Women in the History of Computing Technology

"Today, women are not aware that the purpose of engineering is to produce goods and services that will advance the health and well being of mankind. Few universities have an introduction to engineering as a freshmen course. The emphasis, in the first year, is on math, physics and chemistry. The courses taken together can become very difficult. Women are interested in problem solving of human issues, while the basic tenets of these courses are rarely related to real problems, and women drop out. There is no interplay between technology and society that might encourage freshmen women. Women like a broader view of what they're doing in relation to others. They're not as narrowly focused."

Thelma Estrin

Thelma Estrin is a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles and a true pioneer in the field of biomedical engineering. Her work is focused on combining concepts from anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience with electronics and electrical engineering. She is best known for becoming the first scientist to use computing technology to solve problems in health care and in medical research and designing the first system for analog-digital conversion of electrical activity from the nervous system, a precursor to the application of computers in medicine.

Thelma Estrin was born in New York City. She graduates from City College of New York (CCNY), where, in 1941, she meets her future husband Jerry. A year later, in 1942, she takes a three month course for engineering assistants at Stevens Institute of Technology and after spending two years working at the Radio Receptor Company, in 1946, along with Jerry, she moves to Madison, Wisconsin in order to pursue an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin.

Estrin receives her B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in 1948, 1949, and 1951, respectively. When Jerry accepts an offer to join the John von Neumann’s computer project at the Institute for Advanced Study, she moves to Princeton, New Jersey with him but remains determined to maintain her own career. So she does. In November 1951, she is hired as a research assistant at the Electroencephalography Department of the New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Neurological Institute. There she develops an interest in biomedical engineering for the first time, an interest that later changes entirely the course of her professional life.

Along with Jerry, Thelma spends fifteen months in Israel working on the Weizmann Automatic Computer (WEIZAC). Once the machine is done, it becomes the first electronic computer in the near East.

In 1960, Estrin joins the Brain Research Institute (BRI), and within a short period of time becomes Director of its Data Processing Laboratory. While working there she provides support for a number of different research projects and helps dozens of scientists make use of computers for solving various problems. She further publishes 50 technical papers on the use of computing technology in the health care field.

In 1980, Thelma Estrin accepts a position as a professor in the Computer Science Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA. Meanwhile she serves as a president of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and becomes the first woman ever elected to national office as vice president of IEEE. In the late 1970s, she is the first female scientist to join the board of trustees of the Aerospace Corporation.

Estrin’s other honors include a Fulbright Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute in Israel to investigate EEG patterns associated with epilepsy, an Outstanding Engineer of the Year Award from the California Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, the Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers (1981), the Haradan Pratt Award (1991), and the Superior Accomplishment Award from the National Science Foundation. She is also a founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Sources

The information presented above is taken from the following online sources:

• -- Oral-History: Thelma Estrin (IEEE Global History Network)
• -- Thelma Estrin (IEEE Global History network)
• -- Dr. Thelma Estrin (WITI Hall of Fame, WITI)
• -- Thelma Estrin (Society of Women Engineers)