Anita Sarma, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University

Title: Engineering Inclusivity into Your Products

Time: Tuesday, Sep 13, 2022, 12-12:50pm PT

Dr. Anita Sarma is Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine and was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research aims to understand the cognitive processes of humans, and build inclusive technology to help users. Together with her collaborators and students she has co-authored more than 100 conference and journal articles, and has received numerous awards. She received the OSU Breaking Barriers Research award (2021) for her work in removing gender biases from software.  She co-leads the GenderMag project and the SocioeconomicMag project.

Siobahn Day Grady, Assistant Professor, Information Science/Systems, North Carolina Central University

Title: STEM-It-Yourself (SIY): How to cultivate a STEM Identity

Time: Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 1-1:50pm PT

Dr. Siobahn Day Grady is the first woman Computer Science PhD graduate from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (2018). She is an Assistant Professor of Information Science/Systems in the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central University and an Office e-Learning Faculty Fellow at North Carolina Central University. Her research focuses on utilizing machine learning to identify sources of misinformation on social media and toward improving fault detection in autonomous vehicles (https://www.nccu.edu/slis/laboratory-artificial-intelligence-and-equity-research-laier).

Hyunjin Seo, Professor of Digital/Emerging Media and Oscar Stauffer Chair in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at University of Kansas

Title: Community-based Approaches to Enhancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Technology Education

Time: Thursday, Feb 17, 2022, 1-1:50pm PT

Hyunjin Seo, PhD, is professor of digital/emerging media and Oscar Stauffer Chair in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at University of Kansas. She is also the founding director of the KU Center for Digital Inclusion and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Seo’s research focuses on identifying emerging properties of networked communication and understanding their implications for social change, collective action and civic engagement. Recently, she has focused on community-based projects offering technology education including online privacy and security workshops to marginalized populations. She is currently the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at supporting technology learning among socio-economically disadvantaged women. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in this and other related areas. She is also the author of Networked Collective Actions: The Making of an Impeachment (Oxford University Press), which examines intricate relationships between social institutions and agents during networked-facilitated political movements. Her research has been funded by various federal grant-making agencies and foundations including National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Google, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Kansas Health Foundation.

Kevin Lin, Assistant Teaching Professor, Computing Science & Engineering, University of Washington

Title: CS Education for the Socially-Just Worlds We Need

Time: Wednesday, Jan 26, 2022, 1:00-1:50pm PT

Kevin Lin (he/him) is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. He leads instructional innovation in introductory programming and data structures with a focus on restorying computing education toward more critical, contrapuntal, and justice-oriented social futures. Kevin received his MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where he coordinated the teaching and delivery of very large-scale undergraduate CS courses to over 1,000 students per semester.

Colleen Lewis, Associate Professor, Computing Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title: Inclusive policies and practices for admission and teaching

Time: Friday, November 12, 2021, 12:30 - 1:30pm PT

Colleen Lewis is an Associate Professor of computer science (CS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Lewis was previously the McGregor-Girand Associate Professor of CS at Harvey Mudd College. She is teaching faculty at the USC Race and Equity Center, which provides training to university leaders. At the University of California, Berkeley, Lewis completed a PhD in science and mathematics education, an MS in computer science, and a BS in electrical engineering and computer science. Her research seeks to identify and remove barriers to CS learning and understand and optimize CS learning. Lewis curates CSTeachingTips.org, a NSF-sponsored project for disseminating effective CS teaching practices. Lewis has received the NCWIT.org Undergraduate Mentoring Award and the AnitaB.org Emerging Leader Award for her efforts to broaden participation in computing. 

Sepi Hejazi Moghadam, Research Inclusion and North America Academic Development Lead, University Relations, Google

Title: Advancing a more inclusive computing research community

Time: Friday, Oct 29, 2021, 12:30 – 1:20pm PT

Sepi Hejazi Moghadam is the Research Inclusion and North America Academic Development Lead, University Relations at Google. He incubates programs that improve the experience and outcomes for students historically marginalized in computer science research pathways. His projects have focused on establishing a deeper understanding of underrepresented groups who choose computer science and the barriers preventing those that do not. He has developed programs and established partnerships that focus on the path from undergraduate, to graduate, to research careers for marginalized students. He has a PhD in Political Science and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Masters in Policy Analysis and Evaluation from Stanford University.

Mirela Gutica, Faculty and Curriculum Head, School of Computing and Academic Studies, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Title: Barriers to Diversity in Computer Science Education: A Student Perspective

Time: Friday, Sep 24, 2021, 12:30-1:20pm PT

Mirela Gutica teaches and conducts applied research at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Her background is in computer engineering and technology education. She teaches computer architecture, human-computer interaction, programming and operating systems, and is actively involved in the BCIT community. Her research interests include advanced learning technologies, computer science education and diversity and inclusion in STEM. She was awarded the BCIT VP Research Seed Fund to conduct the study entitled “Building Advanced Learning Technologies for Improving Girls’ and Women’s Participation in STEM".

Patricia Garcia, Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan

Title: Expressive Electronics: Broadening Participation in Computing Through Identity Exploration

Time: Sep 10, 2021 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Patricia Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She conducts qualitative research on the complex relationship between race, gender, technology, and justice. She is currently working on an NSF CAREER project to study how a computational justice program model can support girls of color (ages 13-16) develop agentic computing identities. This research involves the design of computing education programs that support girls of color in situating their computing identities within broader self-concepts and in ways that highlight how the intersections of race and gender can function as sources of power, rather than simply sites of marginalization.

Her research also examines how harmful data practices perpetuate structural inequities along racialized and gendered lines. She is planning to grow this research area by collaborating with data practitioners to imagine how the concept of critical refusal can be used to enact more equitable data practices. This work is done in collaboration with the co-authors of The Feminist Data Manifest-No.

Kathryn T. Stolee, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University

Title: Nevertheless, She Persisted: An Intervention to Increase Women's Persistence Intentions in CS

Time: August 5, 2021 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Kathryn T. Stolee is currently an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. She was previously the Harpole-Pentair assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. She received her PhD degree in computer science in 2013 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she also received her MS and BS degrees in computer science. She enjoys research in program analysis, code search, crowdsourcing, end-user software engineering and empirical studies. Her research uses program analysis to develop tools and techniques with the goal of making software easier to build, maintain and understand.  

In diversity efforts to improve retention of underrepresented individuals in computing, she has drawn from social-psychological research to create a lightweight intervention aiming to improve self-assessments of CS ability and Women’s CS persistence intentions.

Cinda Heeren, Professor of Teaching, Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs, Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia

Title: Redefining the Base Case: Broadening Participation in Computing by Embracing a New Historical Narrative

Time: Jul 22, 2021 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Cinda Heeren is a Professor of Teaching and Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs in the computer science department at the University of British Columbia. Her consistent, engaging work in UBC’s core CS Data Structures course was recognized with the Killam Teaching Prize in Spring 2020.

Cinda champions inclusive assessment strategies facilitated primarily by an accessible, modern, freely available, scalable, online assessment tool called PrairieLearn. Her most recent creative project is the development of a data structures and algorithms course designed specifically for non-CS majors, that ties together classic problems from CS with applications from the arts and sciences.

Cinda continues to be a vocal advocate for diversifying the field of computing through outreach, program development, and undergraduate community-building. She is the Chair of the CS Department’s Committee on Outreach, Diversity, and Equity (CODE), and she evangelizes for inclusive and innovative teaching practices at every level of instruction.