As both inspiration and impetus, and in celebration of Black History Month this February, we delved into the archives to shine a light on some key Black tech pioneers who may have been overlooked by history.
Roy Clay
Any history of Black contributions to the field of computer science has to include Roy L. Clay, Sr., the founder and former CEO of ROD-L Electronics, a manufacturer of electrical safety testing equipment.
Before founding ROD-L, Clay was a programmer. He started his career in 1956 programming IBM and Burroughs computers for McDonnell Aircraft. In 1958, he moved to what is now known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, operated by UC Berkeley for the US Department of Energy. Clay went on to develop software languages for Control Data mainframe computers, before joining Hewlett-Packard as the lead developer for the HP 2116A minicomputer and later as part of its research and development department.
Photo by David Conlin SASKATOON – Following a successful year of building, prototyping and delivering services to select customers and partners, the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has launched the Omics and Precision Agriculture Laboratory (OPAL). The state-of-the-art facility combines the digital data analysis of microbial, plant and animal genes and traits with the latest precision agriculture technologies (agtech). The goal is to speed up innovation towards new products and services that would enhance profitability and sustainability across the agriculture and food sectors. OPAL was founded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the National Research Council of Canada and USask, with strategic investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada. A first of its kind, it is the only facility in the country to provide analytical and computational services including genomics (the study of genetic mater
OPAL was founded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the National Research Council of Canada and USask, with investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada. A first of its kind, it is the only facility in the country to provide analytical and computational services including genomics (the study of genetic materials), phenomics (the study of an organism’s traits) and bioinformatics (analyses of biological data). It combines these with the use of the latest imaging and agtech such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), the remote aerial imaging of plants and in-field environmental monitoring, to provide clients with a complete diagnostic profile of samples.