Susan Owicki facts for kids

Susan Owicki is a talented computer scientist. She is known for being a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). She also helped start the Systers mailing list, which is a group for women in computing. Later in her career, in the early 2000s, she became a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Susan Owicki's Education and Early Work

Susan Owicki earned her PhD in computer science from Cornell University in 1975. Her professor, David Gries, guided her studies. For her PhD, she created a new way to check if computer programs that run at the same time (called concurrent programs) work correctly. This method is called Interference freedom.

How Interference Freedom Works

Interference freedom helps computer scientists make sure that different parts of a program don't mess each other up when they are running at the same time. This is very important for complex computer systems. Her work became a key idea for developing and checking many computer programs that share information.

Career in Academia

After finishing her PhD, Owicki taught at Stanford University. She was a professor in both the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departments for ten years. Her research focused on how computer systems work together. She also studied how well these systems perform and how to make them secure for things like online shopping. She wrote many articles and received patents for her inventions.

Becoming an ACM Fellow

In 1994, Susan Owicki was honored as an ACM Fellow. This is a very special award for computer scientists. She received it for her important work on "An Axiomatic Proof Technique for Parallel Programs I," which came from her PhD research.

Career in the Tech Industry

After her time at Stanford, Susan Owicki worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). This was a big computer company.

Work at STAR Lab

Later, she joined the Strategic Technologies and Architectural Research Laboratory (STAR lab). Here, she was an Associate Director. STAR lab was a very important place. It was one of the first labs to study digital rights management. This technology helps protect digital content, like music and movies, from being copied illegally. It also looked into other technologies for online business.

Consulting Work

For four years, Owicki worked as an independent consultant. She helped companies with how well interactive television worked. She also advised on how to deliver streaming video, like movies or shows, over the internet.

Personal Life

Susan Owicki is married to Jack Owicki. They have two children together.

Her Inventions and Patents

Susan Owicki holds several patents for her inventions. These patents show her creative work in computer science.

• U.S. Patent 5,446,901  - This patent is about a system that helps collect "garbage" (unused data) in computer networks. It makes sure the system keeps working even if parts of it fail.
• U.S. Patent 7,770,016  - This patent describes ways to add hidden "watermarks" to software and other digital media. This helps to identify who owns the content.

Becoming a Therapist

Susan Owicki also has a different career as a licensed marriage and family therapist. She helps families and couples work through their problems. She has her own private practice. She also works at the Stanford University faculty and staff help center, providing support to people there.