Marian Croak facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dr.
Marian Croak
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Croak in 2017
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| Born | May 14, 1955 New York, New York, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Princeton University University of Southern California |
| Employer | Google AT&T Bell Labs |
| Known for | Voice over IP |
| Awards | National Inventors Hall of Fame National Academy of Engineering |
Marian Rogers Croak (born May 14, 1955) is an amazing American engineer. She is famous for her inventions that help us make phone calls and send messages over the internet. This technology is called Voice over IP (VoIP). Dr. Croak worked for 30 years at important companies like Bell Labs and AT&T. During this time, she created more than 200 new inventions! Since 2014, she has been a Vice President of Engineering at Google. In 2022, she received a great honor by being added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her groundbreaking work with VoIP.
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Marian Croak's Early Life and Education
Marian Croak was born on May 14, 1955, and grew up in New York City. She says her father sparked her interest in technology. Even though he didn't have much schooling, he built her a chemistry set. This helped her start exploring science at a young age.
As a child, Marian was fascinated by how things like plumbing and electricity worked in her home. She always wanted to understand and fix problems. This desire to make systems better has been a big part of her career. She studied at Princeton University, getting her first degree in 1977. Later, she earned a PhD from the University of Southern California. Her studies prepared her for a long and successful career at Bell Labs.
Marian Croak's Amazing Career in Tech
At Bell Labs, Dr. Croak worked in a special division called Human Factors. Her goal was to find ways technology could make people's lives better. She started by working on digital messaging. She wanted to figure out how different messaging apps could talk to each other. This was very new research, as the internet was just beginning to be used widely in 1983.
Bell Labs wanted to send voice, text, and video over digital networks. This was different from using regular phone lines. At first, they thought about using something called ATM protocol. But Dr. Croak and her team convinced AT&T to use TCP/IP instead. TCP/IP is a standard way to package and send information. It helped make the internet work smoothly.
Advancing Voice over IP (VoIP)
While at AT&T, Dr. Croak and her team thought about the future of digital communication. She worked on improving Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies. VoIP turns your voice into digital signals. These signals can travel easily over the internet, instead of through old-fashioned phone lines. Her work made audio and video calls much better and more common.
Text-to-Donate Technology
Dr. Croak also invented a way for people to donate money using text messages. She developed this idea after Hurricane Katrina, a big natural disaster. This invention changed how people give money to charities during emergencies. She was inspired by how American Idol used text messages for voting.
Working with Hossein Eslambolchi, she finalized this technology in October 2005. It allowed cellphone users to quickly send donations. For example, after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, this technology helped collect over $43 million for relief efforts. She received the 2013 Thomas Edison Patent Award for this important invention.
Leadership at AT&T and Google
At AT&T, Dr. Croak was a leader. She managed over 2,000 engineers and computer scientists. They worked on more than 500 projects for AT&T's services. Her jobs included planning new products and testing them. Before she left, she was a Senior Vice President.
In 2014, Dr. Croak joined Google. As a Vice President of Engineering, she works to expand internet access around the world. She also helps people in developing countries get online. She created a new team at Google Research to focus on Responsible AI. This means making sure artificial intelligence is developed in an ethical way. Dr. Croak also encourages women, young girls, and people from diverse backgrounds to join engineering fields.
Awards and Recognition
Dr. Croak has received many honors for her contributions. In 2016, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. In 2022, she was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF). She also joined the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences that year. She was one of the first two Black women to be inducted into the NIHF.
Important Inventions and Patents
Dr. Croak has received over 200 patents for her inventions. A patent is like a special license that protects an inventor's new idea. Almost half of her patents are related to VoIP technology. Many of her inventions helped build the digital networks we use every day.
In 2022, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her VoIP patent. This patent, U.S. Patent No. 7,599,359, describes a way to check how well a network is working. Today, VoIP technology is super important for remote work, online meetings, and even talking to friends and family.
She also received a patent in 2005 for her text-to-donate system (U.S. Patent 7,715,368). This invention allows phone networks to find a charity, send money to it, and then add the donation to the donor's phone bill. It made donating to good causes much easier and faster.
Marian Croak's Personal Achievements
Dr. Croak received the Edison Patent Awards in both 2013 and 2014. She is part of the Corporate Advisory Board for the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. This is one of her former universities. She has also served on the boards of several important organizations. These include the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and Catalyst. She has three adult children.
See also
In Spanish: Marian Croak para niños
