“SIGGRAPH 2023 Keynote: Kathryn Kleiman, Computer Programming Pioneers Revealed and ACM SIGGRAPH Award Presentations” by Kleiman
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- SIGGRAPH 2023 Keynote: Kathryn Kleiman, Computer Programming Pioneers Revealed and ACM SIGGRAPH Award Presentations
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Abstract:
After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and computing — begun during the war to aid soldiers on the front lines — continued across the U.S. as engineers and programmers rushed to complete their covert assignments. Among them were six women tasked with programming the world’s first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer, ENIAC. The work of Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Jean Jennings, Ruth Lichterman, Frances Bilas, and Marlyn Wescoff, untold for 70 years, is one of innovation and determination. Yet for 60 years, their story was untold — a mystery that started with old black-and-white pictures of ENIAC.