Tag Archive: CRA-WP

Articles relevant to the CRA Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP).

2018 Grad Cohort2018 Grad Cohort

Expanding the Pipeline: 2018 CRA-W Grad Cohort for Women Inspires Attendees to Persist in Computing


On April 13-14, more than 400 women graduate students in computing from more than 150 institutions converged on San Francisco, CA, for the 2018 CRA-W Graduate Cohort for Women (CRA-W Grad Cohort). Throughout the two-day workshop, professional connections were made, new friendships were formed, and mentoring relationships with senior researchers were established. CRA-W organizes this workshop as part of its mission to increase the success and participation of women in computing research.

Expanding the Pipeline: CRA URMD Grad Cohort Fosters a Diverse and Inclusive Generation of Computing Researchers


Approximately 100 graduate students in computing and more than 20 speakers assembled on March 16-17 in San Diego, CA, to convene the inaugural CRA Graduate Cohort for Underrepresented Minorities and Persons with Disabilities (URMD Grad Cohort). It was the first gathering of its kind hosted by CRA. This new iteration of the Grad Cohort Workshop focused on the following underrepresented groups in computing: Alaska Native, Black/African American, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and persons with disabilities. The workshop aimed to increase representation from these groups in computing research by building and mentoring nationwide communities through their graduate studies, and is modeled on the highly successful CRA-W Grad Cohort Workshop for Women.

Julia-HirschbergJulia-Hirschberg

Research Highlight: CRA Board Member Julia Hirschberg


My research sits at the intersection of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and speech processing.  I have focused on identifying the role of prosodic information in speech and using this knowledge to produce more realistic Text-to-Speech Synthesis (TTS) systems; to detect many types of speaker state, including the classic emotions, such as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise; and derived emotions, such as confidence and uncertainty, deception, trust, and charisma. I’ve also studied human-machine and human-human behavior in Spoken Dialogue Systems (SDS) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Women in ComputingWomen in Computing

Expanding the Pipeline: ACM-W Programs Expand to Support Students and Professional Women in Computing


Supporting, celebrating, and advocating for women in computing is the mission that lies at the heart of the activities of ACM-W.  Our longstanding projects of scholarships, celebrations, and student chapters provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to increase their technical knowledge while networking and building community. Recently we have begun to expand our activity to include projects that support populations of women in computing beyond students.  This article provides an overview of all of our projects, old and new.

Expanding the Pipeline: CAHSI Broadens Hispanics’ Participation in Computing


The Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) is a consortium of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) committed to consolidating the strengths, resources, and efforts of public, private, federal, state, and local organizations that share the core value of increasing the number of Hispanics who pursue and complete baccalaureate and advanced degrees in computing areas. CAHSI plays a critical role in evaluating, documenting, and disseminating effective practices that support students in computing disciplines at the critical junctures in the academic pipeline.

Get involvedGet involved

Get Involved with CRA-Women Activities


CRA-W’s mission is to increase the success and participation of women in computing research and education at all levels. There are several ways you can get involved:

Towards-Gender-ParityTowards-Gender-Parity

Expanding the Pipeline: Toward Gender Parity in CS @ ILLINOIS


This article outlines several activities at UIUC geared towards encouraging women to join and stay in a computing major. As the authors note, the link between UIUC’s efforts and the uptick in women in computing at UIUC is speculative, as no formal evaluation has been conducted. Nevertheless, the level of engagement in broadening participation in computing at UIUC is encouraging. Of note, UIUC is one of many computing departments and organizations working to increase the representation of women in computing courses and majors. This article is the first in a series highlighting some of these departments. 

The CS undergraduate program at the University of Illinois is among the largest in the nation. It has grown by 250 percent over the last decade to nearly 1,800 undergraduates—and it is still growing. In the last four years, the percentage of women in our CS programs rose from 10 percent to more than 25 percent. And our freshmen class in the College of Engineering rose from 11 percent women in 2012 to about 45 percent in 2016.

AwardAward

Expanding the Pipeline: Key Learnings on Retaining Underrepresented Minorities and Students with Disabilities in Computer Science


Retention and graduation of underrepresented minorities and students with disabilities is critical to creating a strong pipeline of employees for both industry and academia. In early 2017, the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT (CMD-IT) announced the call for nominations for the first annual CMD-IT University Award for Retention of Minorities and Students with Disabilities in Computer Science. The University Award was created to recognize a U.S. academic institution that has demonstrated a commitment and shown results for the retention of students from underrepresented groups in undergraduate computer science programs over the last five years.