Speaker series features prominent women in computer science

9:41 a.m., Sept. 19, 2012--The University of Delaware Department of Computer Information and Sciences (CIS) has announced a distinguished speaker series featuring prominent women in computer science that will begin at 11 a.m., Friday, Oct. 19, in 004 Kirkbride Lecture Hall on the UD campus in Newark. 

The lectures are free and open to the public.

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Jennifer Rexford, a computer science professor at Princeton University, is the opening speaker. She will discuss “Frenetic: A Programming Language for Software Defined Networks,” which focuses on raising the level of abstraction for programming OpenFlow networks to support multiple tasks such as routing, access control and traffic monitoring. 

“There is a national need for women in computer science and our department is committed to encouraging women in this and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields,” acknowledges Errol L. Lloyd, CIS professor and department chair.

Currently, 30 percent of the UD CIS department faculty is female. This is double the national average, which is 15 percent. 

Remaining lectures in the 2012-13 speaker series include:

Feb. 27, 2013 -- Dilma Da Silva, principal engineer and manager at Qualcomm Research in Santa Clara, Calif., “System Software for Cloud Computing.” In her lecture, Da Silva will analyze cloud computing from the viewpoint of perspective system software, exploring how this new model impacts current practices in operating systems and distributed computing. 

April 22, 2013 -- Annie I. Anton, professor and department chair in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, “Designing Software Systems that Comply with Privacy and Security Regulations.” Anton’s research focuses on the specification of complete, correct behavior of software systems that work with federal privacy and security regulations. 

The CIS Distinguished Lecture Series is co-sponsored by the department, the University of Delaware NSF-ADVANCE and the President’s Diversity Initiative (PDI). It is organized in part by the CISters (Women in Computer and Information Sciences) group and the Women in Engineering (WIE) program. 

The focus of the NSF ADVANCE program is to increase the number of women faculty members in STEM fields, while PDI aims to enhance diversity on the UD campus. To learn more about UD faculty recruitment and retention workshops developed under these programs go to www.engr.udel.edu/advance. 

For additional lecture series information, including speaker biographies, click here. 

Article by Megan Marschall