Outstanding women in the world of computer technology. Part III

Ada Lovelace knows, if not all, then many. Of course, her work deserves universal recognition and respect. However, in the world of computer science there are a lot of women scientists whose names are extremely rarely included in the "top-10". Their work deserves both attention and respect, since the result of this work in one way or another influenced the computer world, and accordingly, the life of society. Today we will expand our geography a bit, and meet some of the outstanding women in the computer world from Asia and Europe. Go.

Asakawa Chieko (Chieko)



Unfortunately, not all people manage to reach the goal without having to overcome any obstacles on their way. Financial problems, social constraints or family dramas can all interfere. But the most serious obstacle can be a health problem, because our health determines ourselves.

Asakawa Chieko was born in 1958 in Osaka, Japan. She was an active and happy child who dreams of becoming an Olympic champion. But this dream did not come true. At the age of 11, Asakawa damaged the optic nerve while swimming. Sight began to disappear slowly, but irrevocably. And by the age of 14 she was completely blind. Being a budding athlete and losing health is a very, very hard blow for any person.

However, Asakawa could not give up and stand still. Therefore, she entered the Department of English Literature at the Otemon Gakuin University, where she received a bachelor's degree in 1982. After that, Asakawa took a two-year computer programming course for blind people. During training, a very steep electromechanical device was used - Optacon (OPtical to TActile CONverter), which can be translated as an “optical-tactile converter”. This device allowed a blind person to read plain typed text (not in Braille).


( briefly about the device) Optacon consisted of two main parts: a camera and a tactile converter. The man followed the camera through the text, she recorded it and transmitted data to the main converter module. It was a matrix of metal rods 24x6, each of which could individually vibrate. Thus, a certain combination of vibrating rods created a tactile image, giving the blind person an idea of ​​one or another letter, then a word, and the phrase as a whole. The creator of this unique device is John G. Linville (1919-2011) - Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

Asakawa told me that before her there was a question by whom, where and how to work? It is sometimes difficult for a sighted person to find a job, let alone a blind person. By chance, Chieko learned that the blind are hired as computer engineers. Chieko without hesitation grabbed for this chance with both hands. And in 1984, she joined the IBM Research team as a temporary employee. Very quickly, after only a year, she became a full-fledged and permanent employee.

Asakawa has set herself the task of creating tools that can help people with disabilities to fully receive information and operate programs on an equal basis with sighted people. Chieko has developed a word processor for documents in braille, allowing the blind to operate and edit such texts. It was a difficult task, but not as laborious as the creation of a Braille e-library. Chieko says the following about this:

Before the advent of the electronic library, I had to call the Braille library and say, “I would like to read Harry Potter, can you send me a book?” And they sent me the book by mail. But after the development of the electronic library, we can access the books and download them at any time.

This colossal work was and is extremely important for blind people, because it gives them an opportunity to plunge into the world of literature, knowledge and information along with everyone. And the right to "food" for the mind should have all the people.

After working on the library, Asakawa began developing another equally important “assistant” for the blind, a plug-in for the Netscape browser that could convert text to speech and improve the web search tools for the needs of the blind. IBM liked this plugin and in 1997 it became a full-fledged company called Home Page Reader. This plugin has been the most popular and most common text-to-speech tool for over 5 years. In 2004, Asakawa Chieko received her Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Tokyo.


Asakawa Chieko never part with her smartphone, which helps her to perform most of the actions on her own.

Such outstanding works in the field of computer technology have not gone unnoticed either by IBM or by the global scientific community. In 2003, Asakawa Chieko was included in the international hall of fame "Women in Technology" (Women in Technology). And in 2009, Chieko received the honorary (highest title) title IBM Fellow, becoming the first woman from Japan to receive this title. The Japanese government also noted the merits of the Asakawa Medal of Honor with a purple ribbon (issued since 1955 to people who have made a significant contribution to the development of science and technology).


Asakawa Chieko demonstrates his development - an assistant for the blind (a video preview may display an error, but it actually works)

At the moment, Asakawa is working on the Accessibility project, the main task of which is to improve the lives of people with disabilities (people with disabilities, the elderly, etc.). Using modern technologies, including AI, the project should simplify the lives of such people, giving them easier access to information, the ability to fully navigate the city and lead an active social life.

My motivation is this - when I start something, I have to finish it. I can't afford to give up halfway. I have difficulty, like a blind person, with the availability of information or movement. This painful experience helps me modernize my life. I really like Harry Potter. Despite the fact that he grew up in very difficult conditions, his heart did not break. He never gave up and always tried to help people. I think we can learn a lot. I have no magic powers like Harry Potter. I just have to make an effort to improve my life. It is difficult to compare what kind of life was better for me - with or without vision. But now I can say - I am very happy.

