ACM Women at Computing Education Research conferences: ICER and UKICER

By Adriana Wilde, ACM-W Communication co-chair, and Arati Dixit, ACM-W Regional Activities, co-chair

Earlier this year (12-15 August 2024), as representatives of ACM Women, we had the privilege of attending the 20th ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER, https://icer2024.acm.org/), organised by RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. ICER brings together researchers from all over the world, at various stages in their careers, united through their interest in advancing computing education. A few weeks later (5 – 6 September), Adriana attended UKICER, https://www.ukicer.com/, the UK edition of ICER, in Manchester this year. These conferences provided important opportunities to learn, network, and promote diversity in this well-established discipline.

Why We Attended
As part of ACM Women, our goal is to advocate for inclusivity in computing and support women in this field, including in the Asia-Pacific region, where we seek to increase our presence. Arati focused on connecting with others to support regional activities, whereas Adriana, as communications co-chair, focused on identifying interesting research and good stories to disseminate amongst our newsletter’s readership. Given that computing education research has a relatively good gender balance as a sub-discipline of computer science, attending conferences in this sub-discipline aligned well with our mission of celebrating the achievements of women in computing and contributing to an environment where people from diverse backgrounds can exchange ideas and inspire each other.

The ACM Women team with ICER’s programme chairs. From left to right, Adriana Wilde (University of Southampton and ACM-W Communication co-chair), Arati Dixit (ARA and ACM-W Regional Activities co-chair), Paul Denny (University of Auckland), and Margaret Hamilton (RMIT).

ICER Highlights
Given that ICER is a single-track conference, between us, we were able to attend all of the sessions, and here are some that stood out:

Doctoral Consortium: This session took place the day before the actual conference and allowed a small cohort of PhD students to receive direct feedback on their posters from established academics, such as Tony Clear from the University of Auckland, Neena Thota from the University of Massachusetts, Amy Ko from the University of Washington (featured in this month’s Communications of the ACM, https://mags.acm.org/communications/november_2024/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=2018573#articleId2018573), and Angela Carbone from RMIT. Before the poster presentations, the discussants shared valuable insights on their careers. They shared many tips during a question and answer session on navigating academia, work/life balance, and others related to how to network within computing education research specifically. This was well received by participants, as shared during the breakout sessions later in the week.
Equity and Diversity Sessions: There were several excellent papers on equity and diversity. Among these, featured in this edition, is the very relevant Invisible Women in IT: Examining Gender Representation in K-12 ICT Teaching Materials by Melissa Høegh Marcher, Ingrid Maria Christensen, Nanna Inie, and Claus Brabrand (IT University of Copenhagen). All speakers discussed real challenges and practical steps to foster inclusion, from designing inclusive systems to supporting women in leadership. We left with renewed motivation and ideas to apply in our work with ACM-Women.
Networking Opportunities: One of the best parts of attending the event was connecting with other attendees. The programme chairs, Paul Denny (from the University of Auckland) and Margaret Hamilton (from RMIT) allowed us to talk to the audience during the conference’s opening session about ACM Women and our mission. We also distributed ACM-W swag and connected with the delegates one-on-one at our ACM-W desk. Further, ICER’s round tables session format allows for paper discussions with the presenters before the Q&A. This allowed us to get to know other researchers in the field from all over the world, including a new team of enthusiastic members in the ACM-W Asia Pacific region. Watch this space to learn more about them in next month’s ACM-W newsletter!

We appreciate this opportunity to network at ICER 2024. We must give special thanks to ACM-W Chair Bushra Anjum and ICER Programme Chairs Paul Denny and Margaret Hamilton, who each played an important part in helping us to be there.

UKICER Highlights
With similar goals to ICER but a more local reach, UKICER (https://www.ukicer.com/) took place at the University of Manchester in the UK. The Kilburn building, packed with computing history, is where most of the event took place, including the poster and oral presentations and workshops. Like in ICER, UKICER programme allows participants to discuss each of the papers in small groups immediately after they are presented, ahead of the Q&A with the authors. The informal setup allowed Adriana to chat with new researchers and catch up with experienced researchers in computing education, such as Sue Sentance and Jane Waite from the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the University of Cambridge, as well as Brett A Becker from University College Dublin and Quintin Cutts and other delegates from the University of Glasgow.

Jane Waite’s keynote, on “Some theories from abroad for AI interaction literacy” (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689535.3689563), reflected on “Why are some of our students better at using the output from AI applications than others?” In her talk, she linked theories from general education and sociology and their implications on AI interaction literacy, which directly impact practice, as education communities worldwide consider the threats and opportunities of generative AI on assessment practice.

The paper presentation, “Understanding the role models that inspire women to study Computing Science” by Matthew Barr, Lewis Binnie, Elizabeth Jacobs, Kristina Pavlou and Kathleen West from the University of Glasgow (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689535.3689557) was so insightful, that we asked the authors to summarise their findings for our readership in this newsletter (found here: https://women.acm.org/understanding-the-role-models-that-inspire-women-to-study-computing-science/ ).

Adriana would like to thank Duncan Hull for being an excellent host in Manchester and Cristina Adriana Alexandru from the University of Edinburgh, host for UKICER in 2025! We are looking forward to representing ACM-W there. You will find us next to the registration desk!

Matthew Barr presenting “Understanding the role models that inspire women to study Computing Science” (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689535.3689557, https://women.acm.org/understanding-the-role-models-that-inspire-women-to-study-computing-science/). Photo by Troy Astarte.

Our Takeaways (and Call to Action)
These events reminded us of the importance of inclusivity in every area of computing.
Attending ICER and UKICER were meaningful experiences as they were very aligned with our mission. We are excited to bring back what we have learned and to continue supporting diversity in computing. Let’s keep pushing for a tech community where everyone feels included and valued. If you’re interested in supporting diversity in tech, consider joining ACM-Women or attending similar events. Together, we are making a difference.