“To create a more diverse and inclusive tech world, we need to inspire and empower the next generation of female role models to develop their careers and become innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Together we can make a difference.” — Anna Radulovski, Founder and CEO at Coding Girls and WomenTech Network, and Regional Director at Founder Institute
ACM India Grad Cohort 2020, the third pan-India workshop for women in computing, is being jointly organized by ACM-W India and the discipline of Computer Science Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar from 24th — 26th July. Recently, I had a conversation with Dr. Heena Timani and Dr. Nutan Limaye, who provided some interesting sneak-peeks of the activities that will be happening during this event.
Heena Timani is currently working as the chairperson of the women wing at the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) India. A data scientist who has been associated with ACM since 2012, she is also the co-founder and director of a data-analytics startup. Moreover, she has worked with Ahmedabad University for 20 years as a faculty in Computer Science.
Nutan Limaye is a faculty member in Computer Science Engineering at IIT Bombay and has been a part of ACM India since 2014 in various capacities. She joined the ACM-W India council in 2017 and has been the vice-chairperson of this organization since 2019. ACM-W India Grad Cohort is one of the initiatives that she started in 2018.
ACM-W India — Exploring The Background
We opened our discussion with some insights about ACM-W India. According to Dr. Timani, the aim of this organization is to celebrate and support (professionally as well as socially) women in computing. It organizes different workshops, lecture series, seminars, hackathons, programming sessions, informal meetings, and other similar activities for girls pursuing their undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. studies as well as careers in computer science.
The ACM-W India seeks to take forward the task of the ACM community, but with a special emphasis on women empowerment in computer-related fields and domains. It internationally advocates the complete engagement of women in all aspects of computing by providing a wide range of programs and services. The student chapters are created to help, recruit, and retain students in computer science. Professional chapter-sponsored activities educate girls and women about careers and provide networking opportunities.
ACM-W India encourages girls to participate in computing studies and research. It also focuses on providing a platform for sharing information, resources, ideas, and experiences so that women can effectively face the challenges in their work environments. One of its goals is to promote computer literacy, particularly in rural India with the objective of empowering underprivileged women and children and in the process, enabling them towards being independent and self-reliant.
Dr. Limaye stated that ACM-W India strives towards bringing women together in computing. Over the years, people have found many connections within this community. This organization constantly works to advance the contributions of girls and women in computational technology.
ACM-W India Grad Cohort 2020 — What Is Its Purpose?
We progressed to talk about the workshop that will be happening soon. Dr. Timani explained that the Computing Research Association — Widening Participation (CRA-WP), an international computing body, started conducting the Grad Cohort workshops in different educational institutions of the USA from 2004. These sessions have helped many women through their graduate years and beyond, over the last 15 years. In 2018, ACM-W India decided to adopt the model of this workshop in the Indian setting, with the first edition organized at IIT Bombay in July 2018 and the second one at IIT Delhi in 2019.
The third installment of this pan-India workshop, ACM India Grad Cohort 2020, will happen virtually at IIT Gandhinagar. The main purpose is to reach out to the Indian women students in the domain of computing. They will be guided by several women experts in various aspects of their graduate careers viz., polishing their reading-writing skills, exploring research topics, achieving a work-life balance, etc. This edition will also feature presentations and interactive sessions by experienced women researchers as well as one-on-one discussion opportunities with industry and academia leaders. Furthermore, it will have a special focus on dealing with the unusual situation that we all are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This context will reflect across all sessions, and there will be specific panel-sessions revolving around how women can try to effectively adjust to the new normal.
Adding further, Dr. Limaye remarked that the entire ACM-W India community is very excited to host this event which was conceptualized for the women graduate students.
Apart from the problems that any grad student faces, the women in computing encounter different professional and personal challenges.
In such a case, events like the upcoming workshop guide them to efficiently pursue their graduate lives and careers while handling these hurdles. The message is clear — women are not alone in their journey!
Who Are Its Target Audience?