In this video, Asakawa Chieko talks about the fact that her day is most important, and how technology can help blind people.

Asakawa is not just an outstanding engineer and developer. She is an example to follow, not only for people with disabilities, but also for those who have not encountered such difficulties. You can never give up, you can never stop believing in yourself and your mind. Perhaps, having reached the finish line of your work, you will not like the result. It may not be as outstanding as you would like. But if you give up halfway, or if you are afraid to step on this path, then there will be no result at all.

Alexandra Moysilovich



In order to benefit society, it is not always necessary to invent or develop something new or improve the old. Sometimes, to improve the life of society, it is necessary to analyze this life.

Alexandra Moysilovich was born in 1968 in Belgrade (at that time Yugoslavia). As a child, Alexandra wanted to become an artist. Her parents reacted to such plans with restraint, but strictly:

My father told me that I can become anyone. But when I remain penniless, I must be sure that they will not have to pay my bills.

It was a very opaque hint that the artist would be hungry, and you need to choose a different path. Possessing an inquisitive mind and good skills in exact sciences, Alexandra entered the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade. In 1992 she received a bachelor’s degree, in just 2 years and a master’s degree. These years were difficult for Alexandra and for all her countrymen due to the political and economic crisis in the country.


Dwelling houses damaged by shelling (Sarajevo city)

I grew up in a country that no longer exists. The situation was very difficult. Sometimes there was no gas, electricity, water or even food. This period determined what I will be in the future. In general, he made me more cheerful (life appreciating) and strong.

The turning point in Alexandra's life was her doctoral dissertation, which she successfully defended in 1997. Her work described the so-called "computer vision". Alexandra wanted to teach a computer to see and analyze images, or rather x-rays, in order to determine the visible symptoms of cancer. Who would have thought that her work would be noticed by scientists on the other side of the world, namely, scientists from Bell Labs (Bell Labs). In 1998, she was invited to Bell Labs and moved to the United States. She worked there until 2000. Not without disappointment. Her work on computer vision aroused in everyone a keen interest, but was quickly forgotten. Realizing that on her own, she would not be able to implement it at that time, Alexandra switched to another no less complex and important work, namely the analysis of big data. At that time, such a thing as “data science” or “analysis (calculation / processing) of data” simply did not exist. In 2000, IBM invited Alexandra to a research center, where she still works.


The alphabet of science: the letter D = Data. Alexandra Moysilovich talks about the importance of data and how they are used

She is now the head of AI Foundations at the Thomas Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. This department is engaged in machine learning, multidimensional signal processing, pattern recognition. And most importantly, the application of these technologies to various areas of society: health, financial modeling, business analyst, biometrics, etc.

Moisilovich is also a co-director of the IBM Science for Social Good project, aimed at maximizing the effective use of modern technologies in the process of improving society.


Alexandra Moysilovich, “Data analysis for the benefit of society”

Alexandra Moysilovich does not just analyze the data, she also creates more and more new methods of this process, because the more accurate, faster and better the analysis is, the more efficiently you can use its results. Alexandra already has 15 patents in this area, and this is clearly not the limit.

Data is of great importance in society. They surround us every day, even if we do not think about it. Understanding the data, we understand the essence.

In 2006, one person approached me and asked me to analyze various companies. He wanted to demonstrate to someone that companies investing in IT outsourcing are better than those that do not. After analyzing a bunch of data, we were able to prove the correctness of this statement. The results of the analysis have become more powerful than any advertising campaign.

Continuing the importance of analyzing data within a company, Alexandra says the following:

Imagine that the company has an ideal employee. He does everything on time and can cope with even the most hopeless project. If you create his personal mathematical model, according to its parameters you can select the same employees in the company.

And Alexandra had to conduct a similar analysis of big data, creating mathematical models for more than 50,000 employees of IBM.

Alexandra's contribution to the science of data was awarded with many awards, and IBM awarded her the most honorable title for its employees - IBM Fellow.



Data analysis is not the most visible area of ​​research. Most often, scientists from this field remain in the shadow of larger, larger-scale and “bright” projects and research. However, we should not forget that the basis of any other project is all the same data that needs analysis. This process is as integral to the world of information technology as air is to humans. And the incredible works of Alexandra Moysilovich, who is at the origin of data science, are proof of this.

Pascal Fung



Can a car (android or computer) fully understand a person on an emotional level? The first thing I want to answer is no. The car has no emotions, how can it understand them? However, not everyone thinks the same.

