Welcome to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Each May, we acknowledge the accomplishments and celebrate the contributions of the AAPI community in the United States.
Why celebrate AAPI heritage in May? The month was chosen in conjunction with the arrival of the first known Japanese immigrant to the U.S. in May 1843, and to honor the completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869, which was finished with the help of up to 20,000 workers from China.
To commemorate AAPI Heritage Month, CompTIA’s Advancing Tech Talent and Diversity Community plans to use AAPI Heritage Month as a platform to highlight the extraordinary technological innovations that come from the AAPI community. Our goal is to shine a spotlight on several individuals who have demonstrated long and successful careers in technology and to encourage others to pursue careers in the tech industry. With that in mind, here are three individuals that have inspired me in my career:
Ajay Bhatt, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Technology
If you’ve plugged in a mouse, a phone charger or a portable data storage drive in the last decade, you’re probably familiar with universal serial bus (USB) technology. But did you know that USB technology was created in the 1990s by Indian-American Ajay Bhatt, Intel’s chief systems technologist.
Today, USB is used in more than 10 billion devices globally and allows a multitude of devices including keyboards, mouse, printers and more to connect to computers more easily, without requiring a different, disparate connectors. The USB serves as a “translator” for various devices that need to connect to a computer, providing a universal solution that is far more user friendly than previous formats.
Intel, who owns all patents to the technology as the first backer of Bhatt’s USB idea, from the beginning, decided to make it open and royalty free for everyone.
Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code
Reshma Saujani is an American attorney, activist, and politician. She is also the first Indian-American women to run for U.S. Congress in 2009.
While campaigning for Congress, Reshma became aware of the increasing gender disparity in computing classes when she visited local schools. The gender gap in computing has been increasing—in 1995, 37% of computer scientists were women, today it’s 24%. The biggest drop off of girls in computing is between the ages of 13 and 17.
AS a result, Reshma founded Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization that’s on a mission to close the gender gap in tech. The company’s goal is to close this gap in new entry-level tech jobs by 2030 through its program offerings, including summer immersion programs, clubs, college loops, online resources, campaigns, and advocacy work in the U.S. and around the world.
Continue reading: https://connect.comptia.org/blog/celebrating-aapi-heritage-month-three-innovators-transforming-the-tech-industry
Why celebrate AAPI heritage in May? The month was chosen in conjunction with the arrival of the first known Japanese immigrant to the U.S. in May 1843, and to honor the completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869, which was finished with the help of up to 20,000 workers from China.
To commemorate AAPI Heritage Month, CompTIA’s Advancing Tech Talent and Diversity Community plans to use AAPI Heritage Month as a platform to highlight the extraordinary technological innovations that come from the AAPI community. Our goal is to shine a spotlight on several individuals who have demonstrated long and successful careers in technology and to encourage others to pursue careers in the tech industry. With that in mind, here are three individuals that have inspired me in my career:
Ajay Bhatt, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Technology
If you’ve plugged in a mouse, a phone charger or a portable data storage drive in the last decade, you’re probably familiar with universal serial bus (USB) technology. But did you know that USB technology was created in the 1990s by Indian-American Ajay Bhatt, Intel’s chief systems technologist.
Today, USB is used in more than 10 billion devices globally and allows a multitude of devices including keyboards, mouse, printers and more to connect to computers more easily, without requiring a different, disparate connectors. The USB serves as a “translator” for various devices that need to connect to a computer, providing a universal solution that is far more user friendly than previous formats.
Intel, who owns all patents to the technology as the first backer of Bhatt’s USB idea, from the beginning, decided to make it open and royalty free for everyone.
Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code
Reshma Saujani is an American attorney, activist, and politician. She is also the first Indian-American women to run for U.S. Congress in 2009.
While campaigning for Congress, Reshma became aware of the increasing gender disparity in computing classes when she visited local schools. The gender gap in computing has been increasing—in 1995, 37% of computer scientists were women, today it’s 24%. The biggest drop off of girls in computing is between the ages of 13 and 17.
AS a result, Reshma founded Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization that’s on a mission to close the gender gap in tech. The company’s goal is to close this gap in new entry-level tech jobs by 2030 through its program offerings, including summer immersion programs, clubs, college loops, online resources, campaigns, and advocacy work in the U.S. and around the world.
Continue reading: https://connect.comptia.org/blog/celebrating-aapi-heritage-month-three-innovators-transforming-the-tech-industry
