---------- Forwarded message --------- On Tuesday Morning, May 7th, an IEEE Milestone Plaque will be unveiled at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania in honor of Grace Hopper's development of the A-O Compiler and Automatic Programming. The building where the plaque will be placed is where Rear Admiral Hopper had worked on this effort. Details about how to register to attend in-person or view the ceremony online are at: <https://events.seas.upenn.edu/event/ieee-grace-hopper-milestone-celebration/> <https://events.seas.upenn.edu/event/ieee-grace-hopper-milestone-celebration/> . *IEEE Milestone Plaque Citation* A-O Compiler and Initial Development of Automatic Programming, 1951-1952 During 1951-1952, Grace Hopper invented the A-O Compiler, a series of specifications that functioned as a linker/loader. It was a pioneering achievement of automatic programming as well as a pioneering utility program for the management of subroutines. That A-O Compiler influenced the development of arithmetic and business programming languages. This led to COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) becoming the dominant high-level language for business applications. *About Grace Hopper *Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a mathematician, computer scientist, systems designer and the inventor of the compiler. Her outstanding contributions to computer science benefited academia, industry and the military. In 1928 she graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in mathematics and physics and joined the Vassar faculty. While an instructor, she continued her studies in mathematics at Yale University where she earned an MA in 1930 and a Ph.D. in 1934. Grace Hopper is known worldwide for her work with the first large-scale digital computer, the Navy’s Mark I. In 1949 she joined Philadelphia’s Eckert-Mauchly, founded by the builders of ENIAC, which was building UNIVAC I. Her work on compilers and on making machines understand ordinary language instructions lead ultimately to the development of the business language, COBOL. Grace Hopper served on the faculty of the Moore School for 15 years, and in 1974 received an honorary degree from the University. --