Academic Alliance News – September 2014

Dear [FIRSTNAME],

Welcome to the 2014-2015 academic year; we hope you are energized to begin another year with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Academic Alliance (AA). Please peruse this NCWIT AA newsletter to get updates on our activities and to inform you of opportunities.

To learn more about the AA, visit www.ncwit.org/aa. Please encourage your peers to join by directing them to our online form: www.ncwit.org/academic-alliance-membership-form. Membership is free!

Contents

1. NCWIT Member-only Opportunities
2. Did you complete your NCWIT AA Member Survey?
3. 2015 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Award: Call for Nominations (Deadline 10/19/2014)
4. 2014 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Award Recipients Announced!
5. Fall 2014 NCWIT Student Seed Fund: Call for Proposals (Deadline: 10/26/2014)
6. Spring 2014 NCWIT Student Seed Fund Winners Announced!
7. 2015 NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund: Call for Proposals (Deadline: 11/02/2014)
8. 2014 NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund Winners Announced!
9. 2015 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award: Call for Nominations (Deadline 11/03/2014)
10. 2014 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award Winner Announced!
11. NCWIT Extension Services: Call for Applications to Become a Client (Deadline 10/10/2014)
12. NCWIT Social Science Advisory Board (SSAB) Offers Members Consultation
13. NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Opportunities
14. Academic Alliance Reception at the Grace Hopper Celebration
15. Topplers Domino Award
16. 2015 NCWIT Summit
17. Academic Alliance Meetings at the 2014 NCWIT Summit
18. Member Activity and Change Tracker (ACT): Do you want to be in our spotlight?
19. AA Co-chair and Project Team Leader Changes
20. NCWIT Resources

NCWIT Member-only Opportunities

We hope that you find your membership in NCWIT beneficial to both you and your institution. NCWIT has four award opportunities currently open to our members. Please consider applying for at least one of these opportunities or passing along the information to the relevant person(s) or group. We thank our Award sponsors: AT&T, Microsoft Research, Symantec Corporation, and the NCWIT Board of Directors.

Not sure if you or your organization is a member of the NCWIT Academic Alliance? Check our list of members: http://www.ncwit.org/alliances/members/45. Want to become a member (at no cost)? Complete this short request for membership.

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Did you complete your NCWIT AA Member Survey?

While membership in the AA is free for institutions, it requires the participation of individuals. If you’ve been wondering how you can be more involved in our community, simply click the unique survey link that was sent to you on August 27, 2014 from [email protected] to see what opportunities might best suit your skills. Thank you in advance for your help!

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2015 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Award: Call for Nominations (Deadline 10/19/2014)

The 2015 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award (sponsored by AT&T) recognizes representatives of non-profit, U.S. institutions of the AA for their outstanding mentorship, high-quality research opportunities, recruitment of women and minority students, and efforts to encourage and advance undergraduates in computing-related fields. Any faculty member of an AA member organization is eligible. Each recipient’s institution receives a $5,000 gift to support the recipient’s research.

Submit a short nomination form by midnight MST on October 19, 2014. You can nominate a colleague or yourself (a self-nominations is perfectly acceptable), and you can nominate more than one person. Winners will be notified in March 2015. To view previous winners and learn more about this award, visit www.ncwit.org/urmaward.

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2014 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Award Recipients Announced!

Project Co-leaders: Maureen Doyle (Northern Kentucky University); Scott McCrickard (Virginia Polytechnic Institute)
Co-chair Liaison: Sharon Mason (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Congratulations to the 2014 NCWIT URM Award recipients! View the winners below, and read our press release.

