Archive of articles published in the 2021 issue.

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CRA and CRA-WP Board Member Ayanna Howard Named ACM Athena Lecturer for Contributions to Robotics, AI and Broadening Participation in Computing


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

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CRA/CCC Announces CIFellows 2021 Program


The Computing Research Association (CRA) and Computing Community Consortium (CCC) are pleased to announce a new Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows) cohort for 2021. This program aims to provide career-enhancing bridge experiences for recent and soon-to-be PhD graduates in computing to support the computing research pipeline. The CIFellows program is open to researchers whose work falls under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Computing and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate.

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2021 CRA Board of Directors Election Results


CRA members have elected three new members to its Board of Directors: Diana Franklin, Katie Siek and Eve Schooler. James Allan, Stephanie Forrest, Ayanna Howard, Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Rachel Pottinger, and Chris Ramming were re-elected to the CRA board. All of their terms run from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2024. Vivek Sarkar will remain on the board as the co-chair of the CRA Industry Committee. CRA would like to thank everyone who agreed to run this year.

Retiring from the board as of June 30, are Michael Franklin, Kathryn McKinley, Greg Morrisett, and Ellen Zegura. CRA thanks them all for contributions during their service on the board.

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CRA Conference at Snowbird Update


After careful consideration of the current and projected situation surrounding the pandemic, CRA has unfortunately decided to cancel the in-person CRA Conference at Snowbird scheduled to take place this August. At this time, there are simply too many uncertainties to move forward.

We believe interaction is a critical feature of this conference. Given we held a virtual version last year, we have decided not to organize a hybrid or entirely virtual meeting this year, as this is typically an off year for Snowbird. CRA is currently planning to hold a full in-person Conference at Snowbird on July 19-21, 2022.

Reflections on Black in Computing


In June 2020, a community of Black people in computing from around the world published an open letter, initiated by the authors, and a call for action to the global computing community.

Today, we are issuing another call to action to the individuals, organizations, educational institutions, and companies in the computing ecosystem to address the systemic and structural inequities that Black people experience.

As we did in June 2020, we ask that you translate the public statements  into public action to support the Black professional communities toward achieving systemic fairness in computing.

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Senior Undergraduates Who Did Not Apply to Graduate School Waited Because of a Job, but Most Are Likely to Apply in the Future


Among senior undergraduates who did not apply to graduate school in their last year, their top three reasons for not doing so related to a job, needing the break, or concerns about finances. However, 72% were “quite a bit” or “extremely” likely to apply in the future.

Expanding the Pipeline: Gaining Momentum through Research on Diversity in Undergraduate Computing


Five years ago, we wrote in this column about the research our team was initiating on the BRAID (Building Recruiting and Inclusion for Diversity) initiative, a coordinated effort among 15 universities to increase representation among women and Students of Color in their undergraduate computing programs. Over these past five years, the BRAID institutions have indeed made significant strides towards greater diversity. Collectively, while BRAID departments experienced an 87% increase in overall undergraduate computing enrollments, such increases were even larger among women (139%), BLI (Black, Latinx, and Indigenous) students (106%), and BLI women (127%). While there is much more work to be done in order to achieve gender and racial/ethnic parity in computing representation (not to mention fostering more inclusive environments), these figures certainly reflect progress. Further, such progress was not experienced by BRAID institutions alone, as data from the nationwide CRA Taulbee Survey during this same time period also show significant gains in representation among women and underrepresented Students of Color.

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CRA and CERP Welcome Taniya Ross-Dunmore


CRA has recently hired Taniya Ross-Dunmore as a research assistant for CRA’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CERP). In this role, she will assist in CERP’s research and evaluation projects and tasks. Taniya holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in psychology from Spelman College where she obtained experience in data collection and evaluation, research methods, psychometrics, and more.