Pascal Fung was born in 1966 in the city of Shanghai (China). Her parents were artists, and therefore it is quite logical that they were preparing her from the cradle for the future of a man of art. At the age of 11, in 1977, Fung moved to Hong Kong with her mother and sister. This period was extremely difficult for all residents of China, since the country had just begun to recover from the effects of the "cultural revolution."


Fung surrounded art, but she chose the exact sciences. It's all about the books that she began to read in early childhood. Science fiction about the incredible technology, about the future, about robots pushed Pascal in the direction of computer science.

Pascal received her secondary education at Belilios, the oldest school for girls in Hong Kong. In school, she organized two circles for students: electronics and astronomy. According to Pascal Fung, her environment did not stimulate or encourage girls who wanted to do science. Therefore, the next educational stage Fung took place not in China, but in the USA. She received a bachelor's degree from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1988. Five years later, she became a master of computer science at Columbia University. Naturally, no one thought about this, because in 1997 Fung became a doctor of science.


School building Belilios

In those days, Pascal's ideas and her views on the future of the computer world were for many extremely unusual, futuristic, and even revolutionary. However, whatever surrounding people said there, Fung continued to work in her field, namely in the sphere of interaction between the machine and man. The main directions that Pascal Fung uses in his work are natural language processing, colloquial language systems, recognition of emotions and moods and predictive analytics. The combination of these areas allows you to create intelligent systems that can not only understand people at the speech level, but also at the emotional level.

We speak with animals. It is the tone of our speech, the emotional background of our words that helps them understand us, even without understanding the words themselves. Therefore, the emotional background is an important component of semantic representation.

During her long career, Pascal Fung made a huge contribution to the development and improvement of such a complex field of computer science as the interaction of man and machine. She also learned 6 languages ​​in parallel, which is not surprising, given the nature of her occupation. Currently, as a professor at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong, Fung continues to conduct research and lead various projects. One of them is the "talking head" of the android. This machine will be able not only to recognize the speech of the interlocutor, but also its micromimics, as well as the emotional background of the phrases. Android will be able to speak, showing emotions that will correspond to the phrase, the topic of the conversation or the emotions of the interlocutor.

In addition to the above, Fung is the leader of many research groups that are involved in robotics, the Internet of things and even financial analytics. Thanks to the efforts of Fung in the field of pairing languages ​​and technologies, the first search engine in Chinese was released in 2001, as well as the first virtual assistant for smartphones in Chinese in 2010.


Professor Fung after the award from the Hong Kong Association of Women Entrepreneurs (Hong Kong Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association)

Fung's colossal work in the field of speech recognition, the implementation of emotional AI, expanding the possibilities of human-machine interaction, and much more was marked by many honorary titles and awards. Fung also regularly participates in various international scientific and economic forums.



In addition to scientific activities, Fung promotes “technology transfer” (when a new technology or research does not remain closed, but spread in society, transferred from university to university, from laboratory to laboratory, etc.), gender equality and the triumph of the mind.


Interview with Pascal Fung on the topic of “Empathy Computer Training”

Being first in something is always difficult, because you have no opportunity to use the experience gained to you, because it simply does not exist. However, this is not an insurmountable obstacle. This is only the difficulty on the way to the goal. Even if this goal is as unusual and futuristic as emotional heart-to-heart talk between man and machine.

Mary Lee Woods



Creating a program can be very difficult. Even making every effort, it may still be errors. And the search for these "jambs" can be even more difficult. Especially if we are talking about programs and computers of the sample of the 50s.

Mary Lee Woods was born on March 12, 1924 in Birmingham (England). Mary's parents were teachers. While studying at school (Yardleys School), Mary showed great interest in mathematics. And since the student could not study many subjects at once (all in a row), Mary had to abandon English and French in order to study mathematics, geography and physics more time.


School building Yardleys

Her mom and dad from an early age stimulated her daughter to receive education, since they belonged to those people who believed that a woman should have an alternative, life choices, and not marriage — children-kitchen-pension. Here is what Mary herself says about this:

As far as I remember, they met at the women's meeting (where women were in favor of their rights) and the idea of ​​women's rights was very fascinating to them. They understood that it is extremely important that a woman wants and feels. It is important to have an alternative to just marriage, which was considered the norm for many people then and even now many people think so.

Mary did not have time to start studying at the University of Birmingham, as the world faced Nazi aggression. Mary, like other residents of the city, was evacuated to the small town of Lydney in Gloucestershire. According to Woods, this year was not an easy one. The evacuated children lived in the families of the citizens of Lydney, feeling a severe shortage of provisions. And in the winter months there was nothing to heat the room.

