Chesney DiCamillo Diversity in Technology

  African Americans Influential in Technology In the 1920s and 1930s David Crosthwait invented a vacuum pump, a boiler, and a thermostat control. These inventions were all for more effective heating systems for larger buildings.  Crosthwait lived during segregation and the Jim Crow era, where it was relatively rare for  an African American to achieve notability in sciences. His parents and teachers were supportive of his interest in science and inventing at an early age. He went to an all-black school in Kansas City, Kansas. While attending he   earned a full academic scholarship to Purdue University . He got his bachelor's degree at Purdue University in 1913 and a Masters in 1920. After his studies, from 1925 to 1930, he became a Research  Engineer, Director of Research Laboratories for C.A. Dunham Company.  He created many different heating systems, refrigeration methods, temperature regulating devices, and vacuum pumps. He holds 39 U.S. patents and 80 i...

  Black Women That Have Made an Impact in Technology Mary W. Jackson became NASA's first black female engineer in 1958. The 2016  nonfiction book  Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race  written by Margot Lee Shetterly was based off her story. It depicts the struggle Black women in science had . Jackson graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942 with a dual degree in Math and Physical Sciences. In 1953, she had received an offer to work for engineer   Kazimierz Czarnecki. He suggested she   enter a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer. Courses were managed by the University of Virginia, although classes were held in Hampton High School. Since the school's segregation policy at the time, Jackson needed special permission from the City of Hampton to join the white students. She earned the promotion and in 1958  became NASA's first black fe...