Rear Admiral Grace Hopper made one of the most significant impacts on the field of Computer Science and programming ever through her work both in and out of the Navy. Hopper’s most memorable and well known contribution she made occurred while she was working at Harvard, and found a moth inside of a Mark II computer, shorting it. This moth is the source of the common term “computer bug” still used today. However, the field of Computer Science would be almost identical today, even if the term “bug” never came into use, so this term is one of the most inconsequential of Hopper’s contributions to the field.
Hopper’s most significant contribution to Computer Science occurred in 1952, when she and her team at Harvard created the first compiler, the “A compiler”, which two years later led to the release of the compiler based languages MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC. Hopper later worked as a technical consultant to the committee that created COBOL. Many of the members of this committee were formerly Hopper’s employees. Even though Hopper did not create COBOL herself, it was still a widely used language that existed due to Hopper’s earlier work. Today, even though COBOL has fallen largely out of use, other more common languages, including Java, C, C++, and many more are all influenced by Hopper’s work due to their use of compilers. …show more content…
The US Navy, where Hopper worked on and off until she was nearly 80 years old, along with promoting her to Rear Admiral, awarded her with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, which is the highest non-combat decoration which can be awarded. Hopper was also awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1991, the first woman to receive it. Organizations and events have also been named after her, including the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing Conference. Without Grace Hopper’s work the world would look extremely different to everyone, programmers and non-programmers
Hopper’s most significant contribution to Computer Science occurred in 1952, when she and her team at Harvard created the first compiler, the “A compiler”, which two years later led to the release of the compiler based languages MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC. Hopper later worked as a technical consultant to the committee that created COBOL. Many of the members of this committee were formerly Hopper’s employees. Even though Hopper did not create COBOL herself, it was still a widely used language that existed due to Hopper’s earlier work. Today, even though COBOL has fallen largely out of use, other more common languages, including Java, C, C++, and many more are all influenced by Hopper’s work due to their use of compilers. …show more content…
The US Navy, where Hopper worked on and off until she was nearly 80 years old, along with promoting her to Rear Admiral, awarded her with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, which is the highest non-combat decoration which can be awarded. Hopper was also awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1991, the first woman to receive it. Organizations and events have also been named after her, including the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing Conference. Without Grace Hopper’s work the world would look extremely different to everyone, programmers and non-programmers