people And CS

Overview

Links
Notable Women in Computing: Information and playing  cards of the notable women are available on this site.
Notable Women in Computing Poster  

1. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

Ada Lovelace is also known as Augusta Ada King is regarded as the first female computer programmer. She was an extremely good mathematician and writer. Ada was an influential pioneer in the field of computer research and programming. She is primarily known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first person to find out machines can do far more than calculations and also published the first algorithm by such a machine. 

2. Grace Hopper (1906-1992)

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist. She was a computer programmer who invented one of the first linkers and discovered bugging for fixing programming errors and technical glitches. She invented a compiler for computer programming language and also publicized the idea of machine-independent programming language. She formed the theory of FLOW-MATIC programming language and later helped in the development of COBOL, a high-level programming language.

3. Joan Clarke (1917-1996)

Joan Clarke was a cryptanalyst who became famous for her role as a codebreaker in the second world war. She was the only woman who worked on solving the German Enigma messages along with Alan Turing. But due to gender biases, she got less wage even when at the same position along with her male co-workers. She took against this by transforming into a linguist. She is considered as genius British for her code-breaking ground.  

4. Margaret Heafield (1936-)

Margaret Heafield Hamilton is a well-known scientist for her work in the fields of computer science, system engineer, and business owner. She introduced the term ‘software engineering and became the head of the software engineering division at MIT Instrumentation Laboratory for developing onboard flight software for the Apollo space program. She designed the asynchronous system giving priority to only important functions and rejecting the rest.  

5. Adele Goldberg (1945-)

Adele Goldberg is a computer scientist known for developing the programming language ‘Smalltalk-80’ and various other object-oriented programmings. She introduced a programming environment of overlapping windows on graphics display screens. She was also involved in designing templates and patterns in modern software. Apple implemented her methods in their Macintosh computers  

6. Francis Elizabeth (1932-)

Francis Elizabeth Allen is a computer scientist best known for her work in the field of optimizing compilers, program optimization, and parallelization. She was known for working on programming language compilers for IBM Research. Allen received the IBM fellow title award, regarded as the highest recognition for scientists, engineers, and programmers for the company. She also introduced many algorithms and implementations for automatic program optimization technology.  

7. Barbara Liskov (1939-)

Barbara Liskov was a successful programmer who also won the Turing award for developing the Liskov Substitution principle. He has worked on various important projects like the Venus Operating system which is an affordable and interactive timesharing system. The first high-level language ‘Argus’ was created by her and demonstrates the technique of pipelining and Thor, an object-oriented database system. Barbara also led the Programming Methodology Group of MIT.  

8. Lois MitchellHaibt (1934-)

She was an American computer scientist. She was one of the members of the ten-member team at IBM for the development of FORTRAN, a high-level programming language. She was the only female programmer there. She examined the flow of programs produced by the compilers. She developed the first syntactic analyzer of arithmetic expressions.

9. Sahfrira Goldwasser (1958-)

Shafrira Goldwasser is an American computer scientist and another winner of the Turning award in 2012 for a number of theories. She is well known for her works in computational complexity theory, cryptography, and computational number theory. She helped in the creation of probabilistic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographical protocol. Currently, she is a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.  

10. Anita Borg (1949-2003)

Anita Borg is a reputed American computer scientist and the founder of the Institute for Women and Technology. She is the brain behind the idea of ‘Systers in the year 1987. She worked for Digital Equipment Corporation when she developed a technique for generating, analyzing, and designing a high-speed memory system. Bill Clinton also appointed her as an important member of the Committee on the Advancement of women and minorities in science.

https://umlconnector.com/2023/03/women-make-video-games/ 

Overview

Top 10 Black Computer Scientists from the Last 30 Years

1. Valerie Taylor

2. Juan E. Gilbert

3. Annie Easley

4. Katherine Johnson

5. Clarence Ellis

6. Mark Dean

7. Roscoe Giles

8. Mary Jackson

9. Charles Lee Isbell Jr.

10. Kaya Thomas

LInks

Article: 25 Influential Black Computer Scientists

Bill Gates: Founder of Microsoft at 20 Years Old

Ada Lovelace, History’s First Programmer

Steve Wozniak: Apple’s True Father

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook

Margaret Hamilton Made the “Small Step for Man” Possible

Louis Pouzin, The Man Who Didn’t Invent the Internet

Isis Wenger, the Coder Behind #iLookLikeAnEngineer

Larry Page, Creator of Google

Karen Spärck, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence

Linus Torvalds Created Linux & Git  

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie: He created the C programming language. He also co-created the UNIX operating system. He received numerous awards, amongst which is the Turing Award.

