# Presentation: 934103

## Increasing Female Students inComputer Science at Carnegie Mellon University:What We Did and What We’re Doing

- Women’s Equality Day, NSF, Arlington, VA, August 26, 2008

**Jeannette M. Wing**

- Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, NSFand
- President’s Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

## Carnegie Mellon’s Broad View of Computer Science

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- Pervasive and Interdisciplinary

## SCS Numbers at a Glance

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- 215 faculty
- 213 courses on the books
- 540 bachelors students
- 235 masters students across 11 programs
- 400 doctoral students across 9 programs

## Timeline: 40 years of CS at CMU

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## Carnegie Mellon’s Broad View of Computer Science

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- The Computer Science Department is the
- Home for traditional areas of Computer Science
- Home for new, emerging areas of Computer Science
- Other units of the School of Computer Science connect Computer Science to other disciplines:
- Robotics: CS + Mechanical Engineering + Electrical Engineering
- Language Technologies: CS + Linguistics
- Human-Computer Interaction: CS + Design + Psychology
- Automated Learning and Discovery: CS + Statistics
- Software: CS + Public Policy + Management
- Entertainment: CS + Drama

## Outline

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- Then and Now
- What We Did
- What We Did Not Do
- What We Are Doing
- What *You* Can Do
- What _We Can All_ Do!

## Themes

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- Numbers
- Culture
- 

- Pipeline

- K-12

- Undergrads

- Faculty

- Grads

## Then and Now: 80’s – 00’s

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- Numbers

- Culture

**Notes:**
Highlight trends for frequency of installation, size of package, permanence.

## Timeline

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- 04

## Then and Now: Numbers

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- How did this happen?

## What We Did: Getting Them In the Door

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- 1. Admissions Criteria Changes
- Prior programming experience not needed.  [Allan Fisher]
- “Look for leaders.”  [Raj Reddy]
- Consequence: Increased diversity in *both men and women* in their interests and background.
- 2. Summer Institute for CS AP Teachers (6APT [NSF])
- Opportunistically teach gender-equity skills to 240 high school teachers while they are taught C++ for AP CS.
- Allan Fisher, Jane Margolis, Jo Sanders, Mark Stehlik
- Consequence: 18% of women entering 1999 and 2000 were from the 6APT high schools, as compared to 0% in 1995.

## What We Did: Getting Out the Door

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- 3. Multiple entry points into 200-level bootcamp
- Four paths to 15-211, based on programming experience:none, some, a lot
- 4. Women@SCS: a professional community for students
- Professional activities
- Mentoring, tutoring, curriculum advice, curriculum oversight, career counseling, technical seminar series, professional networking, alumni/ae networking
- Giving back to the community
- Resurrection of Pittsburgh chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
- Outreach, brochures, roadshows
- Women@SCS website, SCS website
- Social activities
- Dinners, SCS Day (workshops and talent show)

**Notes:**
None: 15-100 + 15-200 (two semesters)
Some, but not Java: 15-111
Some, e.g., AP CS: 15-200 (just one semester)
A lot: placement exam.  Go directly to 15-211

## Our Undergraduate Curriculum

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- Foundations
- Menu

- Systems
- Menu

- Applications
- Menu

- Math / Statistics

- Engineering / Science

- Humanities / Writing

- Electives, Research, and Teaching

- Minor Degree

- “Deep Thinking”/Algebra (15-351/355,21-xxx...)

- Bootcamp

**Notes:**
[from Peter Lee and Mark Stehlik] (Distribution requirements on right hand side.)
Our undergraduate academic program is rigorous and very intense.
Unlike most programs in the US, students apply to and enter the 
CS major from high school.  (This is probably true also for most
European university CS/IT programs.) 

15-213: Systems Foundation  understanding computer systems at the processor and OS level, from a  programmers perspective.15-212: Programming Foundation using types in programming languages to build reliable, elegant  software15-251: Theory Foundation
 using mathematics to solve problems in computer science15-211: Algorithms Foundation
  using fundamental data structures for building efficient programs

## Women's Equality Day

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- Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

**Notes:**
So, in the fall of 1999 we experienced a tremendous increase in  women students in 
CS. Other than having multiple entry into first year programming
not much else (in the culture) had changed at time. 

 A major concern of mine was that we could
easily loose a large number of our new women students, 
particularly given our intense CS curriculum.
Building a Community seemed an important way to proceed.
There had been some earlier movement in this direction 
(e.g. the grad students had organized pot luck dinners and meetings with new women faculty).
I had funds from Carnegie Mellon President Cohon, so I asked
a group of undergraduate and graduate women to advise me on using the funds.
Out of this grew the Women@SCS Advisory Committee (aka the Council).
This group has been the catalyst for all the major activities and changes
in the culture of computing at Carnegie Mellon.

## What We Did: Pay Attention!

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- What We Did: Pay Attention!

- Commit to sustain success
- Lenore Blum
- Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science
- Faculty advisor to Women@SCS
- 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM)
- President Jared Cohon
- “Diversity” President
- Allan Fisher initially, then Peter Lee, now Klaus Sutner
- Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
- Carol Frieze
- Director of Women@SCS
- Raise awareness
- SCS faculty

## What We Did Not Do

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- We did NOT change admissions standards.
- The strength of the applicant pool increased through the late 90’s through 00’s.
- There has been no decrease in median grades or test scores of those admitted.
- We did NOT change the curriculum.
- We did not “contextualize” the curriculum in any big way.
- 1-unit 1 semester Immigration Course is good for *both men and women.*
- We did not make it “female-friendly.”
- Bootcamp is *for both men and women*.

