by NOELLE ROYER on Nov. 5, 2015
From Google’s new “CODEGIRL” film to the U.S. Department of State’s TechWomen to meet-ups like D.C.’s Women Who Code, the push for women in the technology and computer science sector is at an all-time high around the globe.
This weekend, University of Maryland students are hosting Technica, a 24-hour, all-female hackathon to encourage creativity in women who are interested in tech but may feel intimidated in the male-dominated field.
Amritha Jayanti, a sophomore majoring in computer engineering, founded and directs Technica. Contrary to popular opinion, a hackathon does not involve illegal hacking into computer systems, she said.
“Hacking is taking something that exists and changing its purpose or taking some skeleton and adding to it to create a new product,” Jayanti said. It’s an event “where you can explore everything tech.”
Last year, Jayanti went to her first hackathon, the on-campus Bitcamp. She came away inspired — but when she recommended the event to her girlfriends, they expressed apprehension.
“A lot of women can’t see themselves going to hackathons because of how many men are there,” Jayanti explained. “At most hackathons, there’s 18 percent women,” she said. “We want to increase that number.”
Jan Plane, director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing, said she sees the difference in numbers every day as a senior lecturer in the computer science department. “There can be a class of 60 that has no women in it,” she said. “Often in the upper-level classes there are one or two women in a group of 40.”
Some women don’t mind being a minority in their field. But others “need the camaraderie,” Plane said. “Women and minorities who want to go into computing should feel that they belong and also should be able to earn the salaries that are available to people in computing.”
Aishwarya Thiruvengadam, graduate coordinator at the Maryland Center for Women in Computing, says she also wants to increase the number of women in computing fields, especially in the graduate programs.
Thiruvengadam earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science in India. But when she came to the University of Maryland for a graduate degree, she had very few female classmates.
“A few times I’ll be the only woman in the class,” she said. “Sometimes the restrooms feel like my own private restroom.”
In India, computer science is not a field equally filled with men and women, but Thiruvengadam felt it was more common for women to enter the field there than in the U.S. “Here it is sort of looked at as a field that women wouldn’t choose,” she said.
“Once they’ve done a hackathon, they’re more likely to get involved in other hackathons.”
– Jan Plane, director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing
More noticeable than a culture change, however, was the change from an undergraduate program to a graduate program. “Already there is a numbers problem in computer science,” she said. “The difference is that from undergrad to grad, you see a further drop in the numbers.”
At the Maryland Center for Women in Computing, Thiruvengadam helps organize facilitated get-togethers for graduate women studying computer science so they don’t feel alone.
A woman studying computer science “is definitely looked upon as something out of the ordinary,” she said. “I think it’s more and more less so than it was previously, and that is good, but there is still a lot of progress to be made.”
Plane pointed out that the computing field needs more people than we are producing. She said if women were given the same opportunities as men, such as equal pay, then the country would have no trouble filling these vacant spots.
She also said research shows that “diverse teams produce the best product,” suggesting an increase in computing women may lead to better technology. Teams tend to design products for their own kind, ignoring other types of people.
“The history of computer science has been dominated by men primarily because it’s being reported by men,” Plane said.
All-female initiatives like Technica provide “a much more encouraging environment” for women, she said. “Once they’ve done a hackathon, they’re more likely to get involved in other hackathons.”
Technica director Jayanti feels the same way. “The word hackathon often is intimidating, but once they see what it’s really about we hope that they’ll attend co-ed ones,” she said.
For 56 percent of those registered for Technica, it will be their first hackathon.
Jayanti said Technica is not reserved for experienced techies. “You literally don’t have to know anything. We have workshops. We have people who are willing to help any level,” she said. “You can explore and not feel intimidated.”
Noelle Royer is a staff reporter at Plex. She studies journalism at the University of Maryland.