2014 URM Award winners: [Front Row, Left to Right] Dr. Silvia Figueira (Santa Clara University), Dr. Robert Beck (Villanova University), Dr. Alan Jamieson (St. Mary’s College of Maryland), not pictured Dr. Marie Desjardin (University of Maryland-Baltimore County); [Back Row, Left to Right] Maureen Doyle, Scott McCrickard (NCWIT Co-leaders), Tommy Simpson (AT&T), and Margaret Burnett (NCWIT Co-chair)

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Fall 2014 NCWIT Student Seed Fund: Call for Proposals (Deadline: 10/26/2014)

Please pass the following information along to any computing organizations at your institution:

Applications for the Fall 2014 Round of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund (sponsored by Symantec Corporation) are now open! Any student-run, computing-related group that is involved in recruiting, retaining, and supporting women in technology-related majors is eligible to apply. The institution where the student group resides must be an NCWIT non-profit Academic Alliance member and within the U.S. (Note: An institution can receive only one award per campus institution per year.) Winners receive $1,000 to support their group’s efforts. To date, the NCWIT Student Seed Fund has awarded $63,250 to 90 student-run programs.

Eligible groups can submit an application online. The deadline is October 26, 2014 for the Fall 2014 Semester. Winners will be notified in January 2015. To view previous winners and learn more about the Student Seed Fund, visit www.ncwit.org/studentseedfund.

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Spring 2014 NCWIT Student Seed Fund Winners Announced!

Project Co-leaders: Stephanie Ludi (Rochester Institute of Technology); Jennifer Rosato (College of St. Scholastica)
Project Team Members: Julie Mariga (Purdue University), Susan Martin (University of Maryland-Baltimore County), Linda Ott (Michigan Technical University), Cheryl Swanier (Fort Valley State University)
Co-chair Liaison: Charlie McDowell (University of California-Santa Cruz)

On May 14, 2014, we announced the Spring 2014 Winners of the Student Seed Fund. View them below, and read our press release.

• Bluegrass Community and Technical College will conduct outreach programs to local elementary, middle school, and high school students by participating in the annual Hour of Code held during Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek). Students will be granted access to several computer labs and engage in various computer science activities.
• Brigham Young University will run a programming demonstration geared towards freshman women, exemplifying programming as an activity applicable to both genders.
• Louisiana State University will develop multiple Arduino projects. These projects will introduce middle school and high school students to the various features of an Arduino, which is a microcontroller that can be used to develop interactive objects and perform various physical outputs.
• Mount Holyoke College will initiate a mentorship program, “Big Nerd-Little Nerd,” pairing freshman and sophomore women with junior and senior women who can share their experiences, knowledge, and advice with their younger partners.
• North Dakota State University will add to their existing series of outreach events by incorporating an app development workshop for students.
• Pacific University will host a conference for students interested in computer science careers, focusing on the importance of the inclusion of more women into the field.
• University of California at Davis will hold a C-STEM GIRL camp follow-up meeting and give a robotics demonstration as part of the Girl Scouts STEM Sampler series.
• University of Delaware will mentor K-12 girls and women about bioinformatics and computer science careers.
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will provide content for an after school program, teaching a variety of computer science topics, ranging from programming to exploring the concept of pixels.
• Virginia State University will engage students in hands-on activities to establish basic computer science concepts.

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2015 NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund: Call for Proposals (Deadline: 11/02/2014)

The NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund (sponsored by Microsoft Research) awards members of non-profit, U.S. institutions of NCWIT’s AA with startup funds (up to $10,000 per project) to develop and implement initiatives for recruiting women and underrepresented populations in computing and information technology. To date, 39 member organizations have received a total of $465,450 throughout the first ten rounds.

This year’s call for proposals focuses on using existing, effective promising practices for recruiting and retaining women and underrepresented populations into your computing-related majors. Proposals will be accepted through midnight MST on November 2, 2014. Winners will be announced in late February 2015. Find out more information at www.ncwit.org/seed fund, and submit a proposal.

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2014 NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund Winners Announced!

Co-chairs: Charlie McDowell (University of California-Santa Cruz), Patricia Morreale (Kean University), Sharon Mason (Rochester Institute of Technology)

On February 11, 2014, we announced the winners of the 2014 NCWIT AA Seed Fund. View the winners below, and read our press release.