Masters and Graduate students who are carrying out their studies in the fields of computer science and Information Technology, faculty members working at different institutes, and final year students who want to pursue their careers in research and academia can join this Grad Cohort. All girls and women who can get benefitted from advice and guidance related to grad years are welcome to be a part of this workshop.
The Speakers
Dr. Timani mentioned that 30% of the speakers are experts from industry and 70% of them are from academia. The industry folks majorly come from popular research laboratories and the faculty are part of renowned institutions like IITs, IISc, BITS, IIIT, IMSc, and so forth.
Dr. Limaye elaborated that the invited speakers of this workshop are quite interesting and influential women leaders in computing. One of them is Sunita Sarawagi who is a professor at IIT Bombay and the other person is Meena Mahajan from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
Dr. Sarawagi is the recipient of the Infosys Prize 2019 in Engineering and Computer Science for her crucial research (in data mining, machine learning, databases, and natural language processing) and pioneering work in developing information extraction techniques for unstructured data.
Dr. Mahajan has made many fundamental contributions in the field of Algorithms and Complexity Theory. Her work on topics such as Matching Theory, Algebraic Complexity Theory, and Proof Complexity has been very influential and she has been a constant source of inspiration for many theoretical computer scientists in India over the years.
Some Interesting Teasers
There will be some really captivating sessions on critical topics such as online presence and personal branding. Other absorbing issues that will be addressed during this workshop include highlights on the present higher education scenario (India vs. abroad and Masters vs. Ph.D.), proper preparations (breadth vs. depth), publishing (theory and systems — quantity vs. quality), the importance of confidence and motivation, dealing with uncertainty, post-Ph.D. career options (industry and academia), whether pursuing post-doc is a hit or miss, and managing the job hunt, to name a few.
Basically, the schedule is divided into three days. The first day will focus on the problems that typically early-stage women grad students come across. The second day is primarily dedicated to solving issues that are faced in mid-grad life, and the last day will deal with the topics that are concerned with senior graduate students. Moreover, the documentary film ‘Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani’ will also be screened on the second day at 6 PM. This interesting and motivational story is about the life and mathematical works of Mirzakhani, an Iranian immigrant to the USA who rose to fame and became a superstar in her field. She was the first woman as well as the first Iranian to be honored by the highest prize in math, the Fields Medal, in 2014.
An Out-Of-The-Box Featurette
Next, we moved on to chat about the unique aspect of this year’s Grad Cohort. Expressing her views, Dr. Timani said that we should think of it as an opportunity at our doorstep. Since this three-day event is completely online, given the novel coronavirus disease crisis, we do not need to panic about traveling and can participate in it from the comfort of our homes.
The world has realized that the current pandemic and its subsequent effects are here to stay. This is the reason why ACM-W India thought of incorporating several topics in the upcoming workshop that can assist women in computing to handle this situation in the best possible ways. Some areas involve grad studies during the pandemic, postdoc/grad school applications during the lockdown, and addressing mental health which is an issue of utmost importance nowadays.
The majority of Grad Cohorts abroad have been canceled but the ACM-W India council stands firm in its decision of going through with this event by means of the virtual environment, amidst the current grave times. Dr. Limaye continued that this is really the time when students need a support base, and hence, this event has been uniquely designed for the present times. Another modification is motivating post-doc students to be a part of the ACM-W India Grad Cohort 2020, which was not the case earlier. Apart from this, women who have not been able to find their next destination in the job market because of the pandemic are also welcome to attend this workshop.
To Sum Up — Why Attend This Workshop?
We concluded our conversation on an interesting note when I asked them to give me some catchy taglines as a motivation, for girls and women in computing, to participate in this workshop. “Are you a grad student in computer-related studies? Are you interested in interacting with successful women who can give you quality advice? If yes, then ACM-W India Grad Cohort 2020 (taking place from 24th to 26th July) is the place for you. The last date of registration is 21st July 2020. So what are you waiting for — hurry!” expressed Dr. Timani. “Share and listen to experiences about grad years, come to Grad Cohort, and find mentors and peers!” Dr. Limaye chimed in.
APEKSHA SRIVASTAVA
Senior Project Associate