BHM Periodic Table @ The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

BHM Periodic Table - Computer Scientist & Tech Pioneers

Computer Scientists & Tech Pioneers

In February, UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) celebrates Black History Month by highlighting pioneers in science and technology and sharing resources to expand diversity in tech. This year, we’re following the lead of Dana Boone, a student in Florida who, in 2021, put up at a display at his elementary school of the Periodic Table of Black History, created in 2019 by staff members at the Lakeland Public Library in Florida. Using that model as a foundation, we’ve created our own version, and here are the computer scientists and tech engineers included:

21 KJ Katherine Johnson was one of three Black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools, and in 1953, she was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA. She worked there for 35 years as an aerospace technologist, performing calculations for U.S. spaceflights, including for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and for John Glenn’s orbit around Earth. (8.26.1918 – 2.24.2020)

22 EBG Evelyn Boyd Granville became the second Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics when she graduated from Yale University in 1949 (the first was Euphemia Lofton Haynes). She went on to become a computer scientist for IBM, working on the Vanguard satellite project and Mercury spacecraft program. She also worked at U.S. Space Technologies Laboratories before becoming a professor of mathematics.

23 RC Roy Clay is a tech pioneer known as “the Godfather of Silicon Valley.” While working at Hewlett Packard, he helped develop the first HP minicomputer. He also expanded recruitment, hiring five Black engineers into the computer division. As the first African-American to serve on the Palo Alto City Council, he worked to give others the same opportunities he had. He later founded Rod-L Electronics, which tests for safety in electrical equipment.

24 GW Gladys West worked at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, where she was only the second Black woman to be hired as a programmer at the base. Her work to invent an accurate model of the Earth laid the groundwork for the creation of the Global Positioning System (GPS). She was inducted into the U.S. Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018.

25 AJE Annie J. Easley was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised by a single mom. Like Katherine Johnson, she worked at NACA and NASA. She was a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist, and her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies. She also served as an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor, helping address discrimination complaints at NASA. (4.23.1933 – 6.25.2011)

26 JL Jerry Lawson is the inventor of the interchangeable gaming cartridge. His interest in engineering led him to repair TVs as a teen, and after attending college, he worked at several tech companies before joining Fairchild Semiconductor. There, he created the first video game console with interchangeable cartridges, paving the way for the future of gaming. He later founded his own video game company, VideoSoft. (1.1.1940 — 4.9.2011)

27 MH Marc Hannah earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1982, he and several other computer scientists founded the computer graphics firm Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), which created special effects for films such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. Hannah has also worked for a number of other high-tech businesses, including SongPro, which created an MP3 player for the Game Boy Advance in 2002.

28 KB Kimberly Bryant founded Black Girls Code to increase the number of women of color in the digital space. BGC has helped thousands of girls learn to code and continues towards its goal of training 1 million girls by 2040 (despite a change in leadership). Bryant is also the founder and CEO of ASCEND Ventures, which helps marginalized founders and entrepreneurs build pathways to financial freedom and ownership.

29 AE Aicha Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and eventually ended up at Intel as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. In 2019, she joined Zoox, becoming the first African American female CEO of an autonomous vehicle technology company. In 2020, she led the acquisition of Zoox by Amazon for $1.3 billion. She is also an emeritus board of trustees member for AnitaB.org, an organization that supports women in technical fields.

39 TW Tristan Walker earned an M.B.A. from Stanford and spent more than a decade working at various companies before co-founding Code2040. The nonprofit organization aims to dismantle structural barriers that prevent Black and Latinx people from becoming tech industry leaders. Walker is also the founder and CEO of Walker & Co., a startup focused on health and beauty products for people of color.

40 DV Dorothy Vaughan was a high school math teacher before working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the predecessor to NASA) in 1943. She was a computer at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in the segregated West Area Computing Unit. In 1949, she became NACA’s first Black supervisor, tirelessly advocating for the women she led. Before retiring, she became an expert FORTRAN programmer and contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program. (1910 – 11.10.2008)

41 MWJ Mary Winston Jackson started working as a computer at the Langley Research Center at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor to NASA) in 1951. After receiving special approval to enroll in advanced engineering classes at a segregated school, she became NASA’s first Black female engineer in 1958. In 1979, she became manager of Langley’s Federal Women’s Program, hiring and promoting female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. (4.9.1921 – 2.11.2005)

42 CSE Clarence “Skip” Ellis was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in computer science. At age 15, he worked as a night-shift operator at a manufacturing firm, and while protecting against break-ins, he studied the computer manuals. After earning his Ph.D., he worked at Xerox PARC, where he pioneered Officetalk, a collaborative office work system. He later worked Bell Labs and IBM and held faculty positions at Stanford University, MIT and University of Colorado. (5.11.1943 – 5.17.2014)

43 MD Mark Dean helped build the original IMB PC. Working with colleagues, he developed the color PC monitor, the first gigahertz chip, and a system for plugging devices such as printers and monitors directly into computers. In 1995, he became the first African-American IBM Fellow. He later worked as CTO of the Middle East and Africa for IBM, exploring technology-based solutions for the region. In 2013, he became a professor at the University of Tennessee.

