The primary role is to address the hardware and software issues. The professionals deal with creating, assembling, installing and maintaining computer systems. They are experienced and knowledgeable professionals with hands-on experience with different tools of repair and maintaining computer hardware, software and network/Internet issues. Her legacy, and that of the other early human computers, is literally written in the stars.A PC technician often referred to as a computer technician or PC repair technician is responsible for identifying, troubleshooting and resolving computer issues. She is currently working on NASA’s mission to Jupiter. Now 80 and NASA’s longest-serving female employee, Sue Finley was originally hired in 1958 to work on trajectory computations for rocket launches, and is now a software tester and subsystem engineer. One of the earliest human computers still works at JPL. A physicist, space scientist and mathematician, Johnson provided the calculations for Alan Shepherd’s historic first flight into space, John Glenn’s ground-breaking orbit of the earth and the trajectory for Apollo 11’s moon landing. Katherine Johnson- who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by President Barack Obama-joined the team at Langley in 1953. That same year, Mary Jackson joined her team, working on the supersonic pressure tunnel project that tested data from wind tunnel and flight experiments. In 1951, Vaughan became the first African American manager at Langley and started, like her cohorts on the West coast, to hire women. Already having to ride in the colored section of a segregated bus, she was put to work in the “colored” computers section. (Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)Ī remarkable group of African American women, working at what would become NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, were breaking down their own gender and racial barriers. US President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to NASA mathematician and physicist Katherine Johnson at the White House. Way ahead of her time, she offered her employees her own version of unpaid maternity leave, rehiring them after they had left to give birth. It took supervisors like Ling to think outside the box. At a time when maternity leave did not exist, pregnancy could be detrimental to a women’s career. Ling actively hired women who didn’t have an engineering education, encouraging them to attend night school. Helen Ling was one such supervisor who followed in Roberts’ footsteps. Roberts set a precedent for future female supervisors who made it their job to hire women, often taking a chance on young women right out of college. When tasked with building out her team, she made the decision to hire only women, believing men would undermine the cohesion of the group and not take direction well from a woman. Coming to engineering later in life, she was meticulous and driven, rising through the ranks and becoming a supervisor in 1942. Macie Roberts was about 20 years older than the other computers working at JPL. Helen Ling is at the second desk in the left row. Barbara Paulson is on the telephone (standing, back left). Macie Roberts’ computing group circa 1955 (far right).
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