## Keys to Our Success

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- People make a difference
- Lenore Blum, Jared Cohon, Allan Fisher, Carol Frieze, Peter Lee, Raj Reddy, Mark Stehlik, Klaus Sutner
- Action, not talk
- 6APT (NSF funded), Women@SCS
- Commitment, perseverance, vigilance
- By faculty, by key individuals, by administrators

## Gender Studies: Margolis-Fisher

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- 1995, 1996, 1997 cohorts (7%, 16%, 13%)
- 230 interviews
- CS culture: hacker, geeky, nerdy
- computer science  computer programming
- _Findings_
- There are gender differences, e.g.,
- Men tend to view the computer as an object of study in itself.  They “dream in code.”
- Women tend to view the computer as a tool.  Their interest is in “computing with a purpose.”
- Community of undergrad women is an unsuccessful intervention strategy.

## Gender Studies: Blum-Frieze

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- 2002 study: 1998 entering class (19%) interviewed (senior year)
- “Class in transition”: 33 interviewed: 17 women, 16 men
- 2004 study: 2000 entering class (39%)
- 44 of senior class interviewed; 136 of other classes surveyed
- CS Culture: more balanced in gender, students with diverse interests
- computer science  a way of thinking and solving problems
- _Findings:_
- Margolis-Fisher gender differences disappeared!
- Men and women alike like to hack and/or like applications.
- Most are a little of both.
- Men and women alike “dream in code” and “compute with a purpose.”
- Women@SCS shows community building has a dramatically positive effect—it is culture-changing!

## Why These Differences in Findings?

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- Because the numbers changed (near critical mass)
- Because the culture changed
- Our environment is full of “leaders” and people with diverse interests
- Students are energetic, enthusiastic, and pro-active

## What We’re Doing: Other Ends of Pipeline

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## What We’re Doing: More Generally

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- Trying to change the public’s misperception of Computer Science!
- Women@SCS Roadshows
- Want to change AP CS exam
- Send this message: Computer Science is for everyone, not just those who want to be computer scientists.
- Spread my vision on Computational Thinking

- More on this later...

- You can major in computer science and do anything!

- We need everyone’s help on this.

## What You Can Do

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- What *You* Can Do

- Outreach
- Your local grade schools and high schools: teachers and students
- Summer and weekend programs
- Diversity In, Diversity Throughout
- Understand your clientele: Where do they come from and where are they going?
- Make your program attractive to a diverse set of students,men and women.
- Present Computer Science for what it is; don’t dumb it down.
- Replicate Women@SCS, roadshows
- http://women.cs.cmu.edu/

- Easy!

## Reminders

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- Don’t make women seem different.
- Not all women want to associate with “women’s” organizations.
- Respect women for their talent, ability, and achievements.
- Encourage and support girls’ and women’s interest in science and engineering—in the classroom, in college, in grad school, for their future career.
- Be sensitive
- To potentially offensive remarks or behavior

## But looking ahead, all is not rosy...

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## Now and Tomorrow: Numbers

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**2006     1912                           232                    409                                  100     141  30 (21%)**

**2007                                                                                                                             32 (23%?)**

## Declining Interest in Computer Science By All?

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- Declining Interest in Computer Science By All?

- From Taulbee Survey 2007

## What We’re Doing: More Generally

- Women's Equality Day

- Jeannette M. Wing

- Trying to change the public’s misperception of Computer Science!
- Women@SCS Roadshows
- Want to change AP CS exam
- Send this message: Computer Science is for everyone, not just those who want to be computer scientists.
- Spread my vision on Computational Thinking
- http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/

- More on this now...

- You can major in computer science and do anything!

- We need everyone’s help on this.

## My Grand Vision for the Field

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- Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st Century.
- Just like reading, writing, and arithmetic.
- Imagine every child knowing how to think like a computer scientist!
- Incestuous: Computing and computers will enable the spread of computational thinking.
- In research: scientists, engineers, ..., historians, artists
- In education: K-12 students and teachers, undergrads, ...

- J.M. Wing, “Computational Thinking,” *CACM* Viewpoint, March 2006, pp. 33-35.
- Paper off CISE AC website; paper and talks off _[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing)_/

**Notes:**
Thinking computationally not programming
Fundamental skill not rote skill
Computing not computers: pervasive computing/computers is passe: 20th Century!
“used by” ambitious.  Certainly needed to function in modern society
In research: long-term; in education: nearer-term (outreach, diversity, changing society’s view of our field)

## Fortuitous Timing for Me

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## CDI: Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation

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- Computational Thinking for science and engineering
- Paradigm shift
- Yesterday: metal tools (transistors and wires)
- Today: mental tools (abstractions and methods)
- “Algorithms” is becoming a household word, e.g., NY Times, Forbes magazine, Harvard Business Review, Economist, ...
- It’s a partnership.
- To advance BOTH computational thinking and other science/engineering disciplines.

## Education Implications: Pre-K to Grey

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-                     What is an effective way of teaching (learning)
-                       computational thinking to (by) K-12 students?
-     - What concepts should we teach when?       What is our analogy to numbers in K, algebra in 7, and calculus in 12?
-     - We uniquely also should ask how best to integrate The Computer       with teaching the concepts.

- Question and Challenge to the Community:

- Internal working group at NSF: CISE, EHR, SBE, OCI, MPS

## Analogy

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- The boldness of my vision: Computational thinking is not just for other scientists, it’s for *everyone*.
- Ubiquitous computing was yesterday’s dream, today’s reality
- Computational thinking is today’s dream, tomorrow’s reality

## What We Can All Do Together

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- Help spread my vision for the 21st Century:
- Make computational thinking commonplace!

## Thank you!

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- Jeannette M. Wing

## Credits

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- Jeannette M. Wing

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