The Colors of Innovation

All across the world women enjoy myriad luxuries provided by technological innovation. Whether it is a portable DVD player, PDA or device used for laser hair removal, there’s a vast variety of people behind each modernization. Scientists, engineers and those who dare to dream are often the unsung heroes behind technological advancement. In light of Black History Month, at She-Tech we felt it would be inspirational to salute the African Americans in technology that have contributed to improving the world we live in.

Philip Emeagwali, often referred to as the “Father of the Internet,” has had a monumental impact on the world through a program he discovered. Emeagwali ran an experiment and was astounded when the program performed 3.1 billion calculations per second. This finding lead to a practical application for utilizing supercomputers, and in conjunction with the existing internet backbone, the World Wide Web emerged. In 1989, in acknowledgement of his discovery, Emeagwali was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Gordon Bell Prize which recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications.

While Mark Dean was working as an engineer for IBM he made a significant impact on the team that developed the IBM PC/AT: the original home computer. Along with his colleague Dennis Moeller, he developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus. This is a component that allows multiple peripheral devices, such as a modems and printers to be connected to a PC. This is a modern convenience that we have enjoyed since the 1980’s.

John Henry Thompson has developed numerous products; however, his most noted invention is Lingo programming: a scripting language that helps render visuals in computer programs. Lingo is used with many programs with graphic animation, sound and video. Along with Macromedia™ Director, Thompson has helped develop MediaMaker, Accelerator, VideoWorks and more. Lingo has also been used to create flash and shockwave programs that are prevalent in video games, web design, animation and graphics.

Amongst the ranks of these prestigious gentlemen lies an African American woman, Valerie Thomas, who has also made a mark in the field of technological advancement. In 1977 she began experimenting with flat mirrors and concave mirrors. A concave mirror presents a reflection that appears to exist in front of a glass, thereby providing the illusion that the image exists in a three-dimensional manner. This concept provided an enhanced format for representing video data and was a breakthrough for commercial television and for NASA and its image delivery system.

Technological innovation is boundless and due to the contributions of a wide diversity of people we all reap the timeless benefits. For more information about the aforementioned and other African American inventors, visit http://www.black-inventor.com/.

To all the beautiful women across the global color spectrum...stay connected!