Christiane Floyd facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Christiane Floyd
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Floyd speaking at a conference at the HTW Berlin on 31 March 2015
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Christiane Riedl
26 April 1943 Vienna, Austria
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| Nationality | Austrian |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Spouse(s) | Robert W. Floyd Peter Naur |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | University of Hamburg Technische Universität Berlin Softlab Stanford University Siemens |
| Thesis | Radikale für Fastmoduln, Fastringe und Kompositionsringe (1966) |
| Doctoral advisor | Wilfried Nöbauer |
Christiane Floyd (born Christiane Riedl on April 26, 1943) is an amazing Austrian computer scientist. In 1978, she made history by becoming the very first female professor of computer science in Germany! She was also a pioneer in a cool idea called evolutionary participatory software design. This was an early step towards what we now know as open-source software development, where many people work together to create computer programs.
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Her Early Life and Studies
Christiane Riedl started her journey by studying mathematics at the University of Vienna in Austria. She worked really hard and earned her PhD degree in 1966.
After her studies, from 1966 to 1968, she worked as a systems programmer at a big company called Siemens in Munich, Germany. She used a programming language called ALGOL 60.
Then, from 1968 to 1973, she moved to the United States. She worked at Stanford University in their computer science department. There, she was a research associate and also taught some classes part-time.
Becoming a Software Pioneer
In 1973, Christiane joined a software company in Munich called Softlab. She became a senior consultant there. She helped develop and show off something very important called Maestro I. This was the first integrated development environment for software. Think of it like a special workshop where computer programmers could build software more easily.
A Trailblazing Professor
In 1978, Christiane Floyd became a full professor at Technische Universität Berlin. This was a huge deal because she was the first woman ever to be a professor in the field of computer science in Germany!
Later, starting in 1991, she led a software engineering group at the University of Hamburg. Christiane and her team came up with one of the first ideas for participatory design methods. This means involving the people who will use the software in its design process. They called their method STEPS, which stands for Software Technology for Evolutionary Participatory Systems development.
Christiane officially retired in 2008 and became a professor emerita at Hamburg. This means she still holds the title of professor even after retiring.
Helping Future Scientists
Even after retiring, Christiane Floyd continued to inspire. She got involved with a special project at the Vienna University of Technology. This project, called WIT (Women's Postgraduate College for Internet Technologies), helps women get their PhDs in computer science. It's a great way to support more women in technology!
In 2012, she was given an honorary professorship at TU Wien, which is a special title to recognize her amazing contributions.
Christiane Floyd was married to two other computer scientists, Robert W. Floyd and Peter Naur.
