9781422283240

Computer Science

Black Achievement I N SC I E NC E

Elijah McCoy

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Mason Crest

Black Achievement I N SC I E NC E

Biology Chemistry Computer Science Engineering Environmental Science

Inventors Medicine Physics Space Technology

Black Achievement I N SC I E NC E

Computer Science By MARI RICH

Foreword by Malinda Gilmore and Mel Poulson, National Organization for the Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com © 2017 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3554-6 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3557-7 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8324-0 First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Patty Kelley Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com Cover photographs: Vladimirfloyd/DollarPhoto.com; Rob Marmion/Shutterstock (bkgd) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rich, Mari. Title: Computer science / by Mari Rich ; foreword by Malinda Gilmore, Ph.D., Executive Board Chair, and Mel Poulson, Executive Board Vice-Chair, National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). Description: Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, [2017] | Series: Black achievement in science | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016002444| ISBN 9781422235577 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422235546 (series) Subjects: LCSH: Computer scientists--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. | African American scientists--Biography--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC QA76.2.A2 R53 2017 | DDC 004.092/2--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002444

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Contents

Foreword, by Malinda Gilmore and Mel Pouson, NOBCChE . 6 Introduction. 8 Roy Clay Sr.. 10 Clarence “Skip” Ellis. 16 Dorothy Terrell. 24 Andrea Lawrence . 30 Mark Dean. 38 John Henry Thompson. 44 James Mickens. 50 Careers in Computer Science. 56 Text-Dependent Questions . 60 Research Projects. 61 Find Out More . 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms. 63 Index/Author. 64

Key Icons to Look for

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field. Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic moments, and much more!

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cience, Technology, Engineering and Mathe- matics (STEM) are vital to our future, the future of our country, the future of our regions, and the future of our children. STEM is everywhere and it shapes our everyday experiences. Sci- ence and technology have become the leading foundation of global development. Both subjects continue to improve the quality of life as new findings, inventions, and creations emerge from the basis of science. A career in a STEM disci- pline is a fantastic choice and one that should be explored by many. In today’s society, STEM is becoming more diverse and even internationalized. However, the shortage of African Americans and other minorities, including women, still

exists. This series— Black Achievement in Science — reveals the numerous ca- reer choices and pathways that great African-Ameri- can scientists, technologists,

By Malinda Gilmore, NOBCChE Executive Board Chair and Mel Poulson, NOBCChE Executive Board Vice-Chair

engineers, and mathematicians have pursued to become successful in a STEM discipline. The purpose of this series of books is to inspire, motivate, encourage, and educate people about the numerous career choices and pathways in STEM. We applaud the authors for sharing the experi- ences of our forefathers and foremothers and ultimately in- creasing the number of people of color in STEM and, more

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Black Achievement in Science: Computer Science

Series Foreword

specifically, increasing the number of African Americans to pursue careers in STEM. The personal experiences and accomplishments shared within are truly inspiring and gratifying. It is our hope that by reading about the lives and careers of these great sci- entists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians, the reader might become inspired and totally committed to pursue a career in a STEM discipline and say to themselves, “If they were able to do it, then I am definitely able to do it, and this, too, can be me.” Hopefully, the reader will realize that these great accomplishments didn’t come easily. It was because of hard work, perseverance, and determination that these chosen individuals were so successful. As Executive Board Members of The National Organi- zation for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) we are excited about this series. For more than 40 years, NOBCChE has promot- ed the STEM fields and its mission is to build an eminent cadre of people of color in STEM. Our mission is in line with the overall purpose of this series and we are indeed committed to inspiring our youth to explore and contribute to our country’s future in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We encourage all readers to enjoy the series in its en- tirety and identify with a personal story that resonates well with you. Learn more about that person and their career pathway, and you can be just like them.

Series Foreword

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oday, when many people carry Internet-en- abled smartphones in their pockets, it’s hard to imagine a time when computers were massive, room-sized machines used only by select uni- versities and government agencies. That era, however, was not all that far in the past. In 1936, Alan Tur- ing thought of what he characterized as a “universal ma- chine,” later called the Turing machine, which would be ca- pable of computing anything. Building on that concept less than a decade later, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, professors at the University of Pennsylvania, designed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), which took up an entire large room. Jump to the early 1960s when a prototype computer with a mouse and a graphical user interface that might

seem familiar to modern consumers is intro- duced by Stanford Research Institute engi- neer Douglas Engelbart. Suddenly, it seemed as though computers might one day be ac- cessible to the general public, rather than just to scientists and mathematicians working in academia or government posts. In the mid-1970s, desktop-sized per- sonal computers, including the wild- ly popular Radio Shack TRS-80, hit the market. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics talks about the Altair 8080, which came in ready-to-

Computers have come a long way!

