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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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This blog post by Professor Ayanna Howard appeared in the journal Science on October 9, 2014.
I was shielded from stereotypes during my young and impressionable years. I didn’t realize they existed until maybe middle school, and by then, I’d already decided I wanted to build the Bionic Woman.
I was always drawn to ‘techy’ stuff, but I also liked what people would consider typical girly things. I would just as quickly ask for a RadioShack kit as a Betty Crocker oven, and get both. I learned to solder at the same time I was playing with dolls (not necessarily Barbie, although I did collect them for a while and have some that are quite valuable). In the third grade, I started programming in BASIC on a Commodore 64 computer in the basement.
My dad majored in engineering, and my mom majored in math. Both were large influencers in my life. From an early age, I loved math, puzzles, computers, and gaming, and I seemed to have a knack for them. These things just seemed so logical. There was always a right or wrong answer; you just had to figure it out.
By this time, I was a total sci-fi nut. I would watch anything in that domain: Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Wonder Woman. There was one show I particularly liked: The Bionic Woman. I thought the concept was ingenious.
