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Events: 02-23-06

02-23-06 Spring Semester Kickoff

The Spring Kickoff was held on February 23, 2006. 6 undergraduate students, 7 graduate students and 3 faculty members attended the meeting. We had a great discussion in a few main areas where CISters would like to place emphasis this semester and the coming academic year. And there were delicious snacks to help get us thinking! Here's an overview of the main areas we discussed.

Regular meetings

Preferred time for those present is Thursday, afternoon or evenings. We also decided to have a Wednesday or Friday lunch. We will probably rotate on a monthly basis.

University Recognition

To be recognized by the university, the organization should primarily be run by undergraduates. http://www.udel.edu/student-centers/AandP/rso/rso-policy.html

Undergraduates who voluteered to get the process started:

• Tara Strobel
• Sara Antoshkiw
• Niki G.

Graduate students who volunteered to help in this process:

• Ilknur Aydin
• Emily Gibson
• Sreedevi Sampath
• Sara Sprenkle

GHC Participation Grace Hopper is a conference held every other year to celebrate women in computing. At GHC, 2004, 900 women in computer science attended the conference! It is a great conference to attend, network, and get advice on various aspects of undergraduate and graduate life. We think it would be nice to have some participants and a large number of students in attendance at the conference. March 15 is the paper/poster submission deadline. We would like to organize attendance at GHC so CIS undergrads and grads are able to attend the event.

• Possible funding sources to attend GHC:
  • Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
  • Student scholarships provided by GHC. Students have a greater chance of getting scholarships if they participate in GHC by submitting posters or technical papers.
• We should try to submit 3 to 4 papers/posters. And try to have 10 - 15 students attending the conference.
• Need volunteers for a committee to organize the following: submissions, coordination, mentoring (to help others prepare a GHC submission)
• Graduate student who volunteered to help in this process:Ilknur Aydin
• Previous attendees will writeup on impact of attending GHC, so we can approach Dean for funding, and other students learn how to prepare their scholarship application.Write ups from
  • Sara Sprenkle
  • Rashida Davis
• Possible participants in GHC 2006
  • Sara Sprenkle, Grad student - PhD forum
  • Ilknur Aydin, Grad student - PhD forum
  • Rashida Davis, Grad student - PhD forum
  • Stacey Ecott (undergraduate researcher at UD in Summer'05 ) and Sara Sprenkle - poster
  • Other undergraduate students from UD?

Mentoring activities

• Designed for Majors
• We need common events that are on a weekly, bi-weekly basis. Model along the lines of big/little sister, i.e., have informal small groups and events planned for small groups.
• Or organize mentoring events. Have a brown bag or a party.
• Encourage senior undergraduates to talk about pre-registration for Fall in March

Outreach

• Designed for pre-majors
• Organize study groups, and tutoring sessions
• Organize talks in premajor classes, can this be formalized?
• 1 lecture every semester?
• To encourage undergrad researchers - Research talks in CISC220 or CISC260 classes in November/December
• Organize grad poster and talks day - Have a prize incentive so undergraduates come for the event. Organize this event on the Friday before Engineering week (E-week)

Public Relations

Goal: To spread the word of events organized by CISters and increase the awareness of the group, so women in CIS know where to go in case of need. We plan to form a committee with undergraduates from all levels (freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior) participating in PR, so they can let others in their class know about any events

Recruiting

• Advice on double majoring?
• Recruit students from 105 and 181 classes
• Publicize in Face Book

Events

Some other events that we could organize to promote women in computer science at University of Delaware.

Organize sessions to:

• encourage summer research
• choose classes
• help decide on major
• contrast career paths between academia and industry
• prepare for an honors thesis
• balance study/life

Fun events:

• pizza study breaks
• jeopardy/pictionary
• moon bounce

Places we can probably approach for funds to organize events:

• Office of women's affairs
• WISE
• Dean's office