CIS Students Meet 2006 A. M. Turing Award Winner at 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

Three UAB Computer and Information Sciences students were awarded scholarships to attend the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference at the Keystone Resort, in Colorado (October 1-4, 2008).  Vetria Byrd and Ritu Arora, both CIS Ph.D. candidates and Heather McCalley, a CS undergraduate, were selected from a competitive pool of over 600 applicants.  Vetria and Ritu were also selected to attend the Chief Technology Officer’s (CTO) Forum Networking Session at the conference where they were given the opportunity to meet and talk with 4 of the 17 participating industry CTOs.  Both candidates agree that this was one of many highlights of the conference.  Perhaps the biggest highlight was meeting Fran Allen, IBM Fellow and 2006 A. M. Turing Award winner.  Ms. Allen, the first female to receive such a prestigious award, was one of the participants of the CTO Forum.   Vetria was offered and recently completed a three-month summer internship at the IBM Yorktown Heights Facility where Fran Allen continues to maintain her office. 

Professor and Associate Chair Barrett Bryant also attended the Grace Hopper Celebration to recruit women graduate students into the CIS department and let women Ph. D. graduates know of the vacant faculty position in CIS. In 2007, Ph. D. students Sherita Andrews and Xin Chen received scholarships to attend the conference. The department plans continued participation by faculty and women students.