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Black Achievement in Science: Computer Science

Introduction

build kit form and caught the attention of two technology enthusiasts, Paul Allen and Bill Gates. They offered to write software for the Altair and subsequently founded their own firm, Microsoft. In 1981, the first IBM personal computer, which used Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system, was introduced. It featured an Intel chip, two floppy disks, and an optional color monitor. For the first time, users in the know began referring to it as a “PC.” Exactly a decade later, in 1991, the world’s first website went online thanks to computer sci- entist Tim Berners-Lee, who conceived of the World Wide Web and designed and built the first Web browser. While people like Engelbart, Gates, and Berners-Lee are justifiably celebrated, many scientists and engineers made other advancements that contributed to computing as we know it today. Although the field has been long been dominated by white men, a handful of African Americans and people of African descent made their mark early on in the Information Age, and their ranks are slowly growing. Those ranks now also fittingly include women. Although our devices are getting smaller, faster, and in- creasingly more powerful, and things that once seemed the stuff of science fiction are becoming more common, there is advancement to be made. The future of computing is wide open and so are the opportunities for people from every background. (The final chapter in this book will discuss how to prepare for your computer science career.) •

Introduction

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mainframe a high-performance computer used primarily by large organizations with multiple users for critical applications Fortran a high-level computer programming language used mainly for scientific computation Underwriters Laboratories an independent company dedicated to promoting safe products and working environments Words to Understand

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Black Achievement in Science: Computer Science

Chapter 1

Roy Clay, Sr.

Born: 1929 Nationality: American Achievements: Hall of Fame inventor who developed the first Hewlett-Packard microcomputer; later founder of his own electronics company

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ilicon Valley technology pioneer Roy Clay, Sr., was a key figure in Hewlett-Packard’s early ven- tures into computers and is now

the respected CEO of his own tech company. Still, he has never forgotten his roots in the all-black town of Kinloch, Missouri, not far from Ferguson, where unarmed black teen- ager Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in August of 2014. In the wake of that tragic incident, Clay wrote in the Mercury News , “It says a great deal that young Mr. Brown will not have the opportunity I had to attend college, build a career and raise a family. Hopefully, my story will help explain why that makes us all the poorer.” Clay was born in 1929 in Kinloch, and while his home had no indoor plumbing, and luxuries were few, he enjoyed the love of his close-knit family and the encourage-

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ment of his teachers. To earn money as a boy, he frequently walked to the nearby town of Ferguson, knocking on doors there to ask for jobs pulling weeds or mowing lawns. He could sometimes earn as much as three dollars a day if he labored hard enough. One particularly hot day, after com- pleting several jobs, he purchased a soda from a local store and sat outside on the curb to drink it. Suddenly, a Ferguson police car pulled up, and although the frightened teen explained that he was merely taking a break before walking home to Kinloch, he was roughly handcuffed and thrown in the back of the car. When the officers stopped near a local pond, he assumed that they

intended to drown him. Instead, they ordered him from the car and warned him (usingmalignant racial slurs) never to set foot in Ferguson again. Relieved, he raced away. “I was safe but without a source of [gardening] income,” he wrote in his op-ed. “When I reached home, I told my mother what I had experi- enced. Her response was, “You will experience rac- ism for the rest of your life, but don’t ever let that be a

A scholarship to St. Louis University opened doors for Clay.

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Black Achievement in Science: Computer Science

reason why you don’t succeed.’” Clay took that advice to heart, and after graduating from Douglass High School in 1946, he won a scholarship to St. Louis University. He was among the first African Ameri- cans ever to be admitted to the school, where he majored in mathematics and graduated in 1951. He dreamed of finding a technology job, and while he was granted interviews because his resume gave no indica- tion that he was black, as soon as hiring managers met him in person, he was summarily dismissed. As he has recalled, he was told at one company that there were no positions for “professional negroes.” Clay instead found work as a schoolteacher, but, undaunted, he continued to look for other opportunities. Finally, in 1956, Clay found work with the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (later known as McDonnell Douglas), programming the company’s cutting-edge IBM and Bur- roughs computers. (Because universities didn’t yet offer degrees in computer science, large corporations looked for mathematics majors to take on programming tasks.) In 1958, he was hired by the Lawrence Radiation Lab- oratory (now known as the Lawrence Livermore National Lab) to write software that modeled how particles of radia- tion might spread through the atmosphere after an atomic bomb was dropped. By 1962, Clay was working as a soft- ware engineer for the Control Data Corporation, a large mainframe computer manufacturer, where he developed soft- ware languages like Fortran .

Roy Clay, Sr.

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David Packard, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, heard of Clay’s work and invited him to discuss a position at the company. Clay was hired as the lead developer for the HP 2116A minicomputer, the first computer ever sold by Hewlett-Packard. The HP 2116A, released in 1966, was only about the size of a typewriter, and its impressive reliability and compact footprint made it an immediate success. Clay, who established Hewlett-Packard’s software de- velopment group and managed the entire computer divi- sion, ultimately became the highest-ranking African Amer- ican at the company. It was not only that work, however, which led to him being dubbed the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” That nick- name emerged when the major investment group Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers tapped him as consultant. Fol- lowing his advice, the group backed such companies as Tandem, Compaq, and Intel, allowing them to flourish and launching a major tech boom. In 1977 Clay, hearing that the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) was going to call for increased safety testing of all electri- cal products, formed his own company, Rod-L Electronics, which creates safety-testing equipment that is now used by manufacturers of electrical and electronics equipment all over the world. His customers include Hewlett-Packard, IBM, AT&T, and Xerox. Clay—who has been inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame—is deeply interested in local

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Black Achievement in Science: Computer Science