Illinois CS Alumni— “Present”
Written by: Emma Maxwell
Happy Women’s History Month! Following our look at the “past” of women in computing, WCS now turns our attention to the “present” by highlighting these amazing women in computing. These alumni of the University of Illinois have gone on to change the world of computer science both in academia and industry.
Nancy Amato
In addition to serving as the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering, Nancy Amato is the current head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; she is the first woman to ever hold this position. Dr. Amato received her PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 1995 with a dissertation on “Parallel Algorithms for Convex Hulls and Proximity Problems.” She has gone on to research motion planning, parallel algorithms, and bioinformatics. Amato has been named a fellow of both the Association of Computing Machinery and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Her research on probabilistic roadmaps has received particular acclaim and one of her papers on the topic is considered one of the most important in the field.
Mary Jane Irwin
After receiving her PhD from the University of Illinois in 1977, Mary Jane Irwin went onto become faculty at Pennsylvania State University before retiring in 2017. Irwin has worked on application-specific architectures and circuit design tools. She is the founding director of the Microsystems Design lab at Penn State.
For her impact on electronic design, Irwin was awarded the Electronic System Design Alliance’s highest award, the Phil Kauffman Award, in 2019. She was also recognized by the Association of Computing Machinery as a Fellow in 1996, with the Distinguished Service Award in 2005, and with the Athena Lecturer Award in 2010. Irwin is also a member emerita of the Committee on the Status of Women within the Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research, having served a longtime member prior to her retirement.
Mary T Mcdowell
In 1986, Mary T. McDowell earned her bachelor’s in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has gone on to lead a number of influential technology companies.
McDowell worked at Nokia and oversaw the introduction of features including Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Asha phones, and Nokia Money. She was named as a “disruptive individual” reshaping the world of mobile phones in 2012.
From 2016 to 2018, McDowell was the CEO of Polycom, a corporation that develops video, voice, and content collaboration technology. She also served as the CEO of Mitel from 2019 to 2021. Mitel is a major telecommunications company.
Linda Petzold
After earning her bachelor’s degree in 1974 from the University of Illinois, Linda Petzold continued with the university and received her PhD in computer science in 1978.
Petzold is a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she researches differential algebraic equations. She also studies computer simulations of large social and biological networks in the real world.
Petzold worked on DASSL, a system for the numerical solution of differential algebraic equations. For this work, she was awarded the inaugural J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software. Petzold has also been recognized the Association for Computing Machinery, the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and more. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Parisa Tabriz
Parisa Tabriz, the self-procalimed “Security Princess,” earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois. She became interested in computer security during her time at Illinois, when her own website was hacked.
Following a Google internship, Tabriz entered the company full time in 2007. In 2013, she became responsible for the security of Google Chrome; she has also been responsible for Project Zero, Google’s offensive security research group, since 2016.
Tabriz has worked to expose historically underrepresented groups to the field of computer security; she has partnered with both DEFCON and Girls Scouts USA to this end.
Ping Fu
After a harrowing childhood where she was forcefully separated from her parents, Ping Fu pursued graduate studies in the United States. Whilst working at the prestigious Bell Laboratories, the company offered Fu an assistance program; Fu graduated with her master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois.
Following receiving her degree, Fu worked at the University’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where she focused on computer visualization and graphics. Her work includes the software for animating the morphing of the T-1000 robot from the blockbuster film Terminator 2: Judgement Day. During her time at NCSA, she also advised Marc Andreessen as he worked on Mosaic, an early multimedia web browser known for popularizing the world wide web.
In 1997, with her then-husband Herbert Edelsbrunner, Fu co-founded Geomagic, a software brand of 3D systems to combine manufacturing with digital technology and 3D modeling software. The company received millions in funding and, in 2013, was sold to 3D Systems Corporation for $55 million; Fu currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer and Vice-President of 3D Systems for 3D Systems Corporation.
Fu’s inspiring life story is detailer in her memoir, Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds.