• College of St. Scholastica (Jennifer Rosato): Promoting Female and Diverse Student Retention through Faculty Use of a Growth Mindset Approach
  This project will provide professional development for faculty teaching at The College of St. Scholastica, assisting them in instilling a growth mindset among students in the computer science/computer information systems (CS/CIS) major and associated concentrations, as well as pre-engineering courses at The College of St. Scholastica.
• Georgia Gwinnett College (Sonal Dekhane, Kristine Nagel, and Nannette Napier): Georgia Gwinnett College Women in IT Boot Camp
  The Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) Women in IT Boot Camp is a week-long workshop that will provide 24 rising female IT sophomores an opportunity to gain a head start in programming.
• South Carolina Technical College System (Stephanie Frazier and Salandra Bowman): SCTCS Triple A (AAA) Academy
  The South Carolina Technical College System (SCTCS) proposes the implementation of the Triple A (AAA) Academy for 10-14 females enrolled in IT programs (i.e. certificates, diplomas, or associate degrees). The initiative is a one-week pilot program that promotes abilITy, acuITy, and audacITy in IT-related fields.
• Tufts University (Benjamin Shapiro): Engaging Women in Computing Through Musical Instrument and Performance
  Tufts University will design a curriculum and accompanying set of hardware and software tools that teaches computational thinking and engineering through the design and construction of tangible, programmable electronic musical instruments that youth can use for live performance.
• University of Arizona (Gondy Leroy & Paulo Goes): Tomorrow’s Leaders Equipped for Diversity
  The University of Arizona’s MIS department will team with industry representatives to make students in CS and MIS aware of diversity issues, with a special focus on gender. Students prepare to be leaders and managers who are equipped to counter problems and leverage the benefits of diversity.

2014 NCWIT AA Seed Fund Winners: [Left to Right] Left to Right: Krysta Svore (Microsoft Research), Elise Deitrick accepting for Benjamin Shapiro (Tufts University), Gondy Leroy (University of Arizona), Jennifer Rosato (College of St. Scholastica), Nannette Napier and Kristine Nagel (Georgia Gwinnett College), Stephanie Frazier, Salandra Bowman and Linda Heimburger (South Carolina Technical College System).

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2015 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award: Call for Nominations (Deadline 11/03/2014)

The NCWIT Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring (sponsored by the NCWIT Board of Directors) recognizes Academic Alliance members at non-profit, U.S. institutions who combine outstanding research accomplishments with excellence in graduate mentoring, as well as those who advocate for recruiting, encouraging, and promoting women and minorities in computing fields. Each recipient’s institution receives a $5,000 gift from NCWIT. Find out more information at www.ncwit.org/harroldnotkin, and submit a nomination.

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2014 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award Winner Announced!

Project Leader: Mary Lou Soffa (University of Virginia)
Project Team Members: Lori Clarke (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Laura Dillon (Michigan State University), William Griswold, (University of California at San Diego) and Alessandro Orso, (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Co-chair Liaison: Sharon Mason (Rochester Institute of Technology)

The 2014 Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award recipient is Nancy M. Amato, Professor at Texas A&M University. Amato is the first recipient of this award, and she was honored at the 2014 NCWIT Summit.

[Left to Right] Nancy Amato (2014 Harrold and Notkin Award winner), Ed Lazowska, Cathy Tuttle, Akiva Notkin, Mary Lou Soffa, and Laura Dillon

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NCWIT Extension Services: Call for Applications to Become a Client (Deadline 10/10/2014)

AA members are invited to apply to participate in the next cohort of NCWIT Extension Services for Undergraduate Programs (ES-UP). This is an opportunity to take research-supported action with substantial assistance to maximize your success. The NCWIT ES-UP will provide services to 15 “client” institutions over the course of the coming two years (2015-2017). For more information about Extension Services, please visit www.ncwit.org/extensionservices.

