Each hour we are featuring a woman we admire who is currently doing amazing work right in the tech/maker/art/science space. Woman of the hour, Lenore Edman.
Lenore M. Edman, a veteran bike commuter, used to live in Portland, Oregon, where her son Chris got to ride in her bike’s sidecar. Abandoning wet for warm, she moved to Austin, Texas, where she designed and sewed her own wedding dress. Later, as a regular of the Boulder, Colorado weekly cruiser bike ride, she overhauled a mid-century Hawthorne ladies bicycle (named Stella) which she has only crashed once—and it wasn’t her fault. Since moving to Sunnyvale, California, she has helped to popularize edible origami and has learned to make some wicked curries. Her college studies in classical Greek prepared her well for her career working with professors, librarians, engineers and scientists.
Becky Stern never turns off. Her creativity is as boundless as her energy. She is constantly putting together tutorials, moderating comments, creating videos, teaching, and making incredible objects for her online shop. Everything that Becky does is accurate, measured, and legit- even her abstract art has a purpose and is well reasoned. She is determined to understand everything from knitting machines to welding machines, but understanding them is never enough. Becky masters them.
#ADA11 – Alicia Gibb – Formerly of BugLabs – Open Hardware Summit co-chair…
I work at Bug Labs in New York City. It is a start-up where we make a Linux-based, open source prototyping platform. I recently was awarded an NSF SBIR grant which is what I’m currently working on. I’ve published BUG-inspired papers at TEI and in Linux Journal. I also co-chair the Open Hardware Summit with Ayah Bdeir.
I attended Pratt Institute and graduated with my Masters of Science in Art History and a second Masters of Information & Library Science. My concentration for Art History is New Media Art, specifically flexible programming platforms in robotics and art. While in school, I curated two New Media Art show at NYCResistor, one called Art of the Game and one based on my thesis called Art, Design and the Arduino: A Lineage. In Information & Library Science, my interests were and in many ways still are user-centered design, and usability. Information Science led me to concepts such as source code and the Internet of Things.
Ayah Bdeir is an engineer and interactive artist who does not believe in boundaries set by disciplines or cultures. With an upbringing between Lebanon, Canada and the US, Bdeir’s work uses experimental tools to look at deliberate and subconscious representations of identity.
In 2008, Bdeir was awarded a fellowship at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center and taught graduate classes at NYU and Parsons. She has lectured extensively and taught numerous workshops to get non-engineers, and particularly young girls, interested in science and technology. Bdeir was a mentor in the regional reality tv-show Stars of Science (initiated by Qatar Foundation) promoting science and technology innovation in the Middle East. She has an ongoing affiliation with Eyebeam as an honorary fellow.
In 2010, Bdeir was granted a fellowship with Creative Commons in recognition of her work, including spearheading the first Open Hardware definition and co-chairing the Open Hardware Summit at the New York Hall of Science in September of 2010 and 2011. Just recently, Bdeir was invited to join the family of fellows at INK, the annual conference for Innovation and Technology in association with TED.
Bdeir is the creator of littleBits, an award winning kit of pre-assembled circuits that snap together with tiny magnets, now in production. She is also the founder of Karaj, Beirut’s lab for experimental art, architecture and technology and does commercial work and commissions with collaborators under art&d studio.
The Chartered Institute for IT (formerly the British Computing Institute) produced this short film about Lady Ada Lovelace as part of their Information Pioneers series. Each of the pioneers has his or her own film, and they are all worth checking out.
About today:
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.
Who is your heroine?
Do you remember which women have influenced you over the years?
Perhaps your maths teacher, one of your university lecturers, or a colleague?
This Ada Lovelace Day on October 7, share your story about a woman — whether an engineer, a scientist, a technologist or mathematician — who has inspired you to become who you are today. Write a blog post, record a podcast, film a video, draw a comic, or pick any other way to talk about the women who have been guiding lights in your life. Give your heroine the credit she deserves!
