GHC09: I Am a Technical Woman!!

...and I really am! I'm even in the video. :) Please watch and pass on - make it viral!

(It was filmed at least year's Grace Hopper in Keystone, Colorado. More info on the Anita Borg website.)

MangoBunnies in Imagine Cup Finals

Many attendees of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing had the pleasure of meeting Ed and Ashley. They were volunteer videographers and captured highlights of the entire conference, including hellos from organizers, volunteers, and delegates like me! One of the videos that I ended up being in along with my CU-WISE colleagues appears on this post I wrote about networking.

This dynamic duo entered into Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition with their colleague Malisa, giving themselves the fun team name of MangoBunnies. They've made it to the finals, and have a really good chance of taking the peoples' choice award! But they need people like you to vote for them.

This is especially exciting since it's the first all-women's team to make the finals in the US, according Mary-Jo Foley of Microsoft. Congrats ladies!

GHC: Following Up on Contacts

It's been two weeks and a day since I've returned home from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Keystone, Colorado. If you've been reading my posts documenting the travels so far, then you know just how amazing the experience was! There was just one thing I had left to get done: email the many contacts I made while I was there.

I made many connections via the CONNECT project (which I found to be an incredibly easy and useful way to gather attendee information), so I had to narrow my list down to those people who were the most important to the future of CU-WISE and to my own. I forced myself to send each of them an email earlier tonight, and am now crossing my fingers that they remember meeting me. Luckily, I recorded the context behind each person that I could, so I was able to add some memory-jogging details into my notes.

First I wrote to a woman from Intel I met during the speed networking event. She was excited about CU-WISE and thought there might be some potential to help us out with a mentoring program. And who knows - maybe we'd even be able to set up a sponsorship partnership?

Next, I touched base with a very energetic member of the Women 2.0 team. This organization promotes an entrepreneurial spirit among technical women, who often seem to avoid the idea of starting up a company of their own for some reason. I thought there could be potential to somehow collaborate and spread this spirit among our members here at Carleton University.

I sent a special thank-you to an instructor I met completely by chance during one of the conference's informal buffet dinners. We had a good chat about life as an instructor, and what it means to choose that path over that of a professor. It really helped me feel confident in my choice to aim for a career in teaching instead of one in both teaching and research.

Finally, I wrote to a women very involved with ACM-W (ACM's Committee on Women in Computing) and SIGCSE (ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education). CU-WISE might like to have an ACM-W chapter some day (though we'll have to get a student chapter of ACM first!), and aims to hold a local celebration of women in computing when the group matures more (ACM-W provides excellent resources to help with this). The outreach activities we participate in are definitely related to SIGCSE, and I personally have an interest in the topic of computer science education.

This will be the first test of any serious networking efforts I have made so far; I'm quite excited to see who writes back and what they will say.

GHC: Final Reflections

The last couple of days in Colorado were truly amazing. I spoke to several wonderful women who were able to give me some great advice and ideas, and got to go hiking with some awesome Google girls. This conference was the most fun, useful, inspiring, and enlightening I have heard of or been to yet.

Before the official conference came to a close Saturday morning, I met an instructor from Illinois who has been teaching with just her Master's. I have been leaning towards this career path (as opposed to being a professor) for many reasons, but after speaking to this person, I feel much more confident that this is the best choice. I think I will still try to pursue a PhD, if it all works out funding-wise, but concentrating on my better-than-usuals teaching ability seems to make the most sense. Even if I wouldn't get paid as much, I wouldn't have the pressures of running a research program or working all summer. For the sake of family life and using those talents that set me apart, I think this is the right thing. Thank you, Vida, for telling me about your experiences!

While two of the four of our travel group left Friday night/Saturday morning, Barb and I stayed until Sunday. On Saturday, we really wanted to go hiking, but didn't have a clue where to go. Luckily, I ran into Kendra from Google. I met her in New York at the Anita Borg Canada Scholar's Retreat, and mentioned our hope to hike. She said that a group of girls from Google (New York and California) would be meeting at the lobby 8am Saturday, and that we were welcome to join them. Perfect!

The hike was amazing. I was definitely out of breath very quickly thanks to the high altitude, but boy was it worth it! The views were simply amazing. It was also really nice to chat with the Google girls on the way, hearing about their experiences coming to the US for the first time, living in small apartments in New York City, and so on. Thanks for a great time, ladies!

