The Contribution of Individuals to computer science, communications and the Internet

Rear Adm. Grace Hopper

“If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.”

Grace Hopper

Introduction

Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and a naval officer. Called a pioneer in her field, hopper was one of the first people to work on the Harvard Mark I computer. She is credited with capturing the idea of machine independent programming languages, which in turn led to the development of COBOL. She is also credited with fixing computer glitches. This is where the term “debugging” arose. In general, Grace Hopper was a major influence in the field of computer science and communication. Because of her contribution to computer science she is sometimes referred to as “Amazing Grace“⁽⁴⁾

Discussion

⁽³⁾ Grace Hopper was born in New York City on the 9^th Of December 1906. She was the oldest of 3 children. Her sense of curiosity was shown at the age of seven when she was determined to find the inner workings of an alarm clock. Hopper was admitted to Vassar College at the age of 17. In 1928 she graduated from Vassar College with a bachelor’s degree in psychics and mathematics. She attended Yale University to study her masters in 1930. In 1934, Hopper received her Ph.D. from Yale University.

During the year of 1949, Grace Hopper begun working at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and soon joined the team on the development of UNIVAC I (UNIversal Automatic Computer I) ⁽⁶⁾. However, in 1950 Remington Rand took over the project of UNIVAC I. It was during this year that Hopper finished her original complier work. In 1954, Hopper was named the company’s first director of automatic programming. It was Hoppers department that released some on the first complier-based programming languages, such as ARITH-METIC and FLOW-MATIC.

Hopper devoted much time to convincing business managers that English language compilers such as FLOW-MATIC and COBOL were both feasible and reliable. After her brief retirement from the Navy, Admiral Hopper led an effort to standardize COBOL and to persuade the entire Navy to use this high-level computer language.  With her technical skills she led her team to develop useful COBOL manuals and tools. She then proceeded to persuade her employers to use this means of computer language.

The COBOL programming language wrote by Grace Hopper is still in use within the government, military agencies and in commercial enterprises around the world. In the year 1997 there was an estimate of 200 billion lines of code in existence and with an estimated 5 billion lines of new code annually, this shows how COBOL was a major influence on ‘c’, and the development on newer programming languages who used COBOL in past computer projects. C is one of the most widely used programming languages of all time. There are very few computer systems that don’t have a compiler for c programming.  C has greatly influenced many other popular programming languages, most notably C++, which began as an extension to C. All of these programming languages have developed from a single programming language and methodology by Grace Hopper, that language was COBOL⁽⁷⁾ and methodology was the use of compliers.

However, it was not just COBOL that had a great influence on the internet, computer science and communications. Grace Hopper herself had a massive influence on females in computing ⁽¹⁾. It was her role as systems manager that gave her the ability to prove that women in computing could do the same job that most of the time men undertook. Grace Hoppers influence can be seen in the honours that she has received, Honours such as being awarded the Presidential medal of technology by George Bush in 1991. In 1980, she received the National medal of Technology and the Navy Meritorious Service Medal ⁽²⁾. These honours show just some of the inspirational person of Grace Hopper. ⁽⁵⁾

Conclusion

From my study of Grace Hopper, I truly believe she was a pioneer in the field of computer science. Her work on the COBOL programming language was revolutionary and is still used in modern times. She was the first woman to receive America's highest technology award as an individual. The award recognises her as a computer pioneer, who spent a half century helping to keep America on the leading edge of high technology. 

“A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things.”

Grace Hopper

Bibliography

Gracehopper.org/2011/ (1)

En.wikipedia.org/wiki/grace_hoppers#honors (2)

www.sdsc.edu/sciencewomen/hopper.html (3)

www.thocp.net/biographies/hopper_grace.html (4)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/women_in_computing#Attracting_women_into_computer_science (5)

http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/UNIVAC-1-FullView-A.htm (6)

http://www.cobol.com/ (7)