We will be choosing our “client” institutions according to the following selection criteria:

1. The potential client must have both a computer science program and an engineering program that are willing to work together to identify a team of representatives and work with an Extension Services Consultant (ESC) towards the ES goals. Eligible engineering programs include computer engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.
2. At least three selected institutions must be MSIs or show a large percentage of underrepresented minority populations.
3. At least two selected institutions will have smaller student populations to give smaller schools a chance to be involved in Extension Services.
4. All other selection decisions will be made based on a random selection process.

To apply to be an ES-UP client, please fill out the application form no later than Friday, October 10, 2014.

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NCWIT Social Science Advisory Board (SSAB) Offers Members Consultation

Do you need help with a project that focuses on women in computing? NCWIT’s Social Science Advisory Board (SSAB) can help! Broad areas of consultation reflect the wide range of expertise among SSAB members. Areas include research and evaluation, assessment design and implementation, recruitment and outreach, as well as data and research on women in computing. To use this service, please complete a short questionnaire.

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NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Opportunities

We are seeking support for the opportunities listed below. These are great ways to support young women in their pursuit of computing, and we need YOU in order to be successful! For more information, please visit www.aspirations.org, or contact us at [email protected].

• NCWIT is seeking applications from young women for the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Competition for the 2015 award is open to any U.S. high school woman (grades 9-12) with computing aspirations. Students can submit applications online at http://bit.ly/AiCHSAward no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on November 2, 2014.
• NCWIT is seeking applications from educators who support technical young women for the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator Award. Competition for the 2015 award is open to teachers, counselors, administrators, mentors, and other educators who make a special effort to support girls’ interest in technology. Educators can submit applications online at http://bit.ly/AiCEdAward no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on November 2, 2014.
• Volunteers are needed nationwide, and opportunities range from reviewing online applications to helping organize an award ceremony. Whatever your skillset, we have a volunteer position for you. Help us to continue growing the Aspirations in Computing program so that we can recruit more of these talented young women into computing. Email us, or visit http://www.aspirations.org/volunteer-support for more information.
• The NCWIT Aspirations in Computing program is seeking swag items from AA members for contest incentives and award ceremony gift bags. This is a great opportunity to reach hundreds of young women to promote all that your institution has to offer.
• NCWIT AspireIT, a middle school outreach program, is looking for AA members to serve as program partners. The partnership role supports high school and undergraduate program leaders as they provide computing experience to younger students. The students and their program partners are eligible for mini-grants from NCWIT to pursue their specific project.
• The Aspirations staff needs help developing the application and scoring rubric for our new NCWIT Collegiate Award. We’re asking a team of our technical members to help generate ideas for questions to ask and how they can be scored. This is a prestigious technical award; only three women from across the country will receive it annually. The application and supporting documents must allow the young women to showcase what they have done with technology.

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Academic Alliance Reception at the Grace Hopper Celebration

NCWIT members and those interested in becoming a member are invited to attend the NCWIT Academic Alliance wine and cheese reception sponsored by Microsoft Research. Please join us Wednesday, October 8, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Phoenix Convention Center Room 227 BC, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Preceding the reception, NCWIT and Google will provide a sneak peek of EngageCSEdu, a dynamic collection of high quality, open course materials for introductory computer science courses contributed by faculty from across the country. We encourage you to drop by 227A at 6:30 p.m. to find out more.

In addition to the reception and an introduction to EngageCSEdu, NCWIT will also host a lounge at the Phoenix Convention Center Room 227 A. We will have some public hours available, so please feel free to stop by and say “hi,” or use this space to meet a colleague.

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Topplers Domino Award

NCWIT Entrepreneurial Alliance Member Herb Morreale has established a non-profit with an annual award program for 5-10 computer science students. The Topplers Domino Award encourages students to think big and recognize their own potential by seeing how other computer scientists have significantly impacted modern society. The award combines a monetary and experiential component. Past winners went to Telluride Technology Festival and Spaceport America, and took behind-the-scenes visits to Facebook, Google, Twilio, Dropbox, and more. Winners of the Fall 2014 application cycle will attend the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in the spring of 2015. This competition has historically attracted a diverse group of students, and nearly half the past winners were women. Bring this rewarding program to your students, and inspire them to make a difference in the world! For more information, contact Storey Blackwell ([email protected]) or visit http://dominoaward.topplers.org/professors/.

