Abstract

A panel discussion as part of "Reflections | Projections 1998"

Panel Members:

• Susan Linnemeyer - Asst. Dean and Director, Women in Engineering, UIUC
  
• Kathy Cupect - Software Developer, Geneer
  
• Klara Nahrstedt - Asst. Professor CS Dept. UIUC
  
• Amy Fisher - Principal Internet Consultant, The Bluefield Group, Ltd; Pointgrrl, Chicago Webgrrls
  
• Diana Keen - grad student CS Dept. UIUC
  

Topics Include:

• Why women do and do not enter CS
  
• Experience of women as undergrads, grads, faculty, and in the workplace
  
• Detecting and countering discrimination
  
• Juggling conflicting responsibilities
  
• Portrayal of CS in the media

Biographies

• Kathy Cupec

  Kathy Cupec started at the University of Illinois in August of 1994, majoring in Chemical Engineering. During the Spring of 1995, she switched to Computer Science. Throughout her Junior and Senior years she worked as a peer consultant in the Residence Hall Computer Labs. One summer she worked as an executive assistant at Arthur Andersen, LLP, and, in 1998, as an intern at Geneer. Since graduation this past May, she's become a Software Developer at Geneer, currently working on a project for Eli Lilly.

  
  

• Amy Fisher

  Amy Fisher is the Principal Internet Consultant for The Bluefield Group, Ltd. Founded in 1994, The Bluefield Group Ltd. provides systems architecture, MQ Series, OS/2, and Internet strategy consulting. Ms. Fisher's background is in computer-aided graphic design production, producing layouts and computer imaging for many major advertising agencies. She was first exposed to computing in kindergarten with a TRS-80 computer, and learned to program in Apple BASIC when she was 13. Her web design skills are entirely self-taught. Ms. Fisher attended Northwestern University and The School of the Art Institute in Chicago. She has also served as Chapter Leader for the Chicago chapter of Webgrrls International, a networking organization for women working in or interested in new media and the Internet.

  
  

• Diana Keen

  Diana Keen received her B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering at University of California at Davis in 1997. She has had summer internships with Hewlett-Packard and Lawrence Livermore National Labs. She began her graduate studies at UIUC in the fall of 1997 and is currently working with Prof. Torrellas on intelligent RAM.

  
  

• Susan Linnemeyer

  Dr. Susan A. Linnemeyer, Assistant Dean and Director of Women in Engineering, received her Ph.D from the University of Illinois in 1985 in Cognitive Science. She has been Director of the Women in Engineering (WIE) Program since 1996. The purpose of the WIE Program is to create a climate conducive for academic pursuit and personal growth that allows for equal oportunities for women in engineering education. Major thrusts of the WIE Program are recruitment and retention of women engineers.

  
  

• Klara Nahrstedt

  Klara Nahrstedt is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Computer Science Department. Her research interests are directed towards multimedia services, protocols, end-point architectures for multimedia, quality of service provision and resource management in real-time multimedia distributed systems. She received her BA in mathematics from Humboldt University, Berlin, in 1984, and M.Sc. degree in numerical analysis from the same university in 1985. She was a research scientist in the Institute for Informatik in Berlin working on X.400 mailing system from 1987 to 1990. In 1995 she received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in the department of Computer and Information Science.