Project: ENIAC Programmers Oral Histories
Project Leader: Kathy Kleiman
This project is documenting the history of the first modern computer programmers of the world's first electronic general purpose computing machine (the ENIAC). These programmers are: Kay Mauchley Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances E. Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
Due to the success of the project, the ENIAC Programmers have received much overdue recognition for their pioneering work, including induction into its Hall of Fame by Women in Technology International. Over the last few years, Kay Antonelli and Jean Bartik have gathered numerous accolades, with Antonelli being honored in her home country of Ireland as a pioneer and Bartik being made the 2002 keynote speaker at her university alma mater and having its new computer museum named in her honor. Both women describe as a high point among their recent honors the keynote speech they were invited to give at ACM's 2000 Awards Banquet in San Francisco.
There were other tangible results resulting from the ongoing work on this project. The ENIAC Programmers were invited to the ENIAC's 50th Anniversary Dinner on February 14, 1996. It was an event for which most of them were originally not on the invitation list due to their lack of inclusion in the written and published histories. This project leader worked closely with Wall Street Journal reporter Thomas Petzinger to produce two high profile articles about the ENIAC Programmers for his Marketplace column (November 7 and 14, 1996). A grant was awarded from the Kapor Family Foundation to fund six months of original research in the Library of Congress and the filming and editing of the oral histories for each of the Programmers. Working with award-winning PBS producer David Roland, 19 hours of broadcast-quality and historically unique footage of the ENIAC Programmers telling their life histories was recorded. Finally, a high quality 10-minute film was produced that told the ENIAC Programmers story for the first time with funding from the ACM SIG Discretionary Fund. This continues to be used as an educational and fundraising piece.
Over the past year, Frances "Betty" Holberton passed away and received prominent obituaries in papers including the New York Times, Washington Post and San Jose Mercury news. These obituaries (noting Holberton's outstanding contributions over forty years of pioneering programming work) were based largely on the biography written by the project leader, Kathy Kleiman.
Project: Grace Hopper Celebration on Women in Computing 2002
ACM-W had a strong presence at GHC 2002. ACM-W members sat on nine panels, presented two technical papers and one short paper with a workshop. Anita Borg founded the GHC and was on the Steering Committee, Tracy Camp was the Technical Papers Chair, Ursula Martin was General Chair for the Senior Women’s Summit, and Denise Gürer was on the Scholarship Committee. ACM- W held a meeting at GHC, had a booth advertising ACM-W and ACM, and had an ACM-W Chapter gathering.
Having a strong presence at GHC is important for ACM-W members to present their work and network for ACM-W’s ongoing work on women in computing. In addition, a strong presence reflects well on ACM, encourages more women to join ACM, and inspires more people to create ACM-W Chapters.
The panels and presentations that included ACM-W members were as follows:
Annemieke Craig (moderator), Vashti Galpin, Rosemary Paradis, and Eva Turner, “What is Computing? The Perceptions of University Computer Students” (panel).
Project: Small and Large Regional Conferences Project
Project Leader: Gloria Childress Townsend
The project impetus stems from witnessing women experience the isolation of computing life in rural Indiana in the early 1990s. I wish to eliminate isolation by the lacing together of small pockets of scattered Indiana women for a strong alliance, support and encouragement. My vision lies in completely covering a map of the United States with Small Regional Conferences, so that no young woman is "left out" of opportunities for support and encouragement. I want every single woman in computing to have a low-cost way to network with other women in her own "neighborhood".
The following goals provide additional rationale for the Regional Conferences projects:
| 1 | Create connections among women and underrepresented groups in computing |
| 2 | Provide role-models and mentors |
| 3 | Destroy myths about computing |
| 4 | Encourage women to stay in computing |
| 5 | Give information/help with opportunities such as graduate school, scholarships, fellowships, workshops, conferences, etc. |
| 6 | Build community (inter and intra) |
Please help us accomplish a similar plan for your state or region, so that we are another puzzle-piece closer to spanning the US with Small Regional Conferences. Email: gct@depauw.edu for information.
Other sources of help:
1. Peruse the Web sites of previous Small Regional Conferences:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/cicwic/
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/ocwic/
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/inwic/
2. Email gct@depauw.edu or bbair@cse.ohio-state.edu to receive a "how-to" book, which they co-authored.
Other small regional conferences in Michigan and Colorado are being planned. ACM-W will host the first large regional conference, the Midwest Celebration of Women in Computing, at DePauw University on September 29 to 30, 2006. The conference will be co-located with the Consortium for Computing Science in Colleges: Midwest Region ( CCSC: MW ) http://www.ccsc.org/midwest/Conference/ conference sponsored by ACM.