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”It was like a light
going off in my head,” said Pooja (PJ) Mathur, freshman in
computer science at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), describing the moment of
inspiration that set her current course of study. Her
reaction came in response to a ChicTech presentation at her
high school last year by a group of female computer science
students from UIUC.
“My friend was making fun of me saying it was like the
mothership calling me home,” continued Mathur. “I seemed so
much like them. I totally fit in with them and this seemed
like something I would be interested in.”
ChicTech is a traveling road show for girls who attend
Illinois high schools. In response to low and falling
numbers of women opting to pursue a career in computer
science (CS), female CS students from the University of
Illinois have taken to the street in a grassroots effort to
generate interest in the field. Treating high school girls
across the state to pizza luncheons, squadrons of volunteer
CS college women pervade Illinois high schools to explain
and demystify the burgeoning field. They give the girls a
glimpse of life as a student in CS and explore the exciting
and challenging career options open to graduates. The
presentation also confronts stereotypes of the
male-dominated field, debunking myths, citing success
stories and sharing personal experiences. Many of the new
ideas that are presented resonate with the younger girls,
sparking their interest and moving them toward further
exploration.
ChicTech is an integral part of the University of Illinois
Department of Computer Science’s “Building Communities”
initiative which recently received $1 million in funding
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help recruit
and retain more women and underrepresented populations in
engineering into the information technology (IT) workforce.
The “Building Communities” initiative is scaling the
ChicTech effort to span six partner colleges in Illinois,
sharing the ChicTech outreach model and working to create a
cohesive community of collegiate women in computer science.
Working together, their goal is to increase both recruitment
and retention. Partners include: Illinois State University,
Eastern Illinois University, Bradley University, Parkland
College, and Heartland College.
Campaigns like the “Building Communities” initiative are
becoming increasingly critical as the United States will
reportedly experience a 5.6 million IT labor force shortfall
between now and 2010. During this same time period, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that information
technology jobs will account for nearly three out of every
five positions created. Further exacerbating the problem,
budget cuts have prompted many Illinois high schools to cut
out entirely the few computer programming courses they used
to offer. Programs such as the one currently funded through
the NSF promise to reduce the negative impact such trends
could have on the U.S. economy.
As part of their presentation, the ChicTech representatives
challenge their high school audiences to enter the ChicTech
Technical Ambassador competition and develop some technical
skills as part of a community service project. In the
Technical Ambassador’s competition, teams of high schools
girls pick a local non-profit institution, work with the
institution to define a technical problem that can be solved
using computers, independently develop a solution, present
their project at a ChicTech retreat in the spring and,
potentially, win a cash prize.
Initiatives involving the formation of supportive
communities have repeatedly demonstrated success in reducing
the hesitancy of women to enter the discipline and the
tendency, for those who do enter, to transfer out before
graduating. These support networks reduce the all-too-real
sense of gender isolation that plagues many female CS
students. Professor Sam Kamin, director of Undergraduate
Programs in Computer Science at UIUC, sees the ChicTech
program as a “double play.”
“ChicTech has been helpful in building a community spirit
among our female undergraduates. As they go into the high
schools to raise awareness about the discipline, our
undergraduate women seem to be cementing their own
commitment to CS, bolstering our retention figures,” Kamin
explained. “At the same time, they’re reaching the younger
girls we need in the pipeline, creating awareness of what
computer science really is and building the interest in CS
of high school students.”
Mathur and her friends attended the ChicTech visit mostly
out of curiosity and a strong interest in the pizza being
served, but by the time the luncheon was over, the spark had
ignited. They determined to enter the Technical Ambassador’s
competition.
“We formed a team and decided to make a website for our
school’s National Honor Society,” Mathur added. “During the
first couple of meetings we got to know each other but after
two weeks we felt like we’d been friends forever because we
had so much in common. There was only one computer where we
met and we took turns working on it. We would bring our
homework and food, and have a little ChicTech party. It was
just a lot of fun.”
Last may, finalist teams attended the ChicTech weekend
retreat in Urbana to present their projects. Mathur’s team
gave an enthusiastic presentation of their website project.
