World renown physicist, Stephen William Hawking, has passed at the age of 76.

Join us as we comb through the pages of Hawking’s life achievements, inspirations, and scientific work during his time here on Earth.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

Biography of Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was known for many things: a well-renowned physicist, a professor, an author, a cosmologist, the person that discovered the study of black holes. While Stephen Hawking may have passed, his legacy and work still live on.

Born in England, 1942, Dr. Stephen Hawking made a name for himself, first attending Oxford University for his undergrad and then the University of Cambridge for his Ph.D. in cosmology. He is best known for his discovery that black holes emit radiation which can be detected by special instrumentation. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Despite his disability and his predicted short lifespan, the theoretical physicist was still able to maintain his intelligence and make a meaningful impact in the world today. As a professor at the University of Cambridge, his alma mater, he heavily relied on engineering technology for him to communicate and share his ideas with his students, colleagues, friends, family, and the public.

Hawking’s Impact on Technology

Dr. Hawking used assistive technology to compensate for mobility and speech difficulties. Not only did he use a thumb switch and a blink-switch attached to his glasses to control his computer, but he was also able to communicate to audiences by squeezing his cheek muscles and blinking. As a result, an infra-red switch was instigated and he was able to scan and select characters on a screen that composed speeches, functioned emails, surfed the Internet, and “spoke” through a synthesizer.

This was particularly imperative since Dr. Hawking was always trying to share his views with the world. In fact, the woman who saved Stephen Hawking’s his distinct voice was Lama Nachman, director of the anticipatory computing lab at Intel Corporation. They met in 2011 and her primary task was to upgrade the computer system that helped Hawking communicate his thoughts. In 1985, Stephen Hawking lost his voice after a tracheotomy, but with the help of the adopted computer system developed by Lama Nachman and her team, he was able to maintain and develop his voice.

Technology like the computer system helped Hawking overcome ALS, but it was evident that the assistive technology needed an upgrade by 2011. First, Nachman and her support team were asked to improve the speed of communication. However, the hardware that advocated Hawking’s voice was so old that it could have failed at any second. As new computerized voices became available at the time, Hawking was adamant about keeping the one he had. He felt as if the voice he obtained in 1986 was his own and he loved it so much he had it copyrighted.

A Lasting Inspiration

When it comes to assistive technology, a lot of it has to fit an individual’s personal needs. However, Hawking made sure to ask the team to make their work and technology accessible to everyone. He wanted this type of technology to help others as well. As a result, Nachman and her team developed a tool kit that not only met Hawking’s needs, but could be adjusted for other users to have a different user interface or output voice.

There has been a lot of support, especially from developers who urged versions in different languages and Nachman’s work with Hawking has increased the access to these technologies for people with disabilities.

Before he died, Dr. Stephen Hawking was active in research and developed speaking, writing, and research activities to make up for his functional limitations from ALS. In doing so, he proved that assistive technology presently has greatly helped those with disabilities. His experience with ALS has proven that no matter what your disability is, one can still discover and pursue their passions in life.

Thank you, Dr. Stephen Hawking for inspiring us all and doing and discovering the impossible.

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Sources: CBC Radio

Women Pioneers of Technology

In light of International Women’s Day, we turn our focus on amazing female leaders of each era. Let’s learn more about these remarkable women of the past, present and future, and let’s see what makes their qualities and achievements so inspiring.

Women Fight for Change

A breakthrough in technology can affect the entire way we view the world, as well as the way we lead our daily lives. These technological contributions often highlight our ability to save more lives and our ability to move beyond the open sky. It goes without saying that standing behind these new concepts and developments are devoted individuals who have dedicated their entire lives to understanding and mastering technology.

These women have pioneered the way we use technology, such as the brilliant ladies of NASA; the humble woman behind Ethernet; and lastly, the first winner of the 2015 Red Hat Women in Open Source Academic Award.

The Women Team Behind the Friendship 7 Space Mission

The late astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. is a hero to many, as he was the first American to orbit and circle the Earth three times. But as the saying goes, behind every great man stands a great woman, or in this case, a team of three great women: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. Johnson, a research mathematician and aerospace technologist, lead the NASA trio, whom she often referred to as “computers who wore skirts.”

In 1962, the team’s meticulous calculations and hard work paid off when the astronaut, John H. Glenn Jr., successfully became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Thanks to the collective work of these three women, one of the nation’s most significant historical achievements, became a reality.

How Radia Perlman Keeps Ethernet Technology Relevant

Radia Perlman is an American software designer and network engineer. Perlman is also responsible for revolutionizing one of our world’s most commonly used technology, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). With this invention came the ability to grow massive networks by creating a loop-free network protocol for ethernet networks. The basic function of STO is prevent layer 2 loops.

Recently, Perlman has developed an TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL), an updated version of her STP invention. Additionally, TRILL will enable existing Ethernet deployment to be converted into a TRILL cloud that is more stable and uses available bandwidth more effectively.

Amongst her peer groups, Perlman is dubbed as the “Mother of the Internet” and she has proven to be worthy of that title.

Meet Kesha Shah, Winner of 2015 Red Hat Women’s Academic Award

In 2015, college student Kesha Shah was named the very first winner of the Red Hat’s Women in Open Source Academic Award.

The Red Hat organization believes in women applying and advancing themselves within the field of technology, so to be the first recipient of their award is quite an accomplishment.

Some of Shah’s award-winning contributions included Google Summer of Code (GsoC), where she assisted with code-refactoring, finding bugs, and clearing build warnings. Shah also guided groups of open source first-timers through mentoring programs like, Learn IT Girl!

Shah’s passion and efforts for open source resulted in her participants becoming regular contributors to her programs and cause. Winning this award was the just beginning for Shah; her ultimate goal is to create an open source project niche, which includes data processing and information retrieval.

These great technological achievements came from women of the past, present, and near-future, who have dedicated their time and hard effort into a field that is usually primarily populated by men. Their accomplishments remind us that anything is within reach when we put our minds to it and that we can obtain greatness, when we apply our skills and effort.

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