{"id":11052,"date":"2017-11-07T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/?p=11052"},"modified":"2023-10-27T02:43:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T09:43:26","slug":"radia-perlman-a-pioneer-many-times-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/radia-perlman-a-pioneer-many-times-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Radia Perlman: A Pioneer Many Times Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radia Perlman: A Pioneer Many Times Over<\/b><\/h2>\n

It takes a brilliant mind to pioneer an algorithm crucial to the functionality of the internet \u2013 and lots of determination to put in hours many years later to replace it! Software designer and network engineer Radia Perlman did just that and much more; she created a field of computing as an undergraduate and has had a massive influence on the way network security is taught. With three MIT degrees and over a hundred patents to her name, Radia has found ways to pioneer new solutions with her incredible creativity, extensive knowledge, and problem-solving skills in every branch of computing she\u2019s tackled. Just don\u2019t call her \u201cthe Mother of the Internet\u201d (more on that later!).<\/span><\/p>\n

Radia grew up in New Jersey with a mother and father who were engineers for the U.S. government, doing computer programming and working with radar, respectively. Although she\u2019d always loved and excelled at math and science, in her <\/span>words<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI was also interested in artsy things. I loved classical music and played piano and French horn. I also loved writing, composing music, and art.\u201d Of all her multidisciplinary interests, it was math that Radia turned into a career.<\/span><\/p>\n

When she headed to Massachusetts to study math at MIT, Radia had no intention of following her mother\u2019s footsteps into programming; however, it would turn out that the field she\u2019d once spurned in high school would find a way to draw her in. A TA in one of Radia\u2019s sophomore physics courses noticed her intellect and asked her to be a programmer for his project. When she told him didn\u2019t know how to program, he responded with, \u201cYes, I know. That\u2019s why I\u2019m asking you. You\u2019re obviously bright, so I\u2019m sure you can learn and I have no money to pay you. If you knew how to program I\u2019d have to pay you.\u201d Luckily, her boyfriend at the time knew how to program, and she fell in love with the logical, exciting process. <\/span><\/p>\n

After learning to code, Radia went on to pioneer an entire field known as \u201ctangible computing.\u201d As an undergraduate, she designed a programming language that was paired with special input devices to teach programming concepts to very young children. According to <\/span>ITWORLD<\/span><\/a>, it was \u201ca child-friendly version of the educational robotics language LOGO, called TORTIS (Toddler’s Own Recursive Turtle Interpreter System).\u201d Radia\u2019s work has been <\/span>cited<\/span><\/a> as \u201cthe first and most prominent arrowhead pointing in the right direction.\u201d She continued her trajectory by graduating with a B.S. in math, then staying at MIT to earn an M.S. in math and a Ph.D in Computer Science.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s spent her whole career solving problems, one solution became Radia\u2019s most recognized accomplishment. The problem? File sharing between computers. Her solution? STP. STP, or Spanning Tree Protocol, configures networks to deliver data and avoid deadly loops. Because her solution changed the way the internet runs, she\u2019s been called \u201cthe Mother of the Internet\u201d \u2013 but Radia says she doesn\u2019t like the term! As she told the <\/span>Atlantic<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI did indeed make some fundamental contributions to the underlying infrastructure, but no single technology really caused the Internet to succeed.\u201d Radia\u2019s nature is one of innovation and constant improvement \u2013 to improve on her 1985 STP solution, she\u2019s been working to replace it with a new technology called TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links). <\/span><\/p>\n

Touching on her interests in the arts once more, Radia wrote a <\/span><\/i>poem<\/span><\/i><\/a> about how Spanning Tree Protocol works! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Radia also branched into writing \u2013 in 1992 she wrote a wildly popular textbook called <\/span>Interconnections<\/span><\/i>. It pioneered a change in the way networking was taught, turning it into a science. As she recounted to the <\/span>Atlantic<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThe field was really murky, full of jargon and hype. My book created order. It was easy to understand while being conceptually thought-provoking, and a large part of the technology described was stuff I\u2019d invented.\u201d Just a few years later she honed her extensive experience to co-author another popular textbook called <\/span>Network Security<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Radia Perlman\u2019s innovative career is an inspiration to us; she\u2019s a great role model for young coders! In her interview with <\/span>ITworld<\/span><\/a>, she gives great advice to future and current engineers, suggesting, \u201cStart out with finding the right problem to solve. This is a combination of \u2018what customers are asking for\u2019, \u2018what customers don’t even know they want yet\u2019 and \u2018what can be solved with something simple to understand and manage.\u2019 Try to think about and understand various approaches, and the tradeoffs between various choices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out our courses and get your kids on the path to coding success. Who knows \u2013 maybe they\u2019ll follow in Radia\u2019s footsteps and pioneer crucial technologies, too!<\/span><\/p>\n

Explore Courses<\/span><\/a>\n

This article is part of a series on women in STEM \u2013 check our blog soon for the next one!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radia Perlman: A Pioneer Many Times Over It takes a brilliant mind to pioneer an algorithm crucial to the functionality of the internet \u2013 and lots of determination to put in hours many years later to replace it! Software designer and network engineer Radia Perlman did just that and much more; she created a field of computing as an undergraduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,12,106],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-11052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-girls-coding","category-ideas-and-tips","category-women-in-stem","tag-women-in-stem"],"yoast_head":"\nRadia Perlman: A Pioneer Many Times Over - Tynker Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the pioneering journey of Radia Perlman, a trailblazer in the world of technology and networking.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/radia-perlman-a-pioneer-many-times-over\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Radia Perlman: A Pioneer Many Times Over - 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