A Historical Account of Four Women who Made the Internet of Things Possible

The Internet of Things as a field has been continuously growing since 1982, when it was first thought of. Such is its speed of growth, however, that according to predictions there will be over 50 billion devices as a part of the IoT by 2020. This makes it tempting, in speaking of the field, to only focus on its present and on its future development, but I reckon it is always wise to take a moment to also reflect on the past, and to remember the people who pioneered it.

An old and heteronormative saying claims that “Behind every successful man, there is a woman”.  As a woman in CS myself, I don’t like that saying, but I espouse the thought of a similar one:  “Behind every successful innovation, there is also a woman“.  Given our modern ideals of gender equality and progress, it is not always enough to generically look back at the people who paved the way for the IoT; sometimes we have to specifically remember the media-overlooked women who did so, and to give them credit where it’s due.

The Internet of Things refers to the intelligent interconnection of various devices and machines to a larger network, or the Internet. While it comes with its  own set of inherent risks, as does any technological innovation, it certainly aspires to make our lives simpler.

This was not the work of merely one man or one woman. The IoT came into existence because of the efforts of many different people, including women. Each person discovered or created something that enabled us to move one step closer to the Internet of Things as we know it today. For this simple reason, I have decided to dedicate this essay to not just one, but four different revolutionary female computer scientists, all of whom, I believe, were instrumental to the development of the IoT.

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