Business
Trimble Establishes Dr. Gladys West Scholarship Program
Scholarship Program to Honor Technology Pioneer and Hidden Figure Who Helped Invent GPS SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB)
About this update from Trimble Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Scholarship Program to Honor Technology Pioneer and Hidden Figure Who Helped Invent GPS\n\n\nSUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today a scholarship program to honor Dr. Gladys West, a pioneer in mathematics, minority advancement and the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS)—one of our most widely used innovations throughout the world. Known today as the hidden figure who helped invent GPS, Dr. West is one of the reasons why consumers can receive driving directions from a phone or tag a photo location on social media. And why professionals in industrial markets such as construction, transportation and agriculture can leverage geospatial technology to realize significant improvements in productivity, quality, safety, transparency and sustainability to transform the way they work with precision. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nDr. West knew from a young age that education would be the key to moving forward from her family farm in rural Virginia. A scholarship recipient herself, Dr. West earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Mathematics and was offered a position in 1956 with Virginia's Naval Proving Ground—now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Hired as a mathematician, she was one of only four African American employees at the time and only the second woman of color. \nWith her intelligence and computational skills recognized, she quickly climbed the ranks and became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project in the 1960s. Knowledge gained through that work enabled her to program an IBM computer to calculate an accurate geodetic Earth model—the detailed mathematical model of the shape of the Earth that is the essential building block for GPS.\nThat tenacity, talent and enterprising fortitude encapsulates the spirit of Trimble's scholarship program designed to honor Dr. West's contributions to science and the geospatial industry. \n\"It's fitting to announce this special scholarship program following Dr. West's 91st birthday. A woman who helped pave the path to GPS—the technology that was not only core for Trimble's early business but provided the catalyst to create the geospatial industry. This path to innovation has given us the tools to not only navigate and model our world but to transform work in our lives every day,\" said Rob Painter, Trimble CEO. \"Just...