When she was 10 or 11 years old, Sarah Riley got an unexpected present from her gifted education teacher: a book on computer programming.
MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, July 6, 2009 12:00 am
When she was 10 or 11 years old, Sarah Riley got an unexpected present from her gifted education teacher: a book on computer programming.
Looking back, Riley can't quite figure out the gesture.
Maybe the teacher saw something in Riley, who loved all her classes but had a special knack for solving puzzles.
Maybe the teacher had done some reading on the lack of women in math and science fields and wanted to do something about it.
Whatever the reason, Riley - now pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln - is sure glad her teacher did what she did.
"I'm going to get in contact with her," Riley said. "I want to find out if she remembers what her motivation was."
Because then maybe Riley, too, could change the path of a young girl.
Her guidance, according to statistics and opinions of industry leaders, is sorely needed.
A study released last month from the Association of Computing Machinery revealed stark differences in the way boys and girls view careers in computer science.
In a survey of more than 1,400 college-bound high school students, the association found that while 45 percent of boys deemed a computer science major as a "very good" choice, just 10 percent of girls did so. That gap persisted across racial lines.
Further, while boys associated computing with phrases such as "design," "solving problems" and "interesting," girls associated computing with "typing," "boredom" and "math."
The number of undergraduates choosing computer science as a major - regardless of gender - has plunged since 2000, the study said, and numbers of computer science majors are not meeting projected work force needs.
"As long as teenagers believe that computer science is boring, difficult, antisocial or doesn't have much impact on solving the world's problems, they're unlikely to choose it for their future," the association said in a report.
Experts at UNL - where just 5 to 10 percent of 350 computer science and engineering students are female - say they've picked up on the problems.
And they're working to spread the word about the need for a technology-savvy work force in which both genders are represented adequately.
"We want good students, but they somehow choose to major in other things," said Leen-Kiat Soh, an associate professor of computer science.
"We want them here."
Led by Soh, UNL has launched a two-year-old initiative called the Girl Empowerment and Mentoring for Computing Project, aimed at inspiring girls toward careers in information technology.
Through GEM, female computer science students at UNL like Riley serve as mentors to middle- and high-school girls interested in computing fields.
The girls are divided into teams and, with help from their UNL "big sisters," prepare essays on topics related to information technology.
UNL faculty then judge the essays. This year's winning essays - which netted girls scholarships worth up to $1,000 per year if they come to UNL and major in computer science - focused on subjects such as environmentally friendly computers, hybrid cars and the use of technology to save endangered species.
In its first year, GEM attracted just three participants, Soh said, a discouraging result. But in advance of this year's project, Soh and his team aggressively courted Lincoln schools, especially gifted programs, and parents of potential participants.
Forty girls finished the program this time around, Soh said.
Soh has enough grant money to host two more rounds of GEM. After that, he said, he hopes to land another grant or find a donor.
Not to make an effort to recruit more women to computer science would be a major misstep, he said.
"This is half of the market, half of the community," he said.
Stephen Scott, associate professor and vice chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, called women an "untapped market."
"As women have become more prominent in taking leadership roles in society, they need to be at least as informed about computing and participating at least as much as men are," Scott said.
Faculty and industry leaders likely haven't done enough to show students the wide array of careers a computer science degree could lead to, Scott and Soh agree.
Graduates with computing expertise could go on to careers in software design, robotics, biotechnology, law, medical technology and many more, Scott said. They could design new cell phone applications or help a business run more efficiently.
"The list just goes on and on," Scott said. "Everything that goes on in modern society has some kind of computing within it."
But instead, too many young people associate computing with "geekiness," and too many girls feel they'd be without female role models in the field, Soh said.
Riley can empathize.
Growing up, she said, she hid her interest in math and science, focusing instead on English, drama and singing, areas in which she felt people around her expected girls to succeed.
As an undergraduate at UNL, she was one of only a few women in her freshman computer science course.
She left the major after a semester to pursue other interests - philosophy, then Japanese.
Riley ultimately returned to computer science, her passion. Still, being part of a small minority became "the norm," she said.
That's something Riley hopes she can help change for women of the future.
"Innovation is dependent on new perspectives, so it's critical to get diversity in computing, and not just women, but other kinds of diversity," she said. "We need to reach a critical mass.
"Not equipping yourself with the tools of technology is closing the doors on the best jobs that are available."
Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.