Applications Open for Scholarships for Women Studying Information Security (SWSIS): Deadline February 1


The SWSIS program provides scholarships of $2,000 or more for women studying for their Bachelors and Masters degrees in fields relating to information security. The purpose of these scholarships is to provide assistance to women at the formative stages of their careers in these fields.

SWSIS is a partnership of Applied Computer Security Associates (ACSA) and CRA-WP.  Its long-term goal is to contribute to increasing the representation of women in the information security workforce.

Application Period: December 15 – February 1

Apply to SWSIS Now!

CRA-WP Welcomes Susan Rodger as Co-chair


CRA-WP welcomes Susan Rodger as its newest co-chair, replacing Sandhya Dwarkadas. Rodger joins Amanda Stent as co-chair of the committee. Stent will replace Dwarkadas as the CRA-WP representative on the CRA Board. We would like to thank Dwarkadas for her service as co-chair.


Susan Rodger
Susan Rodger is a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Computer Science at Duke University. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rodger received her MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University and her BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from North Carolina State University. Her research is in visualization, algorithm animation, and computer science education. Rodger has developed JFLAP, software for experimenting with formal languages and automata that is used in courses worldwide. She leads the Adventures in Alice Programming project to teach K-12 teachers about computing. She has organized three Alice Symposiums and over thirty workshops on Alice, JFLAP, Peer-led Team learning, career mentoring, and other computer science education topics. Rodger is currently chair of ACM SIGCSE, a board member of CRA-W, and a member of the ACM Education Policy Committee. Rodger received the ACM 2013 Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, the ACM Distinguished Educator award, and she was one of two finalist candidates for the NEEDS Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware for the software JFLAP.

CRA-WP Board Welcomes New Board Member: Sujata Banerjee


CRA-WP recently welcomed Sujata Banerjee as a new member to its board of directors.

Banerjee is the Vice President of VMware Research Group. Her expertise is in topics related to software defined networking and network functions virtualization, and she is broadly interested in network automation and performance. Prior to joining VMware, she was a distinguished technologist and research director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Labs, leading a network systems research group which conducted research on enterprise, service provider and datacenter networks. Prior to her industrial research career, Banerjee also held a tenured Associate Professor position at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a member of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Council of the Computing Research Association (CRA). Banerjee was honored to be named in the list of 2018 N2Women: Stars in Computer Networking and Communications.

2023 DREU – Applications Open through February 15


The objective of the DREU program is to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups including women, minorities, or persons with disabilities who are enrolled in graduate studies in the fields of computer science and computer engineering.

DREU participants have the opportunity to be directly involved in a research project and interact with graduate students and professors on a daily basis. This experience is invaluable for those who are considering graduate school; DREU will provide a close-up view of what graduate school is really like and increase interns’ competitiveness as an applicant for graduate admissions and fellowships. Faculty mentors will have the opportunity to work on their research project with new students from other institutions and to mentor future graduate students.

CRA-WP 2023 Grad Cohort Workshops – Applications Due November 30


CRA-WP will host two Graduate Cohort Workshops in 2023! The Grad Cohort Workshop for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership Skills (GC-IDEALS) is designed specifically for graduate school populations underrepresented in computing research. The Grad Cohort Workshop for Women is designed for women students in their first, second, or third year of graduate school in computing fields. Grad Cohort participants will have an opportunity to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks intended to form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate career and beyond.

Grad Cohort participants will have an opportunity to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks intended to form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate career and beyond.

Expanding the Pipeline: Distributed REsearch Apprenticeships for Master’s (DREAM)


By Tracy Camp, Computing Research Association and Catherine Gill, Northeastern University

The Distributed REsearch Apprenticeships for Master’s (DREAM) is a pilot NSF program being offered by a nationwide consortium of colleges and universities that have created “bridge to MS in CS” programs for students with non-CS bachelor’s degrees.  Schools in the MSCS Pathways to Computing Consortium provide a new pathway for people who studied something other than CS as undergraduates to enter the tech field.  The strong emphasis of this effort is to provide a new pathway into computing for individuals from populations historically minoritized in tech (women, LGBQTIA, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Hawaiian/Alaskan/Asian Pacific Islander students, and students with disabilities). Consortium members sign a membership agreement that, among other things, confirms their commitment to increasing the diversity of their graduate programs.  Students in these Consortium pathways come from a wide array of undergraduate backgrounds that span the STEM disciplines, humanities, social sciences, business, and the arts.

National Science Foundation Selects Recipients of the 2022 CSGrad4US Fellowship Program


 By Erik Russell, CRA Director of Programs

The National Science Foundation recently selected sixty-nine recipients of the 2022 CSGrad4US Fellowship Program. The objective of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Graduate Fellowships (CSGrad4US) is to increase the number of diverse, domestic graduate students pursuing research and innovation careers in the CISE fields: computer science, computer engineering, or information science. CSGrad4US recipients will participate in the CSGrad4US Mentoring Program organized by the Computing Research Association with funding provided by the National Science Foundation through award #2231962. 

CRA-WP at the 2022 ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing: September 7-10


The goal of the TAPIA Conferences is to bring together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Will you be attending the 2022 TAPIA Conference? Come visit the CRA-WP booth (#908) at the exhibit hall! Learn about programs and resources we offer to support you in your Computing Research career journey.

CRA-WP Presents the 2022 CRA-WP Early Career Awards Honoring Skip Ellis and Anita Borg


The Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2022 Skip Ellis Early Career Award and  Anita Borg Early Career Award. Maya Cakmak of the University of Washington has been selected as the 2022 Anita Borg Early Career Award recipient. The Anita Borg Early Career Award honors […]

CRA-WP Featured in the 2022 STEM for All Video Showcase: Access, Inclusion, and Equity


A short video from CRA’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP) is featured in the 2022 STEM for All Video Showcase May 10-17. CRA-WP’s video is entitled “Broadening Participation in Computing Research with CRA-WP” and highlights programs funded through National Science Foundation award #1840724. CRA-WP is a Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance that focuses on community building, career mentoring, information sharing, and effecting systemic change for undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, faculty, and industry and government researchers.