Brown CS Students, Faculty, And Staff Attend The 2016 Tapia Conference
- Posted by Jesse Polhemus
- on Sept. 21, 2016
"Empowering" and "informational" are the first two words that undergraduate student Austin Peete of Brown University's Department of Computer Science (Brown CS) uses to describe the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing. "Given the opportunity to interact with other URMs that have made, and are making, an impact in the field provided me with knowledge on how to do so in my own manner."
This year, Brown CS continued and expanded its multi-year commitment to the conference by serving as a Gold-level sponsor and sending Department Chair Ugur Cetintemel, Academic and IP Programs Manager Lauren Clarke, and three students as attendees. The event, held this year in Austin, brings together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities to celebrate diversity, connect with each other, and benefit from each other's knowledge, experience, and inspiration.
The attendee list was impressive. "It was powerful to walk into the Tapia career fair," says undergraduate student Daniel Glauber, "and see the breadth of industry leaders, government agencies, and universities, all collaborating with the greater computer science community to foster diversity and inclusion in our field." In addition to the career fair, the Brown CS attendees spent their time talking with prospective undergraduate and graduate students, meeting with colleagues who share a similar commitment to diversity and inclusion, and attending a full schedule of workshops, panels, and exhibits.
Oluwakemi Odusany, also an undergraduate student, says that she came back to Brown with a lot of new energy: "The Tapia conference was a great platform to learn about opportunities that exist for minorities in the CS field. From the conversations that went on at the conference I went back to campus feeling really inspired."