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Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

bbc.com

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Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#61

Post by threeseed »

zadwang wrote: post #53

THE woman? I am not sure how other women team members should feel about the article. Or even men. She may made important contribution but so did many others. Attributing the credit to a single person in such a large scale project is not fair to any team member. I am sure it is not her fault but whoever pushed to have BBC publish a story like this is hurting the science endeavor overall more than helping it.

Congratulations. You didn't even bother to read one sentence beyond the headline.

"A 29-year-old computer scientist has earned plaudits worldwide for helping develop the algorithm"

Or even a few sentences in:

"There, she led the project, assisted by a team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory .."

But hey who needs to read articles when you can jump to conclusions and surface your clear biases.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#62

Post by bubblewrap »

dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

Can you point to some of those threads (men getting credit)?

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#63

Post by warp_factor »

dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

I think those comments try to react to the fact that this news got overblown because the researcher is a very talented woman.

She definitely did something amazing and unfortunately it turned political because it fits the narrative that some people love to push currently.

I'm not a fan of the liberal agenda of positive//negative discrimination. I really believe that it is making everyone worse off, especially women that are being treated like little kids that need to be shown the correct path.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#64

Post by thecatspaw »

killjoywashere wrote: post #49
govg wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what the idea behind posting this is? In a large scale project rarely does someone high up the command chain do any of the "grunt" work (i.e. programming). Also, by training she appears to be dealing more with theory than the actual implementation aspect of this all.

ok, so just so everyone is clear, the point between parent and grandparent is Andrew Chael seems to have written a hell of a lot more code than Katie Bouman, for a lot longer * achael 566 commits 850,275 ++ 131,044 -- * klbouman 90 commits 2,410 ++ 1,265 -- However, at least at the level of reading the commit messages, Katie's are pretty math heavy: "fixed bug in the fake briggs weighting" "starting to fix chirp prob…

she could have written 0 lines and be "the woman behind the picture".

Writing code is easy, figuring out complex algorithms is something very different, and does not require coding knowledge

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#65

Post by wastedhours »

klohto wrote: post #18
amrrs wrote: post #11

I'm not biased anyway but thinking Is it fair to attribute this entire thing to one person leaving out the team of collaborators? Doesn't it sound like what happens with Jobsism? Edit: While I'm being rapidly downvoted, I'd like to clarify that I didn't mean to demean this because it's a female nor any of the feat this research has achieved. My point was only about why is it reported as if individual feat while many…

~I feel bad for the team. I would rather see the whole team praised for the success not just one person that fits the narrative "women in tech".~ People I right, I made an assumption based on the title and not the content.

"Elon Musk single handedly saves the world with electric cars and revolutionises spaces travel"

The media have highlighted the lead, she credits the team, and the article outlines the numbers who worked on it.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#66

Post by negamax »

baq wrote: post #57
negamax wrote: post #28

Until yesterday, everyone was in awe and gender was nowhere in the picture. But political people will use this for their propaganda (can already see references on social media), unfortunately. Fortunately, gender identity/politics is not the factor for talented people.

This may inspire women to pursue a career in computer science. Is it bad even if it's political?

Of course not. She can be a great role model irrespective of gender. Bringing gender into the picture and promoting it as such, transfers group affiliations on divisive lines. Her achievement and work can be inspiring to all children, that should be the ideal political stance and message ethos

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#67

Post by threeseed »

warp_factor wrote: post #63
dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

I think those comments try to react to the fact that this news got overblown because the researcher is a very talented woman. She definitely did something amazing and unfortunately it turned political because it fits the narrative that some people love to push currently. I'm not a fan of the liberal agenda of positive//negative discrimination. I really believe that it is making everyone worse off, especially women th…

Nobody is aiming to treat women like little kids.

We just want to show that you if you accomplish something in tech you aren't going to be diminished or dismissed simply because you're a woman.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#68

Post by nprateem »

dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

> Stories like this help bring more women into STEM fields

How do you know?

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#69

Post by threeseed »

bubblewrap wrote: post #62
dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

Can you point to some of those threads (men getting credit)?

Search for Elon Musk.

Re: Katie Bouman, the computer scientist behind the first black hole image

#70

Post by 0815test »

dalemyers wrote: post #44

I've read comments on Hacker News for many years, often finding them a useful source of additional information and insight into details from whatever the linked piece is. Sometimes these threads are full of only subtly veiled hatred and leave me with a feeling of disgust. This thread is one of those. There have been countless threads over the years where a man gets the credit for something a team has worked on and th…

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