In recognition of Women's History Month, Chatham Community Library will host a virtual film screening of Great Unsung Women of Computing : The Computers, The Coders and The Future Makers (2016), beginning Thursday, March 14, and continuing through Thursday, March 21, 2024.

In the United States, women are vastly underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) fields, holding under 25% of STEM jobs and a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees. Great Unsung Women of Computing is a series of three remarkable documentary films that show how women revolutionized the computing and Internet technology we use today, inspiring female students to believe that programming careers lie within their grasp.

The Computers features the extraordinary story of the ENIAC Programmers, six young women who programmed the world’s first modern, programmable computer, ENIAC, as part of a secret WWII project. They programmed ENIAC without programming language (for none existed), and harnessed its power to perform advanced military calculations at lighting speeds. However, when the ENIAC was unveiled in 1946, the Programmers were never introduced and they became invisible. This stunning documentary features rare footage and never-before-seen interviews with the ENIAC Programmers. 70 years later, this is their story.

The Coders tells the story of two extraordinary women, Sarah Allen and Pavni Diwanji whose technologies revolutionized the Internet: Sarah co-invented Flash, the first multimedia platform supporting video, graphics, games and animation for the internet, while Pavni invented the Java servlet to allow web applications to respond quickly to requests from users everywhere.

In The Future Makers, Andrea Colaço, a young MIT PhD, shares her dream of a world in which we interact with our smart devices using natural hand gestures, not static keyboards or touchpads. She invented 3D “gestural recognition technology” and co-founded 3dim to develop and market it. In 2013, 3dim won MIT’s $100K Entrepreneurship Prize and launched Andrea towards her dream of innovation and changing the world. 

Film Highlights and Awards:

• United Nations Association Film Festival, Grand Jury Award, Best Short Documentary
• Inspirefest Dublin 2015
• Paris International Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival
• Seattle International Film Festival

Access to the virtual screening will be available beginning Thursday, March 14, by clicking HERE.  A password is required at the time of viewing.  

Please contact social.library@chathamlibraries.org to request the password or for additional information.

This program is free and open to the public.