It was complicated. When all these children arrived in Lydney, one of the problems was the lack of banal blankets. The winter was very cold, and we took refuge not only with our coats, but even the dresses on top of them were laid to at least somehow warm up.

A year later, the children returned to Birmingham. The damage from the bombing was immense. The school in which Mary studied was hit by bombing, because the roof was covered in holes, there was no heating, and on rainy days everything was flooded with water. Because most of the time, the lessons were held in bomb shelters. With the educational process was also not so smooth. The early teaching staff was mixed (men and women). Men were sent to the war, because the teachers simply did not have enough.


Birmingham streets after the bombing

For 2 years I had 5 different teachers of mathematics. This is not recommended. After that, I thought about what to do next. The state offered a scholarship for engineers, and I took advantage of it and went to Manchester.

From 1942 to 1944, Mary studied at the University of Birmingham, but during these years many students were sent to various military bases. Initially, Mary was supposed to work in the Farnborough aeronautical research laboratory. But plans have changed because of the tragic events. The only brother Mary, who joined the ranks of the soldiers, was killed in battle. Mary could not leave grieved parents. She therefore petitioned to transfer her to the city of Malvern (Worcestershire). At this point, everything was focused on radars, in which, according to Mary, she did not understand anything at all. Two years later, working on what she didn’t like, Woods returned to the university and completed her studies in 1947.


Malvern, Southern District (1949)

Tired of the war, with grief in his heart because of the death of his brother, Mary goes on a very decisive step. After reading Professor Richard van der Riet Woolley’s article in the Monthly Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society magazine, she decided to do astronomy. Woods wrote a letter to the professor, to which he responded with an invitation to work at the observatory in Canberra.


An example of the spectral classification table of stars

Here is how Mary Woods describes her work at the observatory:

Some people at Harvard have classified stars in two ways: magnitude and radius. The theory of Arthur Eddington stated that if you know these two parameters of an ordinary star, you can also determine them in other stars. The magnitude is the varying degree of brightness that we see in the sky, and it depends on the distance. There is also true luminosity, radius and mass. But only 2 of these parameters are independent, and if you find them, you will find the rest, given the hydrogen, which provides luminosity.

Harvard identified some standard Northern Hemisphere stars to be used to classify others. Some of these stars were visible in the southern hemisphere. The observatory had a huge number of star slides that needed to be classified. And they put me in charge of this job.

Routine and monotonous work on the stars did not like Mary much, therefore, after 3 years she returned to her homeland. Woods again faced the uncertainty of her future. However, chance is not accidental, as they say. Mary saw an ad in Nature Magazine, “Requires mathematics to work on a digital computer.”

An interesting and tempting offer, but what is a “digital computer”? This question arose in the head of Mary.

I did not know what it is. Before that, the maximum I used was Brunsviga (mechanical calculator).

Brunsviga Nova 13 mechanical calculator (model year - 1920)

Mary spent two days in the library studying what a computer is, and then went for an interview. In order to increase her chances of getting a job, Woods asked smart questions, even if she didn’t quite understand the answers to them.

Mary Woods was hired as a programmer. A group of engineers and programmers under the leadership of John Bennett worked on the creation of a commercial version of the Mark I computer (the first fully electronic computer with an in-memory program) called Ferranti Mark 1. It was planned to create a public computer that would be sold freely to anyone. Later a more advanced version was released - Ferranti Mark 1 *.


Tom Kilburn (one of the creators of Ferranti Mark 1) stands next to his creation (1950)

Woods wrote programs on machine code. The computer used 40-bit arithmetic. This greatly complicated the process of scaling variables in the program while maintaining a sufficiently high accuracy.

A group of programmers decided to embed in memory a sequence of numbers from 0 to 31 in the form of a 5-bit Bodo binary code on the tape that was used for input / output:

/ E @ A: SIU½DRJNFCKTZLWHYPQOBG »MXV £

Another difficulty was two-tier storage. 8 pages of random access memory on cathode ray tube and 512 pages of secondary storage on a magnet drum. Each page consisted of 32 40-bit words that were displayed as 64 20-bit lines on the CRT.

All this is terribly difficult - to make the car work. But when it works, errors arise, as if someone did not try to avoid them. It was incredibly difficult and long to diagnose these errors. The programmer had to sit and watch the computer perform one operation at a time to see if everything was working or something was wrong. This process took valuable time. Then the project leader John Bennett suggested Mary Woods to write a program that can print the contents of the memory and the individual lines of the storage in a particular program in order to get rid of the need to constantly monitor the computer. The hardest thing for Mary was to make this program parallel, that is, to make it work at the same time for the purpose of diagnostics (the main program), without interfering with it. At the same time, there was very little space in the main memory. Among other thingsMary wrote a program that was able to simultaneously solve 40 equations, which was very much at that time.