44 JHT John Henry Thompson spent part of his childhood in Jamaica before moving to New York. Thanks to a high school math teacher and Youth Opportunity Program, he worked after school as a computer operator. He earned his B.S. in computer science from MIT and then joined Macromedia. In 1989, he invented the Lingo programming language used in Adobe Director. In 2012, he implemented the Digital Jam 2.0 project, creating job opportunities for Jamaican youth.

45 JG Juan Gilbert was the first in his family to attend college, and in 1998, he was the only African American in his computer science Ph.D. program. Now, as the Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and Chair at the University of Florida, he tackles implicit bias and racism in technology. He is the inventor of Prime III, an open source voting technology, and in 2020, he developed a set of guidelines for diversity and inclusion in crisis.

46 AH Ayanna Howard earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering, robotics and computer science. She worked as a robotics researcher at NASA for more than a decade before co-founding Zyrobotics, an educational technology company that makes STEM learning accessible to all children. She is now the Dean of Engineering at The Ohio State University.

47 TG Timnit Gebru, born in Ethiopia, came to the U.S. at age 15. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 2017, she and Rediet Abebe founded Black in AI, and in 2018, she and Joy Buolamwini published groundbreaking work on discrimination in facial recognition. She was a research scientist at Google on the ethical AI team before controversy over a paper on the risks of language models. In 2021, she launched the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR).

57 LC Loretta Cheeks earned a B.S. and an M.S. in computer science and an MBA in technology management and worked in industry for 20 years before earning her Ph.D. in computer science. She credits an Adobe Foundation GEM Fellowship as being “the lifeline to my graduate education.” Today, she is CEO of StrongTIES, which she founded to promote K-12 STEAM education. She is also CEO of DS Innovation AI.

58 MB Michael Berhane is cofounder and CEO of People of Color in Tech (POCIT), a media and recruitment platform for Black and Brown people in tech. “When we talk about the power of role models we are talking about seeing yourself within a story and knowing its possible for you to partake in it,” he said in an interview in 2019. “Our audience can read the career journey of a young black woman in tech, or a Syrian refugee learning to code, and use it to reaffirm their rightful place within the tech ecosystem.”

59 TW Tony Effik is Managing Director of Global Display, Video and Creative at Google. He and his wife also founded the Black and Brilliant Advocacy Network, dedicated to creating a more diverse workforce by upskilling and coaching high potential talent.

60 YM Yeshimabeit Milner has a BA from Brown University and is cofounder and executive director of Data for Black Lives. Through her work, she is using data science to fight bias. Her fight began in 2013, when she led a campaign to improve breastfeeding policies at a public hospital. More recently, she was a campaign manager at Color of Change, where she spearheaded several national initiatives, including OrganizeFor, an online petition platform dedicated to building the political voice of Black people.

61 HM Hadiyah Mujhid is founder and CEO of HBCUvc, which trains students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in venture capital and technology entrepreneurship. She received an MBA from Drexel University and a BS in computer science from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an HBCU.

62 SO Sofia Ongele is a student, coder and activist who developed ReDawn, an award-winning app that helps survivors of sexual and domestic abuse and their loved ones. She is also a digital strategy coordinator for Gen-Z for Change, a coalition fighting for progressive change to promote civil discourse and political action among Generation Z.

63 MS Meme Styles is founder and president of Measure, which works to empower people impacted by data disparities and the accompanying narrative. She founded the organization after challenging the Austin Police Department to “show her the numbers” they were using to report the results of agency performance measures. Measure now addresses not only community policing but also health, education and economic disparities.

64 BS Bria Sullivan is a mobile game entrepreneur who previously was a software engineer at Google. She is founder of Tech Stack’d, which bridges the gap between nontechnical startup founders and Black and Brown engineers. She is also founder and CTO of Honey B Games, a mobile game studio that specializes in creating games based on Boba.

