Did you know that women gain more from IT advancement within research universities than men do? This is according to a new study co-authored by Assistant Professor Waverly Ding of the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The study concludes that IT is an “equalizing force” for researchers and suggests innovations in IT may contribute to scientific productivity. Their study focused on more than 4,000 researchers in the life sciences from more than 150 universities over the past 25 years.

There is a terrific article from the Brown Daily Herald about the lack of women in computer science, “Algorithms Can’t Solve CS Gender Gap.” The piece touches on some of the problems – and solutions – well-known to many CS departments, such as attracting more diverse students to the major, implementing intro courses with broader appeal, developing affinity groups for women students, and staffing classes with women faculty and TAs. It discusses the importance of outreach to K-12 and helping to clear up misconceptions about CS.

For those of you who were unable to attend the CE21 meeting held recently in New Orleans, we invite you to sign up for a webinar hosted by Dr. Jan Cuny, Dr. Joan Peckham and Dr. Jim Hamos, Program Directors of CE21. Jan, Joan and Jim will discuss the CE21 solicitation and answer questions in an interactive webinar format, open to the first 100 participants. If you would like to learn more about CE21, please respond to this email (to Erik Russell erussell@nsf.gov) as soon as possible.

MSI Funds: A limited number of NSF scholarships are available for Minority-Serving Institutions to attend the NCWIT May Summit. Click here to apply: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NCWIT2011SummitFunds
Deadline for applying is: March 1, 2011.

Un-poster Session: Sign up now to register your un-poster at the NCWIT Summit May 25, 2011 from 12-1 PM ET:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UnPosterMay2011

We want to bring your attention to a terrific article from the Brown Daily Herald about the lack of women in computer science, “Algorithms Can’t Solve CS Gender Gap.” The piece touches on some of the problems – and solutions – well-known to many CS departments, such as attracting more diverse students to the major, implementing intro courses with broader appeal, developing affinity groups for women students, and staffing classes with women faculty and TAs. It discusses the importance of outreach to K-12 and helping to clear up misconceptions about CS.

We hope you will join us for three days of practices, workshops, ideas, research, inspiration, conversations, and innovation. Learn from noted experts and voices in the fields of computing, innovation, and diversity; share perspectives with other practitioners; and celebrate the achievements of girls and women in IT. An official invitation from NCWIT will be coming soon!

A limited number of NSF scholarships are available for Minority-Serving Institutions. Click here to apply: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NCWIT2011SummitFunds. Deadline for applying is: March 1, 2011.

NCWIT recently selected the 35 winners of the 2010-11 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing and 150 Runners-up from a pool of 906 completed applications. Visit www.ncwit.org/award to see a map of the winners and runner's up. We couldn't have accomplished this daunting task without of the help of literally hundreds of volunteers, the bulk of which came from NCWIT member organizations. There were 108 volunteers from Academic Alliance member organizations! Indiana University leads the pack with 20 volunteers. Go Indiana!

The NCWIT Academic Alliance is pleased to announce that we have seed funds available to fund programs and initiatives for student organizations that serve to promote increased presence of women in computing and IT programs on our AA member campuses. Several $500 grants will be awarded. Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NCWITStudentSeedFund to apply. Applications for the Spring 2011 semester are due on February 15th, 2011 and we will notify recipients by March 1st, 2011!

Spring semester deadline:
Deadline to submit: February 15, 2011
Notification date: March 1, 2011

The second in our NCWIT Academic Alliance Webinar series - Retaining Undergraduates in Computing Through Mainstreamed Interventions, will take place on February 15, 2011 at 12PT/1MT/2CT/3ET. The Webinar will be presented by NCWIT Social Scientist Dr. Lecia Barker.
If you would like to register for this webinar, please click on the following link: http://www.iste.org/store/product.aspx?ID=1897