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NCWIT May 2015 Summit

The annual NCWIT Summit will be held May 19-21, 2015 at the Hilton Head Marriott Resort & Spa in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Stay tuned for the agenda, speakers, and other information: www.ncwit.org/summit.

Thanks to many of you for the timely feedback from the 2014 NCWIT Summit. We will certainly use it for our 2015 NCWIT Summit planning.

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Academic Alliance (AA) Meetings at the 2014 NCWIT Summit

We enjoyed seeing nearly 200 of our members at the NCWIT Summit AA meeting; we missed those of you that were not able to join. Below is a wrap-up of what we covered.

In an effort to collaborate and network with peers, we tried a new approach and held concurrent working group sessions. AA members self-divided into groups based on the degrees offered at their schools (2-year and small 4-year, Master’s-granting, Ph.D. Computer Science/Computer Engineering, or Ph.D. Information Technology/Information Systems) and brainstormed. Common threads are summarized below:

• • Me (How can NCWIT’s Academic Alliance support me as an individual faculty member?)
    • Publicize NCWIT-related work (within departments, colleges or universities, and the larger university community).
    • Highlight accomplishments of female students, while including the name of the NCWIT members responsible for the effort.
    • Develop advocates and show the impact of the work accomplished.
    • Forward positive outcomes to senior administrators, with faculty names attached.
    • Emphasize that practices for recruiting women benefit all student recruiting.
    • Work backwards from any award: publicize on social media and via email, send thank you notes, and spread the word (and photos!) about your students and their success.

• • Students (What can I do for my students with the help of NCWIT’s Academic Alliance?)
    • Provide funds for student computing organizations (Fall 2014 proposals for the NCWIT Student Seed Fund are due no later than 10/26/2014).
    • Start or continue to support and encourage a women’s computing organization on campus. How do you start? Use this resource: www.ncwit.org/howtowomengroup.
    • Acknowledge the accomplishments of your students.
    • Consider applying for an NSF S-STEM grant for scholarships to support women in computing. This can include conference travel to attend GHC.
    • Make sure there are places in your curriculum (and outside of it) where students receive good information about career opportunities and the variety of careers available.
    • Remind local companies that a larger talent pool may increase potential employees.
    • Keep or make the lab and department environments welcoming for women.
    • Personally encourage academically strong female students to apply for tutoring/TA and other leadership roles.
    • Involve undergraduates in small research programs.
    • Have an orientation session about research where each faculty member presents one slide.

• AA (How can I help NCWIT?)
  • Complete the NCWIT surveys when asked (merciless plug to use the unique survey link sent to you by Kim August 27, 2014 — but members did say it, honest!). We need reviewers, as well as help with AA project teams, Aspirations in Computing, and Extension Services.
  • Submit a Seed Fund proposal (due 11/2/2014).
  • Nominate an undergraduate mentor for the URM Award (due 10/19/2014) or a graduate mentor for the Harrold and Notkin Award (due 11/3/2014).
  • Use NCWIT’s Member Activity and Change Tracker (ACT) to share what you’re doing, and collaborate with others: www.ncwit.org/activities.
  • Share, display, and cite NCWIT resources: www.ncwit.org/resources.

We also showed you what the AA Recruitment & Engagement Team did with last year’s “Goals Submissions.” Last year, we asked you to write your activities and goals on forms that we later entered into our new, online system. This year, the Recruitment & Engagement team was very happy to demonstrate the end result — the NCWIT Member Activity and Change Tracker (ACT) tool! Find the goals provided by AA members at last year’s Summit and follow up — add more detail, read comments on your goal, send comments on another activity, etc. Read more about ACT below.