Back at home, I am overwhelmed by the amount of information I gathered at Grace Hopper. I have much to go through! But this is a very good thing. For the first time, this pile of knowledge is filled with very useful stuff, particularly things that I might be able to use with CU-WISE for outreach or for talks to our members. I also plan on getting in touch with some of the contacts I made while there, though I haven't had the chance to yet.

Next year's conference is in Tucson, Arizona. Hope to see you there!

GHC: Recruiting High School Women Into Computer Science

In this birds-of-a-feather session, four panelists very briefly discussed the programs they are working with to outreach to high school girls and encourage their participation in computer science. After this, the audience participated by discussing their ideas and concerns on the topic.

To open the session, a list of possible reasons for declining female enrolment was once again provided. The usual points were made with a few new ones. For instance, the influence of girls' parents and the differences in spatial ability were suggested as potential problems.

Two of the programs stood out to me as being rather unique. The first was a summer camp type of program that targeted disadvantaged Hispanic students, and actually paid them a stipend to come, since doing so would mean not being able to have a summer job. The second was a mother-daughter program that had girls' mothers participate with their daughters. It emphasized realistic goal-setting and sought to build self-esteem. The mother-daughter idea is really compelling, and our Women in Science and Engineering group might use this idea for a high-school conference we've been thinking about doing.

A third panelist mentioned that outreach programs can easily run into sustainability issues including funding, energy, interest, critical mass of faculty involved, and the question of whether to target only females. One interesting idea was to tie outreach activities to academic coursework of computer science majors, where participating helped you earn credit. I think this is a really good idea and might even work for Carleton University's School of Computer Science (my school), as they really want to attract females as both students and faculty.

The discussion part of the session brought up some of the usual points as well as some new ones I hadn't heard before. Here's a list of some of the ideas I managed to write down:

• Why can't outreach be considered a recruiting tool and thus get funding accordingly? One problem here is that it wasn't long ago that there were more than enough CS majors, even if they weren't female, so it was hard to make the recruitment argument.
• Can the courses be sold as reasoning instead of computational thinking? Unfortunately, everyone has a different idea of what reasoning is...
• Do these outreach programs interface with groups like the Girls Scouts? It didn't sound like it, but everyone thought it would be a good idea, especially for sustainability.
• Schools should make it easier to do a double major with computer science (with more courses counting toward both) so girls can connect computer science with other areas.
• A noted issue is that girls might get excited by the outreach programs but then have no high school courses in the subject. They may end being behind when they go to college and lose the confidence to try it there.
• One way that one program helps dispel the geek image is allowing the girls to invite friends to monthly meet-ups that happen for a year after the summer camp.
• "If everyone in this room was a mentor to one person, what a world of difference it would make!"

I hope to take some of the more unique ideas heard at this session and put them to use in our own endeavours. I hope that the rest of the crowd feels they can do the same.

GHC: Inspiring Girls in Technology: How to Make Every Outreach a Success

This session was absolutely fantastic. It was fun, interactive, and informative - everything an outreach activity should be!

Things kicked off with a quick "who are we" from the multiple presenters. Techbridge began by telling us about their after school and summer programs that have such innovative activities as building green doll houses and taking apart a lawnmower engine. Google briefly mentioned their pre-university initiatives and emphasized their ability to partner with other programs. The woman from Intel, originally from central Africa, spoke about how close this outreach stuff hits home for her. She grew up with a mother who always told her she could do anything, and not to listen to anyone who said otherwise. Her passion was truly inspiring.

After the welcomes, an ice-breaker was held, mainly to give an idea of how you can start off your own activities. The idea was to think about whether you strongly agreed or disagreed with particular statements, and stand in a line with the strongest agreer at one end and the strongest disagreer at the other. You had to talk to others to find out where you stood, relatively speaking. The takeaway is to always make sure you start with something interactive.

Next, a quick survey on what the audience felt girls imagine about science engineering revealed many of the usual answers. Geeky, boys, hard, failure, isolation, needing to be super smart, and working 24 hours a day. But we know that outreach helps. One Techbridge student was quoted as saying "I walked in there and I knew that's where I wanted to work." Not bad!

A recipe for success gave a good idea of how you might be able to organize the time during an outreach activity. The idea is to mix one part session and one part personal (informal and interactive), and give it time to develop. These tips were given:

1. Start with a personal story.
2. Share your passion.
3. Make it interactive.
4. Dispel stereotypes.
5. Provide academic advice.

