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WiE Newsletter -December 2022 - ISSUE 33
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Front and Center News from the Director
Each phase of the academic year brings its own excitement. As we return from our Thanksgiving holidays, finals loom on the horizon. And, to steal and rephrase a line from cereal commercials, “finals are not just for kids.” Finals means we are summing up the term: as faculty making our final points and as students checking our understanding of the term’s worth of material.
It is no different for the Center.
Our outreach to our 1st generation SEAS students is taking form. Our first try was a lunch and learn noted in last month’s newsletter and it brought together a few students. We thought for our next try we might make the gathering more informal and hosted a Drop In event in our Tompkins Hall Center space (Room 110, drop by if you are on campus). This format helped us reach more students, spend personal time with each one to address the specific challenges a student was facing and introduced the Center as a resource space. Our next Drop In is set for December 7 from 12:00 to 2:00pm. Interested? Know someone who might be? Please contact Dawn at pmscwie@email.gwu.edu
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Our Meet Our Faculty series held its fall session with a presentation be EMSE Professor Erica Gralla. Professor Gralla shared her experiences on her recent sabbatical in Hamburg Germany at the Kuhne Logistics Unversity, her research into COVID testing processes, the impact of her students on her research and her journey to her current position at GW. Professor Gralla's talk took us all through a journey following the path of COVid tests to understand the process from providing a COVID test samples, which we all did, to the submission of results to the vaious stakeholders. The research centered on using process analytic methods to determine the blockages preventing test-analysis sites from processing more and more samples. A recording of the webinar can be found at VIMEO Link Here
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In case our paths do not cross until the New Year, I wish you all the happiest of holidays.
Dr. Shelly Heller
WiE Center Director
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Thank you to WiE Advisory Board member Gene Colabatistto and his family for their support of WiE, SEAS and GW. In case you missed the note in GWToday (November 22), in addition to the Gennaro A. Colabatistto Family Scholarship to support student veterans in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, they are opening doors to opportunity for future generations through the Colabatistto Endowed Scholarship in Engineering, which will offer financial support to undergraduate engineering students at GW in perpetuity
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Remember, all are welcome at all WiE events
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Congratulations to CS Professor Yasemin Acar.
Professor Acar is a PI on the multi-university NSF Frontiers grant "Enabling a Secure and Trustworthy Software Supply Chain." Led by North Carolina State University, this $6.4M collaborative research will focus on open source supply chain security. All modern software includes open source software, and there is a high risk of malicious, criminal manipulation.This Frontiers project establishes the Secure Software Supply Chain Center (S3C2), a large-scale, multi-institution effort designed to aid the software industry re-establish trust in the software supply chain through the development of scientific principles, synergistic tools, metrics, and models in the context of human behavior among software supply chain stakeholders. The project’s novelties include the contributions to a diverse workforce that is trained in secure software supply chain methods through research and outreach initiatives, including summer research experiences for undergraduates (REU), summer camps, and the development of course modules for undergraduates, graduate students, and practitioners. The project’s broader significance and importance are the ways in which S3C2 will facilitate rapid innovation with increased confidence in software supply chain security. Team members include North Carolina State University, Carnegie Mellon University, The George Washington University and the University of Maryland College Park.
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Remember, all are welcome at all WiE events
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Applications open for fellowships in designing trustworthy AI systems.
GW DTAIS is a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) that supports PhD students conducting research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human work systems.
Upcoming info session on December 12th at 10am highlighting the PhD program in CS and EMSE, the PhD focus in Trustworthy AI, and the DTAIS certificate and Data Analytics MS.
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Calling all Virginia based SEAS Alumni! Join fellow Northern VA area alumni on Tuesday, December 6th from 6:00PM-8:00PM for a conversation with GW leadership about how the latest trends in the technology industry create opportunities for innovation at the university. The conversation will feature our own Dean John Lach from the School of Engineering & Applied Science, Dean Anuj Mehrotra from the GW School of Business, and Dean Liesl Riddle from the College of Professional Studies. The Deans will discuss exciting new initiatives at each of their respective schools and the partnerships they are developing at the university and in the region that will enhance the university’s research, teaching, and outreach for maximum impact.
There will be a reception with hors d'oeuvres and beer/wine/soft drinks served following the discussion. For more information and registration, click here.
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What WiE Are Reading
Make time to read “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus. It is way more than a reminder of my undergraduate days as a Chemistry major. It’s hard to know which part of the story is most captivating: the story of hero Elizabeth Zott who deals with the sidelining of her efforts by almost all of the all-male research team at the fictitious Hastings Research Institute; the cooking lessons as chemical bond sessons; or the stories of the author's journey to have this book published and the choice of a book cover! Luckily the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) webinar with Ms. Garmus has been postponed to December 15, so you have a chance to register. Contact them.
An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS, Vol 118, 48) features the results of a study about the impact of the stereotypes that exist about STEM on girls in grades 1 to 12.While the reported findings “Societal stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering are endorsed by children and adolescents in a large and socioeconomically diverse sample, across multiple racial/ethnic and gender intersections, and as early as age six (first grade). Gender-interest stereotypes may contribute to subsequent gender disparities in the pursuit of these societally important fields. Addressing interest stereotypes may help improve educational equity” may not be new, the article underscores the value of the work in SEAS to provide GenCyber summer camps for middle schoolers and the Frontier grant noted above.
A September 22 issue of Higher Ed Dive caught my eye, especially after reading the PNAS article. The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality reported out a study suggesting that students’ choice of majors separate them by gender and color and unfortunately that persists beyond graduation. For example, they say (no surprise), “Women are less likely to enroll in computer science or engineering programs, while men are less likely to study education or healthcare.” As this impacts future earnings and status, the findings suggest that colleges and universities address. They point out that STEM courses often have additional expenses in lab fees and equipment that impact students, that students who start their study at community colleges and universities address this disparency often find transfer of credit muddles (at best), addressing the chilly climate and lack of a diverse faculty all contribute to the continued separation and are within the colleges’ reach to address.
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