No NCWIT Academic Alliance meeting would be complete without hearing from our award winners. The first-ever presentation of the NCWIT Harrold and Notkin Research and Graduate Mentoring Award was inspiring to witness. Their excitement and passion are certainly contagious as we learn about ways they have been successful in implementing practices at their own institutions; we hope they generate ideas for yours! We are continually grateful to our award sponsors AT&T, Microsoft Research, Symantec Corporation, and the NCWIT Board of Directors for providing funds to assist members as they work as change leaders for women in computing.

Of course, it is impossible to capture all that was discussed over two days, but hopefully this wrap-up will jog your memory or inspire you to take some action.

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NCWIT’s Member Activity and Change Tracker (ACT): Do you want to be in our spotlight?

Have you joined your colleagues and entered your activities into the NCWIT Activity and Change Tracker (ACT) yet? This is an excellent opportunity to see what your peers are doing and collaborate with them.

ACT is a collaborative, online tool for NCWIT Alliance Members to share their broadening participation in computing efforts with all supporters and followers of NCWIT. Alliance members can track and post activities related to recruitment, retention, mentoring practices, outreach programs, and more. All members are encouraged to login, and submit or update their activities: http://www.ncwit.org/activities.

We’re excited to highlight your upcoming and completed events! Don’t forget to include evaluation when you enter an activity in ACT to be considered for the “spotlight.” Don’t worry if you’ve never done an evaluation. We can help.

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AA Co-chair and Project Team Leader Changes

According to the AA Bylaws, we will have one Co-chair replaced each year to maintain continuity of leadership. This year, Margaret Burnett (Oregon State University) rotated off as AA Co-chair and Sharon Mason (Rochester Institute of Technology) joined Charlie McDowell (University of California-Santa Cruz) and Patricia Morreale (Kean University) as Co-chair of the AA. We thank Margaret for all her help and are excited that she will continue to participate in the AA leadership through the AA Advisory Committee, which includes all previous AA Co-chairs. We look forward to working with Sharon in her new leadership role in the AA.

After we receive the AA Member Survey responses, we’ll have some new project teams and new faces on some of them. Be sure to complete the project team section of the survey, if you’re interesting in volunteering for a team.

Please take a look at our website to see the members that work extra hard for the AA: http://www.ncwit.org/alliances/projects/45.

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NCWIT Resources

NCWIT resources provide research and theory-based practices and recommendations to equip change leaders to take action toward increasing women’s meaningful participation in technology. Our resources are free and available in digital and print formats. For those of you that were able to attend the 2014 NCWIT Summit, NCWIT’s internal evaluator Dr. Wendy DuBow personally walked you through how to use our resources and highlighted some of the newest ones we have produced.

This year, we published some great new content, and updated some of our most sought-after materials, including:

• Top 10 Ways to Engage Computing to Underrepresented Students
• NCWIT Tips: 8 Ways to Give Students More Effective Feedback Using a Growth Mindset
• A Lucrative, Secure Computing Career: Community College Can Take You There (poster)
• Regional Celebrations-in-a-Box: Connecting Communities of Technical Women
• NCWIT Scorecard (updated)
• By the Numbers (updated)

You can access these and many other fantastic resources at www.ncwit.org/resources.

Hint: Check the box next to “Higher Education” on the top left side of the page to filter for results most relevant to the Academic Alliance. Additional filters, such as “Goals” or “Resource Type,” may also be helpful.

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Enjoy your 2014-2015 Academic Year; I’m sure your start is as busy as this newsletter suggests!

Academic Alliance Co-chairs:
Sharon Mason, Rochester Institute of Technology
Charlie McDowell, UC-Santa Cruz Computer Science Department
Patricia Morreale, Kean University Department of Computer Science

[email protected], AA Program Manager
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
University of Colorado-Boulder, 1125 18^th Street, Boulder, CO 80309