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by JENNY CALLISON photo by TERAH HOOBLER
LAURIE PATTERSON, a member of UNCW’s computer science faculty and coordinator of the university’s information technology program, is taking the lead as the university hosts the Carolinas Women in Computing conference on April 8-9. The conference is expected to draw about 150 undergraduate and graduate students as well as academicians and practitioners in a variety of computer-related fields. Info: carolinaswic.org TELL US ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: “The Carolinas Women in Computing conference is designed primarily for technology-focused students and faculty in North and South Carolina. Traditionally, there have been few women in the field; if we went to a regular conference, it was male-heavy. This conference has been going on for a few years, and it tends to happen biennially. The last one, hosted by Winthrop University (in South Carolina), was shortly before everybody got shut down with COVID-19. University of North Carolina Wilmington is the host this year; the next conference will be at Anderson University in South Carolina.” WHAT’S ON THE CONFERENCE SCHEDULE? “Registration/check-in is on Friday, April 8, and the final event will be over at about 4:30 on Saturday, April 9. There will be workshops late Friday afternoon featuring different types of software and how to do things. We’re looking at adding a workshop and inviting high school teachers from surrounding counties. Dinner Friday night features Beth Robertson, of Liberty & Associates, a government contracting firm, along with poster demonstrations by students. On Saturday, students will present papers on their research, and we’ll have two panels: one with women in industry and one with women in academia.” IS THE CONFERENCE GEARED PRIMARILY FOR STUDENTS? “It is more for students, but there tends to be a fair amount of interaction among the professionals. It gives sponsoring businesses an opportunity for a bit of a career fair. And faculty members do attend the poster session and paper presentations so they can see what other colleges’ students are doing. That gives students a chance to interact with faculty members who might be interested in their research. The CWIC conference is similar to large conferences, but we’ve got 150 people instead of thousands. And because there still aren’t many women in these majors, it gives the students an opportunity to meet other women in technology.” WHAT WILL ATTENDEES LEARN ABOUT PROGRAMS AT UNCW? “For one thing, our computer science department is almost fifty-fifty men and women with regard to faculty numbers, so when students come into our program, they see more women. The growth of UNCW and slow movement toward becoming a research institution have attracted more women to computer science; we’re slightly above the national average with regard to females in undergraduate enrollment for technology majors. The national average is about 18%, and across three technology majors UNCW is at about 21%.” WHAT IS UNCW DOING TO EXPAND ITS OFFERINGS IN COMPUTER-RELATED DISCIPLINES? “We now have programs in cybersecurity and intelligent systems engineering – think: The Internet of Things. With these programs and the new undergraduate major in coastal engineering, we are bringing something unique to this region.”W LAURIE PATTERSONS’s full profile will appear in an upcoming WILMA Roundup email. To sign up for daily WILMA emails, go to WILMAmag.com.
WILMAmag.com
APRIL 2022
WILMA
47
