Diversity in Computing Series (2021-2022)

In Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, the CSC ran a popular Diversity in Computing monthly speaker series, inviting STEAM leaders to discuss how they diversify inclusion in their fields and share insights about how power structures within computing disciplines should be transformed to create more equitable systems.

A woman with medium length dark brown hair smiles in front of a dark floral wallpaper background during a Zoom webinar. — Saba Gul presented her talk on social scalability in tech.

There is an urgent need to more fully consider the ethical and social implications of computing and its applications: for example, in designing addictive social media platforms or in using AI for facial or name recognition, which can lead to housing discrimination, racial biases in job hiring, or restrictions on personal freedoms through public and private surveillance.

To better understand how to counter these biases, this purpose of this series was to rethink STEM disciplines from the inside out. We invited one leader in a STEM field every month to speak about the work they are doing to diversify and broaden inclusion in their fields by either sharing their research, their experiences and initiatives in industry or academia, or their thoughts on how power structures within computing disciplines should be transformed to create more equitable systems.

2021-2022 Speakers:

Dr. Theodore Kim, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Yale: "Anti-Racist Computer Graphics Research"
Dr. Casey Fiesler, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder,"Three Lessons Toward Ethical Tech"
Dr. Jiahao Chen, CTO, Parity AI: "Practicing What You Publish: From Academia to an Anti-Racist AI Startup"
Saba Gul, Technologist and Entrepreneur: "One-Size-Fails-All: Building Socially Scalable Tech"
Dr. Talitha Washington, Director of the Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative and Professor of Mathematics at Clark Atlanta University, "Empowering Data Science for Social Justice"
CyberCollective, "How Personal Narratives can Fuel the Responsible Tech Movement"
Matt Mitchell, Ford Foundation and Founder of CryptoHarlem, "Easy Fixes for Algorithmic Bias"

To keep up to date with Diversity in Computing speaker events, check out Upcoming Events. To watch recordings of past Diversity in Computing events, check out our Youtube channel.