My department here at UMass has scheduled a series of lunch time talks about topics in Information Technology; they cover a diverse range of subjects and they all sound pretty interesting.  Today’s talk was titled “Women in Technology Careers at ESPN” and who wouldn’t want to hear about that?  Women, technology, sports TV!  I didn’t have to be urged to attend and joined about 40 others in the Campus Center for the panel discussion starting at 1 pm.

The five panelists introduced themselves and talked a bit about their work and how they ended up in their current jobs at ESPN, which is headquartered in Bristol, south of us in the Connecticut River Valley.  They spoke in this order:

• Diane Larivee, Associate Director of Data Center Services
• Jessica Dang, Portfolio Coordinator
• Farhanah Sheets, Software Engineer II
• Maureen Barend, Associate Director of Transmission
• Maura Maloney, Principal Technology Business Operations Analyst

For you non-sports fanatics out there, ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, a global cable and satellite television channel, was founded by two Connecticut businessmen in 1978; their first broadcast was September 1979.  Since that time, and in an often rocky journey to profitability, the company has grown tremendously; it is currently a joint venture between the Disney Company, which owns 80%, and the Hearst Corporation, which owns the rest.  In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Diane began her career as an Electronics Technician in the US Navy, serving in Guam.  She became interested in routing and switching and in subsequent jobs worked in the financial industry, in health care, and in insurance.  She has become an expert in network forensics and is still excited about the nitty-gritty of communications, of data moving across the wires.

Jessica graduated with a degree in Psychology in 2013.  She worked first for Teach for America, then as a volunteer for a Yale project on emotional intelligence.  She came to ESPN via an internship at Disney.  For her, an ideal job combines working with both technology and people.

Farhana was mentored by her brother, a classic computer nerd; she started working with computers in high school, though she said it never occurred to her that she would make a career out of it.  In college, she began as a business major but then switched to Computer Science, graduating in 2011.  Prior to landing at ESPN, she worked for an automation company in North Carolina.  She loves the logic of programming.

Maureen hails from California, where she spent 20 years in the broadcast news business in San Francisco working at KRON-TV and KGO-TV/ABC, and yes, in the early years, she was often the lone female in a male-dominated field.  She loves the excitement of the rapidly changing technology and entertainment world.

Maura has come home again: she graduated from UMass-Amherst with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985.  While a student here, she fell in love with television while working in the Video Instructional Program.  She was hired in 1991 by ESPN as an engineer in the Transmission Department.  In 2000, she was promoted to manage both the Network Traffic and Transmission departments.  Currently, she is a Principal Analyst in the Technology Business Operations Department, supporting ESPN’s Technology Division.

The presentation was quite lively, as we were treated to some short video clips and also were encouraged to jump right in with questions to the panelists.  I found myself wishing I could have heard about these kinds of opportunities when I was trying to find my way toward a satisfying career.  I understand that there are drawbacks to working for a global company whose operations are 24×7, with a constant sense of urgency, but I can also understand how someone could get hooked on the excitement of developing and using cutting-edge technology and reaching millions of people.  The panelists also emphasized that at ESPN headquarters, the atmosphere is welcoming and open, with employees willing to help and teach each other.

In 1961, needing help with huge calculations, the Chemistry Department spearheaded an effort to bring computing power to the University of Massachusetts; this early effort became the Research Computing Center.  I was first made aware of this historical beginning last spring when we OIT staffers began receiving email messages about a celebration planned for October that would highlight milestones on the journey from the RCC to OIT, the Office of Information Technologies, which we are today.   The day has arrived!

We enjoyed a 50th anniversary lunch at the Campus Center Auditorium, starting at noon, then at 1:30, we settled in our seats in the Student Union Ballroom to hear Dr J A N Lee present the keynote address on the topic “50 Years of Computing: From Humongous to Ubiquitous.”  Dr Lee, an elder statesman in the academic computing world, was Director of the UMass RCC from 1964-1965, and from 1964-1969 served as Chair of the nascent Computer Science Program.  There is a concise history of the UMass computer science program on the department website; by comparing the details presented on this page with those from the “milestones” link above, you can infer the bifurcation of academic and administrative computing, which Dr Lee felt was the right way to go.  Trained as a civil engineer in his native England, Dr Lee has an impressive curriculum vitae; I won’t attempt a synopsis here, as I’m sure to mangle most of the facts and distort his achievements.  Instead, I’ll send you to this short biography on the Virginia Polytechnic website (Dr Lee worked there for many years).

Dr Lee was here from almost the very beginning, and I found his remembrances of the early days of computing at UMass fascinating.  He spoke about both developments in the wider world of information technology and efforts to kick-start graduate and undergraduate degree programs in computer science at the University.  I was struck by his mentioning DTSS (the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System), as I myself used this in a computer programming course I took at Phillips Andover Academy in the summer of 1970.  I also had not heard the anecdote he related regarding the invention of email (?!) by the guys at Dartmouth who wanted to talk to the ladies at Smith.  Dr Lee spoke warmly of colleagues who are now legends (even though I was barely aware of the existence of UMass when they were moving and shaking things here, I’ve heard of them):  Ed Moore, Dick Stein, Cax Foster, Connie Wogrin.  At the end of his talk, he thanked the people who were mentors and inspirations to him, including Oleg Kerenski and Eugene Freyssinet.  I will not easily forget his parting advice, which had been given to him early on:  “Get thee to a man of perception; let your feet wear his threshold down.”

Back at Lederle LowRise, I wandered down the first floor hallway, reading the timeline, watching some of the StoryCorps clips, and exclaiming over the exhibits.  To give you a flavor of some of the contrasts between the past and present which were on display, I’ll present some stats on data storage which didn’t make it all the way into the exhibit.  These are courtesy of Bo Mack, Director of Administrative Computing Support Organization:

The Spire database, containing hundreds of thousands of student records, is 149 GB and currently fits on a disk drive less than 10 cubic inches.  The punched card equivalents of the Spire database would be

• 1.8 billion punch cards, weighing 4957 tons and stacked vertically reaching a height of 205 miles
• These cards, laid end to end, would stretch 216,791 miles and spread out flat would cover 11.12 square miles

The current capacity of our administrative computing disk storage unit, Network Appliance Filer Model FAS3240, which takes up about 6 square feet of space, is 55 TB

• If this amount of data were stored on punched cards, the cards would weigh 1.8 million tons (the weight of 20 Washington Monuments)
• The punched cards would cover an entire football field 1390 feet high

Here is a gallery of photos from today’s events (the specific projects I’ve highlighted are ones that I’ve worked on here in OIT):

Many people worked tirelessly on this 50th anniversary project: by reaching out to former colleagues, donating artifacts, filming and editing video clips, and  performing all of the numerous other tasks which made the day a success.  I want to personally thank Heidi Dollard, Director of Administrative Applications and Associate CIO, for chairing the Celebration Committee and for doing such a wonderful job!  I feel proud to be part, a nano-part, of computing at UMass.