{"id":2113,"date":"2011-10-07T08:42:39","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T16:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?p=2113"},"modified":"2011-10-07T08:42:39","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T16:42:39","slug":"ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/","title":{"rendered":"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Happy <a href=\"http:\/\/findingada.com\/\">Ada Lovelace Day<\/a>!\u00a0 This day is\u00a0 celebrated by writing about a woman in technology who inspired you.<\/p>\n<p><p>For Ada Lovelace Day this year, I want to honor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/news\/in-training\/learning-the-hard-way\/2005\/08\/22\/1124562798726.html\">Sheila Howell<\/a>, a computer science academic at my alma mater, <a href=\"http:\/\/rmit.edu.au\/\">RMIT University<\/a>. I first met Sheila in the early 90s in CS280 &#8211; Software Engineering.\u00a0 In that course I learned how to design and estimate systems.\u00a0 She taught systems thinking, a skill I have used over and over again and use to this day.\u00a0 I remember an exercise where we had to interview &#8220;users&#8221; (academics with scripts) about the current system, and design something better.\u00a0 That has stayed with me: the best way to learn something is to do it.\u00a0 The other key thing I learned is that there&#8217;s more to a solid system than the code.<\/p>\n<p>Sheila went on to become the Head of School of Computer Science, and I went on to teach CS280, funnily enough, among other things.\u00a0 She was an excellent Head of School: liked by everyone but supremely good at getting things done.<\/p>\n<p>She tried to retire but didn&#8217;t manage it, coming back to run the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avu.org\/\">African Virtual University<\/a> project at RMIT.\u00a0 This was a fantastic program that aimed to help African Universities set up and teach Computer Science programs.<\/p>\n<p>I believe Sheila is still teaching at RMIT to this day.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d like to say thank you to Sheila: you inspired and influenced my career more than you&#8217;ll ever know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy Ada Lovelace Day!\u00a0 This day is\u00a0 celebrated by writing about a woman in technology who inspired you. For Ada Lovelace Day this year, I want to honor Sheila Howell, a computer science academic at my alma mater, RMIT University. &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[288],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell - Mozilla Web Development<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Thomson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/\",\"name\":\"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell - Mozilla Web Development\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-07T16:42:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-07T16:42:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/2bdf282ad78780859edbe010db56fcfd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/\",\"name\":\"Mozilla Web Development\",\"description\":\"For make benefit of glorious tubes\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/2bdf282ad78780859edbe010db56fcfd\",\"name\":\"Laura Thomson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/3c79e2fbf62b8ee1c66e0cbcececd028\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37acf7207d29137637218d129de10e55?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37acf7207d29137637218d129de10e55?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Thomson\"},\"description\":\"Laura Thomson leads the Socorro project. She is Webtools Engineering Manager, and has been at Mozilla since 2007.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/author\/lthomsonmozillacom\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell - Mozilla Web Development","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Thomson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/","name":"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell - Mozilla Web Development","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-07T16:42:39+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-07T16:42:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/2bdf282ad78780859edbe010db56fcfd"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2011\/10\/07\/ada-lovelace-day-sheila-howell\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ada Lovelace Day: Sheila Howell"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/","name":"Mozilla Web Development","description":"For make benefit of glorious tubes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/2bdf282ad78780859edbe010db56fcfd","name":"Laura Thomson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/3c79e2fbf62b8ee1c66e0cbcececd028","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37acf7207d29137637218d129de10e55?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37acf7207d29137637218d129de10e55?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Thomson"},"description":"Laura Thomson leads the Socorro project. 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