Finally, the Bag of Tricks was introduced as a way to collect activities that work and discard those that flopped. A few tricks, including CS Unplugged activities and Snap Circuits, were demonstrated. I already know and love the former, but I have to say that this circuit kit is really neat! It contains a bunch of parts that literally snap onto a clear, plastic board. If you complete a circuit correctly, you can turn on lights, play music, and so on, while demonstrating various concepts of current, voltage, parallel/series circuits, and so on. Very cool stuff, and apparently only about $20 for a kit.

I had to leave this session a bit early to catch the Birds of a Feather that overlapped with it a bit (to be blogged about next), but I have to say that this talk was very well done. I think the audience will walk away with a great ability to do their own activities and, certainly, the enthusiasm to want to.

GHC: Using Robots to Introduce Computer Programming to Middle Schools

This talk was given as part of the same session as the Artemis project and had many of the same themes. This time, the course focused on teaching how to program a robot and, I believe, ran for a couple of hours once a week for eight weeks. The goals were to expose kids to programming, present computing in an interesting way, and show that women could indeed work well with technology.

The course used a Scribbler robot for its cost effectiveness and robustness. It was developed at Georgia Tech and has a camera and Bluetooth. You can also stick a pen into it so that when you command it to move a certain way, it will draw pictures. An interactive Python shell could be used to enter commands for the robot to move.

The enrolment for this course ended up being almost all boys -- there was just one girl in the end. However, this one girl ended up being so good that the boys completely changed their mind about whether girls could "do" technology. Also, the students were younger than most outreach programs accept (7-13 years old), but the ideas should be adaptable to many situations.

Here's some of the advice given for this part of the session.

• Kids like to explore, so give them an adventure. They robots can go on a mission to find certain things to take pictures of, like planets in a mock solar system.
• Be sure to take time to interact with students one on one, especially with the younger children.
• Present computing as a medium for creativity and see what they come up with.
• Be innovative. When presenting the concept of variables, for example, Mad Libs were used.
• Give them something to work with, like basic code snippets.
• Abstract harder concepts, like loops, with more useful code snippets.

Although the undergraduate instructors of this course complained about problems with the robots, having way more boys than girls, and no prior teaching experience, it sounds to me like the course was a success both for the teachers and the students.

GHC: The Artemis Project: Teaching Computer Science to Adolescent Girls

A group of undergraduate girls presented to a full room for an afternoon session that showcased their work on the Artemis Project from Brown University. In addition to explaining what the project is, they also gave many helpful hints for anyone who might like to start their own outreach program.

A new group of students annually spend their summer teaching a free, five week technology camp to grade 8 girls. The course goals include providing a social network for these young women, as well as good role models. The organizers don't want to see the girls lose interest in science and technology because of social pressures. In addition to reaching out, of course, the undergrads gain experience teaching computer science.

The basic curriculum this past summer went something like this:

• Basic computer literacy, including software like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
• Chance to take apart donated computers and learn about the hardware inside
• Photoshop
• HTML/CSS and web design via lectures and then step-by-step tutorials
  
• Object-oriented programming with Alice
• Basic algorithmic thinking
• Simple Python programming
• Robotics with Vex systems

Some of the key advice about running a course like this was to employ different teaching styles. Some kids prefer self-guided instructions, while others prefer step-by-step interactive tutorials. Being flexible is obviously important as well, since activities will always take more/less time that you expect. Some students pick up material faster than others, so add-on's and extensions should be available.

Another good tip is to understand the group you are working with. Maturity and experience levels will vary greatly, and cliques are inevitable. Try to pick out the leaders and pair them up with the struggling students to help them out. If someone is clearly not as interested as you'd hope, engage them in different ways, like giving them a special job as a helper in the lab. As was said during the talk, it can be "hard to make someone interested, but not hard to make them feel part of a community."

Finally, if you want to have faculty give presentations during the course, as this project did, make sure the presenters know to be interactive. Field trips that encourage team-building are great, as well as visits to more technical destinations like museums.

That more or less sums up the talk. I'm glad these students got the chance to present their experience at a technical conference (an opportunity I still haven't had as a Master's student). My only suggestion would be to speak slower at times. Otherwise, great job girls! I will certainly be thinking about these things if I run my computer science and games mini-course again next year.

