Why we want more girls interested in computing

Nice new infographic from NCWIT making the case for engaging more women in computing, and giving tips on how to do it.

Just 9 states allow computer science to count towards high school graduation requirements.

 

If technology is designed mostly by the half of our population that’s male, we’re missing out on the innovations, solutions, and creations that 50% of the population could bring.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by 2020 there will be more than 1.4 million computing-related job openings. At current rates, however, we can only fill about 30% of those jobs with U.S. computing bachelor’s grads. Girls represent a valuable, mostly untapped talent pool.

With computing jobs among the fastest-growing and highest-paying, more women should benefit from these occupations.

via infographic | National Center for Women & Information Technology.

Seeking Java-based Intro CS Classes for Experiment

From Leigh Ann Sudol-DeLyser (leighannsudol@gmail.com):

I am looking for faculty who are able to help me find subjects for my final study of my PhD thesis. I have built an online pedagogical IDE which uses problem knowledge to give students feedback about algorithmic components as they are writing code for simple array algorithms.

I am looking for faculty who are willing to assign a 5-problem sequence as a part of a homework assignment or final exam review in a CS1 course in Java. The 5 problems consist of writing code to find the sum of an array of integers, the maximum number in an array of integers, counting the number of values in a range of integers, and completing an indexOf method for an array of integers. These problems are similar to ones you might find in a system like CodingBat where students are given a method header and asked to implement code for the interior of a single method.

If you are willing to help me graduate (please!) send me your name, the university you teach at, and the number of students in your class and I will contact you with login codes for the students and further directions. I am looking for classes of all sizes from all types of colleges and universities. Please forward to your CS1 instructors where applicable.

Thank you!

Leigh Ann Sudol-DeLyser

PhD Candidate

Carnegie Mellon University