Erna Schneider Hoover

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Erna Schneider Hoover , b. Erna Schneider (born June 19, 1926 in Irvington, New Jersey ) is an American programmer and inventor of process prioritization in computer-controlled telephone switching.

Career

Erna Schneider graduated from Wellesley College with degrees in Classical and Medieval Philosophy and History in 1948. After earning a doctorate in philosophy and fundamentals of mathematics, she taught at Swarthmore College from 1951 to 1954 , until she accepted a research position at Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1954 . There she programmed a computer-controlled system for exchanges in the 1960s , which eliminated the risk of overloading the system if there were too many calls.

Erna Hoover's contribution was a method of prioritizing the processes , not the invention of the stored program control (SPC) itself, which had been around since 1958 and which had replaced the mechanical switching devices. Their invention made it possible to monitor incoming calls and to increase the rate of successfully switched calls at peak times. The less important calls were put on hold. For this development she received one of the first software patents , which she and Barry J. Eckhart were granted in November 1971.

The principles of Hoover's switching system are still in use today as the various communication companies are faced with an ever-increasing flood of conversations to handle.

In 1953 she married Charles Wilson Hoover.

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personal data
SURNAME Hoover, Erna Schneider
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American programmer, inventor of process prioritization in computerized telephone exchange
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Irvington, New Jersey