Unveiling the Legacy
“Rosie” is the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s supercomputer!
“She can take in a lot of data really quickly and move it around really quickly,” says Shelia Ross, EECS Department Chair, Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Classified Contributions
What was the big secret? "Because the work they did was classified," said Ross. "They couldn’t talk about it."
The Rosies were some of the brightest women in academics who worked in secret for the military during World War II. The "computers" used math and science to calculate when to drop a bomb to hit an enemy location.
"They were the ones who would do all the computations that made the tables that enabled our armed forces to be able to hit the correct target," said Ross.
These mathematically gifted women laid the groundwork for programming the first computer.
“That was what we call an analog computer," said Ross, "And that paved the way for larger digital computers."
Erased from History
After the war when people started talking about some of these things and the U.S. Army started making promotional recruitment materials, they cropped the women out of the photos. “They did not want it to be perceived as sort of routine women’s work,” says Ross. The women known as the “Top Secret Rosies” would go unnoticed for the next 50 years.
Honoring the Women Trailblazers
Eighty years later, MSOE students operate on the path those women created for advanced Artificial Intelligence technology. The students recognize “Rosie” the supercomputer for making their work more efficient. Many use "Rosie" for projects both in and outside class.
Watch: Braden Everson of the AI club says Rosie makes their work easier
Empowering Women in Engineering
“It’s taken us many years to get to the point where women can come and feel supported in the academic workplace engineering space, said Ross. "So we’re doing everything we can to help them to be the next Rosies."
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