Apollo software engineer Margaret Hamilton, who created the first compiler software and coined the term “software engineer” was given Presidential Honor of Freedom award by President Obama. She was the creative mind behind the onboard software for NASA apollo lunar modules and command modules.
Margaret Hamilton invented the first software in a time when software engineering wasn’t even a field. Back in 1961, when she was a computer programmer at MIT, the university was given a contract by NASA to monitor the spacecraft guidance and navigational system.
Hamilton lead NASA’s Lunar Mission team that worked on the in-flight software. The software was to trigger an alarm as a warning when the onboard computer was overloaded, so it could learn to focus on more vital functions and quite executing non-critical processes.
“She broke barriers in founding her own software businesses, revolutionizing an industry and inspiring countless women to participate in stem fields. Her love of exploration and innovation are the source code of the American Spirit, and her genius has inspired generations to reach for the stars,” Honorary remarks read during the Presidential awarding ceremony.
What Margaret Hamilton did, serves a very decisive part to play in our current understanding of computer programming. She laid the basis of compilers that make up software from a code. Sadly, when you search Google for her name, there’s only one picture (the sweetest one that I could find is on the feature above) which tells us that we can’t possibly reward people for amazing things they do. Their discovery is the most profound reward to them.
