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CRA-W / Lucent Technologies
Distinguished Lecture Program
and
Graduate School Recruiting Panels
Applications Now Being
Accepted
to Host Recruitment Events
Designed to Attract
Female Students to Graduate School
Contact: Carla Ellis, carla@cs.duke.edu
A labor shortage in
science and
technology is currently costing the United States as much as four
billion dollar
s per year in lost production. "I see this as the greatest
challenge we have as a nation," said Neal Lane, current president of the White
House Office
of Science and Technology Policy and former director of the National
Science Foundation (NSF) (http://www.nsf.gov).
"If the current trend persists, we, as a country, will fall short."
Members of Congress, scientists, educators, and industry specialists all agree that
much of
the problem stems from the nation's current lack of diversity in the
science and
technology fields.
To address such issues,
the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) (http://www.cra.org/craw), with
generous financial support and active participation from Lucent Technologies (http://www.lucent.com), is organizing a
Distinguished Lecture Series to encourage females and minorities to pursue graduate
education in
scientific and technological disciplines. Ten university sites are
needed for the Fall term 2000 to host the series of individual events, which will
feature Ph.D. faculty, industry laboratory researchers, and current graduate
students
Department chairs
interested in
hosting such an event are invited to contact Carla Ellis, the Program
Coordinator and Duke University Professor of Computer Science, at carla@cs.duke.edu. First priority will be given to email
messages
received prior to August 15, 2000.
The Distinguished
Lecture Series
actively recruits members of underrepresented groups by sending faculty
and industry researchers to college campuses to meet with students and incite
interest
in graduate education. Two previous graduate recruitment workshops in
conjunction with the Distinguished Lecture Series proved successful. The first
workshop was held at Duke University and featured a distinguished lecture by Lori
Pollock,
an associate professor of computer and information sciences at the
University of
Delaware. Kathy Yelick, a computer science professor at the University
of California at Berkeley, spoke at the second workshop, held at the University
of Washington. Each of these workshops also featured a panel of current graduate
students and a female Ph.D. researcher from a Lucent research group. The panelists discussed
their reasons for choosing to attend graduate school and briefly explained their
research
before inviting questions from the audience. "Our aim is to
express the excitement of research," said Ellis. "It seems to be working, as
the panels were well received by the undergraduate students in
attendance."
At the Fall 2000 events,
students will have the opportunity to discuss the graduate school process and
experience with female researchers, facilitating their ability to make an
informed decision about pursuing graduate study. Each event will include the
following:
- An evening
panel discussion preceded by a dinner, open to all students
- An informal
lunch for women in the host department with the visiting team
- A research
lecture by one of the women, possibly incorporated into the local colloquia
series
The success of the
series will require a collaborative effort. CRA-W is responsible for the organization
of all
events, providing program content, participants, and funding. The host
institution will schedule meeting rooms, attend to the advertising, tailor the
event to the local culture, order food, and advise the organizers on other local
arrangements. An appropriate Distinguished Lecturer will be chosen
collaboratively. Prospective host institutions should email Carla Ellis (carla@cs.duke.edu) with the following information about
resources that
can be made available to CRA-W:
- Scheduling
constraints - unavailable dates, preferred dates, start and end of the Fall
term
- Means of
contacting
interested parties, such as mailing lists of undergraduates, female
department members, local women organizations, and related departments whose members
may be
interested
- Contact
people - a local host, which ideally will be a female faculty member; the colloquia
or seminar chair; and a student liaison. Please provide email addresses and
telephone numbers.
- Desired role
of the
distinguished lecturer and the nature of the talk
CRA-W welcomes all
interested
computer science departments to apply to participate in this event.
Creating opportunities for diversity in a field so relevant to the future is the
organization's primary goal. "Technology is going to change our political,
economic,
social, and personal lives," says Anita Borg, CRA-W committee
member. "
; Women need to be there saying, 'This is how we want things to
change.'"
For additional
information: The
program overview is available at the CRA-W Web site at http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/dist_lect.html. The first two events, held in Spring 2000, are described in an
article
at http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/dls.html.
CRA-W is partially
supported by
the National Science Foundation and EOT-PACI (http://www.eot.org), a national education, outreach, and training program
funded
by the NSF Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure.
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