Layla Henning Diversity in Technology

Diversity in Technology

      

    Katherine Johnson, one of three black students to attend West Virginia's graduate college, worked for the NASA space program for 33 years. During her 33 years of employment, she was considered to be a, "human computer" according to her co-workers. Johnson was extremely talented and used her skills in math to calculate angles and trajectories for early NASA flights. Katherine Johnson took interest in her lifelong career when a family member mentioned to her that the predecessor to NASA was hiring. Instead of allowing under-representation push her away from her interest in the job, she used it as motivation. African Americans only amount to 4% of workers in technology, therefore when people such as Katherine Johnson do remarkable things to advance technology, they're less likely to get the credit they deserve and it'll go to someone more known. 

    Louis von Ahn, a Guatemalan entrepreneur, created both CAPTCHA and Duolingo. CAPTCHA is a program that differentiates humans from robots to prevent spam bots from accessing computer systems. Duolingo is a website and app that allows anyone to learn a new language for free anytime they want. While growing up in Guatemala, Ahn has seen how educational opportunities were strictly limited to those who were wealthy, and especially inhibited from those who did not speak english. As a result, he wanted to make learning new languages free and accessible to everyone. There is plenty of racial bias in the technology industry, and instead of letting his differences get the best of him, Ahn decided to fight back and provide a way for everyone to learn regardless of their wealth and language. People can fight against racial bias in the technology industry by using their voices to raise awareness, and companies can upgrade their security to fight against anyone making racist remarks.