This year’s class of newly elected members includes a record number of women, including former CRA-WP Board Member Anna Karlin. She is the Microsoft Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington. She has been active in several CRA-WP activities including Grad Cohort, Virtual Undergraduate Town Hall, and Career Mentoring Workshops.
Last year the IEEE announced the creation of the IEEE Frances E Allen medal, recognizing the contributions of Frances “Fran” E. Allen as an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers.
The Allen Medal recognizes innovative work in computing leading to lasting impact on engineering, science, technology, or society. It may be awarded to an individual or a team of recipients up to three in number. The award will recognize contributions of substantial, broad impact and/or lifetime achievements and work must demonstrate fundamental impact on fields outside of core computing by creating new areas of investigation, or vastly expanding research in existing areas. An awardees’ contribution will have substantially expanded the scale of computational capability and/or the size of datasets that are exploitable by the worldwide community of engineers, scientists, and others using computing in their work. The prize consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, a certificate, and a cash prize.
The Allen Medal may be presented to anyone whose achievements or contributions satisfy the selection criteria for the award. It is not necessary for the recipient(s) to be a member or members of IEEE, but they must not have been awarded another IEEE Medal for the same work.
Nominations for this award are open now and are due by June 15. Please honor Fran Allen and outstanding members of our research community by submitting a nomination.
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.
ACM-W Celebrating Technology Leaders’ next session “Women in Robotics” is now scheduled for March 31st, 2021 at 12:00 pm Pacific.
2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the first use of the term “robot” to describe a non-human, artificial being (1921 R.U.R.). However, it’s only in the past decade or so that we have seen substantial growth in the technological capabilities of robots and related career opportunities in robotics. In this session of ACM-W “Celebrating Technology Leaders,” we focus on the intersection of Computer Science and Robotics. We invite women in computing, leading successful careers in the robotics arena to better understand this truly interdisciplinary field. What are the few big industries in robotics currently? What education, experience, and skillset, can set someone with a computing background for success in the robotics arena? And most importantly, how did our panelists’ unique personal background, interests, and career aspirations led them to be where they are today?
Register at https://webinars.on24.com/acm/techleaders_mar21
This week, CRA and CRA-WP Board Member Ayanna Howard was a guest on “The View” talk show. She had an engaging conversation with “The View” co-hosts on what sparked her early interest in robotics, how she works on robots that change humanity for the better and how racial bias may be built into AI systems unintentionally. Check out this tweet to watch the short video.
Howard has often experienced “breaking glass ceilings.” She is dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, the first woman in this role. She received the 2016 A. Nico Habermann Award for her sustained commitment to increasing diversity in computing research and is a program chair for the CRA-WP Grad Cohort Workshop for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership Skills (IDEALS).
Although computer science has become foundational to every industry and field of study, representation and participation in computer science is still far from balanced. Only 3% of Black students learn computer science in high school or university. Please watch and share this video broadly. Inspire or encourage a student to try computer science, and let them know they belong. Together we can change the face of computer science.
Are you graduating this year? Looking for a job?
Sign up for the Graduating Class Directoryto be on the list shared with hiring managers in academic departments and industry/government lab representatives around the nation!
Open to CRA program alumni and interested participants who have recently graduated (or expect to graduate in the next 12-18 months)
Benefits:
Get a head start on your job hunt
Jumpstart your resume
Stand out in a smaller applicant pool
Connect with CRA sponsors such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft
ACM-W’s “Celebrating Technology Leaders” web series brings stories and advice from engaging speakers, with diverse careers in computing, directly to you.
Some of ACM-W’s most successful events and panels in the past (chapters, celebrations, etc.) were focused on career advice, especially non-academic careers (industry, research labs, government, non-profit, etc.). However, the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19 has halted such meaningful events. Furthermore, stories and survey responses from our members tell us that younger professionals want to hear from people with non-traditional career routes, moving between research labs, academia, industry, government, or non-profits. These needs became the motivating factor in devising a new initiative by ACM-W: the “Celebrating Technology Leaders” web series.
Check out the upcoming event: Wednesday, February 3rd at 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT, Click here to register!
What should you know about Ability and Accessibility in AI and responsible technology development?
Dive in and learn more through an interview with Meredith Ringel Morris. Meredith is a computer scientist conducting research in the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), social computing, and accessibility. Her current research focus is on accessibility, particularly on the intersection of accessibility and social technologies.
The SWSIS program provides scholarships of up to $10,000 for women in the formative stages of their Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in fields relating to information security.
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. ACSA founded the SWSIS scholarship program in 2011 and joined forces with CRA-WP in 2014 to lead the selection process. As of fall 2019, SWSIS scholarships have been awarded to over 90 women studying information security.
Apply now at www.swsis.org.
