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Browsing by Subject "Northwestern University"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Oral history interview with Anita B. Marsh
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-09) Marsh, Anita B.
    Anita Marsh majored in mathematics at Texas Tech and gained a master’s degree in mathematics at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1968, then took a position at Bell Laboratories (Naperville, IL) where she learned IBM assembly language on the job. One early assignment was creating a software emulator for the hardware of an ESS then in development. Marsh describes her experiences working part-time or flexible hours as a full Member of Technical Staff while raising children and lobbying for day care. Subsequent assignments were in internetworking, commercial UNIX, and 5ESS. In recognition of her technical achievements, she was made a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1983 and retired from Bell in 1996. She describes her subsequent software work for Tellabs in wireless telephones and VOIP and for Arris in cable modems. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Don Norman
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2020-01-28) Norman, Don
    This oral history, with one of Human Computer Interaction’s (HCI) and Cognitive Science’s foremost pioneers Don Norman, is part of a CBI project done for ACM SIGCHI. It briefly addresses Norman’s early life, before focusing on his graduate education and prolific career. This includes Norman’s discussion of his mentors and influences, career launch, leadership in Cognitive Science, and his intellectual and organizational contributions to HCI as field and ACM SIGCHI as an organization (the field and SIGCHI’s evolution). He recounts his leadership of UCSD’s Design Laboratory, his Chairing the UCSD Psychology Dept., educational philosophies, research management, and collaborations (with George Mandler, Danny Bobrow, and many others). He also touches upon his consulting, and his time working in industry (Apple, HP). Finally, the interview offers contexts on some of his principal publications, including his seminal book The Psychology of Everyday Things (POET), which along with his other scholarship developed and propelled forward a science of design.
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    Oral history interview with Fran Chessler
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-14) Chessler, Fran
    Fran Chessler attended the University of Michigan as a General Motors Scholar, majoring in mathematics and psychology and graduating in 1970. She went to work at Bell Labs Naperville, working on assembly-language programming to collect call data for 1ESS. She discusses the gender biases in the STA and MTS hiring grades. Promoted to MTS she did a master’s at Northwestern University. She discusses affirmative action and the distinct culture of Bell Labs Indian Hill/Naperville. In part owing to connections from the Men and Women in the Work Environment workshops, she moved to the computer center department doing systems programming on IBM computers. She describes an effective management style by her supervisor, Dana Dunn. She moved into a department chief position at Western Electric’s network system division, and compares affirmative action there to Bell Labs. In the mid-1980s she experienced unsettled times in AT&T computer systems, then returned to Bell Labs (all in Chicago) as a supervisor. In moving to the business side as senior product manager, she completed an executive MBA at Northwestern University; and retired from AT&T in 2001. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Karen Coates
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-14) Coates, Karen
    Karen Coates grew up in rural northwest Washington state, then graduated from Mills College (Oakland CA) with a degree in mathematics. She describes lessons learned in running FORTRAN programs at nearby Cal State Hayward, a summer internship at IBM, and then work with UC Berkeley’s Laura Gould that led to computer-science teaching at Mills and at Stanford University. Continuing her computer science education at Northwestern University, she met many Bell Labs women working there on master’s degrees and applied herself for a job at Bell Labs. She began work at Bell Labs Naperville in 1974 as a Member of Technical Staff assigned to 4ESS then moved to the Computation Center and worked on the Bell Laboratories Network, an early packet-switched network. She describes working at Bell’s Murray Hill (NJ) facility with Bjarne Stroustrop, during the time he developed “C with Classes” which evolved into C++. Returning to Naperville/Indian Hills, she took up managerial positions in the networking project and then in switching-system applied research. She relates her experiences with the 1970s women’s movement and the supportive network of women colleagues. She left Bells Labs in 1985 and moved to California, where she worked for a subsidiary of TRW on military intelligence systems; a communications company called Octel; a startup venture; and a health-care enterprise celled Omnicell. She describes subtle transformations in gender discrimination in the 1980s and in Silicon Valley. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Marda Higdon Jones
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-06) Jones, Marda Higdon
    Marda 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).”
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    Oral history interview with Yvonne M. Shepard
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-17) Shepard, Yvonne M.
    Yvonne Shepard was born in Puerto Rico and graduated in 1968 with a math degree from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, an all-women school in Indiana. She accepted a job at Bell Labs as a STA, while a male classmate (from Rose Polytechnic) hired in as MTS. Transferred to Chicago, she did master's work in engineering at Northwestern (graduating in 1976) and became MTS. She discusses several instances of male managers’ attitudes and anxieties about women employees. (She along with Mary Holt and Denise McGrew organized the Men and Women in the Work Environment workshops.) She took up a liaison position for the Bell Data Network, then assumed increasingly responsible managerial and executive positions with the AT&T organization, gaining an executive MBA in 1982 and further training in international business. Shepard became President and COO of AT&T Puerto Rico then worked in AT&T International’s marketing organization. She retired from AT&T in 1999, and pursued consulting assignments with Direct TV of Latin America and Advanta Corporation. Following 2001 she helped lead Hispanics Inspiring Students’ Performance and Achievement (HISPA). This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”