ITL’s Scholtz and Voorhees are invited panelists at CRA Status of Women in Computing Research Workshop

Jean Scholtz and Ellen Voorhees of the Information Access Division in ITL were invited panelists at the latest Computing Research Association Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) Career Mentoring Workshop held June 6-8, 2003 in San Diego, CA. The Computing Research Association, CRA, is an association of North American organizations involved in computer science and computer engineering research, including academic departments and industry and government laboratories. Its mission is to strengthen research and education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in our society. A standing committee of the CRA is the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research or CRA-W. The CRA-W works to increase the number and success of women in computing research and higher education by assessing needs and by developing and implementing programs to encourage and support women in the computing research community. Its four main areas of activity are research mentoring, information sharing, community building, and effecting organizational change. Part of the mentoring activity of the CRA-W is a series of Career Mentoring Workshops. This latest Workshop was held in conjunction with the ACM Federated Computer Research Conference (FCRC). Approximately 120 women attended the mentoring workshop.

Jean Scholtz gave her presentation at the panel on Models of Industrial and National Lab Research. Panelists were asked to discuss the type of research they do at their laboratory and to address such issues as who selects the research work, the types of people they work with, how the research differs from what they did in graduate school, and to describe the other duties they have besides research. Other panelists were from Sun Microsystems and IBM Watson.

Ellen Voorhees participated in the panel on Career Options at Industrial and

National Laboratories. Other panelists included an IBM Fellow Emerita and a representative from Sun Microsystems. The panel described the technical and managerial

career paths available to PhDs in non-academic institutions.

More information about CRA-W is available at http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/index.html

Contact: Jean Scholtz, ext. 2520

Ellen Voorhees, ext. 3761