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Celebrations of Women in Computing

ACM-W sponsors annual celebrations focused on women in computing. ACM-W provides up to $3,000 seed funding for each celebration, and also raises and disburses corporate sponsorship. Each celebration organizing committee is responsible for additional fundraising within their conference area.² ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to Association for Computing Machinery members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women.

ACM-W Celebrations are regional conferences with global participants from industry, academia, and government.³ Celebration participation is growing ⁴ and these events represent some of the largest gatherings of women in technology.⁵

The original Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was recognized by the US White House on their page "The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology" in the entry for United States Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.⁶ In addition to this noteworthy beginning, the conferences have attracted the participation of technology notables including Anita Hill, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative co-founder Priscilla Chan, and Justine Cassell of Carnegie Mellon University, one of the top universities in Computer Science. The list describes the expansion of celebrations globally to include the largest gathering of women in computing in India.⁷

Chapters

ACM-W has nearly 200 active professional, virtual and student chapters globally. The professional chapters serve to enhance communications networks thereby providing resources and support for women in the workforce. The student chapters serve to increase recruitment and retention of women in computing fields at the university level and offer student activities and projects that aim to improve the working and learning environments for women in computing.²⁵

Awards

Starting in 2006, ACM-W has offered an annual Athena Lecturer Award to honor outstanding women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science:²⁶

• 2006–2007: Deborah Estrin of UCLA
• 2007–2008: Karen Spärck Jones of University of Cambridge
• 2008–2009: Shafi Goldwasser of MIT and the Weitzmann Institute of Science
• 2009–2010: Susan J. Eggers of the University of Washington
• 2010–2011: Mary Jane Irwin of the Pennsylvania State University
• 2011–2012: Judith S. Olson of the University of California, Irvine
• 2012–2013: Nancy Lynch of MIT
• 2013–2014: Katherine Yelick of LBNL²⁷
• 2014–2015: Susan Dumais of Microsoft Research
• 2015–2016: Jennifer Widom of Stanford University
• 2016–2017: Jennifer Rexford of Princeton University
• 2017–2018: Lydia Kavraki of Rice University
• 2018–2019: Andrea Goldsmith of Princeton University
• 2019–2020: Elisa Bertino of Purdue University
• 2020–2021: Sarit Kraus of Bar-Ilan University
• 2021–2022: Ayanna Howard of Ohio State University
• 2022–2023: Éva Tardos of Cornell University

ACM-W also offers an ACM-W Networking Award for active student chapters.²⁸

Scholarships

ACM-W provides support for women undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science and related programs to attend research conferences. The ACM-W scholarships are offered for both intra-continental conference travel, and intercontinental conference travel. Scholarship applications are evaluated in six groups each year, to distribute awards across a range of conferences, including many annual ACM special interest group conferences such as SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGAI, SIGARCH, SIGCOMM, SIGCHI, SIGCSE, SIGDA, SIGECOM, SIGEVO, SIGGRAPH, SIGHPC, SIGIR, SIGITE, SIGMM, SIGMOBILE, SIGOPS, SIGPLAN, and SIGSOFT.

Sponsors

Past sponsors of ACM-W services such as scholarships and regional celebrations include:

• Google
• Microsoft Research
• Oracle Academy
• Two Sigma

Newsletter

ACM-W publishes a monthly newsletter that highlights people, opportunities, accomplishments, and current issues associated with women in computing. The network wide newsletter was started in 2008 with regional newsletters also provided.

Officers

ACM-W officers include:

• Ruth G. Lennon, Chair
• Reyyan Ayfer, Vice Chair
• Melanie Wu, Treasurer
• Amelia Cole, Treasurer
• Arati Dixit, Standing Committee Chair
• Bushra Anjum, Standing Committee Chair
• Bettina Bair, Communications Committee Chair
• Sarah McRoberts, Communications Committee Chair
• Valerie Barr, Past Chair

ACM-W regions and chairs are:

• Rukiye Altin, Europe Chair
• Heena Timani, India Chair
• Monica McGill, North America
• Jacqueline Tate, Asia Pacific
• Hong Gao, China

