Student Projects

Women in Computing GHC Funding

Project Manager

Irena Liu, Student

Amount Requested

$5,000

Summary

Women in Computing is an organization dedicated to creating a supportive network for women interested in computer science and technology at Northwestern. Despite the fact that the percentage of female students in the computer science department has been increasing, computer science is still one of the most male-dominated fields on campus. Thus, WiC’s purpose is to ensure that women in fields such as CS, CE, and EE feel welcome and supported instead of isolated throughout their Northwestern career. Additionally, WiC encourages women of other disciplines to explore technology. In order to achieve this, WiC is aspiring to once again attend the 2023 Grace Hopper Conference, the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. Grace Hopper is an outlet for female computer scientists to interact with top-notch companies, build supportive networks among women, and celebrate the accomplishments of women in a primarily male-populated field. Attending the Grace Hopper Conference will develop values among our participants that will change the way they think and feel about being a woman in a technological major. This perspective will ripple across Northwestern, not only making current female tech students feel welcome in the field of computing but also encouraging others to join it. By attending the conference once again, WiC hopes to be able to reassure and introduce these gender-equal themes to the Computer Science department, ensuring women who are passionate about technology, both in the present and future, may thrive at Northwestern.

Planned Activities/Investments

This year, 50+ Northwestern students have shown interest in attending Grace Hopper 2023. WiC plans to collect data from all these members on what they are aspiring to get from attending the conference. With this data, WiC would organize smaller groups within all the Northwestern attendees based on members’ interests. This will allow students to meet others that are also attending the conference and have similar goals in mind. Additionally, we want to organize tentative schedules outlining speaker events, networking opportunities, and career fairs depending on the members’ interests that such groups can attend together. Through this, we want to ensure that each of our members receives as much of an enriching experience as possible while having a supportive network at the conference.

During the conference, there is a plethora of leadership workshops, career workshops, technical and inspirational speakers, and networking opportunities. After the conference, we will compile a list of the most enriching events that took place at the national convention so we can implement similar workshops on campus. In addition, as described in the “Impacts” section, we will analyze the changes in academic habits, career aspirations, and values in our attendees. We will also be creating a report providing an overview of the conference and creating workshops for all Northwestern students implementing the themes we discover at the conference as described in the “Deliverables” section. Moreover, we will follow up with the attendees after the conference and ask them to fill out a survey that can help us shape the workshops on campus that will follow the conference and the activities for next year’s conference.

Impact

The Grace Hopper Conference is a weekend-long project that can have a year-long impact on our organization and campus. Being among so many female computer scientists, our group will be introduced to other WiC-esque organizations which we can model ourselves after. We will also meet empowering women who will open our minds to new knowledge and innovations. Moreover, our attendees will have the opportunity to attend Tech Talks, the career fair, and meet company representatives from multiple fields. In order to ensure our attendees get the most out of GHC, we will have short breakout sessions throughout the conference, a longer conclusion session, and a survey afterward. We will analyze how successful our attendees are in pursuing career paths through their internships and co-ops, as well as academically through their change in GPA. We will take note of any observable trends in attendees’ changing behaviors and attitudes toward the CS department in the academic year and beyond. This conference will allow us to develop our leadership skills and empower ourselves through networking events and career workshops. WiC wants to use the skills learned at GHC to continue to spread the message of equality and inclusion, inspiring women empowerment and leadership.

Sustainability

The Grace Hopper Conference will continue to be a cornerstone event for our organization as it celebrates the values Women in Computing was founded on. Since attending this conference implies steep travel and lodging costs for individuals, WiC has worked with McCormick and the CS department to receive funding for the 2016-2021 conferences. Additionally, WiC plans to apply to grants throughout the year such as this one to contribute to paying for participants’ attendance costs. We also encourage our members to apply to corporate sponsorships offered by companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, which funds their registration fee to the GHC. Moreover, WiC is expanding the corporate outreach program to use donations to help fund this event. As this conference becomes more of a regular occurrence for WiC, we expect our funding contribution from McCormick to decrease. In order to continue to pay for GHC, WiC plans to organize fundraisers, such as selling WiC merchandise, offering coding seminars, or selling baked goods. It is very important to our organization that money never prevents a woman from attending GHC, and we are going to take as many measures as we can every year to ensure funds are never an obstacle.

Deliverables

WiC envisions two major deliverables from GHC. The first one will be a report describing the academic and corporate networks developed at GHC, the career accomplishments of our participants, and the lessons our group learned at the conference. This report will be featured on our website to enrich site content and encourage potential members to join. A second deliverable will be workshops organized by WiC on relevant tech topics, similar to GHC’s Tech Talks. The purpose of these workshops will be to share the knowledge attendees enjoyed at the conference and invigorate discussion with general members of the WiC community.

Previous Projects

Thanks to the Murphy Grant, WiC had the chance to contribute $5,000 for 10 WiC members to attend GHC in 2017 and the following years. Along with the funding McCormick provided, 60+ members had the opportunity to attend the conference–all expenses paid–and meet companies’ representatives, women leading the tech world, and other role models that will inspire them to strive in the computing field. Due to pandemic circumstances, GHC was held virtually for the past two years. Fortunately, GHC will primarily be in-person this year in September, with a few attending virtually. Based on WiC’s past experience at the Grace Hopper Conference, WiC is confident that multiple professional opportunities, networking experiences, and academic lessons will take place at the conference, enriching the attendee’s academic life.

Budget Overview

• $5,000: Grace Hopper Conference registration (10). The funds will be used to purchase registrations for the conference along with those purchased by McCormick with the funding they provide.

Total: $5,000

Matching Funds

As mentioned above, in addition to Murphy Grant funding, WiC is seeking funding from McCormick itself. WiC also expects to extend its corporate network at the Grace Hopper Conference, and anticipates potential corporate sponsors for future Grace Hopper Conferences from these new contacts. Moreover, students are encouraged to apply to a handful of corporate scholarships for conference attendance accommodations, but considering the intense competition behind all of these, we are not considering scholarships to be a surefire funding source for sending any of our aspiring attendees. WiC has long-discussed a drive to make sure all interested women get a chance to attend this hugely impactful conference, and McCormick and Northwestern overall seems to have much initiative to do the same, but WiC simply cannot match the exponential growth in conference interest without significant assistance in funding. The Murphy Grant and other sources of funding will be crucial to ensuring that the success of NU’s presence at this major conference can match the rapidly growing success of increased student interest in this conference.

Advisor Sign-off

Women in Computing (WiC) - Ellen Worsdall, Undergraduate Engineering