Deadline October 7: Workshop on Departmental Plans for Broadening Participation in Computing


Since 2017, the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has been asking CISE Principal Investigators to include meaningful BPC plans in proposals submitted to a subset of CISE’s research programs. To support departments in preparing for this new effort, teams of 2-3 administrators and faculty members from computing institutions are invited to apply to participate in a workshop focused on Department Plans for Broadening Participation in Computing.

This NSF sponsored workshop will take place from November 13-15, 2019 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (in the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science). Participants will spend 1.5 days learning from BPC experts and working in break-out groups to develop a departmental plan for their own unit. The culmination of the workshop will be a departmental plan that leadership teams can take back to their unit for their faculty to use in support of their NSF CISE proposals. Additionally, teams will be encouraged to share their department plan with the computing community on the BPCnet Resource Portal.

Reasonable travel costs, housing, and meals will be provided for accepted workshop participants. The deadline to apply is October 7, 2019. Apply here: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/3791521

Expanding the Pipeline: Supporting Computer Science Growth Through Community


By Jake Baskin, CSTA Executive Director

Teaching is hard — and teaching computer science can be even harder. With the growing need for computer science teachers in the classroom and an increased focus on access to computer science education, the role of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) is more important than ever. With the mission of supporting K–12 teachers in the field, CSTA provides educators with the professional development events and community they need to improve their craft.

Expanding the Pipeline: Gender and Ethnic Differences in PhD Specialty Areas


By Betsy Bizot, CRA Director of Statistics and Evaluation

This article examines gender and residency/ethnicity differences in PhD specialty areas as reported to the CRA Taulbee Survey from 2012-2018. The Taulbee Survey is conducted each fall and, among other questions, asks doctoral departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information for data about each PhD they awarded in the previous academic year. The data on each new PhD includes gender, residency/race/ethnicity, and PhD specialty area. A total of 12,968 PhDs were awarded by Taulbee respondents during the 7 year period from 2012-2018. Of those, the specialty area was listed as Other or Unknown for 3,328. Those individuals are omitted from the analyses described here; individuals where gender was not provided or where residency/ethnicity was listed as Unknown are not included in the analysis by that category.

Early-Career Computing Professionals Apply to Join the ACM Future of Computing Academy: August 23 Deadline


The ACM Future of Computing Academy is a new initiative enabling early-career researchers, practitioners, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop a strong and influential collective voice to help shape the future of computing. It consists of talented professionals who are committed to making a positive and lasting impact on ACM and the global computing profession. ACM is now accepting applications for membership. The application deadline is 23 August 2019.

Nadia Heninger Receives 2019 Borg Early Career Award


CRA-W is pleased to announce Nadia Heninger is the recipient of the 2019 Borg Early Career Award (BECA).

The Borg Early Career Award honors the late Anita Borg, who was an early member of CRA-W, and is inspired by her commitment to increasing the participation of women in computing research. The annual award is given to a woman in computer science and/or engineering who has made significant research contributions and who has contributed to her profession, especially in the outreach to women.

Nadia received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in May 2011. She began her academic career at the University of Pennsylvania and is now at UC San Diego. Her research is in cryptography and systems security. Her outreach includes working with girl scouts, being a speaker at the 2016 Grace Hopper Conference, participating in and helping organize GREPSEC, an NSF workshop for women and under-represented groups interested in computer security research, and organizing research sessions in workshops for undergraduate women in cybersecurity.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a nomination for this year and we hope to see many more in the next cycle.