UPDATED 15:21 EDT / OCTOBER 15 2015

NEWS

Putting women and computer science in every field | #GHC15

In the second day of this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), the flow of visitors and established presences continues to mingle as professional and personal connections are established and renewed. While the emphasis on making newcomers feel welcome is a strong one, long-time figures at the conference are finding it to be just as friendly as their first encounter.

Ashley Conard, an Anita Borg Institute (ABI) Student Board member and Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Brown University, has been coming to GHC since she was a college freshman. Though her status as a board member keeps her busy, she found time to sit down with John Furrier and Jeff Frick, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team. Addressing the many aspects of her professional life, Conard discussed her introduction to Grace Hopper, its effect on her scholastic work and future prospects.

Computer science in every field

“As we continue to move forward in this technological age, you need to couple computer science with what you do,” said Conard. Characterizing computer science and coding as something that can be approached as another language, Conard was a strong proponent of integrating these disciplines into the basic college curriculum for all students.

She also felt that there were sizable benefits to be gained by not stopping at the college level, but continuing down into lower grades to provide more accessibility for computer sciences from earlier ages, suggesting others to “structure your thoughts, then your code, then your ideas.”

Spotting potential

Speaking of her experiences at this year’s GHC so far, Conard described walking around and seeing first-year visitors feeling uncertain, but curious about the possibilities. Pointing to the need to encourage these connections, Conard spoke of GHC’s efforts to build availability on a local level in more massive cities, such as Chicago, Boston and New York, and the organization of mentorship programs with a variety of cooperative companies.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Woman In Computing. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU