Today, May 20, 2021, marks the tenth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different disabilities. In honor of GAAD, we’re sharing resources to learn more about accessibility in higher education.
The recipient of the 2021- 2022 ACM Athena Lecturer Award is Ayanna Howard, Dean of The Ohio State University College of Engineering.
Her citation reads as follows:
For fundamental contributions to the development of accessible human-robotic systems and artificial intelligence along with forging new paths to broaden participation in computing through entrepreneurial and mentoring efforts.
To view the press release, please visit: https://awards.acm.org/about/2021-athena
Are you interested in serving as a mentor or coach?
The mentor and coach application is now available on the CS Grad4US Mentoring Program webpage.
The goals of the CSGrad4US Mentoring Program are:
Specific topics include the admissions process, preparation of all components of a strong graduate application, differences between graduate programs at different institutions, how to compare programs with respect to the Fellow’s goals and background, and general guidelines on making a selection among admission acceptances.
The CSGrad4US Mentoring Program will provide not only general graduate application advice and guidance, but also provide missing larger context and network to students returning from the workforce. Our intention is to recruit a representative set of mentors and coaches that reflects the diversity of institutions, demographics, and scholarship among the computing research community.
Applications received by June 1st will be given preference.
The Application deadline for the CSGrad4US Graduate Fellowship has been extended and is now due May 19, 2021, by 5:00 pm submitter local time. Please visit https://www.nsf.gov/cise/CSGrad4US/ for additional details and deadlines.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate has announced the new CSGrad4US Graduate Fellowship program that aims to increase the number of diverse, domestic graduate students pursuing research and innovation careers in the CISE fields. The new fellowship, which will provide 3-year fellowship opportunities for new Ph.D. students in the computing disciplines, was released in response to the increased demand for people with a Ph.D. in computer science (CS), the continued decrease of domestic students pursuing research and completing a Ph.D., and the overall small number of bachelor’s degree recipients in CS pursuing graduate school.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE Computer Society recently announced that former CRA-WP Co-chair Margaret Martonosi is the recipient of the 2021 Eckert-Mauchly Award. She was cited for contributions to the design, modeling, and verification of power-efficient computer architecture. The Eckert-Mauchly Award is known as the computer architecture community’s most prestigious award.
In response to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate’s recently announced CSGrad4US Fellowship program, the Computing Research Association’s Education (CRA-E) and Widening Participation (CRA-WP) committees are working to develop a CSGrad4US Mentoring Program for recipients of the CSGrad4US Fellowship.
Are you interested in serving as a mentor or coach?
The mentor and coach application is now available on the CS Grad4US Mentoring Program webpage.
CRA-WP has welcomed two new members to its board of directors – Monica Anderson, University of Alabama, and Hakim Weatherspoon, Cornell University.
Monica Anderson
Monica Anderson is an Associate Professor of Computer Science, The University of Alabama. She earned her BS in Computer Science from Chicago State University (1990) and her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota (2007). In 2008, she received the 2008 UPE Excellence in Instruction Award. She is an executive member of the iAAMCS alliance, a national consortium of researchers that focus on increasing the number of African Americans in Computer Science with advanced degrees. Research projects studied autonomous robot teams, Computer Science education, and broadening participation. The results of these projects included identification of mitigating factors an operator’s trust of autonomous systems, mechanisms for increasing self-efficacy in computer science introductory courses using robotics, and approaches on improving the design of autonomous device frameworks. Current education-related research concerns the efficient teaching of memory-reliant programming concepts.
Hakim Weatherspoon
Hakim Weatherspoon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. His research interests cover various aspects of fault-tolerance, reliability, security, and performance of internet-scale data systems such as cloud and distributed systems. Weatherspoon received his Bachelors from the University of Washington and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Weatherspoon has received awards for his many contributions, including the University of Washington, Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, Alumni Achievement Award; Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship; National Science Foundation CAREER Award; and a Kavli Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences. He serves as Vice President of the USENIX Board of Directors and is the Founder, Steering Committee, and General Chair for the ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing. Hakim has also been recognized for his work to promote diversity, earning Cornell’s Zellman Warhaft Commitment to Diversity Award. Since 2011, he has organized the annual SoNIC Summer Research Workshop to help prepare students from underrepresented groups to pursue their Ph.D. in computer science.
The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) is proud to announce two recipients of the 2021 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award: Tijana Milenkovic from University of Notre Dame and Saad Biaz from Auburn University. These outstanding individuals are being recognized for providing exceptional mentorship, undergraduate research experiences, and, in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of their students to research-focused graduate programs in computing.
Mary Jane Irwin was selected to receive the 2021 CRA A. Nico Habermann Award in recognition of her more than 30 years of diversity efforts, both in academia at Penn State University and in professional organizations, including the CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her work in these organizations across three decades has increased the number of women and other under-represented groups in computing at universities (as faculty and students) and as fellows and award recipients.
She was a founding member of CRA-W, served as a steering committee member for more than 20 years, and spearheaded many of the activities and initiatives that we now think of as regular events. Irwin served on the ACM Council, as ACM Vice President, and her work on the ACM Fellow Selection Committee helped to double the number of women elected. She was also instrumental in pushing the NAE to diversify its ranks. Irwin’s commitment to diversity was actually inspired by meetings with A. Nico Habermann himself when she was on the Advisory Board for NSF CISE of which he was Assistant Director.
Using CRA Data Buddies Survey data, this analysis presents changes in undergraduate students’ highest degree intentions over the course of a year. Students who participated in an REU during that year showed an interest in pursuing a higher-level academic degree than those who did not participate in an REU.