ACM-W Standing Committees and Special Projects include:

• Viviana Bono, ACM-W Scholarships
• Pamela Wisniewski, ACM / ACM-W Awards Rising Star
• Rachelle Hippler, Professional Chapters
• Priya Chawla, Next Gen

ACM-W Communications Committee members:

• Jennifer Goodall, ACM-W Connections Newsletter Editor

See also

• Association for Computing Machinery
• CRA-W: Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research
• List of organizations for women in science
• National Center for Women & Information Technology
• Women in computing

External links

• Official website
• Celebrations of Women in Computing
• Women in Computing Oral History Collection
• Anita Borg Institute

References

1. "ACM-W Brochure" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-26. Retrieved 2016-03-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20170326145204/http://women.acm.org/ACMW-Webpage/Information/Files/ACM-W_Brochure.pdf ↩

2. ACM-W Celebrations of Women in Computing https://women.acm.org/celebrations ↩

3. "2018 Impact Grace Hopper Celebration" (PDF). AnitaB.org. Retrieved June 5, 2019. https://ghc.anitab.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/01/ghc-18-impact-report.pdf ↩

4. "Joining in: Computer science student participation up fivefold at women in computing conference". College of Natural Sciences. 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://natsci.source.colostate.edu/joining-in-computer-science-student-participation-up-fivefold-at-women-in-computing-conference/ ↩

5. "Grace Hopper Celebration - AnitaB.org". Grace Hopper Celebration. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://ghc.anitab.org/ ↩

6. "The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology". The White House. Archived from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2019-06-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20170929055814/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/311241 ↩

7. "GHC India - AnitaB.org". GHC India. Retrieved 2019-06-06. https://ghcindia.anitab.org/ ↩

8. "Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing 2018". Dalhousie University. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://www.dal.ca/news/events/2018/11/02/canadian_celebration_of_women_in_computing_2018.html ↩

9. "womENcourage 2023". womENcourage 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-03. https://womencourage.acm.org/2023/ ↩

10. "womENcourage 2022". womENcourage 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-03. https://womencourage.acm.org/2022/ ↩

11. "womENcourage 2021". womENcourage 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-03. https://womencourage.acm.org/2021/ ↩

12. "womENcourage 2020". womENcourage 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-05. https://womencourage.acm.org/2020/ ↩

13. "ACM WomENcourage 2019 - Call for participation". www.fib.upc.edu. 2019-03-08. Retrieved 2019-07-18. https://www.fib.upc.edu/en/news/acm-womencourage-2019-call-participation ↩

14. "Helping Turkish Women Advance in Computer Science Careers". academy.oracle.com. Retrieved 2019-07-18. https://academy.oracle.com/en/about-success-reyyan-ayfer.html ↩

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19. "SCE Students Winners in Poster Contest at MINK WIC Conference". University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering News. 2013-11-12. Archived from the original on 2022-12-03. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20221203154843/https://info.umkc.edu/scenews/2013/11/12/sce-students-winners-in-poster-contest-at-mink-wic-conference/ ↩

20. "Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women In Computing 2018 | FreeBSD Foundation". www.freebsdfoundation.org. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/news-and-events/event-calendar/rocky-mountain-celebration-of-women-in-computing-2018/ ↩

21. "Computer Science Department Diversity Initiatives | Westminster College Utah". www.westminstercollege.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://www.westminstercollege.edu/about/academic-schools/undergraduate-schools/school-of-arts-and-sciences/computer-science-department ↩

22. "The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology". The White House. Archived from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20170929055814/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/311241 ↩

23. "Google Sponsors Scholarships for Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference". www.businesswire.com. 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2019-06-05. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080618005245/en/Google-Sponsors-Scholarships-Grace-Hopper-Celebration-Women ↩

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25. ACM-W Chapters https://women.acm.org/chapter ↩

26. "ACM-W Athena Lecturers Award Winners". ACM. Retrieved 2016-03-19. http://women.acm.org/ACM-W-Athena-Lectures ↩

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28. ACM-W Chapter (ACM-W Networking Awards) https://women.acm.org/chapter ↩