Category Archives: Hopper – Anita Borg Institute

September 9, 2013 · 12:58 pm

Famous Women in Computing – Wordle Graphic

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This Wordle* graphic presents key words about famous women in computer science. It describes women who are pioneers and leaders in computing, recognized by their peers, academia, and the technology industry through major awards and other public acknowledgements of excellence. Since 2009, I have lead a committee of the Anita Borg Institute – Advisory Board that collects and presents information about notable women in STEM.

In March 2012, we published the Famous Women in Computer Science web resource. Last month, we announced the “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing” (and the list with more than 230 names). For more, see Notable Women List Triples.

As always, thanks to my wise and energetic committee members, including:

The graphic above includes information from both the 2012 and 2013 lists.

 * “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”

Image Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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August 15, 2013 · 9:36 am

Getting Beyond Marie Curie

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I admire Marie Curie as a great scientist and inventor but I get tired of hearing about her. Several times in meetings where attendees were asked to name great women in STEM, Marie Curie was the only one anyone could think of.  Marie Curie is extremely impressive: the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences.  On a wall at Cal Poly, the portrait of Marie Curie is next to that of Albert Einstein. But she did die almost eighty years ago and there have been many great women in science, math, and technology before and since.

One of my smaller motivations for helping to create the “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing” (and the list of notable women in computing with a current total of 234 names) is to get beyond Marie Curie.  Maybe next time I participate in an icebreaker exercise at a meeting, participants will shout out…

…or even the name of a still-living woman. But please not just Marie Curie.

Image Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

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August 13, 2013 · 6:57 pm

Notable Women List Triples!

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Since 2009, we have been expanding the list of notable women in computing. Recently, the list tripled in size! The Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board (ABI) committee I chair published the first version of the Famous Women in Computer Science list in March 2012.  It included about eighty names, short biographies, plus a Pinterest board.

This year, our ABI committee started collaborating with Dr. Susan Rodger (Duke University) of the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). We combined the list CRA-W developed with the original ABI list – for a current total of 234 names.

The women on this list are pioneers and leaders in computing, recognized by their peers and the technology industry through major awards and other public acknowledgements of excellence.

Why make such a list?

Public acknowledgment of success and excellence is good for both the honored individual as well as their company, institution, or university. Women on this list serve as role models for girls and young women entering the field.  The list also provides encouragement to women already working in computing. Moreover, public recognition builds on itself.  For example, award winners are more likely to be noticed and considered for additional awards.

Goals for this project:

  • To raise awareness of notable women in computing as role models.
  • To identify and document the accomplishments and lives of notable women in computing, particularly in Wikipedia.
  • To increase the number of women writing for Wikipedia by developing the “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing“.  A survey done in 2010 indicated only 13% of those writing Wikipedia pages were women.
  • To identify women with award-winning potential.  Awards and other honors often go begging for lack of good nominations. A great woman is often overlooked because no one mentioned her name or took the time to build her case. Increased focus is needed on awards going to great technical women at every stage in their careers.
  • To encourage those who want to understand their own potential for promotion, honors, and awards.
  • To support efforts to organize and inform a nomination or promotion.

What can you do?

  1. Review the current spreadsheet listing Notable Women in Computing.
  2. Fill out this entry form to add a name to the list.
  3. Fill out this update form to add information about a woman already listed.
  4. Get started writing Wikipedia pages on notable women in computing.
  5. Consider nominating a woman for an award, promotion, or honor in the field of computing. Check out The RAISE Project for a list of awards.
Lucy Sanders,
and Fran Allen, 2010		 IMG_3634 Genevieve Bell, 2013 IMG_7934

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Images Copyright 2008-2013 by Katy Dickinson

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July 2, 2013 · 2:25 pm

Girl Style, Boy Style

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On our recent vacation to Loon Lake, Wisconsin, I made some observations about girl style and boy style. My husband John was much in demand to drive the Starcraft speed boat for the nine kids at our family cottage. As his spotter, I sat backwards and watched the kids riding the tube or skis or wakeboard: to be sure they were safe and to relay their hand signals (“faster” “slower” “stop!”) to John – while of course taking pictures of all the fun! This was a small group of children, ages seven to eighteen, with six boys and three girls, who participated in dozens of speed boat runs over six days.

Most the kids wanted to do tricks while riding the fast-moving tube – such holding their hands up, kneeling or standing up. Our first day out, I got tired of the boys energetically blocking the girls from any participation. After enough of this, I set up a girls-only ride to encourage them to get started. The two teenage girls took several runs with the seven year old between them on the tube. Then the big girls took some runs by themselves. On one of these runs, I saw the girls do something I had never seen before: they held hands and balanced against each other so that both could stand (see Photo 1). The boys were out for themselves – sometimes even holding each other down in their efforts to do the best trick (see Photo 2). After their girls-only ride, the girls seemed more willing to compete for speedboat runs.

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Photo 2
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My vacation observations are not statistically-valid but the competitive behavioral patterns are interesting nonetheless. For more, check out “Are Men Really More Competitive Than Women?” by Melissa Lafsky (2008) who commented on insights into the underlying sources of the observed gender differences in an early version of the research paper “Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society” by Uri Gneezy, Kenneth L. Leonard, John A. List (2009).

