Internet Outreach to Prospectives
Univ of Washington
http://www.cs.washington.edu/WhyCSE
Berkeley ME on YouTube Dean Dennis
Lieu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfjqWMPj
YcQ
Undergraduate Women in
EECS
The Numbers
External Input
Opportunities and Resources
February 9, 2009
Sheila Humphreys, Ph.D.
EECS Director of Diversity
NCWIT collects data on female participation in computing from several sources. Figure 1 above shows
that in 2008, females who indicate an intention to major in computing increased by one percent
(N>300,000 students). UC Berkeley’s female applicant pool is slightly smaller each year than the
percentage of girls intending to major in CS based on SAT scores.
E lec tric al E ng ineering & C omputer S c ienc es and L &S
C omputer S c ienc e
F emale S tudent C ens us 1993-2008
35%
30%
25%
20%
E E C S UG %
F emale
E E CS GR %
F emale
LS C S UG %
F emale
15%
10%
5%
0%
F all
1993
F all
1994
F all
1995
F all
1996
F all
1997
F all
1998
F all
1999
F all
2000
F all
2001
F all
2002
F all
2003
F all
2004
F all
2005
F all
2006
F all
2007
F all
2008
All EECS UG Degrees, Percentages
100.0%
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
Men,%
50.0%
Women,%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Retention of EECS Women 20022004
Retention of women about the same as for men.
Entry
Women
2002
2003
% Graduated
All
94%
81 %
Median GPA 2005-7
women 3.1
men
3.3
89%
82%
Enrollment Comparisons
• MIT
• CMU
•
•
•
•
EECS
CS
ECE
UW
CS
Harvard CS
Stanford CS
EE
UCLA
CS
CSE
28% Women
18%
16%
22%
17%
12%
18%
10%
9%
UCB
EECS Undergraduate Admissions
2008
EECS
Applied
Admit (rate) Enroll
Total
2161
447 (21%) 228 (51%)
Women
314
74 (24%) 33 (45%)
Women=15% of freshman class.
URM
315
Source: College of Eng. 08
26 (8%)
4 (15%)
EECS Adv. Board Challenges
• Can EECS increase yield of admitted
women from 45% to 80% (eg Cal Tech)
• Can EECS match other COE depts% of women enrolled?
EECS Advisory Board
Recommendations
• “You will need to get out of your comfort
zone to change the department; it will be
awkward and requires (faculty)
leadership.”
• Community matters; leverage the low
numbers through 1-1 relationships/faculty
• Climate: student to student interaction very
important: “paintball vs. evening of theater”
NCWIT Recommendations
Recruitment
• Track enrollment data with faculty
• EECS is “passive” in HS recruitment
• Go after Undeclared Students
• Survey students as they enter major
• Generate hypotheses about decline
NCWIT: Lower div. Curriculum
• Top recommendation: ‘Clone Dan Garcia’
• Promote lab-centric approach of CS 61B
and 61C
• Evaluate lab-centric courses:
persistence in CS, gender, as well as
student achievement
• Reform & market Intro CS
Opportunities for EECS
• Create presence on YouTube to reach HS
• Recruit newly admitted women even more
vigorously March 30-May 1
• Engage faculty (even more) in contacting
them
• Leverage ugrad involvement in recruiting
• Assign Big Sisters earlier, at admission
Opportunities, cont. Increase
research engagement
• Gamescrafters model: lower div ok.
• Intel Ugrad Research Program very
effective for grad school admission 1/06-109
– 41 women participants out of 47- 2006-2009:
85% to graduate school
• SUPERB CS REU: 50% women but
Discussion
• Joe Hellerstein: We should be leading, developing strategies that
others will want to us not fixing up our own Cal Day.
• Babak: We can be more active recruiting undeclared students. At
MIT, decision is deferred. If we recruit them, we need to be flexible
about point of entry to CS major
• Jeff: We can recruit from among undeclared students in the College.
• Dan: in early process of new CS0: “Intro to Computing”
• Linking CS to other fields, as the bio + CS shown in UW video
• Christos: we can link to UW web with attribution
• Ruzena: We need to hire more women to be role models.
• Brian: decline in our CS figures tracks national decline in interest.
• Dave P.: Taking on the teaching of hs CS is too big a project: focus
on students already on our campus. There are enough to focus on.
• Recruit not just L&S but COE undeclared students
• Change the name of computing to: Engergy Health and Information
Technology in the interest of Society
• Fiona: Find ways to integrate relevant research themes into how we
present ourselves to young women.
• Vel: women used to be limited in professions: more math majors
then, to be teachers and now….?
• Paul H: factors that lower our yield are important: size of campus,
classes, safety.
• Utilize peer testimonials more in recruitment; increase student-tostudent interaction
• Take a strategic rather than tactical approach
Cast a wide net with broader intro courses
EECS Women’s Community
•
•
•
•
BIG Sister Program for freshmen/transfers
AWE ugrad women meets weekly
AWE reports at annual Faculty Retreat
Mentoring by speakers,grads :
WICSE/AWE lunch 1/month
• IEEE: woman president &11/37 officers
• Visitors: Fran Allen, Teresa Meng, Estrin,
Landau, etc
EECS Diversity Programs with
external funds
• CISCO Scholarships ($40-60k)
• Intel Undergrad Research Program $5060k
• NSF REU SUPERB-Computer Science in
the Interests of Society $70k/year
• NSF Empowering Leadership Alliance
Ruzena Bajcsy) $45k/year)
Lessons from MIT
• EECS is PROACTIVE at PreFrosh level; women are courted
•
• SUMMER Program: 35-40 women students for one month; half are
admitted
• “Discover EECS” Freshman Pre-orientation Program a week
early: encourage women especially to attend--only 45 of whom half
are women
• Introductory course very effective
• Course VI recruits students freshman year
Distribution in EECS Options
•
•
•
•
•
•
Comnet 112
Elec
142
CS
180
CSE
80
General 378
Double
9
Minors
5
CS L& S= 112
Lessons from UW CS
• Freshmen identify influential high school
teachers: annual dinner with faculty
and students invited to annual dinner with
students: ‘Love-fest’
• Reliance on specific faculty(Lazowska) for Intro
CS courses
• Recruit strong students from intro CS courses
• Make pre-CS majors part of the community early
Lessons from CMU
•
•
•
•
Admissions done by CS not campus
Expanded criteria for admission (Blum)
Active student recruiters
Supportive culture
BFOIT encourages girls and underrepresented minorities to consider IT majors and
fields, by sponsoring middle and high school computer science and engineering campsScience for Youth (SCI-FY) and the Summer Institute for Future Computer Scientists and
Engineers.

