Viterbi Students Attend Grace Hopper Conference for Women

A few of the Viterbi Hopper attendees: Vidakna Soysa (second from left), and Srishti Gupta (far right). Also pictured: Meenakshi Amirtharaj and Jie Qi.

January 27, 2010. Last fall the Viterbi's Computer Science Department sent 8 female USC students to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This conference is named in honor of Grace Murray Hopper, a pioneer of computer science. At this conference female leaders in computing from academia, industry, and government present their current work. In addition, it includes special sessions focusing on the role of women in the field and career issues of special interest to women.

The feedback from the USC attendees, who ranged from undergraduate through post-doctorate level, was quite positive. Robotics postdoc Sameera Poduri mentioned, "what I like most about the conference is the energy and enthusiasm it brings." Rachel Cummings, an undergraduate majoring in Math and Economics said, "I really enjoyed being around technical women that were so excited about their field and encouraging and supportive of other women. Often times in classes, I will be one of few females (or sometimes the only one!), so it was very refreshing to be in a collaborative environment with other intelligent women." CSMS student Vidakna Soysa commented that the speakers at the New Investigators session "inspired me to do research and add something new and useful to this world." Cummings, a junior thinking about graduate school, said, "this was the perfect point in my studies to attend the conference. . . . I see that there are far more opportunities in CS than there are in math. I now plan on pursuing a PhD in theoretical CS."

The conference is also known to be a great place to make industry and academic contacts. A few of the attendees last fall were contacted after the fact about possible internships. MS CS student Srishti Gupta met a project leader working in the area of wireless sensor networks, and she is now planning to apply to the PhD program at her institution to work with her.

The Computer Science Department has been administering scholarships for several students to attend the Hopper conference for each of the last few years. Last fall the scholarships were jointly funded by USC's Women in Science and Engineering program, Viterbi's Office of Masters and Professional Programs, and the Computer Science Department. The other scholarship recipients from 2009 not previously mentioned were, CS undergraduate, Irina Abramova, and CS PhD students, Elnaz Nouri, Bei Pan, and Leyla Kazemi.