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Distinguished Lecture Series

An Introduction to Bold Thinking and Innovation
The RENCI Distinguished Lecture Series brings to North Carolina and the Triangle area speakers who personify the renaissance ideal: people who take original approaches; who solve problems by thinking of bold and creative solutions; who are unafraid to step outside their comfort zone. RENCI Distinguished Lecturers have earned reputations as experts in their fields through collaboration, a willingness to learn from others, and by having the courage to take risks in order to achieve meaningful results. Their ideas, inventions and innovations inspire other bold thinkers and impact the way we live, work and play.

RENCI Distinguished Lectures are two times a year at sites around the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. Lectures generally last an hour to 90 minutes, followed by questions from the audience. All lectures are free and open to the general public.

Upcoming Lecture
Kathy Kleiman
Historian and Executive Producer for the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) Programmers Project
"Shaking Up Computer History: Finding the Women of ENIAC"
Baltimore, MD

12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Thursday, September 25, 2008
Lunch will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bryan University Center, Duke University
Directions

Co-sponsors: Duke University: Office of the Provost; Office of Information and Technology (OIT); and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).

Register Online
Registration is free. Space is limited. Seating preference will be given to those that pre-register. Register Now

About the Speaker
Kathy Kleiman is historian of the ENIAC Programmers and executive producer of the first documentary to explore their untold story. Twenty years ago, Kleiman discovered the ENIAC Programmers – the six young women who programmed the first all-electronic programmable computer, the ENIAC.  Inspired as a young programmer, Kleiman devoted her undergraduate thesis to writing their missing chapter of computer history. A decade later she returned to the ENIAC Women to capture their stories in their own voices. These powerful interviews form the basis of a powerful full-length feature documentary Kleiman plans with award-winning documentary producers. She works to ensure that Kathleen Mauchly Antonelli, Frances Bilas Spence, Frances "Betty" Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum are honored for their pioneering accomplishments in computing. Her website can be found at www.eniacprogrammers.org.

Kleiman is also a telecommunications and Internet law attorney.  Interested in early Internet governance issues, she became part of the group that formed ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, manager of our global domain name system) and co-founder of its Noncommercial Users Constituency.  Concerned about protecting noncommercial uses of the Internet, including political and personal speech, Kleiman has spoken on issues of free speech, fair use and privacy issues in Internet forums around the world.

Kleiman graduated from Harvard College and Boston University School of Law, both with honors. She admires the RENCI program for its ground-breaking direction and unique mix of fields.

"Shaking Up Computer History: Finding the Women of ENIAC"
Kleiman's talk will share and celebrate the little known contributions of the ENIAC programmers.  These six young women, Kathleen Mauchly Antonelli, Frances Bilas Spence, Frances "Betty" Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum accomplished the impossible. They programmed the first all-electronic programmable computer, the ENIAC, to perform a differential calculus equation critical to a secret WWII effort. The ENIAC programmers performed their work under difficult conditions and taught themselves to program without programming manuals, classes or languages. Despite the outstanding success of ENIAC and their program, the ENIAC women were relegated to obscurity for over 50 years.

Kleiman will share her passion for the ENIAC programmers' story and establishing their rightful place in computing history.  She will discuss the contributions made by several of the ENIAC programmers for decades after WWII, including seminal contributions to computer languages and standards. Kleiman's speech will include a short video of the ENIAC programmers discussing their own story. During Q&A, she looks forward to talking with attendees about whether history matters to modern technology fields including computer science.

Past Lectures

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