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Zhenia Vasiliev

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How to invent software engineering

Margaret Hamilton at Apollo 11 mission control room, 1969: Okay, I think it’s time I start calling this “software” engineering

Margaret Hamilton did not simply help put the man to the Moon. She had also invented the concept that would go along to create a major paradigm shift in ideas that people have about computers. She was the first person to make a difference between hardware and software. How do you come up with an idea of such scale and influence? - I was asking myself while watching through the video clip shared on Google’s blog a year ago. In the video, set in Mojave desert, California, we see a giant portrait of Hamilton. It is made out of mirrors that catch the moon light when darkness falls over the desert, illuminating all at once. The graphic qualities of the portrait aside, you can look at it and marvel at the tribute that earthlings pay to the legendary Apollo flight software designer, a team lead who made it possible to set human feet onto the Moon surface.

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tags: digital illustration, software engineering, google, NASA, SWEBOK, debugging, moon, outer space, mission control
categories: history
Wednesday 07.22.20
Posted by Zhenia
 

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