It starts young ...

Just an interesting and short page about young girls and role models.

Advice for students at academic conferences

InsideHigherEd had a few articles with advice to students on how to make the most of an academic conference, perhaps this can help everyone!

Successfully Navigating Conferences

1. Jun 25, 2012
2. Sep 16, 2012

Women Bridge the Gap in CS

Gloria Townsend was recently featured for her work to provide more accessible computing education, see this link -- we see even in our small program not only the jump in interest in CS/computing, but an increase in the number of women enrolling.

Also, there was an article on enrollments for Latino students, fyi ... here.

If true about Steve Jobs ...

Hi all,

It's been some time since my last post, much has happened professionally and personally, almost all great news. Still, this blog is important to me, and I need to resume.

Nothing link the following excerpt from a New Yorker story about Steve Jobs:

Jobs, we learn, was a bully. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe,” a friend of his tells Isaacson. Jobs gets his girlfriend pregnant, and then denies that the child is his. He parks in handicapped spaces.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell#ixzz1d3B6OZ6a

I had heard stories of Jobs' confrontational, ranting management style indirectly from a few employees. Since his death, the tributes and "non-tributes" have emerged. Love most of the products, save the heavy-handed closeness of the software, and the constraint for iTunes and the App store.

Still, if the above quote is true, then my opinion of the Apple founder has diminished. I think you can be an innovator, a CEO, and a visionary without impeding the vulnerable.

And to think of how much we talk about accessibility and interface when discussing Apple ;-) -- all opinions are mine -- JD

Computer Engineer Barbie ...

... take a look at what Barbie's new career will be (by popular demand) -- JD

http://www.barbie.com/vote/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35372184/ns/business-retail/

Your Vote Needed (for all the "Barbies" out there)

Once again Mattel is providing a chance for people to vote on Barbie's next career, and computer engineer is among the choices -- please consider voting for this option (and thanks to Jane Prey for alerting us to the vote).

CACM Feb 2009

An article in the Feb 2009 just hit my eyes, authored by Maria Klawe (SIGCSE 2005 keynote) et. al., it revisits the access to computing education for women that was covered in a 1995 piece by the authors -- I got access from here, tough the full reference is below -- and Happy New 2010!

Klawe, M., Whitney, T., and Simard, C. 2009. Women in computing---take 2. Commun. ACM 52, 2 (Feb. 2009), 68-76. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1461928.1461947

Lab and lounge space matters

A recent study at the University of Washington indicates that work space matters in terms of engaging women in computer science and engineering. How many of your lab spaces look like the photo to the right?

So it is OK for our Department to have a nice pizza party as long as they clean up well.

Other ideas? Feng shui anyone? Seriously, I certainly looked into this when arranging the desk in my office, but not in the CS Teaching lab -- I plan to over break.

Paul Samuelson Dies ...

Yes, he was an economist, not a computer scientist, but in this blog about diversity and accessibility, I could not help note one of his more lucid and sharp observations:

When women began complaining about career and salary inequities, for example, [Pf. Samuelson] said in their defense, “Women are men without money.”

It might be abstractly phrased "... without access."

CS Education Week

Well, hope you did not miss it, for the first time the Congress has recognized the importance of education/preparation for computer science in the US, some links below:

• CS Education Week online
• NSF hosted discussion on CS education, including participants from Google, UCLA and the NSF
• ACM website
• House Resolution