Because of my professional work with the Anita Borg Institute, TechWomen, and the American Association of University Women, I am frequently asked what can be done to increase the number of girls and women in STEM, and particularly in the very-competitive technical fields. After observing some highly-successful programs (such as that of Dr. Maria Klawe at Harvey Mudd College and Dr. Jane Margolis and Dr. Allen Fisher’s Unlocking the Clubhouse work at Carnegie Mellon), I know that fast and effective change is possible. The best way to start is not to pretend that girls and boys are the same but rather to give girls a good beginning: a chance to have fun, to experiment and succeed in a supportive environment before taking on the whole world.

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Ending the ride:
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Images Copyright by Katy Dickinson 2013

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June 4, 2013 · 11:07 am

Grace Hopper and AAUW Conference Prep

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For the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (“GHC-13”) in October, I look forward not only to presenting a poster (“Lifetime Value of Mentoring to Technical Women” with Andrina Chaffin) but also a Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) topic: “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” (with Sukaina Al-Nasrawi of Lebanon, Adla Chatila of Lebanon, Heba Hosny of Egypt, Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine, and Trish Tierney of the US Institute of International Education). The Hopper Conference registration just opened and they have announced that Keynotes and Plenary Sessions will include Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College) and Sheryl Sandberg (Chief Operating Officer, Facebook and Founder, Leanin.org):

Next week, I am going to present at another women’s convention – new to me! – the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Convention 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. AAUW Convention speakers will include Lilly Ledbetter and US Senator Olympia Snowe. AAUW has asked MentorCloud to present an “Online Mentoring” Special Interest Group (SIG):

Mentoring is a remarkably successful method to accelerate learning and growth, for both mentors and mentees. Come learn from an expert about how professional mentoring works. Hear about best practices and return on investment as well as real-world success stories from a variety of programs.

I have not been to New Orleans for many years and am curious how it will be different since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  I am in the process of developing the presentation materials for both of these events now.

My daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman also had her GHC13 poster accepted: “The Arduino Dress: Be Your Own Light in Dark Places”.  I look forward to sharing the Hopper Conference with her again this year!

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Images Copyright 2011-2012 by Katy Dickinson

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May 18, 2013 · 9:48 am

TiEcon, Triangular Partnership and Mentoring

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We are distributing “Professional Mentoring – Fostering Triangular Partnership”* (by Katy Dickinson and Ravi Gundlapalli) as a white paper here at TiEcon “The World’s Largest Conference for Entrepreneurs” at the Santa Clara Convention Center, in the Silicon Valley, California. The paper is eventually going to be published as a book chapter by MentorCloud customer People to People.

For those who missed the  Vinod Khosla mentoring session here at TiEcon yesterday, you can see pictures on my blog entry MentorConnect with Vinod Khosla at TiEcon. Here are my notes from the famous venture capitalist’s session:

  • “I read 15 books a year: tek or industry trend papers, books, New Scientist. I go to technical conferences, not financial conferences.”
  • “Be optimistic about what competitors can do, pessimistic about what you can do. Get field feedback.”
  • “Baggage is what makes you old, not your age. Experience and age is valuable but need to know what you don’t know.”
  • “Almost nothing in biz plans is true, Thoughtful analysis is more important, Entrepreneurs walk risk curve.”
  • “Clever approach, clever marketing may get customers even to late-coming startups. Need thoughtful risk analysis.”
  • “Know the space, try lots of experiments – new things, innovation in both technical and business model.”
  • “Strategy for starting is different than strategy for permanence – at each step, gather resources, consider.”
  • “Investors are the best advisors – giving honest thoughtful advice. Ask for rejection reasons.”

Today is the TiEcon Women’s Forum and I am looking forward to seeing the presentation of Jagruti Bhikha of the Anita Borg Institute.  Here is some of the team running the TiE Silicon Valley MentorConnect program at TiEcon:

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More pictures are on MentorCloud at TiEcon: MentorConnect.

* The paper distributed at TiEcon was dated May 2013. The link is to an slightly revised version dated June 2013.

19 October 2019: Links updated. The conference book version of Triangular Partnership: the Power of the Diaspora is available for free download. For more about MentorCloud business practices, see Collecting a Labor Judgement (15 January 2016).

Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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May 11, 2013 · 6:03 pm

Week of Technical Women

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For me, this past week was full of meetings and events for technical  and professional women:

I have been a member of the ABI Advisory Board since 2005 and I come from our meetings refreshed and energized. Work done by my ABI Advisory Board committee over the years includes:

The highlight of this inspiring and busy week was shaking hands with one of my long-time professional heroes, Genevieve Bell. I have heard Dr. Bell speak in person and have watched her TED talk on “The Value of Boredom”. I was very happy to speak with her, however briefly. Her Women of Vision – Leadership Award acceptance speech was funny and memorable. My summary tweet was: “You have a moral obligation to make a better world if you can see it. You can do more.”

Jody Mahoney (ABI), Rick Rashid (Microsoft Research), Maria Klawe (Harvey Mudd College) at WOV:
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Caroline Simard (Stanford), Denise Gammel (ABI) at WOV:
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Sarah Loos (Carnegie Mellon), Nanditha Iyer (Georgia Tech), Anushka Anand (Tableau Software), Bill Unger (Mayfield Fund) at WOV:
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WOV Winner for Leadership: Genevieve Bell, Director, Interaction and Experience Research, Intel Labs:
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Indian Business and Professional Women:
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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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