# Judy Clapp > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Judy_Clapp > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Judy_Clapp.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Clapp > Source revision: 1341808992 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American computer scientist (born 1930)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Judy Clapp | birth_name = Judith A. Clapp | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1930}} | birth_place = [Long Island, New York](/source/Long_Island%2C_New_York) | fields = [Software engineering](/source/Software_engineering) | workplaces = [MITRE Corporation](/source/MITRE_Corporation) }} '''Judith A. Clapp''' (born 1930) is a [computer scientist](/source/computer_scientist) who began her career at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) (MIT) and subsequently moved to the [Lincoln Laboratory](/source/Lincoln_Laboratory) and then to [MITRE](/source/Mitre_Corporation), where she was a leader in the [Semi-Automatic Ground Environment](/source/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment) (SAGE) military project, including the development of the [SAGE computer](/source/SAGE_(computer)).{{cite interview |last=Clapp |first=Judy |interviewer=[Janet Abbate](/source/Janet_Abbate) |title=Oral History: Judy Clapp |work=IEEE History Center Oral History Program |url=http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Judy_Clapp |location=Lexington, MA |date=11 February 2001}} ==Early life and education== Clapp was born in 1930 and was raised in [Long Island, New York](/source/Long_Island%2C_New_York). She received her [bachelor's degree](/source/bachelor's_degree) in math and physics in 1951 from [Smith College](/source/Smith_College) and her [master's degree](/source/master's_degree) in applied science (which she described as the closest match to [computer science](/source/computer_science) available at the time) in 1952 from [Radcliffe College](/source/Radcliffe_College), then a women's affiliate of [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University).{{cite web|title=SWE Awards: 2001 Achievement Award|url=http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/images/AwardRecipients/pr_achieveaward_clapp01.pdf|website=Society of Women Engineers|accessdate=1 September 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103756/http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/images/AwardRecipients/pr_achieveaward_clapp01.pdf|url-status=dead}} ==Career== After graduating from Radcliffe, Clapp began work at MIT, the only woman among the early programmers of the [Whirlwind I](/source/Whirlwind_I), the first real-time computer. The Whirlwind, a [vacuum tube computer](/source/list_of_vacuum_tube_computers), had originally been commissioned by the United States Navy but was subsequently financed by the Air Force for the [Semi-Automatic Ground Environment](/source/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment) (SAGE) project. Clapp continued to work on the project after its transfer to the [Lincoln Laboratory](/source/Lincoln_Laboratory) and later to the [MITRE Corporation](/source/MITRE_Corporation), eventually becoming a Senior Principal Software Systems Engineer at MITRE. After the SAGE project Clapp continued to work in management at MITRE and participated in the [Department of Defense](/source/United_States_Department_of_Defense) Working Group that led to the development of the [Ada](/source/Ada_(programming_language)) [programming language](/source/programming_language).{{cite book|last1=Sloan|first1=editors, Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster, Jane E.|title=Encyclopedia of women in today's world|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediawome00zmar|url-access=limited|date=2011|publisher=Sage Reference|location=Thousand Oaks, Calif.|isbn=9781412976855|pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediawome00zmar/page/n387 323]–4}} ==Legacy== Clapp's work is regarded as important groundwork for the development of [software engineering](/source/software_engineering) as a discipline. She was involved in early professional organizations for women in computing and is recognized as a pioneer among women in the field.{{cite journal|last1=Denise|first1=Gürer|title=Pioneering Women in Computer Science|journal=Communications of the ACM|date=1995|volume=38|issue=1|pages=45–54|url=http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/csep590/06au/readings/p175-gurer.pdf|doi=10.1145/204865.204875|s2cid=6626310}} Clapp received an Achievement Award from the [Society of Women Engineers](/source/Society_of_Women_Engineers) in 2001. In 2005, she received the Smith College Medal.{{cite web|title=Smith History: The Smith College Medal|url=http://www.smith.edu/about_medalists.php|accessdate=May 10, 2016|archive-date=August 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814003146/https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/smith-history/smith-college-medal|url-status=dead}} Her work and thoughts on working on the SAGE project were also discussed in the book Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing.{{Cite book|last=Abbate|first=Janet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWOIXDsLQWwC&q=judy+clapp+mit|title=Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing|date=2012-10-19|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-30453-5|language=en}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * [https://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/reflections.html Reflections on SAGE]: MIT Lincoln Laboratory interviews Clapp and other major players in the SAGE project {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Clapp, Judy}} Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:American women computer scientists Category:American computer scientists Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:MIT Lincoln Laboratory people Category:Smith College alumni Category:21st-century American women Category:Achievement Award Recipients of the Society of Women Engineers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Judy Clapp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Clapp) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Clapp?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.