GHC: A Busy Day

Today was a very busy day at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. There were talks all day, with barely enough time to enjoy the Systers lunch before rushing back to the conference centre. After more talks and some light buffet dinner, we enjoyed an awards ceremony complete with entertainment and dancing afterwards. I have three sessions to blog about (my assignment as a communities volunteer), and I do apologize that it's taking a bit longer than I'd hoped. At the same time, I suppose you were all enjoying the activities of the day just like me, so perhaps you won't notice the delay. :)

GHC: The CU-WISE Perspective

The other three executive members of Carleton's Women in Science and Engineering are here with me in Colorado for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. They've been blogging their experiences on our new CU-WISE blog, so check it out to get the perspective of others on this wonderful conference!

GHC: It's All About Networking

Another day at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and another flood of thoughts trying to escape my brain faster than I can write them down. Today was a pretty long day without much photography. There was a lot of networking, though! That's a main theme of this conference, and I have to say that learning to do it well is very important.

We all got to the conference centre pretty early this morning (two arrived at 7:00am, and the other two, including me, at 8:10am). We had various Hopper duties to fulfil, like being a greeter and running the t-shirt and Hopper registration booth. I helped with a session monitor training meeting and then watched over the Internet Cafe most of the day.


We also officially registered for the conference today. We got a nice bag with the conference poster on the front. It was filled to the brim with goodies, including notepads, pens, and even a book about key early programmers!

While checking out the loot, an undergraduate video blogger came by to see if we would say a few words. The result is a part of the video embedded below (or linked here). Skip ahead to 2:40 and then 3:37 to see us! We also helped take a little video of getting our badges scanned for the CONNECT project.

In the afternoon, I went to the resume clinic and ended up chatting with a professor about how to do an academic resume. Although many people wanted help getting a job in industry, this is exactly what I was hoping for!

Later, there was a speed networking event where we got four minutes to speak to another person and exchange contact information. Before this event, we were encouraged to think about our "30-second commercial" and use that to introduce ourselves. I didn't do a very good job because: (1) I wasn't planning on doing this, so I wasn't prepared; (2) it's really dry here in Colorado, probably because of the elevation, to my voice was dying quickly; and (3) the room was really noisy and I couldn't concentrate or hear the other person very well. I made a few contacts I think will be very useful, and ended up randomly "meeting" a fellow Anita Borg Scholarship finalist. Figures!

That brings me back to that main theme of networking again. Even in the welcome session for new GHC attendees, the word came up over and over again. It is truly one of the main purposes of the conference. We are here to meet other technical women, and our ability to make these connections meaningful could make the difference of fulfilling our dreams in the future. So many doors open by talking to the right person. I have not made huge efforts doing this yet, but I have been happy about the people I have met so far. The next two days will bring some interesting possibilities...

GHC: An Unexpected Free Day

I woke up this morning with the other three executive members of Carleton's Women in Science and Engineering in Denver, Colorado, ready for the next leg of our trip to Keystone. After a quick breakfast and a shuttle back to the airport, we were ready to hop onto the van to Keystone. After about an hour and a half of driving and girl-talk, we pulled around the corner of one of the mountains onto Highway 6. We had arrived in paradise.

(A peek of some mountains outside the van on the way to Keystone.)

We first stopped at the Spa and Lounge to check in. Our room wasn't anywhere near there, but there was no concierge where we were staying, so we were asked to come here. This gave us our first view of the lake and surrounding hotels and activities. Unbelievable.

(The view from the lake a couple of stories up in the Spa and Lounge.)

After checking our bags and getting our keys for later, we headed to the conference centre. Three of us were going to be helping stuff swag bags at 1:00, so we figured we'd head over early and try to get that lunch they promised us.

Little did we know that the morning shift of bag stuffers would be so efficient that we were no longer needed! Oh well, one can't complain about getting an unexpected free afternoon along with one's free lunch! So after an enjoyable bite to eat outside, we walked back to the lake to see what was happening there.


Back at the lake, the blue-green water was just too tempting...

... so we used some coupons we got when we checked in and rented a paddle boat and kayaks. The geese and ducks followed us all around the lake. We spent an hour and a half floating around. When I was drifting by myself, it felt so peaceful. Just me, the water, and the mountains. Everyone should get a chance to relax like that for an hour every once in a while.


After getting a bit burned on our faces, we set off to check out our room in hopes that it was ready. We were a bit disappointed by its lack of wireless Internet, awkward layout, ugly decor, and old age. It was also surprisingly secluded, with no shuttle service even! However, we got lucky - and I don't know how we keep getting so lucky - because after Serena called for help on the wireless connection, they offered to put us in a room that actually did have it. In a better room. For no charge. Wow! The new room is everything the first room wasn't... with a great balcony view to boot!

