Women in Computing Club to do High School Outreach 

UAlbany ACM-W student chapter Vice President Nikki Gupta, working with local Girl Scouts at a robotics workshop.

ALBANY, N.Y. (February 3, 2016) – The UAlbany student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery – Women (ACM-W), a new group established in October, will be reaching out to high school women interested in computing-related fields, thanks to a recent national award.

The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) and Google.org selected the UAlbany student ACM-W chapter to receive a Student Seed Fund gift of $3,000 sponsored by Google.org.

"The students involved in ACM-W have been so proactive in getting the group chartered, connecting with the other area ACM-W student chapters, and applying for this seed funding. They are a great group and really deserve this," said Jennifer Goodall, director of the Informatics Undergraduate Program and the group's adviser.  

Kayci Caldwell, president of the UAlbany student chapter, and a senior informatics major from Orchard Park, N.Y., said the group also plans to conduct more computing workshops, programs, and field trips as a result of the funding.

The funding will also help the UAlbany student chapter attend conferences, such as the New York Celebration of Women in Computing Conference this April in Lake George, N.Y.

“The UAlbany ACM-W student chapter would like to thank the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) and Google.org for the generous award. It is our goal to use the funding in the best way possible in order to help encourage, support, and retain women in computing-related fields,” said Caldwell.

Caldwell heard about the competition in the fall while she was attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Houston, Texas. NCWIT had a booth at the conference, and Caldwell followed up.

The group is fairly new and plans to meet every other Tuesday.

They have 21 official members, mainly undergrads, with some master’s and doctoral students as well. They have had a few meetings so far, one a technical resume workshop with Cathy Parker from the Office of Career and Professional Development, and another a mock interview event with employees from Apprenda, a cloud-computing start-up located in Troy, N.Y.

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