6 Influential Women in STEM and their Remarkable Legacy

In today's times, when everyone is making strides toward a sustainable future, it's essential to recognize the vital role of women and girls in the field of STEM. They have ventured into STEM fields and contributed by bringing novel perspectives to the table which have in turn helped in arriving at solutions to various problems. 

The journeys of these women in STEM, marked by resilience, brilliance, unwavering dedication, passion, creativity, and empathy have not only revolutionized their respective fields but have also shattered the glass ceilings, creating new opportunities for countless others to follow. Their contributions have raised a myriad of prospects for mankind to grow and prosper as a whole. 

Not bound by temporal settings, these women have been continuously making significant contributions to the field of STEM!

The late 60s marked America’s venture to the moon, backed up by intense math calculations!

Katherine Johnson

American Mathematician

“I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. 

I’m as good as anybody, but no better.”

Only a woman brimming with self-confidence, dreaming to achieve the biggest of goals and yet always eager to learn with a down-to-earth attitude could have said the above lines. That woman is Katherine Johnson for you! An American Mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many significant spacecraft during her association with the US Space Program, Johnson is indeed an unmissable name when it comes to women in STEM.  

Notable Contributions:

• Undertook the trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission in May 1961, America’s first human spaceflight
• Checked the computer’s math for John Glenn’s historic first orbital spaceflight by an American in February 1962
• Made the calculations for the first actual Moon landing in 1969 (Apollo)

In the 1970s, the way we communicate with computers was revolutionized….

Grace Hopper

American computer scientist and mathematician

“If you do something once, people will call it an accident. If you do it twice, they call it a coincidence. But do it a third time and you’ve just proven a natural law!”

Grace Hopper, reflecting on her own words, was one of the trailblazer women in STEM. A computer pioneer and naval officer, she held a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yale University. Hopper, often called “the grandmother of the computer age,” played a crucial role in developing modern computer technology and was also the oldest surviving Navy officer in the U.S. Armed Forces. 

Notable Contributions:

• Developed the first compiler called A-0 in 1952, which translated mathematical code into machine-readable code
• Designed COBOL - Common Business-Oriented Language, which became the most extensively used computer language in the world by 1970s
• Served as one of the first three “coders” who wrote the 561-page user manual for the MARK I, the first electromechanical computer in the United States

Following, in the late 1970s, the foundation of what we now commonly recognize as ‘GPS’ was laid…

Gladys West

American Mathematician

“Before, you sort of whispered and looked at each other, or something, but now the world is opening up a little bit and making it easier for women. But they still gotta fight”

Very rightly pointed out by Gladys West, a woman embodying the spirit of women in STEM, times have changed and we are taking strides towards narrowing the gap. She was a prominent mathematician and a programmer. Often referred to as the ‘hidden figure’, her insightful contributions to science went unrecognized in that time because of her race and gender.

Notable contribution:

• Made calculations and did computer programming that helped construct a geoid which was a mathematical model of the earth's shape which eventually led to the invention of GPS (Global Positioning System)
• Worked on the project of Naval Ordinance Research Calculator (NORC), an award-winning program designed to determine the movements of Pluto in relation to Neptune.
• Published Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter, a 51-page technical report from The Naval Surface Weapons Center (NSWC)

Since the early 2000’s women are also at the forefront of contributing towards a brighter AI-powered future...

Ayanna Howard

American roboticist and entrepreneur

“We have all become anomalies in the world of AI, but we have the power to triumph. If we open our minds and embrace the differences that make us human, we have a chance of preserving our humanity in the age of AI.”

An educator, researcher, and innovator, Ayanna Howard’s academic career is highlighted by her focus on technology development for intelligent agents that must interact with and in a human-centered world, as well as on the education and mentoring of students in the engineering and computing fields.

Notable Contributions:

• She began developing robots as a team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• She is the co-founder and board director of Zyrobotics, a STEM education and therapy company that designs products for children with special needs
• She is the first woman to lead the College of Engineering in Ohio State University. Her leadership provides guidance to innumerous students, strengthening their base in the tech-driven study

Women were making significant contributions then, and they are making significant contributions even now, in 2023!....

Nigar Shaji

Indian Aerospace Engineer

“When I was studying, women were not even offered mechanical engineering courses. Now you have women fighter pilots in the Air Force.”

She believes that what matters is one's technical aptitude and passion for the job. She is Nigar Shaji. An efficient scientist, who never faced a glass ceiling in her career has etched her mark in the Indian Space History. She is one of the women in STEM whose passion for work helped her delve into space and contribute to the growth of India.

Notable Contributions:

• She served as the project director for Aditya L-1, India’s first solar mission that was launched on 2nd September 2023
• She served as the Associate Project Director of Resourcesat-2A.
• She was also the study director for India's proposed mission to Venus

In the 21st century, Contributing to STEM fields is not the end, they are also empowering other women to engage and excel in these fields….

Marita Cheng

Australian entrepreneur

“I’m glad I got to do so many things I never would've thought of or imagined. I don’t know what the next decade will bring. But I plan to live it authentically, taking everything I learned with me, with all the love, joy, compassion, and wonder that I can muster. Because life is short, take all your chances. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.”

One of Forbes 2018 World's Top 50 Women in Tech, and Forbes 30 Under 30, Marita Cheng is a woman whose name is exemplified for her extremely significant contributions to the field of robotics, especially for children.

Notable Contributions:

• Founded Robogals to get girls interested in engineering through visiting schools and teaching robotics.  At 22, leading a team of 4000 people across 13 countries, she was also named Young Australian of the Year
• Cofounded Aipoly, using convolutional neural networks to recognize everyday objects for the blind
• Founded Aubot, designing, manufacturing, and shipping robots throughout Australia

Since time immemorial, women have been exemplifying their caliber and interest in the field of STEM. This gender gap leading to comparatively fewer women in STEM can begin right from the primary or secondary stage of education. Growing over time, this gap only widens. Thus, it is important that we educate children, especially girls, about the sea of opportunities that they have in front of them when it comes to STEM-related fields. 

At OBotz, we celebrate the spirit of all these trailblazing women and aim to contribute our bit in bridging this gap. Through robotics for kids, we teach all our students, either boys or girls, the basics of robotics, a promising career opportunity for the future. 

Through classes in robotics and coding for kids, OBotz impartially imparts quality education to all young minds and helps them dream of success and set the foundation for achieving it at an age when their grasping power is extremely high! Book a free trial class now!!