the association for computational heresy

Cait's legacy | 20s | cis lesbian | just a software engineer wasting time on the internet| passed away from brain cancer but she lives on

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30th birthday thoughts

Yesterday would have been Caitlin’s 30th birthday. Milestones like this make the distance between who she was and who she might have become feel very large. Besides her love for writing code,  Caitlin loved reading and thinking about stories in all their forms—novels, fan fiction, poetry, musicals. She enjoyed discussions about books with friends she met here and later talked with in book clubs and on Discord. This blog was one of the places where she shared her creativity. She posted fan fiction, recommended books she loved, talked about ideas she was thinking about, shared her crafting projects and sometimes just shared something that made her laugh.

One of Caitlin’s favorite authors was Terry Pratchett, whose books manage to be funny and wise at the same time. One of his lines feels especially meaningful today: “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” I see those ripples here whenever someone still discovers one of her stories, follows a book recommendation she made, or leaves kudos on something she wrote years ago.

Caitlin believed strongly that reading made life more interesting. She shared that when you read widely, everything around you gains new context and connections and the world becomes richer. That curiosity shaped her whole life—from the stories she loved to the computer science she studied and the conversations she enjoyed having with others about ideas.

Seeing people continue to find and enjoy her writing here means a great deal to our family. Thank you to everyone who still reads her work, shares her posts, or remembers the discussions you had with her about books and stories.

If you found Caitlin through one of her stories, book recommendations, or discussions here, you’re welcome to share a memory or a favorite post in the notes.

Caitlin also cared deeply about encouraging more women to pursue computer science. She wrote about the challenges women face in the field and believed strongly that curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving belong to everyone. One of the ways we try to carry that forward is through the Caitlin Scarberry Memorial Scholarship, which supports young women studying computer science. If you’d like to learn more, the link to the scholarship is here. https://www.caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org/

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We had the honor of awarding two scholarships in Caitlin's memory this year to high school students: Alisha and Emily. Both are wonderful candidates who we believe will follow Caitlin's mission to make the world a better place. Please share with anyone who might be interested in supporting our mission to encourage more girls to go into computer science. caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org

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How many of you are familiar with the amazing woman below in the photo who was on the cover of Time in 1959? This is Grace Hopper. Why should you care? Please read on:

Grace Hopper, who was born on December 9,1906, was a computer scientist, mathematician, and naval officer who made many contributions to the development of computer languages. An optimist as well as a visionary, Hopper celebrated the potential of computers saying, “I think we consistently…underestimate what we can do with computers if we really try” . Hopper was born in New York City and earned degrees in mathematics and physics from Vassar College in 1928. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University in 1934. Hopper worked in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector. She was a pioneer in the development of the compiler, which translated mathematical code into machine-readable code. In 1949, Hopper joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in Philadelphia as a senior mathematician. The company had built the first electronic computer (ENIAC) under army contracts. In the early 1950s Eckert-Mauchly was developing the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I), the first commercial electronic computer. While working on the UNIVAC I and II, Hopper pioneered the idea of automatic programming and explored new ways to use the computer to code. In 1952 she developed the first compiler called A-0, which translated mathematical code into machine-readable code—an important step toward creating modern programming languages.

In 1953, Hopper proposed the idea of writing programs in words, rather than symbols, but she was told her idea would not work. Nevertheless, she continued working on an English-language compiler, and in 1956 her team was running FLOW-MATIC, the first programming language to use word commands. Unlike FORTRAN or MATH-MATIC, which used mathematical symbols, FLOW-MATIC used regular English words and was designed for data processing purposes. She also demonstrated how programs could be written in word-based languages other than English.

Hopper’s project of creating word-based languages helped expand the community of computer users. Making computers accessible to people without an engineering or math background was especially important at a time when computer companies were marketing their products to the private sector. By developing programs that used word commands rather than symbols, Hopper believed that more people would feel comfortable using computers, particularly for business applications such as payroll. In a 1980 interview Hopper explained, “What I was after in beginning English language [programming] was to bring another whole group of people able to use the computer easily…I kept calling for more user-friendly languages. Most of the stuff we get from academicians, computer science people, is in no way adapted to people.” She also helped create the COBOL computer programming language. As the number of computer languages proliferated, the need for a standardized business language increased. In 1959, Hopper took part in the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL), the goal of which was to develop a common business language that could be used across industries and sectors. The finished product was COBOL, short for “common business-oriented language.” Although many people contributed to this effort, Hopper is widely recognized for her work designing COBOL, developing compilers for it, and encouraging its broad adoption. By the 1970s, COBOL was the “most extensively used computer language” in the world. Hopper was the first woman to receive the National Medal of Technology in 1991. She was nicknamed "Amazing Grace" for her many accomplishments. She also helped popularize the term "debugging" after a moth was found in a computer. Hopper was the oldest serving officer in the U.S. Navy when she retired in 1986 at age 79. The USS Hopper, a naval ship commissioned in 1997, was named in her honor.

The Caitlin Elizabeth Scarberry scholarship fund is hoping to encourage the next generation of brilliant minds. We have been able to increase our scholarships for the year and we are also helping to support women to attend the Grace Hopper conference.

If you want to make a donation for the end of the year in helping us with our purpose, we greatly appreciate it. Just go to https://www.caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org/

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Congratulations to Madison who is this year's winner of the scholarship. Madison was the co-president of the Girls Who Code club at her high school. Her senior project was on the underrepresentation of women in computer science. Madison will be studying informatics and computer science.

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Was our honor and privilege to award the Caitlin Scarberry Memorial Award to two worthy students at UCSB.

