Grace Hopper Celebration

The second annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference will be held Sept. 19-21, 1997, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA. Professionals and academics in computer science and computer-related fields and students pursuing graduate study are encouraged to attend. The Computing Research Association sponsors the conference.

The Grace Hopper Celebration is a world-class technical conference presenting the significant contributions of women to the computing field. Inspired by the legacy of Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, a pioneer in the field of computing and an inspiration to women and scientists everywhere, the conference encourages women by making visible the possibilities, success stories and rewards available to women in computing. At the first Grace Hopper Celebration, held in Washington, DC, in 1994, more than 450 women computer scientists and students exchanged ideas and updated their knowledge, fostering collaboration among individuals working in various fields of computing.

Enabling communication

To promote this type of fellowship, the conference features technical talks by many of the most successful women in the computing field as well as panels, technical topic sessions, workshops and birds-of-a-feather sessions. The speakers are leaders in their fields and represent the major technical computing disciplines and the academic, government and industrial communities. A partial list of speakers for the 1997 conference includes Sandra Baylor of IBM Corp., Anita Borg of Digital Equipment Corp., Marina Chen of Boston University, Joan Feigenbaum of AT&T, Jeanne Ferrante of the University of California at San Diego, Deborah Joseph of the University of Wisconsin, Judith Klavans of Columbia University, Amy Pearl of Sun Microsystems Inc. and Pamela McCorduck, author of The Futures of Women.

The goal of technical topic sessions is to highlight a broader range of work by women engineers and researchers within the computing fields. The topic sessions will run in parallel, providing an opportunity for attendees to hear talks specifically related to their own fields. For the first time, technical topic sessions at this year's conference will feature shorter talks by students and young professionals just starting their careers.

Workshops, panels, seminars and birds-of-a-feather discussion groups will be included on the agenda both days of the conference and present an unparalleled opportunity for students and professionals in the field to meet and exchange their views and experiences. Workshops at the 1997 conference will impart information valuable to attendees just beginning their careers and to those who have already established themselves within the field. Topics to be covered range from a session exploring the need for and art of self-promotion to "Women in the History of Computer Science," a retrospective of the contributions of women to the development of modern computing.

Birds-of-a-feather sessions will convene for women of color, Asian women, Hispanic women, African-American women, lesbian/bisexuals, female graduate students, female junior faculty members and young professional women, providing an opportunity for members of these groups to share their special experiences and discuss the different challenges and obstacles encountered by women in these categories. The birds-of-a-feather sessions, a popular component of the Grace Hopper Celebration program, provide a natural forum for networking and mentoring.

Supporting the conference

Thanks to many supporters from government, industry and the professional associations, the 1994 conference enabled more than 450 women to come together and share knowledge, experience and expertise. In addition, nearly 2,000 videotaped technical lectures were distributed, and conference booklets were sent free of charge to students throughout the United States and Canada. To date, supporters of the 1997 conference include Digital Equipment, IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Informix, Texas Instruments Inc., Autodesk Inc., BBN, USWest, Xerox Corp., the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Kronos Inc., Macromedia Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, the NEC Research Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The 1997 Grace Hopper Celebration is seeking contributions of about $500,000 to enable the production of a high-quality conference with a low registration fee to ensure a broader and more diverse attendance. Contributions from supporters will help offset the general conference costs, the costs associated with student scholarships and travel grants, and the cost of producing and distributing the full-color celebration booklet and video.

The opportunity is still available to support the world's only technical forum featuring the ongoing contributions that women are making to the rapidly changing computer field. Supporting the 1997 Grace Hopper Celebration is an opportunity for sponsors to make a visible contribution to the recognition and advancement of women in the computing field. In exchange, contributors will be listed in extensive e-mail and Web publicity, in a first-class celebration program booklet that will be sent to all female computer science and computer engineering graduate students, and in the conference video series. For more information on contributing to the 1997 conference, contact Anita Borg, Grace Hopper Conference '97 fund raising chair. Tel. 415-853-2217; e-mail: borg@pa.dec.com.

Honoring Adm. Hopper

Hopper was a pioneer in the field of computing and an inspiration to women and scientists everywhere. Receiving her degree in 1934, Hopper was one of only four women in the doctoral program, and her doctorate in mathematics was a rare accomplishment in its day.

Hopper was a remarkable woman who faced the challenges of programming the first computers undaunted. Her work spanned programming languages, software development concepts, compiler verification and data processing, yet in true testimony to her vision and her intentness upon the future, Hopper felt her greatest contribution to society to be "all the young people I've trained." Additional information

For more information on the 1997 Grace Hopper Celebration, connect to http://www.systers.org:80/hopper. For information on the submission of technical papers or on speakers, contact Telle Whitney. Tel. 408-522-4360; e-mail: telle@actel.com. To register to attend the conference, contact Ruth Stergiou. Tel. 415-548-2424; e-mail: regdesk@netcom.com.