2019 CSE Celebration

Gender in STEM: Trends, paradoxes, and job talks
Pamela Cosman, Professor, UCSD ECE
Location: CSE Room 1242

Pamela C. Cosman is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego. Her administrative and editorial positions have included Director of the Center for Wireless Communications, ECE Dept. Vice-Chair, Associate Dean for Students of the Jacobs School of Engineering, and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. She has published over 250 papers on image/video processing and wireless communications, as well as one children’s book (The Secret Code Menace, Ransom, UK) that introduces error correction coding and other wireless communications concepts through a fictional story.

In addition to her engineering research, Prof. Cosman serves as the Faculty Equity Adviser for the Jacobs School of Engineering, and as Co-Director of the Center for Research on Gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (CRG-STEMM). Through CRG- STEMM, she conducts basic social science research on biases in faculty hiring, experiences of under-represented minority graduate students, and gender effects in career recommendations. For outreach and service work in support of diversity in engineering, she was awarded the UC San Diego Affirmative Action and Diversity Award (2016), the Athena Pinnacle Award (2017), and the national Diversity Award of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (2018). Prof. Cosman is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi, and a Fellow of the IEEE. She has four children: Benjamin (age 27), Rafael (25), Gilead (21) and Ilan (16).

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LGBTQ+ at UCSD: Resources and Community
Arun Kumar; Moderator; Assistant Professor, UCSD CSE
Maribel Gomez; Panelist; Assistant Director for Education, UCSD LGBT Resource Center
Sothyrak (Tee) Srey; Panelist; UCSD CSE MS Student and Secretary, oSTEM UCSD Student Chapter
10:15am - 11:15am, CSE Room 1202

This event will focus on the resources and community on campus for people who identify as LGBTQ+. It will feature a short talk by Maribel Gomez, who lead the UCSD LGBT Resource Center, and by a student head of oSTEM UCSD Student Chapter. A panel discussion with the speakers will follow, moderated by Arun Kumar, a faculty member in CSE. The discussion will focus on the experience of the speakers navigating being out in academia and/or tech, the effects of intersectionality, and on tackling the outstanding challenges faced by this community.

View LGBT Resource Center slides

View O-Stem slides

Inclusive Design: Access for All
Jimmy Cong, ADA Access Specialist, Office for Students with Disabilities
Jenn Dandle, Web Manager, Library
10:15am - 11:15am, CSE Room 1242

Accessibility is essential to persons with disabilities have equal access to participation in the world. People who use technology in adaptive ways may be excluded if designers and developers don't consider and design for users of a variety of abilities. Learn more about how users of different abilities use technology and see how their experience can break down when software or websites are not designed with accessibility in mind.

The presentation will include a demonstration of accessibility on Mac and Windows OS, providing examples of software and solutions which work well with assistive technology and examples of software and solutions which lack accessibility features.

People of all technical abilities can help make the digital world more accessible to persons using technology adaptively. We’ll provide a simple framework developers and other contributors to tech projects can use every day to advance inclusive design and accessibility in technology.

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Recognizing and Responding to Microaggressions
CSE DEI Culture Subcommittee:
Caitlin Dempsey, Meaghan Kelliher, Nicole Martindale, Ariana Mirian, Ariel Weingarten, Veronica Abreu, Raechel Walker
11:30am - 12:30pm, CSE Room 1202

Microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily interactions that are difficult to identify and even harder to address. Microaggressions, whether intentional or unintentional, communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults towards a person based solely on their marginalized group membership. These actions can be verbal, behavioral, or environmental, such as asking a person of Asian descent “where are you really from?”

They are often cultural norms from a less aware time which make them a subtle and ostensibly innocent detriment to a community. This workshop will define microaggressions, share experiences with them, and brainstorm responses that embody CSE’s values. It will begin with a short presentation defining microaggressions and how their presence marginalizes members of a community. Then participants will break into small groups to play an “Apples to Apples” style game to share experiences with and think about how to respond to microaggressions. The workshop will conclude with a share back where everyone will reflect on the shared stories and reflect on how we can spread this awareness throughout the CSE community.

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Collaborative Approaches to Support Diverse Students in STEM: A path toward Inclusive Excellence
Jeffrey Orgera, AVC Student Retention & Success
Lindsay Romasanta, Director Student Success Programs
11:30am - 12:30pm, CSE Room 1242

The emphasis on improving STEM education and creating a more robust STEM-prepared workforce is a national priority. While the STEM enrollment and completion pipeline has widened, data shows that diverse students and women are less likely to be prepared for and complete STEM degrees than their White male peers (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, 2013).

Given our nation’s demographic realities that people of color will compose 53% of the U.S. population by the year 2050 (Center for American Progress, 2014), educators at all levels need focused and strategic efforts to provide access and ensure success for diverse populations of students in STEM.

Women and students from underrepresented groups may experience limited exposure to role models among the professoriate and often face implicit or explicit bias from their peers within STEM fields. Ong, Wright, Espinosa, & Orfield (2011) completed a synthesis of empirical research and found that institutional environments and actors present the largest obstacles to achievement and advancement in STEM for women of color.

One solution is to invest in intentionally cultivating a science identity within underrepresented students and women in STEM (Carlone and Johnson, 2007). This session will offer pragmatic strategies for faculty and staff in STEM departments to reduce the obstacles for diverse high potential students who have limited opportunities to see their likeness, values, or life experiences represented among STEM faculty and professionals.

Curriculum Design and Engineering Challenges in CSForAll
Joe Politz, UCSD CSE
3:00pm - 4:00pm, CSE Room 1202

There are widespread efforts to make computing education available to all children in the US. This talk addresses some specific tool and curriculum design decisions Bootstrap has made to reach a diverse audience of students. These tools and curricula are being actively used in middle and high school classrooms across the country and here in San Diego.

10:00am - 12:00pm & 12:30pm - 4:00pm
CSE Room 1244
CSE’s Red Chair campaign stems from NCWIT’s Sit With Me Campaign which has the goal of validating and recognizing the important role women play in creating future technology. This is demonstrated by taking a symbolic action: sit in a red chair and share your story. The CSE department is holding a Red Chair campaign at UC San Diego in conjunction with UCTV with a goal of recognizing not only the role of women in technology but also the importance and impact of diversity in technology. We invite you to participate in CSE’s Red Chair Campaign to show your support and share why you believe diversity, equity, and inclusivity matters.

More Info

8:00am - 4:00pm
CSE 1st Floor Lobby
VideoMob is a new take on the concept of the photo booth as it invites users to record a video portrait to be instantly combined into a dynamic crowd. VideoMob is a collaborative effort between Visual Arts and Computer Science students at UC San Diego. An installation will be present to collect the ephemeral crowd and stitch together a persistent presence for participants of the Celebration of Diversity.