Diversity
News & Events

Summer 2021

  • We organized a new summer camp for high schoolers from backgrounds underrepresented in CS that took place in summer 2021.

Spring 2021

  • Nineteen of our faculty participated in a 6-month Diversity, Equity and Inclusion class for faculty to form a foundation of knowledge and understanding around equity, power, privilege, oppression– as well as engage in reflection and discussion on these topics.

Winter 2021 

  • As part of our celebration of Black History Month, we held a screening of Coded Bias, a documentary by Shalini Kantayya that explores how algorithms encode and propagate bias. This was followed by a live (zoom) Q&A with the film creators.

Fall 2020

  • More than 60 students attended the 2020 Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration and more than 40 students attended the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing.

  • An anonymous gift to Northwestern Engineering supports equity in the Computer Science Department. The gift enabled the school to partner with Chicago community organizations and the University's Center for Excellence in Computer Science Education to recruit a diverse group of high school students for a two-week summer program emphasizing the creative and career possibilities of computer science.

  • The gift also funds a new laptop loaner program for current CS students who may not have resources to replace their machine if it breaks down. So far the program has purchased two new computers and inspired students and faculty to donate four used laptops for refurbishment.

Spring 2020

  • Northwestern Computer Science was selected to become a BRAID affiliate school. The BRAID program trains faculty/chairs to better support diversity with computer science departments. 

  • Northwestern CS students created a new Hispanic/Latin@CS organization.

  • Northwestern CS welcomed six new faculty members, of which three are women, making this the most gender-balanced hiring season in recent years.