Judith A. Clapp (born 1930) is a computer scientist who began her career at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) and subsequently moved to the

Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and de ...

and then to

MITRE The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

, where she was a leader in the

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

(SAGE) military project, including the development of the SAGE computer.

Early life and education

Clapp was born in 1930 and was raised in Long Island, New York. She received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in math and physics in 1951 from Smith College and her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in applied science (which she described as the closest match to

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

available at the time) in 1952 from Radcliffe College, then a women's affiliate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Career

After graduating from Radcliffe Clapp began work at MIT, the only woman among the early programmers of the

Whirlwind I Whirlwind I was a Cold War-era vacuum tube computer developed by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory for the U.S. Navy. Operational in 1951, it was among the first digital electronic computers that operated in real-time for output, and the first ...

, the first real-time computer. The Whirlwind, a vacuum tube computer, had originally been commissioned by the United States Navy but was subsequently financed by the Air Force for the

(SAGE) project. Clapp continued to work on the project after its transfer to the

and later to the MITRE Corporation, eventually becoming a Senior Principal Software Systems Engineer at MITRE. After the SAGE project Clapp continued to work in management at MITRE and participated in the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

Working Group that led to the development of the

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programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

Legacy

Clapp's work is regarded as important groundwork for the development of

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

as a discipline. She was involved in early professional organizations for women in computing and is recognized as a pioneer among women in the field. Clapp received an Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers in 2001. In 2005, she received the Smith College Medal. Her work and thoughts on working on the SAGE project were also discussed in the book Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing.

References

External links

Reflections on SAGE
MIT Lincoln Laboratory interviews Clapp and other major players in the SAGE project {{DEFAULTSORT:Clapp, Judy 1930 births Living people American women computer scientists American computer scientists Radcliffe College alumni MIT Lincoln Laboratory people Smith College alumni 21st-century American women