Maria Klawe (CSE Colloquium and Distinguished Lecture Series)
''Increasing the Participation of Females in Computer Science''
Maria Klawe
President
Harvey Mudd College
Monday, April 9, 2012, 11:00 am
EBU3B, Room 1202
Abstract
Despite the excellent opportunities and salaries in computing careers, participation by females has declined over the past twenty years. One of the major factors contributing to this decline are the reduced numbers of females starting and graduating as computer science majors. This talk explains why so few females choose to major in CS, and tells the story of how Harvey Mudd College went from 10-15% females in CS to over 40% in four years.
Short biography
Maria Klawe began her tenure as Harvey Mudd College’s first female president in 2006. Prior to joining HMC, she served as dean of engineering and professor of computer science at Princeton University. Klawe joined Princeton from the University of British Columbia where she served in various roles from 1988 to 2002. Prior to UBC, Klawe spent eight years with IBM Research in California and two years at the University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. (1977) and B.Sc. (1973) in mathematics from the University of Alberta. Klawe is a member of the board of Microsoft Corporation, Broadcom Corporation and the nonprofit Math for America, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a trustee for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley and a member of the Advisory Council for the Computer Science Teachers Association.