Aaron Swartz: hacktivist, and political organizer, he worked on markdown, RSS, and Reddit. He’s inducted posthumously for the Internet Hall of Fame.

Donald Ervin Knuth: Computer scientist, mathematician, and retired professor at Stanford University. Creator of TeX, METAFONT, and contributor to theoretical computer science.

Tim Berners-Lee: known for developing World Wide Web. He worked on the implementation of HTTP and made his way into the World Wide Web Hall of Fame.

Bjarne Stroustrup: computer scientist is known for creating C++. He was involved in the creation, evolution, and first implementation.

Linus Torvalds: the main developer of the Linux kernel, honored with the 2012 Millenium Technology Prize, and creator of Git.

Guido van Rossum: author of Python, and Mondrian, a coding review system for Google.

James Gosling:Creator of Java programming language. Developer of NEWS, PostScript interpreter, the first version of Emacs for UNIX, and telemetry for satellites.

Richard Stallman: Founder of Free Software Foundation, GPL license, and other GNu projects. Considered the father of the open-source movement.

Brian Kernighan: Contributor to UNIX, alongside Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Widely known for his book on C, “C Programming Language”.

Grace Murray Hopper: Computer pioneer and naval officer. One of the first modern programmers. Worked on programming, developing the manual, and punching machine instructions for Mark I.

Alan Kay: Co-founder of PARC, Palo Alto Research Center, developer of Smalltalk, and Ethernet. Worked in Atari, and on developing a project ARPANet, later known as the Internet.

Niklaus Wirth:Developed several programming languages. Known for ALGOL-W, MODULA, and PASCAL. Pascal became the foundation of every future programming language.

Fabrice Bellard: French computer programmer. Developer of FFmpeg, QEMU, and Tiny C Compiler. Co-founder of Amarisoft.

Donald Becker: Wrote Ethernet drivers for Linux. Developer of Beowulf clusters.

Ken Batcher: Designed the Massively parallel processor. Credited for odd-even mergesort and bitonic mergesort.

John Carmack: Lead programmer of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake. Co-founder of id Software. An innovator in 3D computer graphics and CTO at Oculus VR.

Eric S Raymond: Known as ESR. Wrote foundational papers on open-source development. Maintainer of several open-source projects.

Anders Hejlsberg: Co-designer of programming languages and development tools. Known for Turbo Pascal and Delphi. Lead architect of C# and Typescript.

Alexander Stepanov: Developer of C++ STL, Standard Template Library. Worked closely with Bjarne on adding new features to C++.

Charles Babbage: The father of the computer. He developed the first mechanical computer, Difference Engine, and essential ideas of modern computing.

Alan Turing: Computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst. High influence in theoretical computer science. Known for the Turing machine, considered a general-purpose computer. Decoded Nazi messages to help Allies win the war.

Ronald L. Rivest: Published numerous papers on cryptography, computer and network security, algorithms. Lead developer of RSA. Developer of symmetric key encryption algorithms, commonly known as Rivest Cipher.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum:Known for the development of MINIX, a Unix-like operating system. Highly influential in computer science, but mostly for distributed systems.

Leslie Lamport: Best known for his work in distributed systems. Developer of document preparation system LaTeX. Winner of 2013 Turing Award.

Edsger W. Dijkstra: Dutch computer scientist. Best known for the Dijkstra algorithm. Fundamental contributions in several areas, compiler construction, operating systems, distributed systems.

John von Neumann: Hungarian scientist, mathematician, physicist. Credited for the development of universal construction for the digital computer. Inventor of merge sort. Worked closely with Alan Turing on artificial intelligence.

