Students in computer and data science attend the Grace Hopper Celebration

A group of 20 young women who major in computer science standing in front of a banner and looking at the camera.
This group of students majoring in computer science and two teaching faculty attended the national Grace Hopper Celebration in Chicago, the world's largest gathering of women technologists.

In November, 19 students in the college traveled to the Grace Hopper Celebration, accompanied by faculty member Sadia Nowrin.

While at the conference, students attended technical talks and workshops and connected with other women in computing from across the country – including industry employers.

The trip was coordinated by Associate Professor Christine Cheng and Professor Susan McRoy.

Most of the undergraduate students who attended are pursuing degrees in computer science or computer engineering, with others majoring in data science and information science and technology. The group also included two master’s students in computer science and one PhD student in biomedical and health informatics.

UWM previously sent students to the Grace Hopper Celebration annually from 2014–2019 with support from private IT companies through the BRAID academic collaboration. This year’s trip was made possible by a generous gift from Paul McNally, UWM senior lecturer emeritus in the Department of Computer Science.

Participants had this to say about the experience:

  • “I met wonderful people from all over the world, got to sit with other women who look like me and share similar backgrounds. My favorite part was being able to sit in community groups and talk about technology in Spanish.”
  • “I had the opportunity to meet a senior software engineer from Google and participate in a very insightful discussion. It helped me better understand real-world applications of AI and research directions. I also attended several sessions that broadened my perspective on accessibility and responsible AI.”
  • “I emailed one of the speakers I really liked after a talk, and he set up a chat with me on Friday to talk one-on-one about his experience and I got really good advice!”

The Grace Hopper Celebration honors women in computing and is named for Grace Hopper – a pioneering computer scientist and U.S. Navy officer during World War II. She helped make computers more accessible by creating the first compiler, a tool that translates human-readable instructions into machine code, revolutionizing computer programming.