The Woman Who Made GPS Possible | The Untold Story of Gladys Mae West

[00:00:00]Did you ever hear about the woman who invented the reason why we have GPS systems today? Gladys Mae West was born in Virginia. She was born when there was segregation going around still. Gladys was always very smart. She actually went and got her scholarship from Virginia State College. While she was there, she actually studied math and she went and got her master's degree as well. 1956, she was actually one of the first, not the first, but one of the first black women to actually join the Navy's research and team. While she was there, she used math and she used a lot of her skills in order to learn the earth's shape and diameter when you're trying to navigate it through GPS systems in a way. So, what she did was she used math to determine the size and the diameters and the shapes and sizes of gravity.

[00:00:49]And that became the blueprint that we use today when it comes to using GPS systems. For years, a lot of her work did not go noticed. 2018, she was actually inducted into the US Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame for the work that she had did for years.

[00:01:03]She wasn't recognized until later in her life, but she overcame a lot of racial barriers and a lot of barriers in general for her being a woman. And a lot of what we use as a GPS and a lot of what we use for maps in general that we use to navigate throughout life nowadays is all thanks to Gladys.