So that's it for today, and we are thinking of heading to bed soon because we have volunteer duties early in the morning. I don't think we'll be getting out of those by any stroke of luck. But that's ok, because we should meet some great people in the process. Can't wait to see how tomorrow goes!

GHC: Travelling is Fun

The four of us executive members of Carleton's Women in Science and Engineering have arrived in Denver, Colorado, and can't wait until the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing gets started! But I have to say getting here wasn't quite as easy as it could have been...

We congregated at the Ottawa International Airport at 1pm today, meeting two full hours before our flight was supposed to leave. Of course, nothing is that simple, so as we tried to check in with our pre-printed boarding passes, we learned that our flight had been delayed and we would miss our connection in Chicago. Great. Although we booked with Air Canada, our flight was with United Airlines. We got switched to Continental and flew via Newark, New Jersey.

After running to the other end of the airport to get new tickets printed, and then running back to the new checkin desk, it was off to US Customs. It was surprisingly easy for me to get through, and once I was done, I waited in the gates area. And waited. And bought a muffin and cookie from Tim Hortons. And waited some more. Finally, two of the other three showed up. Where's the fourth? Oh, you didn't see her? Hmm...

Turns out our fourth member, who happens to be travelling with a Mexican passport, got a "random" security interrogation. Luckily, she's apparently used to it as she's flown to the US several times, but this almost caused her to miss the flight! We were so worried she'd be left behind to find her own way. She says that as she came down the escalator, she saw the boarding lady all the way on the other end of the gates area start to walk away after final call. Our fearless WISE webmaster managed to run across and get on the plane. Phew.

I was so glad to get to Newark and off the teeny little Continental express plane. Although it was only three seats wide and I got to be on the side of the aisle with one seat, I couldn't take any more of Mr. Sniffles. The guy right behind me was obviously under the weather, and couldn't seem to contain his urge to snortle, sniffle, gag, etc. Loudly and disgustingly. Nice.

Anyway....

(We stopped by a 50's style diner in the Newark airport and got a milkshake and junk food to go. I never got to eat mine, but it's ok - it was bad for me anyway! I'll be eating well the rest of this trip.)

The flight to Denver was mostly uneventful. I watched Speed Racer and chatted a bit with my seat mates. One was a really tall guy (who necessarily took up half of my seating room in addition to his own) returning home from a trip to Italy. The other was a young woman who was also returning home, but in her case from a CD release party for her friends in New York City. She was very nice and even ended up giving me a dollar bill for the headsets because they ran out of change.

So now we are here. Tomorrow, we are going to Keystone resort, and all but one of us are doing bag stuffing as part of our Hopper Volunteer duties. Our room is going to be great; it's a suite with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We'll each get our own bed! Who says travelling isn't fun? ;)

Grace Hopper and the CONNECT Project

There's a really interesting project happening for the upcoming Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, and I'm already glad I signed up. It's called CONNECT and is true to its name in that it is designed to help delegates of the conference connect with each other.

In the project's own words:

CONNECT is a research project designed to explore techie ways to help people make and maintain meaningful relationships from casual encounters. By participating you will be able to record and access connections you make at the conference. You will receive tips, motivation, and support for improving the value of connections you make.

The way they let you record your connections is to set you up with these name tags that I assume have some kind of bar code. Your tag is colour coded to show whether you are an undegrad, grad student, from the industry, and so on. When you sign up, you indicate which kind of people (from the same categories) you are interested in meeting. You can also mark down the areas of computer science you are interested in, including artificial intelligence, computer vision, algorithms, software engineering, and so on. When you meet someone you wanted to connect with, you both have a volunteer scan your name tags. A database tracks the fact that you met, and you will later get an email with the contact information of those people. Pretty cool!

If you can't wait to see who you might find interesting, you can even search the database now.

I think this is a really innovative way to facilitate networking, especially at a techie event. It almost feels like a game, making that first contact less intimidating. It also makes remembering who you met easy. Now you don't have to juggle business cards containing minimal information, wondering who you talked to and what about. With CONNECT, you get full profiles online, including a photo!

I can't wait to see who I'll meet!

