2021 CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshops Go Virtual
By Erik Russell
The Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation organizes two Grad Cohort Workshops on an annual basis. Both workshops will be virtual events this year due to the ongoing pandemic.
The 2021 CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership Skills (IDEALS) will be a virtual event held on March 11-12, 2021. Currently, more than 60 graduate students are registered to attend this year’s IDEALS Workshop. They will be joined by 36 computing researchers and professionals, and many sponsors and volunteers to network, learn valuable skills, and receive one-on-one mentoring. We’re all looking forward to a plenary presentation by Quincy Brown (AnitaB.org), James Mickens (Harvard University), and Hakim Weatherspoon (Cornell University) titled “2020 – What Was That?” Another plenary that is sure to be impactful is “Empowerment of People with Disabilities” presented by Jeanine Cook (Sandia National Laboratories), Raja Kushalnagar (Gallaudet University), Richard Ladner (University of Washington), and Ather Sharif (University of Washington).
The 2021 CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for Women will be a virtual event held on April 23-24, 2021. More than 400 graduate students will be joined by 31 computing researchers and professionals, and many sponsors and volunteers to network, learn valuable skills, and receive one-on-one mentoring at this year’s Grad Cohort Workshop for Women. Quincy Brown (AnitaB.org), Kathryn McKinley (Google), and Lori Pollock (University of Delaware) will present a plenary titled “Strategies for Human-Human Interaction.” Another highlight will be the keynote by Margo Seltzer (University of British Columbia).
Participants of both workshops will enjoy two days of interacting with senior computing researchers and professionals, who will share pertinent information on graduate school survival skills, as well as more personal information and insights about their experiences. The workshop will include a mix of formal presentations and informal discussions and social events. By attending the Grad Cohort Workshops, participants will be able to build mentoring relationships and develop peer networks that will form the basis for ongoing activities during their graduate career and beyond.
The Grad Cohort Workshops are possible because of the generosity of sponsors, the dedication and commitment to service of numerous volunteers, board members, and staff. A special thanks to the following sponsors: ACM, CRA, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Facebook, Microsoft, a Private Foundation, AccessComputing, Google, Intel, ACM SIGARCH, ACM SIGCHI, ACM SIGCOMM, ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGHPC, ACM SIGIR, ACM SIGKDD, ACM SIGOPS, ACM SIGPLAN, ACM SIGSOFT, ACM WICARCH, AnitaB.org, Bloomberg, D.E. Shaw Research, IEEE-Computer Society, Raytheon, ACM SIGACT, ACM SIGCSE, ACM SIGMICRO, ACM SIGMOBILE, Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the following department sponsors: Auburn University, Brown University, Emory University, George Mason University, Georgia Tech, Harvard University, Northeastern University, Princeton University, Texas A&M University, University of California-Irvine, University of Colorado, University of Washington, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, and the University of Southern California.
The Grad Cohort Workshops are supported in part by the Department of Energy (DE-SC0021328) and the National Science Foundation (CNS-1840724). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s)/presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Energy or the National Science Foundation.