Who was Ada? Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.
Even in the utilitarian aspect, however, we do not doubt that very valuable practical results would be developed by the extended faculties of the Analytical Engine; some of which results we think we could now hint at, had we the space; and others, which it may not yet be possible to foresee, but which would be brought forth by the daily increasing requirements of science, and by a more intimate practical acquaintance with the powers of the engine, were it in actual existence. – Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace wrote the above in 1843. She had undertaken, at Charles Babbage’s behest, a translation from the French of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea’s description of Babbage’s lecture in Turin on what he called an “Analytical Engine.” In her notes, which are longer than the text being translated, she presents for her English-speaking audience a clear distinction between the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine, as well as how the Jacquard loom punch cards could be fed into the Analytical Engine so that the program could be held separate (and repeatable) from the device itself. “We may say most aptly, that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves.” She clearly inherited some of her father’s poetic manner. Later in the notes, she sets forth a series of calculations for this as-yet hypothetical machine, which, although she didn’t get to run it, are recognized as the very first computer program.
Here’s a video interview we did earlier this year.
She comes from many years in professional design and digital photography working mostly in the retail, publishing, and entertainment industries. For the last three years she has been the founder and co-owner of the design-build studio, Because We Can. As an owner of this small business, she has been immersed in product and furniture design from small decorative pieces to large and complex interior spaces, and is involved in every phase of the project form initial concepts to the physical building. She runs design jobs with focus on great communication internally and with the client, manages the creation of conceptual designs for the client, keeps track of all phases of the project and heads decisions like finishing colors and hiring and managing outside contractors. She runs the creation and production of all the BWC marketing materials, all product and project photography, and branding.
In her non-existent moments of spare time she likes to spend time on Flickr, draw, read thick books, make up new Tiki Drink concoctions, and plan theme ideas for the next BWC party.
Do you remember which women have influenced you over the years?
Perhaps your maths teacher, one of your university lecturers, or a colleague?
This Ada Lovelace Day on October 7, share your story about a woman — whether an engineer, a scientist, a technologist or mathematician — who has inspired you to become who you are today. Write a blog post, record a podcast, film a video, draw a comic, or pick any other way to talk about the women who have been guiding lights in your life. Give your heroine the credit she deserves!
Do you remember which women have influenced you over the years?
Perhaps your maths teacher, one of your university lecturers, or a colleague?
This Ada Lovelace Day on October 7, share your story about a woman — whether an engineer, a scientist, a technologist or mathematician — who has inspired you to become who you are today. Write a blog post, record a podcast, film a video, draw a comic, or pick any other way to talk about the women who have been guiding lights in your life. Give your heroine the credit she deserves!
There’s more!
Adafruit: 24 hours of Ada Lovelace Day and 10% off everything in the store
Adafruit celebrates Ada Lovelace Day for the second year in a row with special content and discounts! Limor “Ladyada” Fried, who was the first female engineer on the cover of WIRED magazine is publishing a post per-hour of a women in science/engineering for 24 hours on October 7th, 2011. This will be a day long celebration to help bringing women in technology to the fore!
Adafruit makes educational electronics and wants to help get more young women interested in technology, the discount code for the day will be ADA11, Adafruit is offering 10% off ALL their products for that day only. The Adafruit site will feature a female engineer, scientist or maker who Limor admires throughout the entire day!
The code goes live on Friday, this is just a heads up!
A follow-up to this post from Saturday, Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe talks with Bloomberg news about her efforts to get more women into computer science. Under Klawe’s watch, female enrollment in the CS program has tripled (!).
She really knocks it out of the park around the 3-minute mark:
I think every tech company right now would love to hire more female engineers simply because we find that if we have more diverse teams, including gender diversity, you tend to get better solutions.
