Page 6 - ScienceFocus (Issue 014)
P. 6
Google graduation, Mrs. West had worked as a teacher
for two years, like the few female classmates she
Map is one of the most had did, before she went back to school for her
downloaded applications in master? degree.
mobile phone App stores. This is not surprising as
Google Map makes life much more convenient With her skills and knowledge in mathematics,
by guiding you to your desired destination with Mrs. West was hired as a researcher at the naval
precise instructions. In order to perform navigation, base in Dahlgren in 1956. Besides spending most
the application must first find out our location, and of her career developing computer programs
this cannot be done without the Global Positioning for missile launching, she also collected and
System (GPS). Not only for personal navigation, processed information from satellites and try to
GPS is also widely used in transport, anti-theft and locate the satellites. It took a lot of effort for Mrs.
precision agriculture. It is not an exaggeration to West to solve and check the equations, along
say that the invention of GPS has changed the with analysis for the collected data using massive
world. Many hidden figures contributed to the computers. Nonetheless, she overcame numerous
development of this world-changing technology, times of miscalculations and finally completed the
and Gladys West is one of them. computer program which locates the position of
satellites; the calculation that was done by Mrs.
Born in the rural region of the United States in West eventually helped in the development of
1930, Mrs. West had to help with the field work in a GPS.
small farm run by her family during her childhood.
She found that it was not the life she would like Worked as a mathematician for the
to live ??she did not want to work as a farmer nor Government for more than 40 years, Mrs. West
a crop-processing factory worker. At school, she retired in 1998 and started to work towards a PhD.
realized that education was the thing that could Unfortunately, only five months from retirement,
change her life. Although Mrs. West? family was Mrs. West suffered a stroke which damaged her
not financially capable to support her to study hearing, vision and mobility of her right side.
further, she worked very hard and was awarded Nevertheless, it did not stop her from
a scholarship to study at Virginia State College, obtaining her PhD eventually.
where she pursued a mathematics degree. At that
time, most of her classmates who were studying Recently, Mrs. West revealed that
mathematics were men. She recalled that she was actually she still finds it difficult to
always competing and trying to survive because comprehend that her calculations
she was one of the ?pecial ones??in class [1]. After have led to a revolutionary system.
?hen you are working ever y day,
you?e not thinking of ?hat impact is this
going to have on the world???Instead, you
are thinking ? have got to get this right.??
A Figure
of GPS
By Long Him Cheung 撘菜?雓?/code>
