Grace Hopper

 Section 1: Early Life (Ashley Augustine) 

Grace Murray Hopper was born December 9, 1906 in New York, NY. Named after her mother’s best friend Grace Brewster, Grace was a very curious child. Fascinated by technology and the way it worked, she often got in trouble for taking apart multiple house hold objects and trying to put them back together before her mother noticed. The oldest of three siblings, the others being Marry Murray Westcote and Dr. Roger Franklin Murray II, Grace experienced a happy childhood, often spending summers by the lake with her family. Grace earned a love for math from her mother, Mary Campbell Van Horne Murray, who battled female stereotypes of the late 1800s where learning mathematics was frowned upon for women. Her father, Walter Fletcher Murray was an insurance broker as his father was also. Grace’s father, Walter Fletcher Murray, was an insurance broker, as his father was also. Walter developed hardening of the arteries and had to have have both of his legs amputated by the time Grace was in high school. Knowing that he left his children little money for their future, he emphasized education within his household. It was his encouragement that led Grace into her profession, as he encouraged his daughters to pursue the same education as his sons. She did just that, leaving traditional feminine roles behind and over coming many obstacles to serve in the US Navy.

Grace attended two different all girls private school by the name of Graham and Schooners. There, students were taught how to be proper ladies, but Grace still found time for Basketball and Field Hockey. In preparation for college, Grace attended Hartridge Boarding School in New York, and was accepted into Vassar College that following Fall semester, a school that had denied her because of her age the year before. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Grace wanted to serve her country but the odds were stacked against her. She was now 34, which was considered old for enrollment. the Navy told her that her efforts would be best served as a civilian. Despite this roadblock, she managed to obtain special permission and a leave of absence from her teaching career as a math professor at Vassar. Grace also managed to get waived of the weight requirement, as she was 16 pounds underweight. However, Grace pressed on and was sworn into the US Navy Reserves in December 1943 and proudly served for 43 years.

sources: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_Grace_Murray_Hopper.htm http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm

Section 2: Career (James Brooks)

In 1931 Grace Hopper began her career as a faculty member of Vassar College, the same college she graduated from in 1928 (2). After teaching, she joined the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for voluntary Emergency Service) in 1943 (2). “In 1944 Grace earned the rank of Lieutenant she was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance where she would work on computers at Harvard University” (3). While at Harvard she became the third person to program the Mark I computer (2). Once the war ended, Hopper was worked and then moved on to work on the Mark III (1). “In 1949 Hopper joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a Senior Mathematician where she worked on the UNIVAC computer” (2). In 1952 Hopper would forever be known for her part in the invention of the compiler, which by definition “translates English language instructions into the language of the target computer” (2). After this she started working on a program for business oriented tasks (4). Her program was named FLOW-MATIC (4). “The FLOW-MATIC became the model for COBOL” which was developed by a programming team that was supervised by Hopper (4). COBOL is still used today. “In 1966 Hopper was promoted to commander” but retired at the end of her twenty year service in December of 1966 (4). She was later asked to come back to the Navy to continue to work on COBOL (4). In 1986 she retired for good from the Navy (4). She finished her career at Digital Equipment Corporation as a senior consultant in (4). “She was one of two women named fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and in 1979 she won IEEE's McDowell Award. In 1985, Grace Hopper was appointed Rear Admiral by President Ronald Reagan” (4). Throughout Hopper’s career she earned many accolades and awards including the National Medal of Technology, Achievement awards from The Society of Women Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic engineers (1). Her career was one filled with achievements and accomplishments that many people could not achieve. “It was her service to her country of which she was most proud” (2).

 (1) http://www.thocp.net/biographies/hopper_grace.html

 (2) http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html

 (3) http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-h/g-hoppr.htm

 (4) http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/hopper.html

Section 3: Contributions (Cody Confer)

Grace Hopper was not only a pioneer in Computer and Information Science, she was one of the first influential women in the field. She was responsible for creating some of the first compilers, which moved programming & computing into the next era where instead of having room sized calculators, computers could be pre-programed and set for automated sequences (1). She worked for the Ekert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in the late 40’s and early 50’s as a Senior Mathmetician. While working there, Hopper created the A-0 version of the A Compiler which was able to do more than the simple arithmetic that computers at the time could calculate (1). In the early 1950s the company was bought out by the Remington Rand Corporation, at the same time Grace and her colleagues had been working on the UNIVAC I, which went on to become the first commercially produced computer (1). In 1954, her department released ARITH-MATIC, MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC, all of which were early compiler based languages. In the time from 1967 to 1977 Hopper was the director of the Navy Programing Language group. She helped set the standards for testing that are still used today. She also took the giant centralized machines that stored the Navy’s data and information and replaced them by implementing smaller computers running on a network so that they could communicate and pool each other’s resources (1). Hopper was also an advocate of English based programing languages. This made the languages much easier to understand rather than outputting machine based languages such as assembly language. Hopper helped direct the field of computer science to what it is today, and was one of the major figures in developing intuitive computation.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

(2) http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html

Section 4: Publication, Patents, and Other Intellectual Property (Eboney Hancock)