Keith Marzullo: Inventor of Marzullo’s algorithm. Part of Network Time Protocol, and Windows Time Service. 

Some of these top hackers aimed to make the world a better place, others to prove UFO theories. Some wanted money and others hoped for fame. All these people played a critical role in the evolution of the internet and cyber security

Kevin Mitnick

A seminal figure in American hacking, Kevin Mitnick got his career start as a teen. In 1981, he was charged with stealing computer manuals from Pacific Bell. In 1982, he hacked the North American Defense Command (NORAD), an achievement that inspired the 1983 film War Games. In 1989, he hacked Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) network and made copies of their software. Because DEC was a leading computer manufacturer at the time, this act put Mitnick on the map. He was later arrested, convicted and sent to prison. During his conditional release, he hacked Pacific Bell's voicemail systems.

Throughout his hacking career, Mitnick never exploited the access and data he obtained. It's widely believed that he once obtained full control of Pacific Bell's network simply to prove it could be done. A warrant was issued for his arrest for the Pacific Bell incident, but Mitnick fled and lived in hiding for more than two years. When caught, he served time in prison for multiple counts of wire fraud and computer fraud.

Although Mitnick ultimately went white hat, he may be part of the both-hats grey area. According to Wired, in 2014, he launched "Mitnick's Absolute Zero Day Exploit Exchange," which sells unpatched, critical software exploits to the highest bidder.

Anonymous

Anonymous got its start in 2003 on 4chan message boards in an unnamed forum. The group exhibits little organization and is loosely focused on the concept of social justice. For example, in 2008 the group took issue with the Church of Scientology and begin disabling their websites, thus negatively impacting their search rankings in Google and overwhelming its fax machines with all-black images. In March 2008, a group of "Anons" marched passed Scientology centers around the world wearing the now-famous Guy Fawkes mask. As noted by The New Yorker, while the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have tracked down some of the group's more prolific members, the lack of any real hierarchy makes it almost impossible to identify or eliminate Anonymous as a whole.

Adrian Lamo

In 2001, 20-year-old Adrian Lamo used an unprotected content management tool at Yahoo to modify a Reuters article and add a fake quote attributed to former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Lamo often hacked systems and then notified both the press and his victims. In some cases, he'd help clean up the mess to improve their security. As Wired points out, however, Lamo took things too far in 2002, when he hacked The New York Times' intranet, added himself to the list of expert sources and began conducting research on high-profile public figures. Lamo earned the moniker "The Homeless Hacker" because he preferred to wander the streets with little more than a backpack and often had no fixed address.

Albert Gonzalez

According to the New York Daily News, Gonzalez, dubbed "soupnazi," got his start as the "troubled pack leader of computer nerds" at his Miami high school. He eventually became active on criminal commerce site Shadowcrew.com and was considered one of its best hackers and moderators. At 22, Gonzalez was arrested in New York for debit card fraud related to stealing data from millions of card accounts. To avoid jail time, he became an informant for the Secret Service, ultimately helping indict dozens of Shadowcrew members.

During his time as a paid informant, Gonzalez continued his in criminal activities. Along with a group of accomplices, Gonzalez stole more than 180 million payment card accounts from companies including OfficeMax, Dave and Buster's and Boston Market. The New York Times Magazine notes that Gonzalez's 2005 attack on US retailer TJX was the first serial data breach of credit information. Using a basic SQL injection, this famous hacker and his team created back doors in several corporate networks, stealing an estimated $256 million from TJX alone. During his sentencing in 2015, the federal prosecutor called Gonzalez's human victimization "unparalleled."

Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce

Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce are a team of British hackers who hacked into multiple military networks in 1996, including Griffiss Air Force Base, the Defense Information System Agency and the Korean Atomic Research Institute (KARI). Bevan (Kuji) and Pryce (Datastream Cowboy) have been accused of nearly starting a third world war after they dumped KARI research onto American military systems. Bevan claims he was looking to prove a UFO conspiracy theory, and according to the BBC, his case bears resemblance to that of Gary McKinnon. Malicious intent or not, Bevan and Pryce demonstrated that even military networks are vulnerable.

