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