Cracking the Code: Women Who Have Changed the Way We Look at Computers

Cracking the Code: Women Who Have Changed the Way We Look at Computers tells the true story of the many women who have made significant contributions to the world of code and technology.

We hear about the women who are behind the development or use of the sophisticated technology we have today, including Vandana ‘Vandi’ Verma, Anouk Wipprecht, Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Fereshteh Forough, Ada Lovelace and many more.

Cracking the Code: Women Who Have Changed the Way We Look at Computers (English), is written by Alisha Sadikot, illustrated by Shreyas R Krishnan, supported by CISCO, and published by Pratham Books (© Pratham Books,2019) under a CC-BY 4.0 license, first released on StoryWeaver. Read, create and translate stories for free on https://www.storyweaver.org.in.

Sample Page from Cracking the Code

THE FIRST ‘COMPUTERS’ WERE HUMAN, NOT MACHINES.
MANY OF THEM WERE WOMEN.

Frances Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence were the original programmers of the ENIAC, the first electronic computer built in America.

cracking the code — They were asked to program
it in 1945 without ever having
seen the machine

Women have kick-started countless initiatives and organisations across the world that nurture female coders, like Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code and Indian Girls Code.

The 2015 world record for a women’s hackathon saw 7,314 female participants across 34 countries, with an 80% participation from India.

Padmasree Warrior, an Indian woman, was the CEO of a company pioneering work in self-driving cars.

VANDANA ‘VANDI’ VERMA

BEHIND THE WHEEL Vandana ‘Vandi’ Verma was 11 years old when she got behind the wheel of her grandfather’s tractor. She never imagined that someday she would navigate a rover on Mars.

CURIOSITY AND AI

Today, sitting at her desk at NASA, Verma drives, programs and navigates the Curiosity rover on Mars. Using Artificial Intelligence, the rover takes images, analyses soil and rocks, and helps NASA understand the planet’s past. Though Verma helps it do its job, the rover makes its own decisions.

See more Pratham-Storyweaver books below

How Many? – Counting and simple addition - In this book we meet beautifully illustrated creatures and count how many to answer simple addition problems. Author: Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, Illustrator: Sayan Mukherjee. Another great book from Pratham and Storyweaver. See many more books like this in our Maths Category. Sample Page from How Many Spread the love

Fossils: Tales of Long Ago - Fossils can answer many questions about our past, find out more about these fascinating historical imprints, and a few details about their history in India. Another great creative commons story by Pratham and Storyweaver. Author: Anupama Chandrasekaran Illustrator: Rai Sample Page from Fossils: Tales of Long Ago Spread the love

Bulli and the Tiger - Bulli is a little girl growing up in a bamboo-weavers’ community. Bulli finds her father troubled and discovers the bamboo suppliers threatened to raise the rates and put their whole village in jeopardy. Bulli looks for other ways of finding bamboo, and ends up facing the legendary tiger! Will the villagers find another way? Shalini ...

Elephant, Naughty Elephant - What is Elephant doing? And is he really naughty? Find out in this cute, beautifully illustrated text for young children. Repetition and simple language can also be useful for learn to read age. Sample Text from Elephant, Naughty Elephant What is Elephant doing, can you guess? Elephant, naughty Elephant, what are you doing? Why, I’m ...

I Feel… – understanding emotions - I Feel... is a book for young children to explore their emotions. Explore each emotion with your little one and ask your child when they felt the same and what could they do. Early steps to emotional intelligence!

Every Minute Counts - Adil is always late to school. This makes his teachers very angry. But why is he always late? His friend Paro helps him work out where the extra minutes go. Does he need to wake up one hour earlier or maybe a little more? This book was brought to us by Pratham’s Storyweaver platform. See ...

Meera and Ameera – Imaginary Friends - Meera and Ameera are best of friends. Strangely Meera is the only one who can see Ameera. That’s probably because she is an imaginary porcupine. Join the two friends in their many adventures real and made up. Sample Text From Meera and Ameera Meera and I are a team. She’s my most favourite person in ...

The Auto That Flew - A tuk tuk daily fights the traffic of Dehli, only to secretly dream of being able to fly. A magic water makes that possibility reailty, but is it all that he dreamed of? Sample Text from The Auto That Flew Arjun had three wheels, one headlight and a coat of green and yellow. He belonged ...

The Mystery of the Cyber Friend – Important lessons about keeping safe online - Shree loves using her computer for all sorts of things. One of the things she does is to chat with friends. When she has a tiff with a group of friends, she receives a new request out of the blue, and decides to accept. But after some time she senses this new friend is not ...

Malar’s Big House - Malar’s building a big house, but will she manage to keep her house standing? Find out in Malar’s Big House. Sample Text from Malar’s Big House Today, Malar is going to build a big house! “I can use these!” “My big house will be this high!” says Malar. “And this wide!” <End of sample from ...