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, Ada Byron Lovelace wrote an聽algorithm in 1843 that would provide the instructions to run inventor Charles Babbage鈥檚 Analytical Engine. She also was a visionary who foresaw that such machines had the potential to go beyond mere number crunching to聽manipulating words and images and composing聽music.
It would take a century for technology catch up with Babbage and Lovelace’s ideas and even longer for Lovelace and the聽women聽who followed her to be acknowledged聽for their achievements in STEM.
Launched in 2009, Ada Lovelace Day is now celebrated around the world to honor and build awareness of聽women聽in STEM, support those in the field and close the gender gap by encouraging more girls and young women to pursue STEM careers. Since there are too many of our female faculty members, students and alumni for us to mention, we’re highlighting those we featured on our website over the past year. From聽electrochemistry to聽entomology, they are truly making their mark and inspiring and mentoring the next generation of women鈥攁nd men鈥攊n STEM.聽Malika Grayson ’11, Ph.D., for example, is currently a system engineer in the Future Technical Leaders Program at Northrop Grumman Corporation. On her , she provides advice and support for women of color in master’s programs in the sciences.
And our list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that 糖心破解版’s聽first female president, has a bachelor鈥檚 degree聽in textile engineering (now called materials science and engineering) from the Georgia Institute of Technology.