Sue Black (computer scientist) explained

Sue Black
Birth Name:Susan Elizabeth Black
Birth Place:Fareham, Hampshire, England
Thesis Title:Computation of Ripple Effect Measures for Software
Thesis Year:2001
Thesis Url:https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.713479
Doctoral Advisor:Robin Whitty
Alma Mater:London South Bank University (PhD)
Known For:Saving Bletchley Park
Awards:John Ivinson Award (2009)

Susan Elizabeth Black (born 1962) is a British computer scientist, academic and social entrepreneur.[1] She is known for saving Bletchley Park, (World War II codebreaking) with her Saving Bletchley Park campaign.[2] Since 2018, she has been Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University. She was previously based at the University of Westminster and University College London.

Early life and education

Sue Black was born in 1962 in Fareham, Hampshire.[3] She left school and home at 16, the earliest legal age. She married at 20 and soon had three children.[4]

After her husband forced Black and her children out, she sought safety at a local women's refuge. She began a maths access course at night school that led to enrolling in undergraduate degree.[5] Black graduated with a bachelor's degree in computing from London South Bank University[6] in 1993, and obtained her PhD in software engineering[7] in 2001[8] [9] for research on the ripple effect supervised by Robin Whitty[10]

Career and research

Black was previously Head of the Department of Information and Software Systems at the University of Westminster, and senior research associate at University College London (UCL).[11] Since 2018, she has been Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University,[12] [13] and an honorary professor at UCL.[14]

She was the founding chair of the British Computer Society (BCS) Specialist Group BCSWomen,[15] serving from 2001 until 2008. She is an advocate of women in computing.[16]

Campaigns

Black ran a successful campaign over several years to secure funding for the restoration of Bletchley Park, the UK World War II centre for decrypting enemy messages.[17] In 2003 she started raising awareness of the site by creating a blog,[18] after visiting the site and noting the appalling condition of the buildings, seeing the Bombe machine being rebuilt, and hearing that over 10,000 people had worked there during the war. The photograph of one of the huts with a blue tarpaulin protecting the deteriorating structure helped galvanise interest and activism among concerned computer scientists. The initial outreach was followed up with an active Twitter presence that attracted even more followers and interested parties. Bletchley Park staff also engaged with other Web 2.0 (i.e. user-generated) technologies such as Facebook and Twitter.[19] [20]

At the end of 2015, Black published a book about the process, Saving Bletchley Park,[2] initially funded via Unbound,[21] that became the fastest crowdfunded book of all time.[22]

everywoman says Black "embodies the traits of a modern leader", particularly in regard to social media use.[23] The BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones spotted early on that Black was making sophisticated use of Twitter (and other platforms) in her campaigning.[24] [25]

Black set up Techmums, reaching out to mothers who wanted to understand what their children were up to online. Techmums offers free training in digital security, social media, the programming language Python, and so on, with the aim of increasing the women's confidence, breaking down the digital divide, and helping them escape poverty. The pilot programme was held at Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Techmums describes itself as "an e-skills accredited program of short, hands-on workshops" with a supportive online community.[26]

Black has appeared on BBC television, radio and in press articles.[27] [28] [29] She was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific first broadcast in 2019[30] and was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.[31]

Politics

In March 2019 the Women's Equality Party announced that Black would be their candidate in the 2020 election for Mayor of London.[32] In February 2020, it was announced that Black was withdrawing as the party's candidate for health reasons, and was being replaced by Mandu Reid.[33]

Awards and honours

In 2009 Black won the first John Ivinson Award[34] from the British Computer Society at the Royal Society in London. In 2011 Black won the PepsiCo Women's Inspiration Award.[35] In 2012 she was listed as one of Datamations 10 Women in Tech Who Give Back.[36]

Black was also one of the 30 women identified in the British Computer Society's Women in IT Campaign in 2014, who were then featured in the e-book "Women in IT: Inspiring the next generation" produced by the BCS.[37]

In 2015 Black was identified as the 7th[38] Most Influential Women in UK IT 2015, by Computer Weekly.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to technology.[39] [40]

Black was awarded the Social Impact Abie Award from the AnitaB.org in 2017.[41] [42]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dr Sue Black official webpage. sueblack.co.uk.
  2. Web site: Saving Bletchley Park . https://web.archive.org/web/20081109070803/http://savingbletchleypark.org/ . dead . 2008-11-09 . savingbletchleypark.org .
  3. Web site: Inspiring Woman: Dr Sue Black, OBE. 16 February 2017. runnethlondon.com. 28 October 2017.
  4. Web site: Black. Sue. Bio + Contact. blackse. 16 December 2014 . 21 May 2016. Dr Sue Black left home and school at 16, married at 20 and had 3 children by the age of 23. A single parent at 25 she went to university, gained a degree in computing then a PhD in software engineering..
  5. Web site: Fleming. Amy. #techmums: why can't geeks be mothers too?. 21 May 2016 . 11 November 2013 . The Guardian.
  6. Web site: LSBU alumna Sue Black becomes an OBE in New Year Honours List 2016 . 5 January 2016 . . UK . 7 January 2016 .
  7. PhD . Susan Elizabeth. Black . Computation of Ripple Effect Measures for Software . London Southbank University . 2001 . jisc.ac.uk. . 1063678609 .
  8. Sue Black
  9. Web site: Publications by Dr Sue Black. sueblack.co.uk. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090411130838/http://www.sueblack.co.uk/publications.html. 11 April 2009. dmy-all.
  10. Black. Sue. Computing ripple effect for software maintena.nce. Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice. 13. 4. 2001. 263–279. 1532-060X. 10.1002/smr.233.
  11. Web site: Sue Black profile . . UK . 7 January 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202754/http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/people/S.Black.html . 3 March 2016 .
  12. Web site: Professor Sue Black . Department of Computer Science . Durham University . 28 June 2019.
  13. Web site: Sue Black to join vibrant Computer Science Department . Durham University . 28 June 2019 . 22 October 2018.
  14. Web site: Sue Black . Department of Computer Science . University College London . 28 June 2019.
  15. http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.8353 Dr Sue Black|Committee|BCSWomen
  16. http://skirtsandladders.com/?tag=sue-black Sue Black profile
  17. Cellan-Jones, Rory, Bletchley Park's social media war, BBC News, 18 March 2009.
  18. Brain, Jon, Neglect of Bletchley condemned, BBC News, 24 July 2008.
  19. News: Thomson . Rebecca . Bletchley Park wins crucial funding using Facebook and Twitter . . 19 March 2009 .
  20. News: Can Twitter Save Bletchley Park? . Black . Sue . 13–17 April 2010 . Museums and the Web 2010 . . Bowen . Jonathan P. . Bearman . David . Denver, United States . Griffin . Kelsey . Jennifer . Trant.
  21. Book: Saving Bletchley Park. Unbound. 9781908717924 . 30 December 2015.
  22. Web site: Celebrating the incredible codebreakers of Bletchley Park – Dr. Sue Black OBE, Computer Scientist, Writer and Speaker – Womanthology. Womanthology. 7 April 2016.
  23. Web site: #techmums Founder Dr Sue Black's rules for elevating your personal social media presence . Everywoman . 21 May 2016 . Dr Sue Black, Founder of Savvify #techmums – empowering mums to get excited about technology – and winner of the Inspiration of the Year award at the FDM everywoman in Technology Awards in March 2014, embodies the traits of the modern leader – engaged with her audience, transparent, open and authentic . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160611102646/https://www.everywoman.com/personal-development/personal-branding/techmums-founder-dr-sue-blacks-rules-elevating-your-personal . 11 June 2016 .
  24. Web site: Cellan-Jones . Rory . Bletchley Park's social media war . . . 21 May 2016 . 18 March 2009 . A vital component in this campaign has been what you might call the propaganda war – although one which has employed the most modern of weapons. Dr Black has assembled a significant crowd of supporters for Bletchley Park – geeks, history buffs, technologically literate celebrities – using all the modern social media tools..
  25. Web site: Cellan-Jones. Rory. OBE for Bletchley campaigner Sue Black. BBC News Technology. BBC. 21 May 2016. 30 December 2015. Others had been battling for years to make the same case without much success, but in 2008 social media was just beginning to play an important role in campaigning, and Dr Black made full use of it..
  26. Web site: techmums.co. About. 21 May 2016. What is #techmums? #techmums is an e-skills accredited program of short, hands-on workshops that introduce mums to online security, social media savviness, essential computing skills, app and web design. In addition there is opportunity for mums to be introduced to simple Python programming to gain understanding of the computer skills their children may learn at school. #techmums programs are delivered via schools either directly by a #techmums trainer or by the school themselves. All mums enrolled onto the program are further supported by a dedicated #techmums online community..
  27. Web site: Dr Sue Black: Press . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090411121257/http://www.sueblack.co.uk/press.html . 11 April 2009 . dmy-all .
  28. News: Smyth . Chris . Scientists send clear message: save Bletchley Park . . 24 July 2008 .
  29. News: Arthur . Charles . Bletchley Park's codebreakers get glimpse of lottery funding . . 29 September 2009 .
  30. Web site: Sue Black on women in tech. bbc.co.uk.
  31. Web site: BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Dr Sue Black. BBC. en-GB. 2019-06-10.
  32. Web site: Women's Equality Party announces Interim Leader and London Mayoral Candidate. Women's Equality Party. en-GB. 2019-10-04.
  33. News: Women's Equality party candidate pulls out of London mayoral race. Kate. Proctor. The Guardian. 16 February 2020. 16 February 2020.
  34. Web site: First BCS John Ivinson Award Goes to Dr Sue Black. British Computer Society. 16 July 2014.
  35. Web site: PepsiCo Women's Inspiration Award Winner – If I can do it, so can you… . Black . Sue . 23 August 2011 . PepsiCo WIN . https://web.archive.org/web/20120605031541/http://pepsicowin.com/2011/08/23/if-i-can-do-it-so-can-you%E2%80%A6/ . 5 June 2012 . 7 January 2016 . dead . dmy-all .
  36. Web site: 10 Women in Tech Who Give Back . Jessica . Vartabedian . . 6 August 2012 . 7 January 2016 .
  37. Book: Women in IT: Inspiring the next generation. 1 October 2014. British Computer Society. 978-1-78017-287-3. 57. 14 October 2014.
  38. Web site: The 50 most influential women in UK IT 2015. Computer Weekly. 11 July 2015.
  39. Web site: OBE for Bletchley campaigner Sue Black. Cellan-Jones. Rory. 30 December 2015. BBC. 30 December 2015.
  40. Web site: New Year's Honours 2016: CSV. Government of the United Kingdom. 30 December 2015. 30 December 2015.
  41. Web site: Dr. Sue Black OBE - AnitaB.org. 1 August 2017. anitab.org. 14 November 2017.
  42. Web site: ABIE Awards - AnitaB.org. anitab.org. 14 November 2017.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sue Black (computer scientist)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.