My 16 year old daughter recently participated in the Western Aerospace Scholars (WAS) sophomore program. She spent 3 days researching, learning and designing a rover for a robotic mission to Mars. What fun! I was curious about the demographics of her co-participants, specifically, how many other young ladies were participating in the program. Reason for my curiosity;... Continue Reading →
Diversity Goals: A Necessary Discomfort?
When I started out in my undergraduate program, women made up about 50% of my freshman class in Computer Science. But by my senior year, that percentage had dropped to 10%. Bias was part of life – the look of concern when a student who didn’t know me got me for a group assignment, the... Continue Reading →
Fighting Racism with Visualization
How do you confront something pervasive yet ignored or invisible till experienced? W.E.B. Du Bois is best known for his civil rights work and scholarship, but his pioneering data visualizations around race inequity are drawing more attention as visualization becomes a profession. His visualizations for the 1900 Exposition in Paris are stunningly artistic, minimalist, and... Continue Reading →