CSE connects at Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing

CSE reached out to diverse student populations at the 2014 Richard Tapia Conference, which took place in Seattle, WA on February 5 – 8. This year’s conference theme was “The Strength of Diversity” as the Tapia Conference celebrated the contributions to computing by members of broad and diverse communities. As an event sponsor, CSE had a table at the event’s exhibition and was able to connect with a number of students regarding programs of study in computer science and engineering at Michigan.

Two students from CSE attended the conference

Estefania Nieto, an undergraduate in Computer Science, attended the conference as a Microsoft Scholarship Recipient. She chose to attend the conference for the speakers, particularity the presentation by Dr. Dan Garcia of UC-Berkeley, whose work is in the area of transforming K-12 computer science.

According to Estefania, “I also wanted to become a part of this community of diverse individuals in the area of computing. I found the conference very enjoyable and I took away a great deal of things including more experience with networking and professional development.”

Irving Olmedo, a graduate student in Computer Science and Engineering working with Prof. Satish Narayanasamy, attended the conference as a Microsoft Scholarship Recipient.

According to Irving, “I applied to go to this conference because the environment encourages diversity and gives a people a very comfortable environment to interact with others and participate in networking activities very seamlessly. It also has really relevant talks in computer science from diverse people we as students can take as role models.”