SciTech is a company that works to bring awareness to the lack of diversity and inclusion for people of color within the Computer technology and Computer Science fields.

As a company, we believe these students should be able to see people like them in these fields and give them people to look up to. We have created this section to celebrate innovators of color and talk about the issue and progression of diversity and inclusion in tech

Black Innovators in History

Dorothy Vaughn (1910 - 2008)

Dorothy Vaughn was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She is known for her position as the first black manager at NASA, becoming the leading mathematical engineer in the first aerospace program with NACA(the predecessor to NASA), and helping the institution transition to computer programming. Dorothy started out at NACA doing complex mathematic calculations by hand with a group of other expert mathematicians. She was then promoted and had to advocate for not only herself but for other women to be given more opportunities and benefits. Dorothy also taught herself the programming language FORTRAN and used her expertise in this to teach her other colleagues so they would be prepared for the transition. Dorothy's story is also seen in the movie "Hidden Figures". She is a great example of a black woman in history working and fighting for what they deserve. She is an inspiration and shows we can do ANYTHING we put our mind to.

MARIE VAN BRITTAN BROWN (1922-1999)

Marie Van Brittan Brown was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She is credited with creating the world's first home security system along with her husband Albert Brown! Marie and Albert's work hours did not overlap and there were nights when she was alone. Due to the high crime in her neighborhood and the long time it took for police to arrive, she was inspired to create the first home security system. Marie and Albert first began by using multiple peepholes, a sliding camera, TV monitors, and microphones. The cameras had the ability to go from peephole to peephole. With this new invention, she could see who was at the door and speak to them from the safety of her home. This is a great example of no matter your current situations and environment you can still create new technologies that have huge impacts in the future!

Alan Emtage (1964)

Alan Emtage is a Computer Scientist and is credited with creating the world's first internet search engine! Alan was born in Barbados and was at the top of his class in high school. He went to McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to pursue an education in Computer Science, where he received his bachelor's and master's degree in computer science. In 1986, while Alan was a college student and working as a systems administrator he created and implemented the original version of the Archie search engine. This was a tool that helped users more easily identify specific files. This was the world's first search engine! Alan is a big example of the creations students can create and the huge impacts they can have on the future!

Diversity in tech

The issue

According to a special report from the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, African Americans make up 14.4% to 7.4% of high tech sector jobs. In select leading Silicon Valley Tech firms, African Americans make up < 1% of executives. These statistics show a very low percentage of African Americans in tech and also executive tech jobs. This issue not only affects African Americans but companies as well. It is important to have varying ideas from people of varying backgrounds and cultures to create innovative ideas.

the solution

The solution to diversity in the workplace is not easy. There are many factors as to why people of color do not pursue tech-related fields. These factors can range from the lack of diversity, education, lack of role models, etc. There needs to be an interest in these tech fields for people of color and affordable opportunities. Technology is a basis for many things we use in life, showing students that correlation and the ability for them to experiment with creating different tech is vital to increase interest in tech. This increase in tech can create many people of color wanting to pursue in tech.