Mary Shaw (born 1943) is an American

software engineer 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 ''p ...

, and the Alan J. Perlis Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, known for her work in the field of

software architecture Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. ...

.Fielding, Roy Thomas.
Architectural styles and the design of network-based software architectures
.'' Diss. University of California, Irvine, 2000.

Biography

Early life

Mary M. Shaw was born in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in 1943. Her father (Eldon Shaw) was a civil engineer and economist for the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...

and her mother (Mary Shaw) was a homemaker. Shaw attended high school in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

, during the Sputnik cold war era where technology was rapidly improving. In high school, Shaw participated for two summers during high school in an after school program which taught students about computers. This program run by International Business Machines (IBM) and was a chance for student to explore fields outside of the normal curriculum. This was Shaw's first introduction to computers.

Studies and career

Shaw obtained her BA from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...

around 1965, and her PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1972.Mary Shaw: Biography
at ieeeghn.org/wiki, 2013. Accessed 10=-3-2015. With Marion Créhange (1937 – 2022), a French computer scientist who got a PhD in Computer Science in 1961, she is considered a pioneer in computer science. After her graduation at Rice University, Shaw had started her career in industry, working as systems programmer at the Research Analysis Corporation. She also continued to do research at Rice University. In 1972 she joined the Carnegie Mellon University faculty, where she was eventually appointed Professor of Computer Science. From 1984 to 1987 she was also Chief Scientist at its Software Engineering Institute, from 1992 to 1999 Associate Dean for Professional Education, and from 2001 to 2006 Co-Director of the Sloan Software Industry Center. In 2011, Mary Shaw and David Garlan received the Outstanding Research Award from ACM SIGSOFT, the Association of Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Software Engineering, for their "significant and lasting software engineering research contributions through the development and promotion of software architecture."ACM SIGSOFT, Outstanding Research Award winners
at sigsoft.org. Accessed 10-03-2015. On October 3, 2014, U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

awarded Shaw with National Medal of Technology and Innovation. She was named recipient of the award in 2012.

Work

Shaw's main area of research interest is

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 '' ...

, including architectural, educational and historical aspects. Shaw authored seminal works in the field of

along with

David Garlan David Garlan from the Carnegie Mellon University was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic en ...

''Software Architecture,'' 1996

Shaw's most cited work "Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline," co-authored with

, examines the concept of "architectures for software systems as well as better ways to support software development."Shaw & Garlan (1996, summary) The book aims:

"... to bring together the useful abstractions of systems design and the notations and tools of the software developer, and look at patterns used for system organization... to illustrate the discipling and examine the ways in which architectural design can impact software design. Our selection emphasizes informal descriptions, touching lightly on formal notations and specifications and on tools to support them."

In this work Garlan and Shaw "describe an architecture of a system as a collection of computational components together with a description of the interactions between these components—the connectors." A component is simply described as "the elements that perform computation."

Reception

In 2011 Shaw and Garlan were awarded the Outstanding Research Award for 2011 by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in honor of their pioneering research in the field of

Software Architecture Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. ...

. William Scherlis, the director of CMU's Institute for Software Research, commented on Shaw and Garlan contribution:

The term 'software architecture' was first used in the late 1960s, but its significance didn't become clear until almost 20 years later, when David and Mary asserted that architecture could be addressed using systematic approaches. Their work and that of their colleagues here at Carnegie Mellon has since led to engineering methods for architectural modeling, analysis and identification of architecture-level patterns, the use of which has now become standard in the engineering of larger scale software systems.

Selected publications

* Mary Shaw and Frank Hole. ''Computer analysis of chronological seriation,'' 1967. * Mary Shaw,

Alan Perlis Alan Jay Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990) was an American computer scientist and professor at Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University. He is best known for his pioneering work in programming languages and was t ...

and Frederick Sayward (eds.) ''Software metrics: an analysis and evaluation,'' 1981. * Mary Shaw (ed). ''Carnegie-Mellon curriculum for undergraduate computer science,'' 1985. * Mary Shaw and David Garlan. ''Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline,'' Prentice Hall, 1996. * Mary Shaw, Sufficient Correctness and Homeostasis in Open Resource Coalitions: How Much Can You Trust Your Software System, "" 2000, Articles, a selection:Mary Shaw, A.J. Perlis University Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Google Scholar profile. * Mary Shaw. "Reduction of Compilation Costs Through Language Contraction". In: ''

Communications of the ACM ''Communications of the ACM'' is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are intended for readers with ...

'', 17(5):245–250, 1974. * Mary Shaw. "Prospects for an Engineering Discipline of Software". in: ''

IEEE Software ''IEEE Software'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed magazine and scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society covering all aspects of software engineering, processes, and practices. Its mission is to be the best source of reliable, use ...

'', 7(6):15–24, 1990. * Mary Shaw. "Comparing Architectural Design Styles". in: ''IEEE Software'', 12(6):27–41, 1995. *"Mary Shaw Facts." Mary Shaw Facts. Your Dictionary, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017. * "Mary Shaw." Mary Shaw - Engineering and Technology History Wiki. ETHW, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2017.

References

External links

Mary Shaw home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Mary 1943 births Living people American computer scientists American engineering writers Software engineering researchers Rice University alumni Rice University faculty Carnegie Mellon University alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty American women computer scientists