Human Computer Project Census

The Human Computer Project Census, a joint venture of The Human Computer Project and the University of Virginia's Office of the Provost, seeks to build out the database of female professionals of all backgrounds who worked at NASA and its predecessor agency the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) from 1935 to 1980.

Participants in the Human Computer Project Census will work to recover the names of as many women as possible who worked at NASA in this capacity, and will then create both biographical sketches and data records for each woman.  Research techniques will include oral history collection, working with digital and physical archives, collecting primary source materials, and reviewing secondary sources.

2024 is the inaugural year and will serve as a pilot program. The goal of this phase of the census is to create a model, with the University of Virginia as an operational hub. UVA will then serve as the coordinating entity for census units set up at other colleges and universities. 

Once the census has created a database of NASA’s women, it will turn its efforts to women who worked in similar capacities in other organizations in government, private industry, and academia. We hope to eventually engage a museum partner as the long-term repository for data and materials collected. 

Margot Lee Shetterly is the founder of the Human Computer Project, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2014. The Human Computer Project is an initiative to recover the names and accomplishments of the women who worked as computers, mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from the 1930s to 1980s. It is a companion project to her book Hidden Figures.