In October, nine Case Western Reserve University electrical engineering and computer science female students attended the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, the largest women in technology conference in the country.
Leah Karasek, Larissa Marcich, Meaghan Fenelon, Haley Eisenshtadt, Katherine Cass, Jessie Adkins, Stephanie Hippo, Sisi Gu and Yang Chen were part of the 8,000 attendees who assembled in Phoenix, where they met computer scientists from all over the world.
PhD student Chen praised the event saying, “I’ve been to a few conferences during my PhD; this is the most exciting and unique one. It gave me the faith to be who I want to be—no matter my age, gender, and race.”
By spending three days meeting women who had already accomplished similar goals that the students aspire to, the students got career advice and explored options they might not have realized existed prior to the conference, they said. Industry leaders such as U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, Shafi Goldwasser (RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT), and Arati Prabhakar (director of DARPA) all made appearances to share knowledge and meet upcoming computer scientists. Several CWRU alumnae attended as well, allowing current CWRU students to meet Jeni Panhorst (CWR ’99) and Tracy O’Brien (CWR ’13) to hear advice about both academia and industry.
The students thank the electrical engineering and computer science department, the Case Alumni Association, Case Hacker Society, and the contributions of individual alumni who helped make the trip possible.
In continued efforts to strengthen the presence of women in computing, the Grace Hopper Conference will be held in Houston next year.
To learn more, visit gracehopper.org.