Sylvia Wilbur facts for kids
Sylvia B. Wilbur, born in 1938, is a British computer scientist. She played a big part in creating the early internet, called ARPANET. She was also one of the first people to send an email in Britain. Later, she became a top expert in how computers help people work together.
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Sylvia Wilbur's Early Life and Learning
Sylvia Wilbur was born in Romford, Essex. She grew up in a working-class family. She went to a grammar school, which is a type of secondary school. However, she left school at age 17. She needed to help her family instead of going to university.
She worked as a clerk and typist in East London. A few years later, she got married. She stopped working for a while to raise her two children. Around 1964, when her children were older, she started working again. She became a typist at Barking College. This college later became part of the University of East London.
At the college, she typed computer programs for students. These programs were written in a language called ALGOL. She typed them onto punched tape. Soon, she started learning computer programming herself. This experience made her want to learn more. She joined a distance learning program. This means she studied from home. In 1974, she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Open University.
Later, she continued her studies. She earned a master's degree from the University of Kent.
Starting Her Career and Internet Work
While finishing her first degree, Sylvia Wilbur changed jobs. She went from being a typist to a computer operator. She also learned another programming language called COBOL. Just before she finished her degree, she moved to a new job. She became a computer programmer at University College London.
She worked for Peter T. Kirstein in the computer science department. Mr. Kirstein was in charge of Britain's part of the ARPANET project. ARPANET was an early version of the internet. Sylvia's job was to program a PDP-9 computer. This computer acted as the local connection point for the network.
She also helped other British users connect to the network. She became a technical assistant for them. She was "probably one of the first people in this country ever to send an email, back in 1974."
Around 1978, Sylvia Wilbur got married again. Her new husband also worked in the same department. He had even supervised some of her work. To keep her work independent, she decided to leave her job. After working for an examinations board for a year, she became a lecturer. She taught at the University of East London. About five years later, around 1983, she moved again. She went to Queen Mary College. She moved because she wanted more time for research.
Later Career and Teamwork with Computers
Around 1986, Sylvia Wilbur started new research. She became a project manager for a government project. This project was about computer-supported cooperative work. This means using computers to help people work together.
Her early work focused on asynchronous communication. This is like email, where messages are sent and received at different times. Later, she started using "synchronized media." This is like teleconferencing, where people communicate at the same time.
Sylvia Wilbur also helped organize "Women Into Computing" workshops. She did this with Hilary Buxton at Queen Mary College. These workshops took place in the mid to late 1980s. They invited local schoolgirls to the college. The goal was to encourage them to study computing. Later, she used her teleconferencing skills in these workshops. This allowed the workshops to go to the schools. This meant students did not have to travel to the college.
See also
In Spanish: Sylvia Wilbur para niños
