Volgenau; Diversity

Mason faculty design Break Through Tech Program

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:15:32 +0000

Mason faculty design Break Through Tech Program Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/04/2021 - 11:15

Topics

diversity

Break Through Tech

women in computing

Computer science; computing; School of Computing

College of Engineering and Computing

Volgenau; Diversity

information sciences and technology

Learn more about Break Through Tech's program and mission

“Women represent 57 percent of all bachelor’s recipients in the U.S. but only 19 percent of CS graduates,” said Sanjeev Setia, proposed School of Computing Division Dean. “For social equity and inclusion, it is imperative that we work towards gender parity in the technology sector.”

George Mason University received a grant from Break Through Tech to propel more students who identify as women and non-binary into tech education—and ultimately tech careers—through curriculum innovation, career access, and community building.

The grant’s goal is to increase the number of these students graduating with a tech degree at Mason by 12.5 percentage points by 2026.

Mason’s Break Through Tech program will be directed by the Volgenau School of Engineering, the proposed School of Computing, and the Departments of Computer Science and Information Sciences and Technology.

The faculty working on this initiative seek to attract and retain women and underrepresented communities pursuing computing degrees and careers in tech in the D.C. metropolitan area.

Mason’s Break Through Tech program will include:

A summer program for rising first-year students designed to ignite interest in tech by teaching them how to code mission-driven, real-world applications;
A new, innovative introductory sequence of computing courses;
A paid, three-week mini-internship program called a “Sprinternship®” that gives first- and second-year students a resume credential and real-world experience to make them more competitive when applying for a paid summer tech internship;
A networked cohort of individuals who identify as women and non-binary—both peer-to-peer and student-to-professional—in the D.C. metro area to support, engage and motivate one another.

“We are very excited about the opportunities this grant provides for curriculum innovation and industry partnerships that will strengthen our ability to recruit, train, and incorporate more women as successful professionals to the computing disciplines,” said Ozlem Uzuner, chair of the Department of Information Sciences and Technology. “This project will have a lasting positive impact in terms of improving diversity in the workplace, and we are well-positioned to make our mark.”

Department of Computer Science Chair David Rosenblum echoes the importance of curriculum innovation. Notably, adjusting the introductory computing courses offered at Mason.

“An increasing number of institutions, most notably Harvey Mudd College, have experienced tremendous success in attracting female students into their computing programs, through innovations to the design and content of their introductory computing courses,” said Rosenblum. “At Mason, we will apply the best practices that have been established by these pioneering institutions while introducing homegrown innovations of our own.”

Huzefa Rangwala, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and principal investigator for the grant, said that in addition to revamping Mason’s introductory computing course, a free “bootcamp” will be offered over the Summer to prepare students for the course.

“By 2026, estimates are that the U.S. will only be producing 17 percent of the graduates needed to meet the nation’s tech workforce needs. This is a national problem,” said Rangwala.

Break Through Tech at Mason is purposefully working to ensure long-term tech success for the program participants through community building efforts. Volgenau School of Engineering’s Chief Diversity Officer Christopher Carr says Mason is taking a holistic approach.

“From our K-12 outreach, we will utilize structures like our Early Identification Program, which works with communities across the National Capital Region, with particular emphasis on those communities that have been historically oppressed and marginalized,” says Carr. “We will then ensure that all participants have support through not only mentorship and cohort development, but by intentional efforts to connect the participants to all that is Mason - from our student organizations to living-learning communities, and so much more.”

Mason Engineering’s Christopher Carr receives a rising star in diversity award

Martha Bushong — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 11:39:18 +0000

Mason Engineering’s Christopher Carr receives a rising star in diversity award Martha Bushong Tue, 02/02/2021 - 06:39

Christopher Carr, chief diversity officer of the Volgenau School of Engineering, received the 2020 Rising Star in Diversity Award from the Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD).

The CoNECD Rising Star in Diversity Award recognizes an individual in their profession for less than 10 years who has actively worked to enhance diversity and inclusion by mentoring, supporting and/or advocating for the success of historically underserved individuals in engineering or computer science, or for climate and culture change that supports such success. Carr was recognized at the 3rd Annual CoNECD Conference held virtually from January 25 to January 28.

CoNECD is a partnership between the Minorities in Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates, the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, and the Women in Engineering Division of ASEE.

“Chris has been an innovative and dynamic leader since arriving at Mason in the summer of 2019,” says Ken Ball, dean of the Volgenau School. He has had an immediate impact, quickly leading us to ASEE Diversity Program recognition, and just as quickly Chris has become a highly valued campus-wide leader.”

Carr has developed a sweeping strategic plan and built cross-campus coalitions. He championed new policies for recruiting, retaining, and advancing diverse faculty; instituted a new system of equity champions for faculty searches; and strengthen the work of diversity and the resources available to students, faculty, and staff. He was recently selected to lead training and development for the presidential Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Taskforce.

“His leadership has garnered him recognition across the university, and his energy and expertise are in high demand across the institution,” says Christy Pichichero, associate professor of French and history and director of faculty diversity in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. "In my more than twenty years working in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Chris Carr is among the most brilliant, innovative, and effective leaders with whom I have collaborated.".

Before arriving at Mason, Carr was a senior staff member at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), where he played a key role in obtaining access to scholarships and high-quality outreach programming for thousands of Black engineering students and K-12 students.

Topics

diversity

Volgenau; Diversity

Volgenau School of Engineering

Researcher improving fairness in computer systems that process human language

Nanci Hellmich — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 18:04:54 +0000

Researcher improving fairness in computer systems that process human language Nanci Hellmich Fri, 11/13/2020 - 13:04

"I like solving problems. At its core, computer science is about finding efficient solutions.”

-- Antonis Anastasopoulos, assistant professor of computer science

When you ask your Google Assistant a question or type one into the search engine of your computer, you expect to get a reasonable answer.

But your accent or dialect may get in the way, preventing the system from understanding you.

To improve these systems, Antonis Anastasopoulos, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, received a Google 2020 Award for Inclusion Research for his project, "Modern NLP for Regional and Dialectal Language Variants." Anastasopoulos studies natural language processing (NLP), which is how computers attempt to process and understand human languages.

“The goal of the research is to promote fairness and equity in these computer systems, so they work well for everyone,” he says.

Anastasopoulos’ research combines his love of computer science with languages and linguistics. He speaks Greek (his native language), English, German, Swedish, Italian, and some Spanish.

His research will apply to all languages. It’s important to look deeply into languages for differences because languages are flexible and diverse, he says. “There are many regional variations that are different from the standard.”

For instance, in the United States, there are variations in dialects and accents across the country and among native and non-native English speakers. “We are going to identify how big the difference in performance is in these systems when you switch from standard to non-standard language and then try to mitigate the problems so the system is fair,” he says.

David Rosenblum, chair of the Department of Computer Science, says, “Antonis’s research attacks very important pieces of the NLP puzzle, which are the widespread dialectic variation in spoken language and the widespread variation in accent, especially among non-native speakers of a language. And his award from Google is a great reminder that diversity and inclusion require not just sensitivity to gender and color and ethnicity, but to language as well.”

In his spare time, Anastasopoulos reads about languages and linguistics. “I find language so fascinating. Now I build tools to understand and generate language.”

Computer science is the key to solving many problems, he says. “My father taught computer science in high school in Greece, and my mother taught English. Growing up, I always played with computers. I like solving problems. At its core, computer science is about finding efficient solutions.”