Take a quiz on women in tech!

Happy International Women’s Day!

Women in tech are overcoming challenges and making significant changes in the digital world. From new innovations to leading companies, their contributions are shaping the industry and inspiring future generations.

To celebrate International Women's Day, we have prepared a quiz inspired by women in tech. Test your knowledge, learn fun facts, and discover more about the contributions of women in the field of technology.

Quiz

1. Who is known as the "Mother of the Internet" for her pioneering work in computer networking?
a) Adele Goldberg
b) Susan Kare
c) Radia Perlman

2. Which Finnish author, illustrator, and programming educator is known for creating the "Hello Ruby" series of children's books, aiming to teach coding concepts to young readers?
a) Linda Liukas
b) Riikka Pulkkinen
c) Monika Fagerholm

3. Felicity Smoak is a skilled computer hacker and tech genius who assists the vigilante activities of the protagonist in the television series “Arrow”. What is her codename in the series?
a)    Oracle
b)    Ophelia
c)    Overwatch


4. Who is often regarded as the world's first computer programmer?
a) Marie Curie
b) Ada Lovelace
c)  Elizabeth Feinler

5. Who was Microsoft’s former virtual assistant Cortana named after?
a)    Bill Gates’ daughter
b)    A famous video game character
c)    The designer of Arial typeface (font)


6. Margaret Hamilton led the team that developed the on-board flight software for which space missions?
a) Apollo missions
b) Voyager missions
c) Space Shuttle missions


7. What was the profession of the main characters portrayed by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe in the movie Hidden Figures?
a) Engineers
b) Mathematicians
c) Computer programmers

8. The number of female applicants to ICT related education programs has been steadily increasing. What percentage of those who applied to the ICT sector were women in Finland in 2023?
a) 19%
b) 29%
c) 35%

Answers

1. c) Radia Perlman
Engineer and mathematician Radia Perlman is one of the computer programmers who worked on the networks and technology to enable what we now know as the internet. Perlman is known for her invention of the algorithm behind the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which solved a challenging information routing problem and earned her the title “Mother of the Internet.” Read more.

2. a) Linda Liukas
Linda Liukas has received numerous awards and honors for her work in promoting computer science education, including recognition in Forbes’ “Europe’s Top 50 Women In Tech” list. 

3. c) Overwatch
The speculation around Felicity Smoak's codename being "Oracle" stemmed from similarities between her character in Arrow and Barbara Gordon, also known as Oracle, in the DC Comics universe, both serving as tech-savvy support figures. However, in the series, Felicity's codename was ultimately revealed to be "Overwatch".

4. b) Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace is considered the first computer programmer for her work with Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in the 19th century. She translated and annotated an article on the engine, adding her own insights and describing an algorithm to compute Bernoulli numbers. Lovelace's visionary understanding of computing, beyond numerical calculations, set the stage for modern computer programming. Read more. 

5. b) A famous video game character
Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in the Halo video game series voiced by actress Jen Taylor.

6. a) Apollo missions
Margaret Hamilton led the team at MIT that developed the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo missions, including the software for the Apollo 11 moon landing. A famous photo of Hamilton depicts her standing next to a tall stack of printouts containing the source code for the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) software. Read more.

7. b) Mathematicians
Hidden Figures (2016) tells the story of three African-American women mathematicians —Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson— whose brilliance helped NASA launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Set amidst the backdrop of racial segregation and gender discrimination in the 1960s, the film celebrates their remarkable contributions while showing their struggle for recognition and equality.

8. b) 29%
More and more women are choosing technology and ICT as their primary focus according to Technology Industries of Finland.