Communications of the ACM
2012 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Opens Call for Participation
Credit: Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
The 12th Annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which has announced its Call for Participation, will take place from October 3 - 6, 2012, in Baltimore, MD. The annual conference, a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, is the world's largest gathering of women in computing. The theme of this year's Grace Hopper Celebration — "Are We There Yet?" — recognizes that technology and the culture of technology are continuously evolving but there are also concrete goals that the computer science industry is striving to achieve.
In many ways, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is looking to change high school students' negative perceptions of the computer science field. A change in the way women view the field can lead to a future increase in the number of women represented in undergraduate computer science education and the IT workforce. Particularly in computer science, there has been a dramatic drop in women earning bachelor's degrees, primarily due to the image of computer scientists sitting in a cubicle writing code for the duration of their workday. The "geek factor" affects both male and female high school students, but it seems to have more of a negative effect on the female students.
The Grace Hopper Celebration, which attracted nearly 3,000 participants from 34 countries in 2011, is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research, and engineering. The technical conference features keynote speakers, panels, workshops, new investigator technical papers, PhD forums, technical posters, birds of a feather sessions, the ACM Student Research Competition, and an Awards Celebration. Submissions on both technical and professional topics are encouraged.
From Daily Disruption
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