Great article from Business Week about Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe:
As Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe strolled her Southern California campus recently, she stopped to talk with Lillian de Greef, a senior eager to discuss her plans to pursue a graduate degree in computer science. De Greef entered Mudd as a technology novice and, like a growing number of women at the school, she’s now fluent in multiple programming languages. “I just really enjoy learning about all this stuff, writing the code,” she says.
De Greef’s enthusiasm is a testament to the quiet revolution waged by Klawe, 60, since she arrived in 2006 from Princeton University, where she was dean of the engineering school. On her watch, the percentage of female computer science majors at Mudd, one of California’s prestigious Claremont colleges, has more than tripled, to 42 percent. Nationally, women account for 14 percent of college graduates in the field, according to the Computing Research Assn.
Klawe’s transformation of this small liberal arts college 35 miles east of Los Angeles has sent ripples from Seattle to Silicon Valley, where startups and technology giants are desperate to find talented developers, even as the unemployment rate hovers above 9 percent. In the U.S., women hold less than 25 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, according to the Commerce Dept. Klawe has “actually moved the numbers,” says Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. “In the midst of what is a very serious employment issue in the country, there’s a field here that’s dying for more very well qualified people.”
Bethany Shorb of Cyberoptix TieLab recently acquired a stash of old used silkscreens to be reclaimed and reused to print her tie designs. But a closer inspection revealed something too interesting to wash out, and these industrial cast-offs generate some truly unique ties. Check out Bethany’s ties at Maker Faire New York September 17th and 18th.
One of the best articles I’ve read all week is this post from the Fog Creek blog. The author, Anna Lewis, briefly discusses the history of women in computing. In 1987, women made up nearly 50% of all developers, but shortly thereafter the number began to decline significantly. Those numbers are only now beginning to rise again, though they have yet to match the peak of the mid-80′s. The history part of the article is interesting but, in my opinion, the article really shines in its interview with Fog Creek intern Leah Hanson. Hanson, as it happens, is the only woman on the Fog Creek technical staff, and still a student at Johns Hopkins. Regardless of her professional stature or experience however, her answers to questions about women in computer science are compelling and informative (emphasis mine):
Q: Why do you think younger girls or college-age women don’t go into computer science?
Leah: Well, I used to be baffled at how they could miss seeing how awesome programming and CS in general are, but there’s a bunch of things that seem to contribute to that. For example, women seem to give up sooner even in everyday situations with technology. Like, it’s socially acceptable for a woman to give up on technology and say, “Oh I can’t figure out how this computer thing works.” My friends who are girls ask for help to fix their computers normally because it’s acceptable for them not to be able to do it. They don’t realize that I’m just going to google the answer anyway! They think I already know the answer! Whereas I think most guys would be embarrassed to admit that they can’t fix their computers. Having experience with going through the frustration of trying to get some piece of technology to work, and eventually succeeding, builds skills that you need for working with technology and for debugging. Also, most girls don’t really get computers of their own when they’re young. It seems like sometimes the family computer is bought mainly for the boy to use and then he’s kind of forced to share it with his sister. That means that girls can’t experiment on computers. You need your own computer because you have to be able to possibly break it while you’re trying new stuff, without getting in trouble. For my sixteenth birthday, I got to build my own computer with my dad and then I could have all the time I wanted on it and break it or whatever. Until I had complete control of my own computer, I never had any interest in trying Linux; when someone else is responsible for keeping your computer functioning, and does a good job of it, there’s little incentive to try something like a different OS, since you’d have to convince other people that it’s a good idea to mess with what’s currently working.
Becky Stern makes objects, for one thing, with unusual properties that occasionally make them difficult to classify. Her silver “Firefox” necklace is straightforward, but her “Laptop Compubody Sock” is decidedly not. Her Vicodin-pill-holding “In Case of Emergency” rings, earrings and necklace could be reasonably classified as jewelry, or maybe Medical Jewelry, but her “TV-B-Gone” Jacket isn’t really mere clothing when it can shut off nearby television sets (at a bar or a Best Buy, for instance) by sliding the zipper…
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