Young women in New Mexico will have a new, potentially transformative opportunity to pursue careers in computer science.
The National Science Foundation recently awarded a three-year, $144,054 grant to SFI’s Learning Lab Director Irene Lee and New Mexico State University to collaboratively establish a computer science education program in New Mexico called YOGUTC: Young women Growing Up Thinking Computationally.
The YOGUTC mission is to increase and sustain women’s participation in computing by training young women in computer science. YOGUTC will also investigate and address the factors that contribute to the underrepresentation of women, particularly Latinas, in computing fields.
“YOGUTC is unique in aiming to advance young women’s skills and knowledge in computer science to a level beyond that of their male peers, so they will not succumb to doubt and intimidation when encountering computer science concepts in coed settings in high-school or college,” Lee says.
Though computer science is the fastest-growing occupational category, women are notably underrepresented in the eld. Fewer than
20 percent of computer science degrees are awarded to women, in contrast to other STEM fields like mathematics and biosciences, where women now participate in equal or greater numbers.