One of the most widely used technologies today is the Global Positioning System tracking technology or better known as GPS as a way to know the location of a place, individual or route.
What is generally known about this technology is that it was first developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) by the United States military before its use was expanded to ordinary users. But do you know who developed the foundation of this technology?
That individual is Dr. Gladys West, a mathematician who is a graduate of Virginia State College and has obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics. In 1956, she worked at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia and was responsible for building a model of the earth's shape based on images and data collected by satellites in space.
This model then became the basis for the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology used by DARPA and later by ordinary users today.
Dr. Gladys West was confirmed dead on January 19, 2026 at the age of 95.
