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Women in CS: Mudd's story
… presented by Zach Dodds
Christine Alvarado Ran Libeskind-HadasMaria Klawe
Kathleen Schaefer
Where Are the Women?
Percentage of Undergraduate CS Degrees Awarded to Females(National Data Source: Taulbee Survey)
Where Are HMC's Women?
Percentage of Undergraduate CS Degrees Awarded to Females(National Data Source: Taulbee Survey)
Here!
Percentage of Undergraduate CS Degrees Awarded to Females(National Data Source: Taulbee Survey)
What changes did we make?
A new IntroCS course
Grace Hopper Conference for first-semester students
Summer research for first-year students
Community
Curriculum
Contributions
increasing importance
Four undergraduate years: ~190 students each
6 science/engineering majors:
Not many first-year choices, butevery student must take and pass IntroCS
Mascot:
Old CS1
public static void main( String[] argh )
Students liked this coursewho already liked CS
abstract(ion) art
| |****| |****| | | || |****| |****| | | || |****| |****| | | || |****| |****| | | | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Choose a light: 2
| | |****| | | | || | |****| | | | || | |****| | | | || | |****| | | | | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Choose a light: 1
|****|****| | | | | ||****|****| | | | | ||****|****| | | | | ||****|****| | | | | | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Choose a light: 0You win!
lights out
New CS 1
Attract all students
GO
AL
S
Python & pairing
and cookies!
New CS 1
Attract all students
Tout and "de-magic" CS
GO
AL
S
Python & pairing
assembly language
circuits
and cookies!
New CS 1
Attract all students
Tout and "de-magic" CS
Prepare for CS 2, CS 3, … SchemeJava
PrologJFLAP
C++
CS 2 CS 3
GO
AL
S
Python & pairing
assembly language
circuits
and cookies!
Weeks Paradigm Samples of the labs and assignments
1-3 functional integration, random walks, ciphers
4-6 hardware recursion in assembly, 4-bit multiplier
7-9 imperative Markov text generation, Conway's life
10-12 objects/classes Connect Four player, Date calculator
13-15 CS theory uncomputability, finite-state machines
Course Content: breadth
functional hardware imperative objects/classes
… everybody likes something !
Course Structure: support
pre-2006 2006 ~
75min lecture 75min lecture
75min lab 75min lecture
60min review 120min lab
50-student sections,randomly assigned
50-student sections,assigned by experience
required
incentivized
placement
Course Structure: support
pre-2006 2006 ~
75min lecture 75min lecture
75min lab 75min lecture
60min review 120min lab
50-student sections,randomly assigned
50-student sections,assigned by experience
required
incentivized
placement
Tracks: Experienced vs. Inexperienced
Welcome students w/o experience and challenge those w/ background.
Section-switching OK Labs shared by all
run-length encodingrun-length vs. Huffman
Assignment choice
Connect Four HostConnect Four AI
Assignments overlap, then diverge
black gold
Grace Hopper Conf.,
'07
12 students
CS Community: GHC
Interest is infectious…
GHC '09
… and self-sustaining!
Four of HMC's 40 (!) first-year women at
GHC '11, with mentor Martha Cuenca, who is second from left.
GHC '11
Summer research for first-years
2007-9: 30 women in summer projects, sponsored in various ways
Summer research for first-years…
Pam, Sabreen, and Becky working for
10 weeks in our windowless lab --
adorned with demotivational posters -- on a
robot for a scavenger hunt.
… leads to future years!
The same team, now juniors, showing off
their entry in Portland, OR.
Contributions
The team's robot, Serenity
Results: Retaining majors
these are incoming years
graduation year
2007
32% 30% 44%
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
women as % of CS majors
41%
i.e. t
otal
pop
ulat
ion
of w
omen
and
men
separately
Results: Attitudes CS Experience Survey
Participants (n=449; 57% response rate): All students in entering classes 2005-08 All CS major alumni, entering classes 2003-04
GHC Survey Response rates:
2007: 64% 2008: 79% 2009-on: 100%
Reasons for Choosing CSWhat are all the experiences that led you to choose a CS
major?
0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0%
Experiences before college
CS1
CS2
Research after freshman year
GHC conference
Interactions with CS professors
Interactions with CS majors
Other
Male Female
Reasons for Choosing CSWhat are all the experiences that led you to choose a CS
major?
0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0%
Experiences before college
CS1
CS2
Research after freshman year
GHC conference
Interactions with CS professors
Interactions with CS majors
Other
Male Female
Reasons for Choosing CSWhat is the single MOST IMPORTANT experience that led you to
choose a CS or CS/ Math major?
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0%
Experiences before college
CS 1
CS 2
Other CS course in college
Summer research after freshman year
Interactions with CS professors
Interactions with CS majors
Other
Female
Male
Research Experiences: Building Confidence "I didn't realize how much [research] I could
accomplish after just one frosh-level CS class!"
"Doing research made me much more confident about my skills and knowledge in CS."
Keys for HMC: Curriculum
Goals of the first course should be First, be as engaging as possible Next, offer as much personalized choice as possible Then, be as challenging as possible
Separate those with and without experience Helps those with experience: challenge, maturity Helps those without: confidence, pacing
Keys for HMC: Community A little funding goes a (pretty) long way
Cost: $500-$900/student depending on location (4 per room is OK!)
Regional celebrations: CWIC-SC '12 Students should attend technical sessions Organize trip over the prior summer Pre-trip student orientation/Post-trip reunion
Keys for HMC: Contributions Choose projects with accessible outcomes
Student contests (e.g., robotics) User studies/data analysis Game development (PyGame)
Don't underestimate students' abilities! Team up the students:
With other first-year students With more experienced students
Meet with students regularly (twice a day) Then, let them go for a couple days (now!)
"CS for all" benefits all
"CS for all" benefits all
and cookies never hurt!
"CS for all" benefits all
Robotics, too: from 5% to 45% women
"CS for all" benefits all
Reasons for Choosing CSWhat are all the experiences that led you to choose a CS
major?
0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0%
Experiences before college
CS1
CS2
Research after freshman year
GHC conference
Interactions with CS professors
Interactions with CS majors
Other
Male Female
Grace Hopper: Changing Perceptions
2007 2008 2009
Attending GHC was a positive experience 7 6.54 6.48
Attending GHC gave me a better understanding of CS 5.75 5.83 6
Attending GHC changed my perception of the CS culture 5.91 5.59 5.58
Attending GHC increased my desire to take another CS course 5.78 4.82 5.28
Attending GHC increased my desire to major in CS 4.98* 4.54* 5
* No significant increase above neutral
1=strongly disagree; 4=neutral; 7=strongly agree
Results: Retention
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Pe
rce
nt
of
tota
l p
op
ula
tio
n,
by
ye
ar
Women majors Women considerers
Men majors Men considerers
Results: Retention
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Per
cen
t o
f to
tal
po
pu
lati
on
, b
y ye
ar
Women majors Women considerers Women interested
Men majors Men considerers Men interested