George Danzig, father of linear programming, likes to tell the story how he mistakenly thought that an open research problem in statistics (written on the blackboard) was the homework assignment ?after working on it for a few weeks, he solved it! How often we believe something to be beyond our capabilities, not because of its inherent difficulty, but because we are told that it is impossible.

Now consider a profession that develops and enhances one's analytical ability, logical thinking, technological dexterity, mathematical/scientific knowledge and creative talent, that provides one continual exposure to new and interesting problems, and where one's efforts will bring significant benefits to society. Wouldn't this career appeal to any bright and intelligent young person? Yet some people believe and tell women that they are not suited to the engineering profession. Luckily, many women have not been deterred! In fact, women have made numerous and significant scientific and engineering contributions in many fields. Here are some of those heroines who have advanced the state-of-the-art in computer science, telecommunications, and operations engineering.

Grace Murray Hopper (1906 - 1992)

Pioneer in software engineering, visionary and futurist, “Amazing Grace” had a long and distinguished career working in academia, industry and the military, often simultaneously. She invented the compiler (the intermediate programme that translated English-like instructions to machine language) because, she said, “she was lazy”. She played a leading role in the development of COBOL (common business oriented language) because she believed that more people should be able to use the computer and talk to it in natural language. She is reputed to have popularised the term “bug”, because she traced an error in the Mark II computer to a moth caught in one of the relays. When she retired from the Navy as Rear Admiral in 1986, she was the oldest (at 80 years old) active duty officer at that time. The U.S. Navy’s Aegis destroyer, the USS Hopper, was named after her. She was honoured with the first Computer Science Man of the Year Award by the Data Processing Management Association in 1969.

Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) (1914 - 2000)

Glamorous Hollywood actress of the 1940's and 1950's, she was the star of over 30 films. With George Antheil, she obtained a patent in 1942 for a "Secret Communications System" for the radio control of torpedoes. The anti-jamming idea that she proposed - that radio frequencies used for communications be rapidly changed in a co-ordinated fashion - was considered decades ahead of its time. In 1957, after their patent had expired, and with the invention of transistors, Sylvania adopted the concept in the secure military communications system they built that was used on blockade ships during the Cuban missile crisis. The concept of frequency-hopping (or spread spectrum) proposed by Hedy Lamarr is the basis of many modern communications systems, such as the Internet, satellite communications and cellular networks for mobile phones.

Ailsa Land

In her landmark 1960 paper (co-authored with A.G. Doig), she introduced the branch-and-bound approach for solving general integer linear programmes. Hers was not the first method proposed for integer programmes (Gomory proposed a cutting-plane approach in 1958), but it turned out to be the superior one, being much more amenable for computer implementation. All commercial optimisation software for discrete optimisation in use today adopt the branch-and-bound approach (many implementations are only slight modifications from what she proposed in the paper). The concept of branch and-bound is also widely adopted in many other areas of optimisation and engineering. Her 1973 classic textbook in mathematical programming (co-authored with Susan Powell) is one of the few that provided Fortran codes. Professor Ailsa Land remains active in research; she is currently investigating problems in scheduling and combinatorial auctions.

It is true that women engineers are still in the minority today. Only 1 out of 5 engineering degrees are awarded to women. Many governments and institutions are devoting resources to promote interest in engineering to young people. Former astronaut Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space, now runs a company to help junior secondary girls sustain their interest in science and engineering. The fact is that the number of women engineers have been increasing steadily. In 1983, less than 6% of practising engineers in the United States are women; now about 11% are women. The Society of Women Engineers has over 18 thousand members. I am optimistic that half of the world's brain power will not be wasted and more and more women will pursue the very satisfying career in engineering.

Fellow women engineers, through your career and accomplishments, show the world that you are not such a rarity, but very special, because you can use your talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others in society through your work ?as an engineering professional and scientist!