65 SY Saron Yitbarek is an entrepreneur and founder of CodeNewbie, a supportive community of programmers and people learning to code (now owned by DEV). She’s also cofounder and CEO of Disco, a process mining technology. She often gives talks, sharing stories and lessons learned from years of helping new developers transition into tech careers and building developer communities.

Return to Periodic Table

21	KJ	Katherine Johnson was one of three Black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools, and in 1953, she was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA. She worked there for 35 years as an aerospace technologist, performing calculations for U.S. spaceflights, including for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and for John Glenn’s orbit around Earth. (8.26.1918 – 2.24.2020)
22	EBG	Evelyn Boyd Granville became the second Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics when she graduated from Yale University in 1949 (the first was Euphemia Lofton Haynes). She went on to become a computer scientist for IBM, working on the Vanguard satellite project and Mercury spacecraft program. She also worked at U.S. Space Technologies Laboratories before becoming a professor of mathematics.
23	RC	Roy Clay is a tech pioneer known as “the Godfather of Silicon Valley.” While working at Hewlett Packard, he helped develop the first HP minicomputer. He also expanded recruitment, hiring five Black engineers into the computer division. As the first African-American to serve on the Palo Alto City Council, he worked to give others the same opportunities he had. He later founded Rod-L Electronics, which tests for safety in electrical equipment.
24	GW	Gladys West worked at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, where she was only the second Black woman to be hired as a programmer at the base. Her work to invent an accurate model of the Earth laid the groundwork for the creation of the Global Positioning System (GPS). She was inducted into the U.S. Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018.
25	AJE	Annie J. Easley was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised by a single mom. Like Katherine Johnson, she worked at NACA and NASA. She was a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist, and her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies. She also served as an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) counselor, helping address discrimination complaints at NASA. (4.23.1933 – 6.25.2011)
26	JL	Jerry Lawson is the inventor of the interchangeable gaming cartridge. His interest in engineering led him to repair TVs as a teen, and after attending college, he worked at several tech companies before joining Fairchild Semiconductor. There, he created the first video game console with interchangeable cartridges, paving the way for the future of gaming. He later founded his own video game company, VideoSoft. (1.1.1940 — 4.9.2011)
27	MH	Marc Hannah earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 1982, he and several other computer scientists founded the computer graphics firm Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), which created special effects for films such as Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. Hannah has also worked for a number of other high-tech businesses, including SongPro, which created an MP3 player for the Game Boy Advance in 2002.
28	KB	Kimberly Bryant founded Black Girls Code to increase the number of women of color in the digital space. BGC has helped thousands of girls learn to code and continues towards its goal of training 1 million girls by 2040 (despite a change in leadership). Bryant is also the founder and CEO of ASCEND Ventures, which helps marginalized founders and entrepreneurs build pathways to financial freedom and ownership.
29	AE	Aicha Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and eventually ended up at Intel as senior vice president and chief strategy officer. In 2019, she joined Zoox, becoming the first African American female CEO of an autonomous vehicle technology company. In 2020, she led the acquisition of Zoox by Amazon for $1.3 billion. She is also an emeritus board of trustees member for AnitaB.org, an organization that supports women in technical fields.
39	TW	Tristan Walker earned an M.B.A. from Stanford and spent more than a decade working at various companies before co-founding Code2040. The nonprofit organization aims to dismantle structural barriers that prevent Black and Latinx people from becoming tech industry leaders. Walker is also the founder and CEO of Walker & Co., a startup focused on health and beauty products for people of color.
40	DV	Dorothy Vaughan was a high school math teacher before working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the predecessor to NASA) in 1943. She was a computer at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in the segregated West Area Computing Unit. In 1949, she became NACA’s first Black supervisor, tirelessly advocating for the women she led. Before retiring, she became an expert FORTRAN programmer and contributed to the Scout Launch Vehicle Program. (1910 – 11.10.2008)
41	MWJ	Mary Winston Jackson started working as a computer at the Langley Research Center at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor to NASA) in 1951. After receiving special approval to enroll in advanced engineering classes at a segregated school, she became NASA’s first Black female engineer in 1958. In 1979, she became manager of Langley’s Federal Women’s Program, hiring and promoting female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. (4.9.1921 – 2.11.2005)
42	CSE	Clarence “Skip” Ellis was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in computer science. At age 15, he worked as a night-shift operator at a manufacturing firm, and while protecting against break-ins, he studied the computer manuals. After earning his Ph.D., he worked at Xerox PARC, where he pioneered Officetalk, a collaborative office work system. He later worked Bell Labs and IBM and held faculty positions at Stanford University, MIT and University of Colorado. (5.11.1943 – 5.17.2014)
