A Computer Science Laboratory for Attracting and Retaining Women in
Computer Science
Project Directors:
Timothy Fossum,
Professor,
Susan Haller,
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science,
University of Wisconsin - Parkside
Project Description:
With support from the National Science Foundation
(grant number DUE-9751274),
we have developed and implemented
strategies designed to improve the retention
and graduation rate of women majoring in computer science (CS).
This project is designed
to give our female CS students systematic experiences that
will develop their ability and confidence to accept
positions of increasing importance and responsibility in a computing
environment.
The laboratory is our vehicle
for providing these experiences and an environment for creating a culture
that will promote our students' engagement in the computer science discipline.
Female role models
that are presented to young women are typically unusual
individuals who have overcome tremendous social and political obstacles
to pursue outstanding careers in mathematics and science.
We believe that young women may
actually have their self-confidence undermined because they cannot
readily identify with these exceptional role models.
In this project, we
employ our own upper-level female CS students
as laboratory assistants.
When we have women play prominent roles
in day-to-day laboratory activities,
we communicate to our beginning female
students that these roles are realistic and obtainable by them
in their college life and into the workplace.
Current Status:
The laboratory in Molinaro D116 is fully functional with
furniture, lockers, carpet, blinds, and plants in 1500 square feet of space.
The card access system was written by the software engineering
class in Spring Semester 1998.
We have six islands of four Dell high-performance workstations
running Linux.
The Molinaro D120 satellite lab
has an island of four Dell dual-boot machines
running Linux and Windows XP, two additional Dell workstations,
and an island for special projects.
We have two high-performance dual processor file servers
(one for the lab and web services and the other for archives and name service),
a student web and database development server,
and a Sun Ultra Sparc.
Karen Larson serves as our full-time system administrator.
Publications
-
Retaining women in CS with accessible role models.
Haller, S. and Fossum, T.,
Proceedings of the Twenty-ninth SIGCSE Technical Symposium
on Computer Science Education.
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special
Interest Group on Computer Science Education,
Atlanta, Georgia, February, 1998.
Sponsors:
This project is sponsored in part
by the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education grant
DUE-9751274 ,
The University of Wisconsin - Parkside
and the
SC Johnson Wax Fund ,
The University of Wisconsin System Women and Science Program.