Grace Hopper in Two Weeks

Four of the executive members of CU-WISE leave in exactly two weeks for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. We're bubbling with anticipation as we finalize our funding sources and travelling plans. Most of us have uploaded our resumes to the conference's database, and some have even heard back from the likes of Google and Carnegie Mellon University (not me yet, though!). We are all volunteering as Hoppers to help get stuff ready before the conference begins, and in return will get free registration.

Aside from all this administrative stuff, I've been perusing the conference program carefully. One of the main goals of attending this conference is to get ideas on how to run CU-WISE. As such, here are some of the talks I'm most excited about (exluding some nice technical topics).

Organizations Building a Better World: ABI, ACM-W, CRA-W and
NCWIT
Panelists: Telle Whitney (Anita Borg Institute), Carla Ellis (Duke University),
Lucy Sanders (NCWIT), Elaine Weyuker (AT&T Laboratories)
The panel will disseminate information regarding four major "Women in IT" organizations’ (The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, ACM’s
Committee on Women in Computing, CRA’s Committee on the Status of Women
in Computing Research, Nation Center for Women & IT) projects and ways
that audience members can participate in the organizations’ projects plus
brainstorm new project areas and emphases with audience members.

The Artemis Project: Teaching Computer Science to Adolescent Girls
Panelists: Megan Hugdahl (Brown University), Jihan Chao (Brown University),
Emily Mellor (Brown University), Ashley Tuccero (Brown University)
The Artemis Project is a free five-week summer camp for incoming ninth grade
girls interested in computer science. It is held annually at Brown University.
Four undergraduate women who are studying computer science serve as
coordinators for the Artemis Project. It is their responsibility to organize the
entire program. Artemis fosters enthusiasm and provides knowledge to
students, building their confidence and giving them tools to apply to science in
the future.

Using Robots to Introduce Computer Programming to Middle Schools
Panelists: Shikha Prashad (Bryn Mawr College), Marwa N. Muhammad (Bryn
Mawr College), Mansi Gupta (Bryn Mawr College)
This project investigated the effectiveness of using personal robots in capturing
interests of middle school students to computing by developing a course that
teaches students the Python programming language to program a robot. We
conducted the course on 13 home-schooled students aged between seven and
thirteen years. Each student was provided with his/her own robot and a
textbook that we developed to accompany and complement the course.

Planning, Organizing, and Holding Regional Celebrations of Women in
Computing
Panelists: Gloria Townsend (DePauw University), Bettina Bair (Ohio State
University), Lecia Barker (NCWIT), Tracy Camp (Colorado School of Mines),
J McGrath Cohoon (NCWIT), Laura K. Dillon (Michigan State University),
Catherine Lang (Swinburne University of Technology), Khadija Stewart
(DePauw University), Ellen Walker (Hiram College)
The presenters will discuss their experiences in planning, financing,
organizing, running and assessing regional events for women. The presenters
will also discuss barriers that they have overcome in accomplishing their goals,
as well as practices that accelerate goal achievement. In addition, results of the
international Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference
will be briefly presented. Finally, we will emphasize a surprising side-effect we
have discovered.

Inspiring Girls in Technology: How to Make Every Outreach a Success
Presenters: Linda Kekelis (Chabot Space and Science Center), Shannon
Madison (Google), Reena Singhal Lee (Google), Marie-Ange Eyoum (Intel)
This workshop brings together the expertise of Techbridge, Google, and Intel
partners that have successfully collaborated and introduced many more girls to
technology and engineering. Participants will receive guidance on how to
organize a successful, impactful outreach event for girls and role models. They
will also participate in hands-on activities and receive concrete and practical
suggestions for conducting effective outreach.

Recruiting High-School Women into Computer Science
Presenters: Inna Pivkina (New Mexico State University), Joan Francioni
(Winona State University), Ann Quiroz Gates (University of Texas at El Paso),
Laura Marie Leventhal (Bowling Green State University), Enrico Pontelli (New
Mexico State University)
This BOF session focuses on ways of recruiting of high-school women into
Computer Science. We will discuss an outreach program developed at New
Mexico State University and another program at the University of Texas at El
Paso to promote interest of middle- and high-school girls towards computing
disciplines, and explore a role of inter-disciplinary components in such
programs. Participants will share challenges and experiences in recruiting
high-school women into Computer Science.

Beyond these talks, there are many that will cover issues relevant to our members, so we will be bringing home a wealth of information to share. Our plan is to give presentations and write articles upon our return to share our experiences and newfound knowledge and advice. Our first full year of CU-WISE will undoubtedly be all the more successful because of it.