43	MD	Mark Dean helped build the original IMB PC. Working with colleagues, he developed the color PC monitor, the first gigahertz chip, and a system for plugging devices such as printers and monitors directly into computers. In 1995, he became the first African-American IBM Fellow. He later worked as CTO of the Middle East and Africa for IBM, exploring technology-based solutions for the region. In 2013, he became a professor at the University of Tennessee.
44	JHT	John Henry Thompson spent part of his childhood in Jamaica before moving to New York. Thanks to a high school math teacher and Youth Opportunity Program, he worked after school as a computer operator. He earned his B.S. in computer science from MIT and then joined Macromedia. In 1989, he invented the Lingo programming language used in Adobe Director. In 2012, he implemented the Digital Jam 2.0 project, creating job opportunities for Jamaican youth.
45	JG	Juan Gilbert was the first in his family to attend college, and in 1998, he was the only African American in his computer science Ph.D. program. Now, as the Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and Chair at the University of Florida, he tackles implicit bias and racism in technology. He is the inventor of Prime III, an open source voting technology, and in 2020, he developed a set of guidelines for diversity and inclusion in crisis.
46	AH	Ayanna Howard earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering, robotics and computer science. She worked as a robotics researcher at NASA for more than a decade before co-founding Zyrobotics, an educational technology company that makes STEM learning accessible to all children. She is now the Dean of Engineering at The Ohio State University.
47	TG	Timnit Gebru, born in Ethiopia, came to the U.S. at age 15. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. In 2017, she and Rediet Abebe founded Black in AI, and in 2018, she and Joy Buolamwini published groundbreaking work on discrimination in facial recognition. She was a research scientist at Google on the ethical AI team before controversy over a paper on the risks of language models. In 2021, she launched the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR).
57	LC	Loretta Cheeks earned a B.S. and an M.S. in computer science and an MBA in technology management and worked in industry for 20 years before earning her Ph.D. in computer science. She credits an Adobe Foundation GEM Fellowship as being “the lifeline to my graduate education.” Today, she is CEO of StrongTIES, which she founded to promote K-12 STEAM education. She is also CEO of DS Innovation AI.
58	MB	Michael Berhane is cofounder and CEO of People of Color in Tech (POCIT), a media and recruitment platform for Black and Brown people in tech. “When we talk about the power of role models we are talking about seeing yourself within a story and knowing its possible for you to partake in it,” he said in an interview in 2019. “Our audience can read the career journey of a young black woman in tech, or a Syrian refugee learning to code, and use it to reaffirm their rightful place within the tech ecosystem.”
59	TW	Tony Effik is Managing Director of Global Display, Video and Creative at Google. He and his wife also founded the Black and Brilliant Advocacy Network, dedicated to creating a more diverse workforce by upskilling and coaching high potential talent.
60	YM	Yeshimabeit Milner has a BA from Brown University and is cofounder and executive director of Data for Black Lives. Through her work, she is using data science to fight bias. Her fight began in 2013, when she led a campaign to improve breastfeeding policies at a public hospital. More recently, she was a campaign manager at Color of Change, where she spearheaded several national initiatives, including OrganizeFor, an online petition platform dedicated to building the political voice of Black people.
61	HM	Hadiyah Mujhid is founder and CEO of HBCUvc, which trains students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in venture capital and technology entrepreneurship. She received an MBA from Drexel University and a BS in computer science from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an HBCU.
62	SO	Sofia Ongele is a student, coder and activist who developed ReDawn, an award-winning app that helps survivors of sexual and domestic abuse and their loved ones. She is also a digital strategy coordinator for Gen-Z for Change, a coalition fighting for progressive change to promote civil discourse and political action among Generation Z.
63	MS	Meme Styles is founder and president of Measure, which works to empower people impacted by data disparities and the accompanying narrative. She founded the organization after challenging the Austin Police Department to “show her the numbers” they were using to report the results of agency performance measures. Measure now addresses not only community policing but also health, education and economic disparities.
64	BS	Bria Sullivan is a mobile game entrepreneur who previously was a software engineer at Google. She is founder of Tech Stack’d, which bridges the gap between nontechnical startup founders and Black and Brown engineers. She is also founder and CTO of Honey B Games, a mobile game studio that specializes in creating games based on Boba.
65	SY	Saron Yitbarek is an entrepreneur and founder of CodeNewbie, a supportive community of programmers and people learning to code (now owned by DEV). She’s also cofounder and CEO of Disco, a process mining technology. She often gives talks, sharing stories and lessons learned from years of helping new developers transition into tech careers and building developer communities.