Episode 1197
Join us as we explore the extraordinary life of Grace Brewster Hopper, a Yale-educated mathematician who transformed from a Vassar professor into a pioneering computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. We discuss her pivot to the Navy Reserve during World War II, where she graduated first in her class and joined the team programming the Harvard Mark I. Discover how Hopper defied the status quo by insisting computers could be programmed with English words rather than symbols, leading her to invent the first compiler and develop the foundational concepts for COBOL, a language still in use today. We also recount her famous "nanosecond" wire demonstrations and the literal moth that cemented the term "debugging" in computer history. Finally, we honor the legacy of "Grandma COBOL," who retired at age 79 as the Navy's oldest serving officer and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Published on 2 days, 19 hours ago
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