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As awards season begins, and we give the first award for this academic year, on Tuesday evening, I would like to share why we were inspired to create this fund. Here are excerpts from Caitlin's papers about women in computer science that show her passion for working to increase the number of women in computer science:

“Every week at the company where I interned (during the summer) while in college, 30 to 40 software engineers would pile into a room and listen to a tech talk. We ate lunch while another engineer gave a presentation . Hours after each talk, the realization would hit me: I had been the only woman in the room again. It was always more of an afterthought than a surprise. Women in computer science often become inured to the gender disparity in our field. This is not because the adjustment is easy, but because there is little alternative.. There came a point when I had to stop noticing that I was the only girl in my class, or at a meeting for a computer science club, because that was simply how my life was. For women, the price of pursuing computer science is the knowledge that we will likely spend most of our careers as the only woman in the room. Female computer scientists walk a tightrope: if we keep the gender gap in mind, we alienate ourselves from our own field, but if we ignore it, we leave other women- and a part of ourselves -behind. While navigating this dilemma I have never let it deter me from being part of a field that I am passionate about. On the contrary it has motivated me to search for ways to increase the number of women in computer science.

Out of all the STEM fields, computer science is the only one that has consistently lost women in the recent decades. In 1983, women received almost 37% of all undergraduate computer science degrees. In recent years it has decreased to barely over 20%. Fewer than 5% of programmers and developers are women. The lack of women in computer science doesn't just hurt women, though. It has been repeatedly shown that a lack of diversity when designing products leads to those products having unintended consequences, such as airbags only designed for men because there were only men on the design team. As software permeates more and more of our daily lives, it becomes increasingly important that the developers of the software are able to consider how that software might affect portions of the population not represented by the typical male programmer. Having more women in computer science will both improve women's financial futures and result in software that is designed for a wider variety of needs.

The programmer stereotype paints a very specific view of programmers and 'computer geeks'. They would rather stay inside and be on the computer than enjoy real life, they are obsessed with computers, and fanatical about video games. They are young, male and socially inept. This stereotype has alienated women. Many studies have given evidence that when women know their gender is thought of as being worse at a task, that pressure causes their performance to be worse and causes them to doubt their own competence. Many women feel they would have to give up key parts of their identity, especially femininity in order to fit in with computer scientists. Some women, however, embrace this as a challenge to rise above and makes them more enthusiastic about computer science. however, the women who respond this way are a small minority. "

So Caitlin's desire to increase the number of women in the field of computer science became our desire. Perhaps others out there will share her and our passion. Please share the link with anyone you think may be interested. caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org

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We are now getting into scholarship season. If you are a female in computer science or engineering, I would love to hear what motivated you to go into the field and do you have any advice that you would give a girl in highschool who is thinking about what field to go into. We are very grateful that some college students from Women in Computer Science at the nearby university took time to go to talk highschool students about their experiences. Caitlin loved programming and we are doing what we can to honor her life and love of the field.

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Two years ago we lost "finiteautomatron" to a horrible cancer. But I do believe in the phrase "turn your pain in purpose". So in Caitlin's honor we started a non profit to provide scholarships for girls who want to pursue computer science as a career. We have been able to give two scholarships to very deserving girls from Caitlin's old high school. We also are trying to coordinate speakers to schools to encourage more girls to think about computer science. We are hoping that we can expand our scholarships. If you would like to know more about the non profit, go to https://www.caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org/

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We were privileged to award the Caitlin Scarberry Memorial Scholarship award to a very worthy candidate at the scholarship awards night at Santa Susana High School. Heli shares Caitlin’s passion for computer science. She also shares Caitlin’s curiosity and persistence.  She comes highly recommended by her teachers and has shown a commitment to her community in her volunteer work. We are grateful to all the generous donors to the fund to help make this possible. Our next award in Caitlin’s honor will be presented at UCSB . Please note that I have started a facebook page for the non profit and will be posting there. Please like and follow the page for more updates.https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090813677246

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We are having a service on Sunday because it is almost exactly one year since Cait passed away. I want to share how many people she touched so if anyone wants to share one particular way she affected you, I will share it on Sunday. I never knew there were so many people she affected until I found Tumblr and AO3. I wish I understood her stories. I wish someone was able to explain what the back stories are. 

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This is a link to the presentation of a paper on research Cait started. If you are not a computer person, it is probably not meaningful until the end (around minute 17) when they dedicate it to her. I think that is very meaningful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eUu6Cj-WI8

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We created a non-profit to honor Cait. Here is the link. If you want to contribute a small amount, that is great, but no pressure. It is to encourage more females to pursue careers in computer science. 

 https://www.caitlinscarberryscholarshipfund.org/

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This is actually Cait’s mom posting. I don’t know if her followers knew her or cared about her, but I wanted to post just in case there are some people here who knew her but didn’t know what happened to her. She had actually posted just one day before we actually did take her to the ER for her headache. It turned out she had an enormous, extremely aggressive brain cancer. They tried to do surgery but she did not survive. The doctor said it was a proof of her brilliance that she was working and posting two days before she died. If anyone wants more information, you can message her on this app and I will check frequently. There is a site with a tribute to her and other things as well. Her family and the world lost an amazing young woman.

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[flakmaniak]

I’ve said this before, but, when Rush Limbaugh uses “liberal” as an insult, he means me, and when edgy 14-year-old communists on this website use “liberal” as an insult, they also mean me.

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@sungodsevenoclock said:

I think that makes you a liberal

[emailmore]

all internet files are kept in a biiiig cave underground and theres huge stalactites dripping cave water directly onto the files

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this is kentucky route zero