They also met and interacted with the other high school
teams through group activities and games. The teams were
mentored by female department students, spent the night in a
UIUC dormitory, worked on mini-program design projects, and
played in the new Siebel Center for Computer Science.
“Our team received second place. We were all very excited,”
said Mathur, wearing a proud smile.
The “Building Communities” effort does not stop at
recruiting. Before her fall computer science classes
started, Mathur attended the Women in Engineering
orientation where she met other female students new to CS.
There were a number of activities including the highly
successful “low ropes” course that required groups of the
new freshmen to work together in teams with older
undergraduate and graduate women from the CS program to
solve a series of team-building problems. Group facilitators
guided them through each of the half-dozen challenges. From
moving members through a gigantic “spider web” to scaling a
15-foot wall as a team, the students naturally tended to
examine each task from a technical point of view; discussing
the problem and presenting various solutions before making
their first attempt. From all reports, the exercise has
proven to be a foundation for bonding among all participants
and the starting point for some fast friendships.
This year’s sophomore class includes a tightly knit group of
women that was formed during the challenge course conducted
as part of last year’s Freshman Orientation.
“The challenge course was so much fun and it gave a great
chance to network with other women in the field,” said Olga
Vinogradova. “I’m rooming with one of the women I met there
and our entire group of friends either met at Orientation or
as a result of it.” Many of these sophomores—all members of
UIUC’s Women in Computer Science student organization—are
now active in the ChicTech Initiative, taking time out of
their rigorous course schedule to evangelize the benefits of
a computer science education.
The fall classes have started, PJ Mathur has a busy schedule
both in and out of the classroom.
“Even though my CS homework is hard, I always have fun doing
it. I am in CS 196, the honors course for my other class CS
173. As a class project I am making a computer game that
involves CS and what we have been learning in class. I don’t
always know what I am doing. It is a huge project but I am
having fun doing it,” said Mathur.
Mathur has come full circle this fall. She is part of the
ChicTech team that returned to her high school to talk to a
group of girls whose number had increased from the year
before. There in the crowd were three of her former
teammates who were already thinking of projects for the 2005
Technical Challenge Competition.
About the Building Communities Program
Through the National Science Foundation $1 million-funded
project, the Illinois Department of Computer Science is
serving as the lead institution together with five central
Illinois higher education partners—Eastern Illinois
University, Illinois State University, Parkland College,
Heartland Community College, and Bradley University and a
large public school district. Together they will create new
initiatives while undertaking activities pioneered at
Illinois. Current initiatives include:
• Visits to computer science Advanced Placement training
workshops for high school teachers.
• Java Engagement for Teacher Training (JETT) – Workshop
held in conjunction with the College Board to train high
school teachers in Java.
• Online resources for high school CS teachers. The portal
will give teachers the opportunity to share information,
explore pedagogical topics, and help teachers to become part
of a community instead of functioning in isolation.
• Development of curricular materials for high schools to
help introduce computer science to their students. In this
effort, the university has enlisted the Elgin’s Unit #46,
the second-largest school district in the state, as a
partner in the project.
• Orientation for freshmen – women are invited to a weekend
retreat that includes a team-building “challenge course,”
panel discussions, and mentoring by upper class women and
graduate students.
• Women in CS club – activities include socializing,
tutoring, recruiting, and job placement seminars.
• Technical Ambassadors Competition – teams of girls from
high schools visited under the ChicTech program, create a
computer application for their school or a local non-profit
organization. In the spring the teams spend a weekend on the
Illinois campus to present their project and compete for
prizes.
• Games for Girls (G4G) – College women will compete in the
construction of computer games for K-12 girls. At the
year-end weekend conclave, the high school girls will choose
the winner of this competition.
# # #
For further information, see:
http://women.cs.uiuc.edu/staticpages/index.php?page=studentmain
Contact:
Deb Israel
Phone: 217/333-1621
Email: disrael@uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Writer: Rick Kubetz
Phone: 217/244-7716
Email: rkubetz@uiuc.edu
Office of Engineering Communications
College of Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
