logo
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • About Us
  • Products
  • Services
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Training
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Configuration
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Customization
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • White Paper download
    • CRM for SMB
  • Clients
Contact Us 610.355.1978
Blog
Women involved in the 1st Digital Computer
Posted on 02/24/2016

February 14, 2016 was the 70th anniversary of the commissioning of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator & Computer)  which was developed right here in Philadelphia!  The project was commissioned in the wartime years, primarily to develop computing capability to determine the path of shells and bombs to increase target accuracy. ENIAC also assisted in the development of the nuclear capability and was so fast that it was able to compute the landing position of a shell faster than it took the shell to travel its trajectory!

My good friend Jim Scherrer, founder of Compuseum (http://www.thecompuseum.org/) was kind enough to invite me to the celebration at the Moore School at the University of Pennsylvania.  A fairly large percentage of the attendees were family members of those involved in the original project. One of the two key engineers on the project, Bill Mauchly (son of John Mauchly) was at this celebration. It was a privilege & an honor to meet Bill & exchange words/insight into the building of ENIAC. We were also able to visit the displays which consisted of some of the panels of the original machine still intact from 70 years ago! It was also interesting to find out that the word “computer” related to the people who worked with the machine, and not the machine itself! 

Some other insight I found interesting came from Tom Haig & Mark Priestly of UPenn. They provided the details that went into the development of the ENIAC. They spoke about the original budget of $150,000 that ballooned to $500,000 (some things don’t change!), and that male engineers were in charge of hardware, but the software, wiring, and programming were all done by women.  It seems there were around 40 women involved & they all loved their jobs on the cutting edge of technology in a world that was male dominated! There is an interesting paper on the women of ENIAC which can be read here: http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/csep590/06au/readings/00511940-frist.pdf.

Unfortunately, the percentage of women involved in the world of programming today is much less that what it was in the early years. EBS is proud to support the effort to promote women in science, by helping set up a high school visits to the Microsoft Technology Center in Malvern, Pa.  Microsoft is a big supporter of education, and EBS is a sponsor for the Technovation Challenge (http://www.technovationchallenge.org/) initiative in Delaware County, Pa, which promotes girls to learn and participate in programming activities.  EBS is a Microsoft Silver Partner, and deals with custom applications, CRM and technology staffing for school districts.

eniac image

 

 

Eastern Business - 608x245

Categories

  • CRM Implementation
  • Database Applications
  • For Your Information
  • Office 365
Address

EBS, Inc.

1990 Sproul Road,
Second Floor, Suite B

Broomall, PA 19008

Phone

610.355.1978

Fax

610.973.7815

    Site Map Contact Us
    logo

    © 2015-2020, Ebs, Inc.,

    All Rights Reserved

     

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

    Necessary Always Enabled

    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

    Non-necessary

    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.