Women in Tech

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The Women Visionaries Who Defined the Future of Tech

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Here at Vidcode, we love to see girls achieve amazing things with code. In the same spirit, we are dedicating this month to celebrating International Women’s Day and the incredible women who have disrupted the male-dominated tech world. 

What better way to honor women visionaries than by sharing fun facts about them? Without further ado, here are our top three ladies in tech:

 
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Ada Lovelace

Anyone who is even remotely familiar with computer science or tech history has heard her name. This talented 19th century mathematician is the “mother” of computer programming as we know it. Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer before computers even existed! Surprisingly enough, she was not as famous when she proposed the world’s first algorithm in her young teenage years. It wasn’t until the 1950s when her contributions to the field of computer science were recognized through a republication of her notes in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines. This incredible lady in tech was clearly way ahead of her time.

 
 

Hedy Lamarr

This hollywood star and beauty icon was breaking all the computer geek stereotypes as early as the 1930s! Hedy Lamarr was more widely known for her career in the entertainment industry, yet not too many people know about her side gig as an inventor. Lamarr was responsible for the invention of spread spectrum technology, which is essentially the basis for modern-day Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. 

Kimberly Bryant

This woman in tech is responsible for founding Black Girls Code, a not-for-profit organization that aims at introducing girls from underrepresented communities to the world of coding. Bryant worked for many years as an electrical engineer before she decided to tackle the diversity problem that the tech industry still faces today. As a matter of fact, black women comprise only 2% of the STEM workforce in the United States. Bryant’s inspiration for founding this wonderful organization? Her daughter. In Bryant’s own words, she “wanted to find a way to engage and interest my daughter in becoming a digital creative instead of just a consumer, and I did not find other programs that were targeted to girls like her from underrepresented communities." 

As these three women in tech prove, female scientists have been crucial in the development of computer science and the technologies that we enjoy today. At Vidcode, we are more than excited to see what the next generation of powerful technologists has to offer.

What woman in tech inspires you? Let us know in the comments below!
 

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Why Role Models are Instrumental for Getting Girls Into the Tech Field

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Originally posted as part of our Huffington Post blog series.

“A role model is a person whose serves as an example by influencing others,” says the American Academy of Adolescent Psychology (AAAP).

To see yourself somewhere, and in order to make it easier to set a future path, the most useful and motivating tool is a role model; they give inspiration and guidance. This is why role models are instrumental in getting more women into technology fields. It starts from girls.

While celebrity and known business people are the most obvious, and most attractive choice, an easily accessible, in-person role models are also good and useful to girls.

One of the main elements of the DNA at Vidcode is women in tech. Getting women and girls, who have traditionally been underrepresented in this area, into the field of tech and computer science is something that runs deep here, at our wholly female owned and operated tech company, and one way to do that is through role models that have made it into the tech fields.

While role models that have achieved a “celebrity” status are great, such as Karlie Kloss and Marissa Meyer, role models that can be interacted with are most effective for long term success in the field.

According to a study published in the medical journal, Psychology Women Quarterly “Both boys and girls may identify more with the role model whose success seems to be the most attainable—that is, the role model whose success is explained by efforts.”

The study also shows that “students identify more with a role model whose success in math is explained by hard work than with a role model whose success is explained as natural talent or whose success is not explained.”

This is why an in-person role model is important, as opposed to an out of reach celebrity. 
The study’s findings also show that kids benefit more from a role model they can directly identify with, such as a female working in tech, for girls.

An Accenture study said “We can not emphasize enough the importance of role models in identifying women with leadership goals. Our findings show a strong correlation between having a role model and having C-Suite aspirations. “

But finding a role model for yourself or children might seem difficult. So how can you go about this?

A great way is for through clubs, groups or after school activities that are tech based. These groups will have someone in charge who is knowledgeable about the field and most likely has contacts in the industry. Also groups like big brother big sister, or cultural organizations often have professionals that volunteer to generally mentor or teach new skills. Ask for a volunteer that works in the tech industry.

There are many great organizations whose mission is to further women (and girls) in tech, such as The Grace Hopper Organization,Women In Technology International, and the Association for Women in Computing,the Anita Borg Institute, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), that are trying to get more women and girl interested in technology,and can provide role models.

Happy International Women's Day!

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We are loving all of the Woman’s Day Posts on social media today!
International Women’s day is a celebration of “ the social, economic, cultural and political  achievement of women,” according to the official website of the International Women's day campaign. 

All over instagram, twitter, facebook, and the internet, people worldwide are showing their support for this important day. 
 
We decided to celebrate this day by learning about some amazing women in tech!

First, is a woman that is a popular household name, model Karlie Kloss. Her side hobbies include learning to code,sponsoring a scholarship for girls to learn to code, and encouraging interest in coding among girls.

"Call me a nerd but I love coding, the language of computers. Understanding coding is a superpower. I met some tech entrepreneurs and they are billionaires through learning this stuff. I'm so competitive with myself and I am fascinated by the language of technology so I decided to be part of the conversation,” Kloss said in a December interview with British Vogue. 

Anyone who is using their celebrity status as a platform to support something we too at vidcode are insanely passionate about (after all, our product is built around it!), is a women’s day hero in our book.  

A name every women in tech should know is Grace Hopper, the original woman in code. A Naval Admiral, Hopper was the third person ever, and first woman, to program the first computers for the Navy,  called the Mark 1. Later, Hopper developed the first compiler for computer programming, which is a set of programs that transforms code into computer language, making it usable in program creation. 

She also popularized the idea of a common coding language for computers, which lead to one of the first advanced coding languages. There is a great documentary about her called “The Queen of Code.”

CyFi is a 15 year old female hacker that is disrupting the web security industry. When she was 10, CyFi hacked into an online farming game, manually altering the clock so her crops had more time to grow, pointing out a major security flaw in the games model. 

Shortly after, CyFi co-created r00tz Asylum, which is a “nonprofit dedicated to teaching kids around the world how to love being white-hat hackers. A white-hat hacker is someone who enjoys thinking of innovative new ways to make, break and use anything to create a better world.”

R00tz Asylum runs DEFCON KIDS, the junior version of DEFCON, a conference that is the largest and longest running hacking conference. It is attended by members of organizations that deal with governmental and private cybersecurity, as well as hackers. 

At DEFCON 20 in 2012, CyFi  was recognized by the head of the National Security Agency, Keith Alexander. 

“CyFi”  is a pseudonym to mask this hackers true identity. Sounds like a superhero to us. 

Who are your favorite women in tech?

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Vidcode Takes CES 2016 on the Diversity Spotlight Stage!

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The first week of January tech took over Las Vegas as the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show came into town. The Vidcode team came to Vegas with the rest of the techies, as the Diversity Spotlight presentation at the Intel booth! 

Vidcode co-founders Allie and Melissa, experiencing a virtual reality roller coaster at CES 2016!

Vidcode co-founders Allie and Melissa, experiencing a virtual reality roller coaster at CES 2016!

Laina, an eighth-grader and talented Vidcode user, ran the presentation. Laina is an artist, and loves painting, drawing and playing her cello. As a student in middle school, her favorite subjects are math and science.

She was so excited when she found Vidcode, a platform she could use to combine her artistic and technical interests. She used Vidcode to create a computer vision project, using code she wrote herself and a video she had filmed. 

A coding tool for high school girls

Laina presented her beautiful computer vision project on stage alongside Vidcode co-founders Allie and Melissa. "I'm shocked that I learned a new skill through something I love, and it was exciting to see what goes on behind my favorite apps," said Laina after showing the crowd what she had made.

Watch the entire presentation below.