- About MAA
- Membership
- MAA Publications
- Periodicals
- Blogs
- MAA Book Series
- MAA Press (an imprint of the AMS)
- MAA Notes
- MAA Reviews
- Mathematical Communication
- Information for Libraries
- Author Resources
- Advertise with MAA
- Meetings
- Competitions
- Programs
- Communities
- MAA Sections
- SIGMAA
- MAA Connect
- Students
- MAA Awards
- Awards Booklets
- Writing Awards
- Teaching Awards
- Service Awards
- Research Awards
- Lecture Awards
- Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners
- D. E. Shaw Group AMC 8 Awards & Certificates
- Maryam Mirzakhani AMC 10 A Awards & Certificates
- Two Sigma AMC 10 B Awards & Certificates
- Jane Street AMC 12 A Awards & Certificates
- Akamai AMC 12 B Awards & Certificates
- High School Teachers
- News
You are here
Documentary Reveals Secret Role of Women Mathematicians During WWII
January 4, 2011
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII (2010) is a new documentary relates the little-known details of the contributions of college-educated women mathematicians, scientists, and technicians to winning a war and ushering in the computer age.
Included are the stories of Doris Polksy, her sister Shirley Melvin, Marlyn Meltzer, and Betty Jean Bartik--four of the 100 women recruited by the U.S. Army to do calculations and ballistics work.
Six of the women were tapped to become the first programmers of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), which was constructed in secret at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering in the summer of1943. The completed machine was unveiled after the war.
The 56-minute film was directed by LeAnn Erickson and written by Cynthia Baughman.
"The well-known blue-collar Rosies were welding planes, ships, and bombs, and they were recruited publicly," said Erickson. However, the college-educated women were recruited out of the spotlight as the "female human computers" who made bombs "more accurate, and also (for the) development of the first computer."
Source: Top Secret Rosies Official Site; Press Citizen (December 6, 2010)
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII (2010) is a new documentary relates the little-known details of the contributions of college-educated women mathematicians, scientists, and technicians to winning a war and ushering in the computer age.
Included are the stories of Doris Polksy, her sister Shirley Melvin, Marlyn Meltzer, and Betty Jean Bartik--four of the 100 women recruited by the U.S. Army to do calculations and ballistics work.
Six of the women were tapped to become the first programmers of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), which was constructed in secret at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering in the summer of1943. The completed machine was unveiled after the war.
The 56-minute film was directed by LeAnn Erickson and written by Cynthia Baughman.
"The well-known blue-collar Rosies were welding planes, ships, and bombs, and they were recruited publicly," said Erickson. However, the college-educated women were recruited out of the spotlight as the "female human computers" who made bombs "more accurate, and also (for the) development of the first computer."
Source: Top Secret Rosies Official Site; Press Citizen (December 6, 2010)
Id:
1022
Start Date:
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
