Aspirations in Computing Honors Next-Generation Innovators
On April 20, UC Irvine honored 101 local high school students at the 2024 Orange County Aspirations in Computing (AiC) award ceremony. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) first launched AiC in 2007 to recognize the computing-related achievements of women (including genderqueer and non-binary), encouraging their continued interest in the field of computing.
“We’ve been hosting Aspirations in Computing for over a decade, and every year I am so impressed by what these young women have accomplished, but this year they are truly amazing,” says Debra Richardson, the founding dean of UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). The ICS Office of Outreach, Access & Inclusion (OAI), in collaboration with NCWIT, hosted the award ceremony, honoring the students’ ability to leverage computing techniques for applications in healthcare, education, climate science, and more. Their projects ranged from identifying alternative energy sources, to using neural networks to detect skin cancer, to modeling wildfire risk through machine learning.
“I love meeting the awardees and learning about their achievements and aspirations,” says Richardson. “It’s really a thrill to then introduce them to the AiC community, where they can connect with similarly driven young women in college and industry.”
Connecting with the AiC community was the highlight of the event, according to Huy Pham, a teacher at Westminster High School who attended with his students. “It was great to see the students being recognized for their efforts, but the heart of Aspirations occurred before the actual ceremony,” says Pham, a 2022 AiC Educator Award recipient. “Seeing my students network and converse with undergraduates, Ph.D. candidates, industry professionals, and even with a pioneer in computer science [Richardson] was worth its weight in gold, as it was something I cannot typically provide.”
The event included networking opportunities in a relaxed setting, letting awardees chat with UCI faculty and students and with industry leaders. It also featured two panel discussions. The first was an industry panel with Ninger Zhou, a senior UX researcher at Google and former UCI post-doc, and Saman Bodla, a software developer at SAP and ICS alumni.
The second was a student panel, featuring ICS students Maya Lee, co-president of Women in Information and Computer Sciences (WICS); Olivia Figueira, president of Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS); Azra Zahin, co-president of Data@UCI; and Barbara Martinez-Neda, a computer science Ph.D. student and Scholar-in-Residence mentor at the UCI DREAM Center.
“I loved hearing from the high school students about the inspiring work they’ve already accomplished in the field of computing,” says Lee, who was an AiC award winner in Maryland in 2019 and 2020 and who will now graduate with her computer science degree this spring. “Additionally, the industry panelists gave wonderful advice about navigating the world of technology as a gender minority. Connecting with all these individuals allows us to continue to build our community to reach far beyond the campus of UC Irvine; it brings me hope to see gender diversity in tech is continually growing and improving.”
“We hope that through this community and recognizing the students’ accomplishments, we can inspire their confidence and foster a more inclusive environment for women in computing,” says Richardson. “This is essential for broadening future perspectives on computing and technical improvements to our environment. These young women are the next generation of innovators to solve global problems.”
Kailani Lozada, one of Pham’s students at Westminster High School, affirmed that event achieved its goal. “What hit home was when Professor Richardson gave a brief recollection regarding the first time she walked into a CS class at UCI [and] found only 5 girls in a class with a total of around 120,” says Lozada. “As I looked around the room, a sea of young girls — future leaders in STEM — were drawn to Professor Richardson. At the ceremony, we were inspired by the representation and stories of other women and left with a motivation to bring change.”
— Shani Murray