Grace Hopper had many accomplishments and contributions to Information Science. As an amazing mathematician, she was quickly able to learn her way around computers. Grace worked with Mark Aiken to create the MARK series of computers at Harvard University in 1944. Named respectively as the Mark I, this model was the first in the series and took up almost an entire room at 55 feet long and 8 feet high. Hopper simultaneously worked on the MARK series computers while she did her research. Through her work on the next of the MARK series, the Mark II, she pioneered fundamental ways to operate the systems. This was work and research that led her to design a much improved type of complier that developed “Flow-Matic”. Flow- Matic is also known as the first English data processing complier to be created. Grace Hopper wanted the programming languages of the computers to be written in a code similar to English for greater accessibility. She did this by developing the complier which then translated the code within the computer. Hopper stated that her reasons for initially creating this was because she was lazy and hoped that the programmer may return to being a mathematician. COBOL, one of the earliest programming languages, was collaboratively developed by Hopper. She honed in on the idea of “machine-independent programming languages” and thus verified its creation. Grace Hopper also influenced the use of the term “debugging” in reference to correcting computer problems.

 http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html

 http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa052198.htm

Section 5: Awards and Recognitions (Michale Johnson)

 As one would expect, Dr. Grace Hopper owns many recognitions, honors, and awards. These recognitions stretch over many decades, giving a strong indication of her contributions and character. For example, as http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html, an online paper about Grace Hopper provided by Yale, explains, she was awarded the Data Processing Management Association’s first ever "Computer Science: Man-of-the-Year Award." Just two years later, in 1971, the Sperry Corporation developed an annual award in her name for young people. Shortly after that, in 1973, she became a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. Other awards came later, as noted by a military site and reference, http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm, for example, in the years between 1972 and 1984, Dr. Hopper received multiple honorary doctorates form many prestigious institutions, like the University of Pennsylvania and the Pratt Institute. Other awards included (also provided by the latter link, http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm): the Living Legacy Award, from the Women's International Center of California, Defense Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Medal of Technology, in the years, 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively.

 Indeed, Dr. Hopper has made considerable contributions in her field and is deserving of every recognition she has garnered (many of which were not mentioned here). That said, perhaps the most revealing of all of her contributions is the impact she felt she had made on her students; "After four decades of pioneering work, Admiral Hopper felt her greatest contribution had been "all the young people I've trained" (http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html). Considering the previous quote, one is left with a clear image of the true character of this remarkable woman; that she felt that her impact on her students was as important as anything else she had done.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:5px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:TimesNewRoman;color:rgb(4,51,255);"> http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:5px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:TimesNewRoman;color:rgb(4,51,255);"> http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/hopper_grace.htm

Section 6: Critical Analysis and Interpretation (Santiago Paz)

Grace Hopper is highly regarded not only for her innovative and legendary contributions to the field of computer science, but also for her inspirational speeches and messages. Various members of the science community have had superior things to say about Hopper as a pioneer in the technology field, as an innovator, and as a person. Lucy Sanders, CEO and Co-founder of the National Center for Women and Information Technology, says that “while she [Hopper] spoke of great technology and the power of computing, she also reinforced the creative power of youthful thinking, public speaking, and collaborative efforts.” Hopper was known to motivate young people to be creative and to use their minds. She encouraged them to abstain from anything that damaged the power of the brain, especially drugs and alcohol. Kurt Beyer, a former professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, states that “Hopper’s greatest technical achievement was to create tools that would allow humans to communicate with computers in terms others than ones and zeros.” This development that Beyer describes is perhaps the one that is most important to us nowadays since it led to the revolution of the personal computer. Hopper was also admired throughout the media for playing a critical role as a woman in the field of computing. Jerri Barrett of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology states the when “Admiral Grace Murray Hopper died, the world lost an inspiration to women and scientists everywhere.” Beyer also supports Hopper’s motivation to the female sex by pointing out that “[Hopper] was influential in male-dominated military and business organizations at a time when women were encouraged to devote themselves to housework and childbearing.” But her influence is not limited to just one gender or field. Linda Cureton of NASA states, Hopper “left a legacy that paved the path for many women and men to follow. Barrett also praises Hopper once again as he points out that “her outstanding contributions to computer science benefited academia, industry, and the military.” There is no doubt that Grace Hopper was outstanding in almost every aspect. Her contributions expand to more than just computing and technology as she has continued to inspire countless people from a variety of fields and disciplines.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11873

http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/NASA-CIO-Blog/posts/post_1299365000134.html

<span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#0070C0">http://anitaborg.org/news/archive/2012-grace-hopper-celebration-of-women-in-computing-opens-call-for-participation

Section 7: Why IT and ICT Professionals Need To Know About Her (Justin Santiago)

Grace Hopper is an extremely influential member of the history of communication and is an individual who any IT or ICT professional should know about because of her outstanding achievements in computation development and her encouragement in the growth of future technology. Hopper’s career in Information Science began when she enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to the WAVES – Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service- and followed her to Harvard where she aided in the programming of the Mark I computer which aided the U.S. Navy. She also later helped develop the Mark II and Mark III computers and eventually the UNIVAC computer. One of her, if not the largest, achievements in the field of information science came with the development of her own programming language. Hopper first had invented the compiler, also a huge contribution, which helped translate the English language into binary “1”s and “0”s so that the computer could register and compute the information given. Later on, Hopper had begun to develop her own program to aid in the tasks related to the business sector. This new program she created, dubbed the FLOW-MATIC, became the foundation for a very well known programming language used today called COBOL. The team that had developed and defined COBOL was directed under Hopper herself, and she had a large influence on its outcome. After returning to the Navy to work again and later retiring in 1986, Hopper received accolades such as the IEEE McDowell Award and was appointed Rear Admiral by President Ronald Reagan. Her influence on the advancements in the field of Information Science is unrivaled among women and outweighs most men in the field as well.

http://www.thocp.net/biographies/hopper_grace.html

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;">http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;">http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-h/g-hoppr.htm

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;">http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/hopper.html

Group Entry Reviewed & Edited By Torrey Toomajanian @ 10:41PM on 09/24/2012