BFOIT started working with 25 students for one week, in 1999. This is the 10th year
and BFOIT/SCI-FY has served over 425 students, many for 4 years, and works with and
average of 63 students per year, all year.

Our students work with Alice, Scratch, LEGO Mindstorms, LOGO/jLOGO, TurtleGraphics,
and Java.

Over 9 years, BFOIT/SCI-FY has secured over $300,000 in small grants, from Sun
Microsystems, Microsoft, HP, numerous private donations and especially the S.D. Bechtel,
Jr. Foundation.

BFOIT has also supported WiSE scholarships, Sun scholarships, Kaplan and Princeton
Review SAT prep and private college coaching, and co-sponsored with COE a couple of
“Recruitment Days.”

Ethnic Minority Enrollment
Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and L&S
Computer Science
Enrolled Underrepresented Ethnic Minority Student Census, Fall
Semesters
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
EECS UG % UREM
5%
EECS GR % UREM
4%
LSCS UG % UREM
3%
2%
1%
0%
Fall
1993
Fall
1994
Fall
1995
Fall
1996
Fall
1997
Fall
1998
Fall
1999
Fall
2000
Fall
2001
Fall
2002
Fall
2003
Fall
2004
Fall
2005
Fall
2006
Fall
2007
Fall
2008
Ugrad Women Profile
• Median Cumulative GPA 2005-07
Women
3.1
Men 3.3
Potential women grad students:
# Seniors with GPA > 3.5 = 14/43
# Juniors with GPA > 3.5 = 6/17
EECS-ECE UG Degrees, Percentages
100.0%
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
Men,%
50.0%
Women,%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
EECS Degrees/Gender
EECS-CSE UG Degrees, Percentages
120.0%
100.0%
80.0%
Men,%
60.0%
Women,%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
Snapshots
• No women nominees to CRA Outstanding
Undergraduate Award in 08
• 1 woman applied to UCB EECS grad
• 3 women applied to 5th year MS
• 1/27 women in EECS Honors Program
• 2/33 EE women doing 199 Research
• ? CS women (data to come from CS)
Diversity
• CA Proposition 209 constraints (1996)
• No preferences solely on basis of gender
and ethnicity
• Socioeconomic, unusual challenges,
disability, rural, etc
• Rules:
http://www.ucop.edu/ogc/enhance_diversity.html
Department/Campus Diversity
EECS Graduate Affirmative Action Advisers:
• Ruzena Bajcsy
• Seth Sanders
Campus:
Vice-Chancellor Gibor Basri,
Equity and Inclusion, $4.5 million
Lessons from UCLA
• CENS Center focuses on pre-college pipeline
• Leadership: Deborah Estrin, PI
• Targets LA Schools, summer research
• CENS HS Scholars Program: pipeline
• CENS trips to LA high schools
Enrollment Comparisons COE
•
•
•
•
Bioengineering
Civil & Environmental
Mechanical
EECS
37% Women
34%
13%
10%
Ethnic Minority Enrollment
Dept. of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and L&S
Computer Science
Enrolled Underrepresented Ethnic Minority Student Census, Fall
Semesters
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
EECS UG % UREM
5%
EECS GR % UREM
4%
LSCS UG % UREM
3%
2%
1%
0%
Fall
1993
Fall
1994
Fall
1995
Fall
1996
Fall
1997
Fall
1998
Fall
1999
Fall
2000
Fall
2001
Fall
2002
Fall
2003
Fall
2004
Fall
2005
Fall
2006
Fall
2007
Fall
2008
National Imaging Campaign
• NCWIT
http://www.ncwit.org/resources.res.outreach.html
• ACM
http://computingcareers.acm.org/
• NAE Marketing Study: “Changing the Conversation”
• Girl Scouts
http://www.girlscouts.org/news/news_releases/2008/motoro
la_foundation.asp
WICSE at SF State 11/08