Celebrate Black History Month with TCS
The feats of humankind, in both the tangible and virtual world, wouldn’t be possible without the expertise and courage of Black trailblazers. As we celebrate Black History Month this year, The Coding Space reflects on how the tremendous contributions of Black coding leaders continue to shape our digital experiences. Below, we’ve highlighted just a few of the many amazing Black STEM leaders!
Honoring Black Trailblazers in STEM
Joy Buolamwini
Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, an award-winning researcher, and the Poet of Code. As a researcher, Buolamwini uncovered large racial and gender bias in AI services from companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. Buolamwini uses art and research to illuminate the social implications of artificial intelligence and endeavors to create a world with more equitable and accountable technology. Her research has been covered in over 40 countries, and as a renowned international speaker, she has championed the need for algorithmic justice at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.
Alan Emtage
In 1989, Alan Emtage conceived of and implemented Archie, the world's first search engine. Nearly three decades later, at a time when "googling" has become a casual term for searching up anything and everything in the blink of an eye, the monumental legacy of Emtage’s contribution lives on in the way that online searching has transformed how we research and how we think.
Kimberly Bryant
Kimberly Bryant is a nationally recognized thought leader in the effort to increase opportunities for women and girls in the tech industry. In 2011, Bryant founded Black Girls CODE, a non-profit organization dedicated to “changing the face of technology” by introducing girls of color to the field of technology and computer science with a concentration on entrepreneurship.
Dr. Marian Croak
Marian Croak has been in technology for 35 years; she currently works as a VP at Google. Her crowning achievement was her contributions to the invention of the Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol in the 1990s. Still in use today, VoIP allows voice communications to be transmitted over Internet Protocol (IP) networks instead of over traditional telephone networks. Every time you hop on a Zoom call, you're using tech that Dr. Croak built!
