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It’s an exciting week in the world of tech. First, today is the birthday of Grace Hopper. Ms. Hopper, who would have been 107 today, helped create one of the first modern programing languages, COBOL. In 1945, Hopper was responsible for coining a term that you simultaneously hate and that pays your bills. From TIME:
Hopper is credited with coining the term “bug in the system” because of the time she actually found a bug in a computer. As TIME described it in 1984:
She gets credit for coining the name of a ubiquitous computer phenomenon: the bug. In August 1945, while she and some associates were working at Harvard on an experimental machine called the Mark I, a circuit malfunctioned. A researcher using tweezers located and removed the problem: a 2-in. long moth. Hopper taped the offending insect into her logbook. Says she: “From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.”
(The moth is still under tape along with records of the experiment at the U.S. Naval Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, Va.)
Hopper also served in the Navy Reserves for decades and earned the rank of Rear Admiral. Plus, she has a Google Doodle dedicated to her today (in addition to the US destroyer and a supercomputer named for her).
Today also kicks off the beginning of Computer Science Education Week (planned to coincide with Hopper’s birthday).
Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science.
Originally conceived by the Computing in the Core coalition, Code.org is producing CSEdWeek for the first time this year, held in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).
This program aims to reach 5 million students in 33,000 classrooms this week to introduce them to and get them interested in computer science. To catch the kids’ attention, the organization has enlisted the help of celebrities, musicians, tech whizzes and even President Obama, who told kids “Don’t buy a new video game. Make one.”
Computer Science Education Week is offering tutorials in everything from coding on paper and lessons for beginners to courses on JavaScript, other programming languages, a Harvard level class and creating your own mobile and web apps.
And CSEW has worked hard to let everyone get involved, not matter their level of access to devices and the internet.
NO COMPUTERS NEEDED! We will curate a selection of Computer Science tutorials that work on PC’s, smartphones, and tablets – so really you can join wherever you are with whatever you have. …
And if you don’t have any internet-connected devices, you can still participate. Computer Science is all about problem solving, logic, and design, so you can start with pencil and paper (like some of the best professional programmers) using “unplugged” tutorials.
Maybe this week will inspire the next Grace Hopper!