Here are 5 Inspiring Women in Technology for International Women’s Day 2019
The 8th of March marks International Women’s Day, and this year we at blue{shift} would like you to join us in celebrating some truly inspirational scientists and engineers that have made some wonderful contributions to modern society. There are tons of outstanding women we could talk about, but here are a few to get you started:
Susan Kare
Most people can use computers or portables device, but it wasn’t always so: Originally, computers were too complex for the average user to understand… until the first Macintosh came along. Using a program designed to create pixel art graphics, Susan Kare designed every icon for the Mac’s many functions so that anyone could sit at a computer and intuitively know how to use it. Suffice it to say that Kare’s work has forever changed the way digital devices are designed and made computers accessible to everyone. Nowadays, Susan heads her own very successful graphic design company
Katherine Johnson
When Katherine Johnson worked at NASA, manned spaceflight was a new frontier and a lot of its missions would have failed were it not for her. A mission into space is not as simple as pointing and launching a rocket into the sky; its trajectory needs to be planned ahead lest it misses the target area or makes an unsafe return to Earth, putting its crew in grave danger. Thanks to Johnson’s meticulous calculations, the various spacecraft got where it needed go and the missions were a huge success. Katherine continued her valuable work at NASA for multiple manned missions and is happily retired, receiving multiple awards for her contribution to spaceflight, including the US presidential Medal of Freedom!
Margaret Hamilton
The Apollo 11 moon landing was the result of a tremendous amount of dedication from everyone at NASA, and Margaret Hamilton’s software design on the lunar module is the sole reason it landed at all. As the craft was preparing to land, several components malfunctioned, with even the on-board computer advising to abort the mission! Hamilton’s Apollo software saved the day by diagnosing and repairing any errors as they occurred, ensuring a safe and successful landing. Margaret has since founded and become the CEO of her own software company, Hamilton Technologies and won several awards of recognition for her amazing work, including the Medal of Freedom.
We hope you agree that those are some pretty amazing people! As we mentioned before, there are a lot of awesome women to be proud of, and we’d like to direct you to the full article on our website to see a few more for yourself.
Please take the time to visit the International Women’s Day site to find out what you can do to support equal rights for women all over the world!
If you are inspired to learn more about coding and robotics, or know a girl interested in building their software and hardware skills, check out our website to learn about our holiday camps, workshops, and after school clubs.
