Women in Computer Science
This notable pioneer of computer programming developed one of the first high-level programming languages and invented the compiler. She was also a Navy admiral.
Hint: our mascot is named after her
Who is Grace Hopper?
This adorable character is WiCS's mascot.
Who is Hopper?
The number 39 represented as a binary number.
What is 100111?
This measure of an algorithm’s efficiency describes how its runtime or space requirements grow as the input size increases, often represented using "Big O" notation.
What is time complexity?
This animated TV show, featuring a family of yellow characters, is the longest-running American sitcom.
What is "The Simpsons"?
This English mathematician is credited as the world's first computer programmer after she theorized an algorithm for an Analytical Engine that could repeat a series of instructions. Her vision formed the foundations of modern computing.
Who is Ada Lovelace?
The larger organization that WiCS is a chapter of.
What is ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery)?
A program that takes human readable code and turns it into machine executable code for running at a later time.
What is a compiler?
This data structure is LIFO.
What is a stack?
This is the percentage of computer science professionals that are women.
You'll get points if you are within ±2%.
What is 20%?
Our monthly spotlight for outstanding women/non-binary students involved in WiCS!
What is WiCSter of the Month?
This affordable, credit-card-sized computer, originally designed to teach basic computer science in schools, has become popular for many at-home DIY projects.
What is Raspberry Pi?
This algorithm, which divides a list in half repeatedly to search for a target value, is much faster than a linear search for large, sorted lists.
What is binary search?
Famous for turkey raising, this state sells the most Thanksgiving turkeys across America.
What is Minnesota?
As one of the first Black women to work as a NASA scientist, she spearheaded the use of electronic computers to perform complex mathematical calculations during the Apollo 13 mission.
Hint: she was featured in the 2016 film "Hidden Figures"
Who is Katherine Johnson?
Hopper's official pronouns
What is they/them?
This OOP principle allows a subclass to provide a specific implementation of a method that is already defined in its superclass, enabling different behaviors for the same method across various classes.
What is polymorphism?
A particular instance of an ordered set of data elements each with pointers to its successors, where the tail element has a pointer to the head element.
What is a circular linked list?
This unique creature, native to Australia, is one of the only mammals that lay eggs and uses venomous spurs as a defense mechanism.
What is a platypus?
This American computer scientist coined the term “software engineering” while working on software development for the Apollo 11 mission. Her insistence on thorough testing is attributed as a large reason for the mission's success.
Who is Margaret Hamilton?
The theme of last year's HopperHacks.
What is slumber party?
This term describes a set of rules that allow different computer systems to communicate over the internet, with popular examples including HTTP and FTP.
What is a protocol?
This data structure, often implemented with a binary heap, is used in Dijkstra’s algorithm to efficiently select the next node with the smallest tentative distance. It allows insertion, deletion, and access to the minimum element in logarithmic time.
What is a priority queue?
The three most basic types of clouds are stratus, cumulus, and this high, wispy type with a name meaning "curl."
What is cirrus?