co-director of the USC Robotics Research Lab (robotics.usc.edu) and Vice Dean for Research in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
She is known for her work in human-robot interaction for socially assistive robotics, a new field she pioneered, which focuses on creating robots capable of providing personalized therapy and care through social rather than physical interaction, through technologies aimed at aiding special needs populations including children with autism spectrum disorders, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors, and individuals with Alzheimer‘s disease. She is also known for her earlier work on coordination of robot teams, and robot navigation. Her Interaction Lab‘s research into socially assistive robotics is aimed at endowing robots with the ability to help people through individual non-contact assistance in convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education.
Maja J. Matarić received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring at a White House ceremony in 2011.
She is one of the 2013 recipients of ABI's Women of Vision Awards.
# 9 Weili Dai
Co-founder, Marvell Technology Group. Dai is the only woman co-founder of an American semiconductor company, and since it began in 1995, she directed Marvell‘s rise to become one of the top semiconductor companies in the world. Ms. Dai's close relationship with her customers has given her a strong reputation for professionalism and integrity throughout the technology industry. Ms. Dai has served a pivotal role in creating some of the Company's most important strategic partnerships and under her leadership Marvell's technology has become an integral component of many of the world's products in enterprise, communications, mobile computing, consumer and emerging markets.
The U.S. – educated "geek" who hails from China co-founded Marvell Technology Group with her husband, Sehat Sutardja in 1995.
The company with 6000 employees and annual revenue of $ 3.4 billion is one of the world's leading producers of "fabless" semiconductors. It has clients like Apple, Samsung, Toshiba and Western Digital. She has a goal to make the California based Marvell, the biggest semiconductor company in China. "t's important for us to stay in Silicon Valley.
That's where the entire eco-system of great talent and technologies resides," says Wei, adding that over 1,600 Marvell employees are based in Shanghai and a second China campus will open soon. She also supports women‘s participation in technology, STEM education for girls. An active philanthropist, her company has a major partnership with the One Laptop per Child campaign.
# 10 Mary Meeker
General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Mary Meeker (born September, 1959) is an American [1] venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst. The work that she does is primarily associated with the Internet. She is a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Meeker was born in Portland, Indiana, and holds a B.A. in psychology from DePauw University (1981) and an M.B.A. in finance from Cornell University (1986). In addition, she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from DePauw University.
Meeker has been holding court in Silicon Valley for nearly two decades now. In 2011 the famed Morgan Stanley analyst became a partner at Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers. This step, which she took, landed her at No. 42 on FORBES 2012 Midas List of VC royalty. But it is her reputation for a clear vision in the tech industry that makes her a Power Woman.
She earned the title of "he Queen of the Net" after being dubbed so by Barron's Magazine in 1998 when she wrote "The Internet Report".
More lately her 2012 Internet Trend Report put just about every industry on alert. Her persuasive argument urged leaders to re-imagine nearly everything about their businesses in no uncertain terms from advertising, to mobile to media consumption. Meeker serves on the board of Square and is involved in KPCB's investments in Twitter, Groupon, Spotify, Jawbone and One King's Lane.
Questions for discussion:
1) Pick any person in this reading and write a 300 word essay on their life and why they inspire you.
2) Pick a computer scientist from Russia and write a small biography of them. You may say how much they inspire you!
3) Does programming require physical effort, mental creativity, innovative spirit, and a high degree of patience nowadays? What more qualities does a programmer need, to your mind?
4) Will you be considered a famous or great IT person in your lifetime? Write why or why not.
5) What innovative sector would you like to work in? What projects or programs would you take part in? What position would you choose for yourself?
6) Learn the names of developers and their innovations to be able to reproduce the information. Are you surprised at the number of persons in the list?
7) Prepare papers (доклады) and multimedia presentation on the list, discuss main points.
3 Women’s Journey in Scienсe: Seldom a Sheltered Harbor (L.Lovelace, H. Lamarr, A. – Selove, L. Meitner, E. Noether, de Beauvoir)
3.1 Стратегии усвоения грамматического материала:
– не боюсь делать грамматические ошибки: даже наиболее продвинутые в английском ошибаются грамматически;
– учу правила и делаю упражнения на те темы, в которых я менее компетентен (-на);
– пытаюсь осмыслить грамматические явления, обобщая, сравнивая их
– разговариваю на английском в реальных ситуациях, в таких условиях обучение грамматике наиболее естественно
3.2 Information Pioneers: Ada Lovelace
3.2.1 Find in the text the English equivalents to: урождённая (перед девичьей фамилией); законная дочь; женщина, придерживающаяся независимых взглядов; рано проявляться (о таланте); математик; аналитическая машина; забросить проект; далеко впереди; по предположению; оказаться в два раза длиннее; точнее не скажешь; алгеброические узоры; жаккардовый ткацкий станок.
3.2.2 Text Ada Lovelace
Her name was Augusta Ada Byron, later Countess of Lovelace (née Byron, 18151852). Ada, the only legitimate daughter of the the infamous poet Lord Byron., was also herself a "free spirit", albeit one with an astonishingly brilliant intellect behind it. Her interests ranged from music to horses to calculating machines. Not only did she have the usual accomplishments in language and music, she was also an excellent mathematician. The latter was most unusual for a young lady in the nineteenth century.
Ada's mathematical abilities became apparent when she was only fifteen. She studied mathematics with one of the most well known mathematicians of her time, Augustus de Morgan.
In 1833 Ada met Babbage and was fascinated with both him and his Engines. Later Ada became a competent student of mathematics. Ada, married to the Earl of Lovelace and the mother of three children under the age of eight, translated a paper on Babbage's Engines by