Mary Woods with her husband Conway Berners-Lee (1954)

In addition to programming, Woods has always advocated for the rights of women. She found that the project staff members receive a lower salary than employees, although the work is done the same, if not more difficult, and in the same amount. Not wanting to tolerate such an attitude, Mary made a protest and complaint to the personnel department. Her salary leveling requirements were approved.

Mary Woods worked on the Ferranti project until 1955, after which she retired. She wanted to spend time with her family and newborn son. However, such a good specialist does not remain without work even in the walls of the house. Numerous projects, both small and large, began to turn to her for help. Thus, Mary became one of the first freelancers, completing programming orders from the comfort of her home.


Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, son of Mary Woods, and the creator of the world wide web,

Mary always spoke rather modestly about her programming skills and contributions to this science. However, with what, she was always ready to boast about her son. And this is not surprising, since Mary Woods is the mother of Tim Berners-Lee - the man who created the world wide web.

My greatest merit is to be the grandmother of the Internet.

Mary Woods is a prime example of what to follow your heart. If you want to be a chemist (for example), then no other, even the most entertaining, activity will make you happy. You will always regret not following the path that you chose.

A short audio recording in which Mary Woods talks about programming

Martha Kwiatkowska



Sometimes, not very standard methods are needed to search for errors.

Marta Kwiatkowska was born on February 26, 1957 in Poland. Marta graduated from the Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Krakow. She immediately received a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science. As a student, she was extremely capable, as evidenced by the fact that she was awarded the distinction mark “summa cum laude” (with the highest honor), which means the highest mark in the Polish system of knowledge assessment.


Building of the University of Leicester

In 1989, Martha defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Leicester (England). For many years, Kwiatkowska has been teaching at various universities in the world. However, she received public recognition not only for this.

As a researcher, Kwiatkowska devoted herself to the study, modeling, and verification of probabilistic systems. As well as the creation of new techniques for testing models.

The result of the painstaking work of Martha and her team was the probabilistic symbolic verifier PRISM. ( PRISM Report )

PRISM is a formal verification program * for modeling and analyzing systems that possess probabilistic characteristics. The origin of such systems can be the use of a probabilistic algorithm (randomization) in Bluetooth communication protocols or in security protocols (for example, Crowds or Onion routing). Systems that can be analyzed using PRISM also include biochemical reactions (metabolism).

Using PRISM, one can analyze the Markov chain (with discrete time and with continuous time), the Markov decision-making process, and probabilistic extensions of the formalization of a time automaton.



Another feature of PRISM is its openness (open-source). Anyone can dig into the code of this software. And in 2013 and 2014, PRISM participated in the Google Summer of Code (Google organizes an annual competition in which participants perform certain tasks as part of an open-source project. The winner receives up to $ 50,000, and the project itself costs $ 500 for each participant).


PRISM working environment

If you are interested in seeing what PRISM is and how it works close up, then you can download both the program and its code by reference.

PRISM became the first formal verification tool of its kind and the gold standard for subsequent development and research in this area.

Creating a PRISM, though it is an outstanding job, is far from the only one in Marta Kvyatkovskaya’s career.



Not surprisingly, looking at this list of works that Martha was awarded many awards and honorary titles. At the moment, in addition to research work, Martha teaches at Oxford University, where she is a professor of computer science.


Marta Kwiatkowska with her students (2016)

Now Marta Kwiatkowska heads the Mobile Autonomy project, sponsored by the European Research Council, which should be completed in 2020.


Martha Kwiatkowska talks about mobile autonomous robots

. Unfortunately, I did not manage to find information about what prompted Mart to follow the path of computer science. But whatever it is, it was not in vain. An outstanding mind, the ability to analyze and identify certain causal relationships and the “pinch” of creativity allowed Martha to create magnificent things, for which she will be well-deservedly remembered for a very, very long time.

Epilogue

Sadly, the important research, innovations, discoveries and developments of most scientists are known only to a very narrow circle of people. Although we feel the impact of their work every day, because our life is now inextricably linked with technology, in particular with computer technology. Any scientist, be it a woman or a man, first of all remains a scientist - a person with an inquisitive mind and a desire to understand what works with the aim of perfection and creation. So that they won't tell you, if you want to build for the good of society, if you want to devote yourself to the world of science, act. Do not give up and keep on going. The path can be long and winding, but the harder it is, the brighter the feelings will be at its completion. Explore, think and create.

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