Ruth Teitelbaum

The ENIAC team is the inspiration behind the award-winning 2013 documentary The Computers. This documentary, created by Kathy Kleiman and the ENIAC Programmers Project, combines actual footage of the ENIAC team from the 1940s with interviews with the female team members as they reflect on their time working together on the ENIAC. It is the first documentary of a series of three, and parts two and three will be entitled The Coders and The Future-Maker, respectively.

In 2010, a documentary called, "Top Secret Rosies: The Female "Computers" of WWII" was released. The film centered around in-depth interviews of three of the six women programmers, focusing on the commendable patriotic contributions they made during World War II..mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #aaa;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em;background-color:#f9f9f9}.mw-parser-output .side-box-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{padding:0.25em 0.9em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-image{padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-imageright{padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .side-box-flex{display:flex;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{flex:1}}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .side-box{width:238px}.mw-parser-output .side-box-right{clear:right;float:right;margin-left:1em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-left{margin-right:1em}}.mw-parser-output .listen .side-box-text{line-height:1.1em}.mw-parser-output .listen-plain{border:none;background:transparent}.mw-parser-output .listen-embedded{width:100%;margin:0;border-width:1px 0 0 0;background:transparent}.mw-parser-output .listen-header{padding:2px}.mw-parser-output .listen-embedded .listen-header{padding:2px 0}.mw-parser-output .listen-file-header{padding:4px 0}.mw-parser-output .listen .description{padding-top:2px}.mw-parser-output .listen .mw-tmh-player{max-width:100%}@media(max-width:719px){.mw-parser-output .listen{clear:both}}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .listen:not(.listen-noimage){width:320px}.mw-parser-output .listen-left{overflow:visible;float:left}.mw-parser-output .listen-center{float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto}}

She played a pivotal role in the rise of computers, although she was given little credit toward the foundations of the ENIAC. In 1997, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, along with the other five original ENIAC programmers.

Ruth Teitelbaum died in 1986, aged 62, in Dallas, Texas.

She married Adolph Teitelbaum. Marriage licence was issued on September 17, 1948.

Along with Marlyn Meltzer, Teitelbaum was part of a special area of the ENIAC project to calculate ballistic trajectory equations using analog technology. They taught themselves and others certain functions of the ENIAC and helped prepare the ballistics software. In 1946, the ENIAC computer was unveiled before the public and the press. The seven women were the only generation of programmers to program the ENIAC.

In June 1943, the Army decided to fund an experimental project - the first all-electronic digital computer called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). The computer was a huge machine with 40 black 8-foot panels. The programmers had to physically program it using 3000 switches, and telephone switching cords in a dozen trays, to route the data, and the program, through the machine. This is the reason why these women were called "computers".

Ruth Teitelbaum (née Lichterman; February 1, 1924 – August 9, 1986) was one of the first computer programmers in the world. Teitelbaum was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer.

Teitelbaum was born Ruth Lichterman in The Bronx, New York, on February 1, 1924. She was the elder of two children, and the only daughter, of Sarah and Simon Lichterman, a teacher. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. She graduated from Hunter College with a B.Sc. in Mathematics.