ACM-W Connections. July 2015

Welcome from the ACM-W Chair

Welcome to the July, 2015, issue of ACM-W Connections.  We took a break in June while many of us were off having the annual ACM-W Council meeting, but we are back now with lots of news.  And in the August issue we’ll have a report on some of the changes and initiatives that we discussed at the Council meeting.  Stay tuned!

Many ACM-W participants have been very busy lately.  This month’s issue of ACM-W Connections features a lot of news from ACM-W Europe, including many announcements regarding the upcoming womENcourage event, the ACM-W Europe Celebration of Women in Computing.  Make sure that you check on the registration deadline as well as information about scholarships, the hackathon being presented jointly with Codess, and the career fair.

Meanwhile, our ACM-W India colleagues are involved in the 3rd International Symposium on Women in Computing and Informatics. 

Rounding out our international news, ACM-W is a sponsor for TechKobwa ’15.  This project provides a residential technology/engineering camp for Rwandan girls and their teachers.  The project is also supported by the U.S. Peace Corps, IBM, Michigan State University, the Rwanda Ministry of Youth and ICT, and IEEE.  The project leaders expect that the evaluation results from this summer will make it possible for them to get funding for a 5-year project that will help transform the status of women in Rwanda and build ICT capacity.  ACM-W is delighted to be helping with this effort!

Back in the U.S., at ACM headquarters, the big news is that Bobby Schnabel will be the next CEO of ACM.  Bobby brings to the table his rich experience with ACM, as a faculty member and administrator, and a deep commitment to diversity in computing.  We look forward to working with Bobby as ACM-W continues to expand and strengthen our programs.

Still in the U.S., this month we have a report from KYCC-WiC, the Kentucky Community College Celebration of Women in Computing.  We support many Celebration events each year, but this is the only one so far that has a primary focus on community college students.  It serves as an important model for that kind of event, and for building a strong relationship between 2-year and 4-year schools.

Finally, I know that people change email addresses over time, set up forwarding, etc.  If you are receiving the newsletter at multiple accounts, or would like to receive it at a different address, please let me know. 

~Valerie Barr, ACM-W Chair

News From ACM-W Chapters

ACM-W is accepting applications for funding ($300 maximum award) that will support existing ACM-W Chapters tjat wish to hold joint events with schools that do not have ACM-W Chapters. The event can be held on the campus of any of the participating schools.

Read more here and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

News from ACM-W Celebrations

A Look Back at Celebrations 2014-2015

The Celebrations project wrapped up another great year with thirteen conferences held in locations around the world.   Here are some of the highlights:

• Over 2000 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and industry representatives attended. 
• The inaugural Cuban Celebration of Women in Computing was held in March.
• The All Canada Celebration of Women in Computing was announced in March and the first event will be held in spring of 2016.
• Scholarships to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC 2015) were awarded to the winners of poster competitions.  We congratulate the following women for achieving this honor:

 
2015-2016 promises to be a banner year. Be sure to read the August issue of Connections for details on what events will occur and some exciting developments for the Celebrations project!

Community Colleges: An ACM-W Celebration of Women in Computing for You!

Contributed by Elizabeth K. Hawthorne

On April 10-11, 2015, the second Kentucky Community College ACM-W Celebration of Women in Computing (KYCC-WiC) took place on the recently-opened Newtown campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington. Melanie Williamson and Cindy Tucker, Associate Professors of Computer & Information Technologies at Bluegrass, once again served as co-chairs for this year’s KYCC-WiC. Prof. Pam Bridgman from Somerset Community College and Prof. Theresa Schmitt from Owensboro Community and Technical College also served on the organizing committee.

Attendance more than doubled from KYCC-WiC 2013. Over 100 faculty and students from both two-year and four-year colleges (University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University) enjoyed KYCC-WiC 2015. In addition, a faculty member with nine of her students from Bryan Station High School Academy of Information Technology in Lexington attended the ACM-W Celebration. Also new in 2015 were community college faculty and students from the neighboring state of Tennessee.

Northern Kentucky University organizes the Tri-WiC ACM-W Celebration on alternate years of KYCC-WiC. Tri-WiC includes a community college track, which helps attract both two-year and four-year students and faculty from area colleges and universities in the tri-cities of Lexington, KY, Louisville, KY, and Cincinnati, OH. The organizers of both KYCC-WiC and Tri-WiC collaborate with one another to offer ACM-W Celebrations every year for their shared region. This model of alternating years between two-year and four-year colleges is the first of its kind among ACM-W Celebrations.

