Browsing by Subject "Bell Telephone Laboratories, inc."
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Item Oral history interview with Barbara H. Hornbach(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-10) Hornbach, Barbara H.Barbara Hornbach attended Vassar College where she worked with pioneering computer scientist Winifred Asprey and led the local student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. After her graduation in 1969, she began a career in software development and management with Bell Laboratories in Naperville, Illinois. The interview describes her technical work at Bell (on 4ESS and 5ESS) as well as participation in affirmative action committees and workshops within Bell. During 1980-84, Hornbach chaired a standardization sub-committee within CCITT dealing with human-machine interface standards for telephone switching systems. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Carolyn S. Miller(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-01) Miller, Carolyn S.Carolyn S. Miller graduated in 1968 with a degree in mathematics from the University of Kentucky, which had significant computing courses at the time. She took a job at Bell Laboratories military division in Whippany, New Jersey, working on the Safeguard Ballistic Missile Defense System while gaining a master’s degree from Stevens Institute of Technology. When Bell canceled the missile project, she moved with other Whippany staff to Bell Labs in Naperville, Illinois, to work on software for ESS (Electronic Switching System). The interview discusses affirmative action and the women’s movement. She left Bell in 1976 for General Electric and then North Carolina State, where she experienced significant gender differences in teaching introductory computer science. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Dana Becker Dunn(Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-07) Dunn, Dana BeckerDana Becker Dunn graduated from a rural Illinois high school, then attended Southern Illinois University as a math major taking numerous computing courses and graduating in 1972. She joined Bells Labs as one of the last STA ‘courtship’ hires, completing a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science from Northwestern University. Her technical career began in operating systems programming, with a specialty in relational databases; then she was promoted into supervisory positions in the AT&T headquarters in New Jersey. As a Sloan Fellow she completed an executive MBA at MIT in 1984 then went to work for AT&T information systems division. Among her managerial responsibilities were connecting marketing and technical staffs; overseeing large operational groups in marketing and communications; and in 1994 separating Lucent Technologies from AT&T. She retired in 2001 as an officer of Avaya. She reflects on the transformation of women’s issues within AT&T, including a suggestion that with overt forms of discrimination largely banished, it may have ‘gone underground’ and be more difficult to locate. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Helen Ann Bauer(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-08) Bauer, Helen AnnHelen Bauer studied computer science and mathematics at Purdue University, graduating in 1972 and then starting work as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in Naperville, Illinois. The interview describes Bell’s affirmative action committees and workshops and its corporate culture. Bauer relates her experiences moving into managerial positions beginning in 1977, finding role models in co-workers, organizing support groups for women in management, and relating anecdotes about challenges. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Helen Ann Bauer, Fran Chessler, Mary R. Feay, Mary Holt, Joyce Malleck, and Anita B. Marsh(Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-11-18) Bauer, Helen Ann; Chessler, Fran; Feay, Mary R.; Holt, Mary; Malleck, Joyce; Marsh, Anita B.This interview — with Helen Bauer, Fran Chessler, Mary Feay, Mary Holt, Joyce Malleck, and Anita Marsh — took place during a two-hour luncheon. The interview does not have a biographical or career narrative, and is only loosely chronological. The interviewer posed periodic questions but the interview is mostly the stories, anecdotes, and observations of these six women. The topics include dress codes and AT&T corporate culture; early job experiences and attraction to programming and computing; women in leadership positions at Bell Labs; affirmative action committees and workshops; interactions with the wider 1970s women’s movement; personal experiences with child care; the impact of the Urban Minorities Workshop; observations about the levels of women in computing today; reflections on the transformation of the women’s movement, and responses to the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president (ten days prior to this interview); comparisons of computing with other professions; and general observations about recent modes of computing including mobile computing and social media. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Jan Sharpless(Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-14) Sharpless, JanJan Sharpless graduated from Principia College in southern Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Her father, an executive at Bell Labs, encouraged her to apply for a programmer training position and she was hired by Bell Labs in 1972. She describes several early programming experiences, aimed at solving practical problems experienced in the AT&T phone system. Working in New Jersey, she completed a master’s degree at Rutgers in 1976, and describes working with Chen Foo, a talented scientist-programmer-manager who served as a valued mentor to her. One memorable multi-year project was Cosmos, which assisted with the assignment of phone numbers to subscribers. In 1981 she moved with her husband to the Chicago area, and joined the Indian Hill (Naperville IL) facility to work on 5ESS call processing. Promoted into management and soon becoming an executive, she describes performance reviews, affirmative action, and career management strategies. She retired from AT&T in 2006. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Joseph F. Traub(Charles Babbage Institute, 1984-04-05) Traub, J. F. (Joseph Frederick), 1932-The interview ranges from Traub's upbringing and early education to his first full-time job at Bell Laboratories, but the bulk of the interview concerns his graduate education at Columbia University and his work at the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory. Traub devotes the first part of the interview to his family's escape from Germany in 1938, his education in New York City Public Schools, and his college education at C.U.N.Y. He then turns to his graduate education at Columbia University. In 1955 he became involved with computing at the Watson Computing Laboratory. He discusses the work environment at the Watson Laboratory in the mid-1950s and his own research on an IBM 650 after he became a Watson Fellow in 1957. Some Columbia faculty and Watson Lab personnel are mentioned, in particular, Wallace Eckert and L.H. Thomas. In 1959 Traub was hired by Bell Laboratories. He concludes the interview discussing the environment there and his work on optimal iteration theory.Item Oral history interview with Joseph F. Traub(Charles Babbage Institute, 1985-03-29) Traub, J. F. (Joseph Frederick), 1932-The main topic is institutions in computing. Traub begins by discussing why computer science has developed as a discipline at some institutions but not others. Institutions that are highlighted include Stanford, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon. Traub discusses his experiences as chairman of the computer science departments at Carnegie-Mellon and later Columbia. Other topics include: industrial and government funding of computer science departments (in particular the role of the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Defense Department); the relationships between academic centers, such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia, and Carnegie-Mellon; and the importance of educational institutions to regional centers of industrial computing. At the end of the interview Traub returns to a topic of his earlier interviews, his experiences at Bell and Watson Laboratories.Item Oral history interview with Joseph F. Traub(Charles Babbage Institute, 1984-10-12) Traub, J. F. (Joseph Frederick), 1932-Traub discusses his academic contributions to computer science and mathematics at Bell Laboratories and at Carnegie-Mellon and Columbia Universities. He describes his work on iterative methods and the publication of his 1964 book, Iterative Methods for the Solution of Equations. He talks about his role in the development of computational complexity, out of an attempt beginning in the mid-1960s to construct a theory of operational algorithms. He also discusses algorithms he has constructed for the solution of linear systems and polynomials.Item Oral history interview with Joyce Malleck(Charles Babbage Institute, 2008-08-01) Malleck, JoyceJoyce Malleck graduated from Mundelein College with a major in math and a minor in physics, and then received a master’s degree in math from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She accepted a job at Western Electric and went to work at the Bell Labs facility in Naperville, Illinois. She did programming courses at the corporate training center in Princeton NJ, learning COBOL, assembler, PL/1, and a proprietary Bell database management language. (She later did a MBA at the University of Chicago, completed in 1980.) An early assignment was programming to direct an automatic wiring machine for the ESS manufacturing. She was promoted to department chief, initially maintaining a data center’s operating system then doing software and database development for the customer side of ESS. In the 1970s she started a software quality department, which involved greater attention to written formal specifications, code reviews, and structured developmental processes — software engineering. Leaving Bell in 1989, she worked for Motorola for ten years as a product manager and consultant to industry. She compares Bell’s and Motorola’s treatment of and attitudes to women, relating insightful personal anecdotes. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Judith A. Lindner(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-14) Lindner, Judith A.Judith Lindner graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1968 with a degree in mathematics. Taking a job at Bell Laboratories in Naperville, Illinois, she worked initially in a computer-aided design group, doing assembly-language programming, and then in managerial positions including merit review and team recruitment. The interview describes Bell’s affirmative action committees and workshops as well as its distinctive corporate culture. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with M. Kathleen (Kathy) Detrano(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-17) Detrano, M. KathleenKathy Detrano describes her childhood and single-sex Catholic education that led her to major in mathematics at Chestnut Hill College (near Philadelphia). After graduating, she came to Bell Laboratories in the late 1960s initially to work on the Safeguard Ballistic Missile Defense System, then moved to database access and quality control assignments as a manager. She describes Bell’s affirmative action programs, including several anecdotes about male managers, including those who supported women. The interview discusses specific strategies women at Bell used to confront and diffuse gender discrimination. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Marda Higdon Jones(Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-06) Jones, Marda HigdonMarda Higdon Jones went to high school in Iowa City and attended Iowa State University, graduating in 1972 with a major in mathematics and minor in computer science, and accepting a job with Bell Labs in Naperville, IL. In 1976, after being promoted to MTS, she completed a master’s degree at Northwestern University (and, later, an executive MBA from Columbia University). She discuses the influence on her and her colleagues of the 1970s women’s movement and affirmative action programs at AT&T, including the Men and Women in the Work Environment and Urban Minorities workshops. In the 1970s she worked in software development, then after a one-year rotational assignment in New Jersey, she returned to Naperville in a managerial position and then moved to Holmdel, NJ, as department head in systems engineering then division manager for network architecture. In 1988 she was promoted to director at Bell Labs, and the interview relates several instances of managerial and personnel challenges. She joined Lucent Technologies, the Bell Labs spin-off, in 1996 and retired in 2000. She reflects on 1970s-era gendered images of ‘electrical engineer’ and ‘computer scientist’. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”Item Oral history interview with Ralph E. Griswold and Madge T. Griswold(Charles Babbage Institute, 1990-07-25) Griswold, Ralph E., 1934-; Griswold, Madge T., 1941-Ralph and Madge Griswold recall the development of the Icon programming language. Ralph Griswold begins the interview with a description of the evolution of Icon from SNOBOL4 during his work at Bell Laboratories in the early 1960s. In this context he describes the difficulties of developing software in a corporate environment. Most of the interview concentrates on the development of Icon after Griswold took a faculty position at the University of Arizona. The Griswolds describe the creation of the Icon Project, the project's support from the National Science Foundation, the importance of the project in graduate education in computer science and the contributions of graduate students to the language's development. Also discussed is the dissemination of information regarding Icon through the Icon Analyst and the project's interaction with the commercial software industry through two small software firms, Catspaw and The Bright Forest Company.Item Oral history interview with Ralph E. Griswold and Madge T. Griswold(Charles Babbage Institute, 1993-09-29) Griswold, Ralph E., 1934-; Griswold, Madge T., 1941-Ralph and Madge Griswold discuss how their respective educational backgrounds in electrical engineering and journalism led them separately to Bell Laboratories. Madge discusses her involvement with TEXT90 and TEXT360 in the preparation of technical journal documents. Ralph recalls the informal dissemination of SNOBOL to the academic community. The Griswolds describe Bell Laboratories' involvement with MULTICS and the movement of groups within Bell Laboratories away from GE machines to IBM equipment. From their perspectives as an employee and an administrator respectively, Madge and Ralph describe the climate for women at Bell Laboratories during the 1960s. Ralph discusses how changes in the research environment at Bell Laboratories led him to the University of Arizona. Ralph describes his effort to recruit computer scientists to the fledgling department and Madge discusses her involvement in the recruiting process and the development of the department. The Griswolds also discuss the stagnation of SNOBOL4 after the language manual went out-of-print, and their work at the Bright Forest Company with the development of a commercial Icon implementation.Item Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald(Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-05-04) McDonald, Robert EmmettMcDonald discusses the early years of Remington Rand in the computer business, including the management of Engineering Research Associates and Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company (acquisitions of Remington Rand), the rivalry between the two, their competition for funds, and their relations to the parent company. Other topics include the departure of ERA personnel to form Control Data Corporation; successful products; financial structure of Sperry Rand; collaboration with Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, and MIT on defense projects; Sperry's role in the 1969 IBM anti-trust case; and UNIVAC's involvement in the international market.