Duke CS participants

Rozemary Scarlat (left) speaks with a prospective graduate student about Duke CS

With departmental support and the help of airline vouchers, fellowships and grants from Yahoo!, 15 students from the Department of Computer Science were able to attend the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, a four-day conference that took place November 9-12 in Portland, Oregon.

The event — named for a Navy rear admiral and computer science pioneer — is an important way for students to see other female role models, including female full professors in their research area, noted Professor Susan Rodger, who also attended.

“Many of these students take computer science courses as one of only a few females in the course,” Rodger said. “Seeing 3,000 women who love being in computer science is inspiring and encouraging to those students.”

The conference features a series of research talks, workshops, panel discussions and mentoring sessions, providing both professional and student development. Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson gave inspiring keynote addresses.

The 2011 theme was “What If …?” and the conference featured such sessions as “What If All Women Knew How to Program?” and “What If Every Public School Student Learned Computer Science?”

“What if women were 50 percent of the CEOs of technology companies? How would that influence the products those companies produce? There’re a lot of those ‘What if women were represented at higher levels?’ questions ” Rodger said. “That’s a big issue because there are so few women in high positions. Nationally, there are few women who are full professors in computer science. We only have two full professors in computer science who are women.”

Eight undergraduate students (two receiving fellowships from the conference) and seven graduate students (two receiving $1,000 grants from Yahoo!) attended the event. Also attending were Graduate Program Coordinator Marilyn Butler, National Director of Outreach Brook Osborne and professors Owen Astrachan and Jeff Forbes.

The department, including students, staffed an information table in the conference’s exhibit hall to interact with prospective students and faculty.

“The grad students are far and away the best recruiters,” Butler said. “They so enjoy talking about their work and about their Duke CS experience.”