The KYCC-WiC organizers came up with a fun and innovative idea. A deck of Notable Women in Computing, Keep our History playing cards was placed in each of the conference swag bags. Each attendee then had the opportunity to have her (his) picture taken during registration and have it printed on a blank playing card – the Ace of choice – with space leftover for writing a personal computing history. Another inventive feature was the showing of the Women in Computing: Voices in Video that was produced by Bluegrass Assistant Professor Stephanie Fitch and her digital cinematic arts students. Prof. Fitch’s short film captured video clips from several student and faculty attendees as well as the conference organizers. Some of the Notable Women in Computing cards were also included in the production. A link to this innovative short film is available from kycc-wic.com.

Community college faculty and students are strongly encouraged to attend an ACM-W Women in Computing Celebration. Visit women.acm.org/celebrations to find a Celebration near you, or learn how to start a new event.

News From ACM-W India

The Third International Symposium on Women in Computing and Informatics (WCI-2015)

WCI-2015 will be held in Kochi, Kerala, India during August 10-13, 2015. WCI-2015 will serve as a platform to explore the opportunities as well as the diverse challenges facing women in computing and allied areas.  WCI-2015 will provide a great opportunity to network with students, professionals, and researchers.

The Symposium is co-located with Fourth International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI-2015).   WCI-2015 is organized in association with Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Trivandrum Professional Chapter, ACM Cochin Chapter, ACM Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W) India and IWNN of INNS India-Regional Chapter.

The conference will be held at SCMS Group of Institutions, Corporate Office Campus, Prathap Nagar, Muttom, Aluva, Kochi (Ernakulam), Kerala, India. The details of this conference can be browsed from its website.

News From ACM-W Europe

ACM-W Women in Thessaloniki

In the city of Thessaloniki, in Greece, enthusiasm was all around and excitement was in the air. I was thrilled to be part of the ACM-W Women in Thessaloniki celebration, where women and men from the area had gathered together, advocating for women in computing. The event was a celebration of the women in the area, with local professionals explaining and discussing their work; with students from ACM and ACM-W chapters, organizing different ways of collaborating with local groups such as SheSharp and Code it like a girl; and, finally, with a panel where attendees engaged in a discussion until the venue closed!

This was the kick-off event of the newly chartered Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ACM-W Student Chapter: a young chapter that has already collaborated with the experienced CITY College ACM-W Chapter, and the local ACM Student chapters. Their work was impressive, and the result a complete success. I can’t wait for the next time!

Blog – Improve your bottom line – improve diversity

How can you improve the diversity in your company? Read the blog and send your employees to womENcourage 2015 Celebration of women in computing

Career Fair: are you looking for an internship or a permanent position

Let our supporters know that you are interested in talking with them at the Career Fair on 24 September. When registering for womENcourage 2015, you have the opportunity to add your name to the CV database. This database is being collected to allow you to inform the supporters in advance that you will be attending the Career Fair. Our supporters – Inria, Google, Oracle, Bloomberg, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft Research, Informatics Europe, Intel and FreeBSD – are very interested in meeting with you and talking with you. Let them know you are interested in talking with them! Sign up today.

Register for the first ACM-W and Codess hackathon – it’s FREE

Make something that will improve the world for someone less fortunate than you. ACM-W Europe and Codess Hackathon sponsored by Intel® and Microsoft will be held in Uppsala, Sweden on September 24th 2015, in conjunction with womENcourage 2015 celebration of women in computing. The challenge is to build innovative and exciting projects which improve the day to day lives of people using the Intel® Edison Development Board and the Intel IOT DevKit. Your resulting project could be anything that will help humanity.

All you need to bring for the hackathon is your laptop. We will provide the computing supplies, food and drinks.

Announcements

• ACM-W Europe womENcourage 2015

  Early Bird Registration Closes August 5th Register now.

  Registration for ACM-W Europe womENcourage 2015.

  Register to make sure you get a spot at womENcourage 2015 Celebration of women in computing, join us for the Career Fair, Workshops, Panels, Papers and the entire program. — Early Bird Registration ends on August 5th—- register now and save money!

  Google Europe Travel and Conference Grants

  Google has very generously opened a Travel Grant for attending womENcourage 2015 celebration of women in computing in Uppsala, Sweden next fall. You can find out more about womENcourage on the webpage: http://womencourage.acm.org/
  The application is due July 31 and you can apply using this application. Send in your request by the deadline. In the application you can select the events for which you wish to apply.

• Would you like to contribute an article to the ACM-W Newsletter?

  With a distribution list reaching thousands of ACM-W members, contributing to the newsletter is a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and information across a wide audience. Submit a proposal for an article /submit.

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