Richard Tapia/Bridge Day

Hello everyone! I've spent the last two days having a really amazing time in Orlando! On Tuesday, I was able to attend the second day of the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing. I learned a lot of helpful, interesting things, especially at a panel about improving CS retention rates. We discussed a lot great ideas that I plan to take back to DePauw, including ways to break the standard CS stereotype at DPU (that CS is either a typical high school computing class involving word processing or that CS majors are learning how to fix computers!) and the idea to make CS "sexy" again. By "sexy," we mean interesting, fascinating, and applicable to the real world. I feel it's very important to show potential students and majors how the things they learn in class are used in business and industry. Thankfully, I feel that my CS1 professor, Gloria Townsend, definitely tried to stress this point to our class as much as possible. I also heard some other great speakers at Richard Tapia, including the president of Harvey Mudd College, Maria Klawe. Also, after speaking to Ph.D. students and other leaders in academia, I do plan on going to grad school after I graduate in May 2009! Yes, I have been that inspired! :)

Yesterday, I attended Bridge Day activities at Disney World. We were given a technical tour of Epcot, which was fascinating. Their use of IR technologies was intriguing. They have a product now called "Pal Mickey," which is a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal which has an IR sensor in its nose; the toy gives all kinds of information about the park, including ride wait times, where characters are appearing, the data and time, and all kinds of other things. It's a ingenious way to help families use their time wisely while at Disney. We also were given a tour of the Magic Kingdom. We also attended a session about Disney internship possibilities. It was a rather fun day, and thankfully, I am not sunburnt! :)

Posts are coming soon about the first day at Grace Hopper!

Until next time,
Brit