Computer Science Superheros

Joy Boulamwini

Joy Boulamwini was born on the 23rd of January, 1990, in Edmonton, Canada. At the age of nine, inspired by the robot Kismet , Boulamwini tought herself XHTML, JavaScript and PHP! She graduated from Georgia Tech as a Stamps President's Scholor in 2012 as an undergraduate of computer science, furthering her education in MIT where she graduated in 2017 with a master degree in Media Arts & Sciences. She then graduated with a PhD also in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT in 2022. Much of her life's work has been uncovering biases in algorithmic softwares. She first discovered a bian in an algorithm when she was in Georgia Tech working with a face identification algorithm for a project. The algorithm couldn't detect her face, but when she put on a white mask or got her lighter skinned friends to try and use the algorithm, it would detect their faces. Since then, she has been working to educate the public and eliminate baises in computer algroithms for equal opportunities for all through a foundation she created in 2016 named the Algorithmic Justic League.

Sources:

• MIT
• Algorithmic Justic League
• Full Bright Program

Katy Bouman

Born at a very young age (1989), Katherine Bouman, also known as Katy Bouman, is a computer scientist working in the field of computational imaging. In 2011, she graduated from the University of Michigan, where she studies electrical engineering. She earned her masters degree in Computer Science in 2013 in MIT, and later in 2017 earning her doctorals degree. In 2013, she joined the Event Horizon telescope project where she, along with her team, developed the program, known as CHIRP, that could recontruct images of black holes take by the Event Horizon telescope. In 2019, she joined Caltech as an assistant professor, and later in 2020 recieving proper proffessorship.

Sources:

• Caltech
• Society for Science
• Black Hole Initiative

Vinton Cerf

Vinton Cerf is known as te father of the internet. He, along with Bob Kahn essentially designed and created the internet which enabled the free flow of information. He was born on June 23, 1943 in Connecticut. He earned his Bachelors of Science from Stanford university. After college, he worked for IBM for two years and soon after earned his masters degree in 1970, and then his PhD in 1972 from University of California. Throughout his career, Cerf worked on multiple computer systems, noteably ARPANET, the first ever system that allowed communication between multiple computers!

Sources:

• Internet Hall of Fame
• Britannica
• NIST