Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)
Led Apollo flight software development; coined 'software engineering'.
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via Wikipedia: Margaret Hamilton (software engineer) · see source
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 for her work on NASA's Apollo flight software.[1] A 1958 BA in mathematics, with a philosophy minor, was awarded to her by Earlham College.[2]
Life and work
She had no prior programming training when she started at MIT.[3] She would edit the binary code on paper tape with a sharp pencil, to Lorenz's delight.[3] From 1961 to 1963, she worked on the SAGE air defense system at MIT Lincoln Lab.[4][2] She became Director of the Software Engineering Division, responsible for all onboard flight software for Apollo and Skylab.[5][6]
She coined the term "software engineering" to distinguish it from hardware engineering.[7][8] In 1976, she co-founded Higher Order Software with Saydean Zeldin.[9] She founded Hamilton Technologies in 1986, developing the Universal Systems Language.[10][2]
What the cited sources add
A Quanta Magazine article notes that Hamilton and Ellen Fetter programmed the computer that uncovered hallmarks of chaos theory.[3] Lorenz acknowledged Hamilton's contributions at the end of his papers.[3] Hamilton trained her replacement, Ellen Fetter, before moving on in summer 1961.[3] The same source lists her greatest accomplishment as directing the Apollo and Skylab flight software at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.[6]
A Computer History Museum fellow biography notes that Hamilton's work on the SAGE prototype taught her about software reliability.[2] The klabs.org biography notes that when Hamilton began her career, neither computer science nor software engineering were established academic subjects.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom", whitehouse.gov, November 16, 2016 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Spicer, "2017 CHM Fellow Margaret Hamilton", Computer History Museum, April 27, 2017. facts only, no text reused. computerhistory.org
- Sokol, "The Hidden Heroines of Chaos", Quanta Magazine, May 20, 2019. facts only, no text reused. quantamagazine.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wayne, "American Women of Science Since 1900", ABC-Clio, 2011, p. 480–82; Spicer, "2017 CHM Fellow Margaret Hamilton", Computer History Museum, April 27, 2017; Wayne, "American Women of Science Since 1900", ABC-Clio, 2011, p. 480–82 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Margaret Hamilton 2017 Fellow", Computer History Museum; "NASA Engineers and Scientists-Transforming Dreams Into Reality", NASA; Hoag, "The History of Apollo On-board Guidance, Navigation, and Control", Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, September 1976; "About Margaret Hamilton", klabs.org; Michael Braukus NASA News "NASA Honors Apollo Engineer" (September 3, 2003); Green, "Keyboard and Display Program and Operation", Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, June 1967, p. 29; "About Margaret Hamilton", klabs.org (we also re en.wikipedia.org
- "About Margaret Hamilton", klabs.org. facts only, no text reused. klabs.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cameron, "First Software Engineer", IEEE Computer Society, October 5, 2018; "The NASA Heritage Of Creativity", 2003 Annual Report of the NASA Inventions & Contributions Board, 2003; Brock, "Hamilton, Margaret oral history", Computer History Museum, April 13, 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cameron, "First Software Engineer", IEEE Computer Society, October 5, 2018; "ICSE 2018 – Plenary Sessions – Margaret Hamilton", YouTube, May 31, 2018; Rayl, "NASA Engineers and Scientists – Transforming Dreams Into Reality", 50th Magazine, October 16, 2008; Johnson, "Sputnik and the Space Race", Cavendish Square, 2017, p. 60 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Roberts, "Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond", Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 41; "AGC Biography – Margaret Hamilton", authors.library.caltech.edu, May 9, 2002; Huber, "Higher Order Software – Evaluation and Critique", Naval Surface Warfare Center, August 1987, p. 2–1; M. Hamilton, S. Zeldin (1976) "Higher order software—A methodology for defining software" IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. SE-2, no. 1, Mar. 1976; Thompson, Arthur A.; Strickland, A. J., (1996), "Strategic en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hamilton, "Universal Systems Language: Lessons Learned from Apollo", IEEE Computer, December 12, 2008, p. 34–43; Krut, "Integrating 001 Tool Support in Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis Methodology", Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, July 1993, p. 13–15; Ouyang, "An Integrated Formal Approach for Developing High Quality Software for Safety-Critical Systems", Massachusetts Institute of Technology, September 1995 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Margaret Hamilton (software engineer) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Margaret Hamilton (software engineer) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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