By A. J. Brush and Andrea Danyluk

The 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) broke its attendance records again, with more than 20,000 participants gathering in Houston, Texas, from September 26th through September 28th, and CRA-W also broke its attendance records with a variety of programs for GHC attendees interested in research. From talks, panels, and mentoring circles to the CRA-W Research Scholars Program to poster presentations and sponsorship of other sessions, CRA-W played an important role at the conference.

CRA-E is now accepting applications for the CRA-E Graduate Fellows Program. The program opportunities for Ph.D. candidates in a computing field to contribute to CRA-E projects, to network with computer science education advocates on the committee, and to engage in advocacy for mentoring undergraduate students and promote computer science research and undergraduate education at the national level.

Congratulations to CRA-W alumna, Dr. Bushra Anjum, who has recently been selected as a senior editor for ACM Ubiquity, ACM’s peer-reviewed web-based magazine devoted to the future of computing and the people who are creating it. She has started a new initiative called Innovation Leaders for Ubiquity which consists of interviews of young professionals, who comment on their concerns about the future of computing and their ambitions to shape the future through their leadership. Through this section, Dr. Anjum aims to highlight the efforts of the young professionals in terms of ground-breaking technical ideas, evolving the ethics and behaviors associated with the computing industry and academia, and minimizing the negative social implications of technology.

In the launch interview of Innovation Leaders, Dr. Anjum shared her vision of the future of computing workforce and emphasized that a successful engineer of the future is a generalist with a trained interdisciplinary and cross-functional mindset and whose training is augmented by the key human values of creativity, empathy, and flexibility. You can read, or audio stream, the full conversation here: https://buff.ly/2Q0Z1CB

Ubiquity ‘Innovation Leaders’ is eager to promote success stories featuring the dynamic CRA community. If you are interested in being interviewed as an innovation leader or know of someone who should be featured, contact her via Twitter @DrBushraAnjum.

“A successful engineer of the future is a generalist who masters an interdisciplinary and cross-functional mindset and whose training is augmented by key human values: creativity, empathy, and a flexible outlook.”
– Bushra Anjum, Grad Cohort for Women Alum 2012; Speaker 2016-18

Read the full article here.

The CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award honors faculty members in computing who have made a significant impact on students they have mentored. It recognizes those who have provided exceptional mentorship and undergraduate research experiences and, in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of these students to research-focused graduate programs in computing.