Jeanson James Ancheta

Jeanson James Ancheta had no interest in hacking systems for credit card data or crashing networks to deliver social justice. Instead, Ancheta was curious about the use of bots—software-based robots that can infect and ultimately control computer systems. Using a series of large-scale "botnets," he was able to compromise more than 400,000 computers in 2005. According to Ars Technica, he then rented these machines out to advertising companies and was also paid to directly install bots or adware on specific systems. Ancheta was sentenced to 57 months in prison. This was the first time a hacker was sent to jail for the use of botnet technology.

Michael Calce

In February 2000, 15-year-old Michael Calce, also known as "Mafiaboy," discovered how to take over networks of university computers. He used their combined resources to disrupt the number-one search engine at the time: Yahoo. Within one week, he'd also brought down Dell, eBay, CNN and Amazon using a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that overwhelmed corporate servers and caused their websites to crash. Calce's wake-up call was perhaps the most jarring for cyber crime investors and internet proponents. If the biggest websites in the world—valued at over $1 billion—could be so easily sidelined, was any online data truly safe? It's not an exaggeration to say that the development of cyber crime legislation suddenly became a top government priority thanks to Calce's hack.

Kevin Poulsen

In 1983, a 17-year-old Poulsen, using the alias Dark Dante, hacked into ARPANET, the Pentagon’s computer network. Although he was quickly caught, the government decided not to prosecute Poulsen, who was a minor at the time. Instead, he was let off with a warning.

Poulsen didn’t heed this warning and continued hacking. In 1988, Poulsen hacked a federal computer and dug into files pertaining to the deposed president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. When discovered by authorities, Poulsen went underground. While he was on the run, Poulsen kept busy, hacking government files and revealing secrets. According to his own website, in 1990, he hacked a radio station contest and ensured that he was the 102nd caller, winning a brand new Porsche, a vacation, and $20,000.

Poulsen was soon arrested and barred from using a computer for three years. He has since converted to white hat hacking and journalism, writing about cyber security and web-related socio-political causes for Wired, The Daily Beast and his own blog Threat Level. Paulson also teamed with other leading hackers to work on various projects dedicated to social justice and freedom of information. Perhaps most notably, working with Adam Swartz and Jim Dolan to develop the open-source software SecureDrop, initially known as DeadDrop. Eventually, Poulsen turned over the platform, which enabled secure communication between journalists and sources, to the Freedom of Press Foundation.

Jonathan James

Using the alias cOmrade, Jonathan James hacked several companies. According to the New York Times, what really earned James attention was his hack into the computers of the United States Department of Defense. Even more impressive was the fact that James was only 15 at the time. In an interview with PC Mag, James admitted that he was partly inspired by the book The Cuckoo’s Egg, which details the hunt for a computer hacker in the 1980s. His hacking allowed him to access over 3,000 messages from government employees, usernames, passwords and other sensitive data.

James was arrested in 2000 and was sentenced to a six months house arrest and banned from recreational computer use. However, a probation violation caused him to serve six months in jail. Jonathan James became the youngest person to be convicted of violating cyber crime laws. In 2007, TJX, a department store, was hacked and many customer’s private information were compromised. Despite a lack of evidence, authorities suspect that James may have been involved.

In 2008, James committed suicide by gunshot. According to the Daily Mail, his suicide note stated, “I have no faith in the 'justice' system. Perhaps my actions today, and this letter, will send a stronger message to the public. Either way, I have lost control over this situation, and this is my only way to regain control.”

ASTRA

This hacker differs from the others on this list in that he has never been publicly identified. However, according to the Daily Mail, some information has been released about ASTRA. Namely that he was apprehended by authorities in 2008, and at that time he was identified as a 58-year-old Greek mathematician. Reportedly, he had been hacking into the Dassault Group, for almost half a decade. During that time, he stole cutting edge weapons technology software and data which he then sold to 250 individuals around the world. His hacking cost the Dassault Group $360 million in damages. No one knows why his complete identity has never been revealed, but the word 'ASTRA' is a Sanskrit word for 'weapon'.