Pass-It-On Awards Program: Fall 2009 Systers Pass-It-On Award Winners

Devi B.

Project Title:

Tuition and fees toward Bachelor of Computer Application

Project Description:

Devi of Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India, will use the award to help fund her undergraduate degree. Devi is working towards obtaining a Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) from Sri Muthukumaran Institute of Technology. The award will fund three semesters of study and will pay for college fees, books, and required materials. Devi will be one of the first from a community of marginalized children to obtain a degree. After obtaining her degree, she plans on teaching and helping more women like herself to better themselves through education.

Inmar G. and Farheen O.

Project Title:

Women in Machine Learning Workshop

Project Description:

Inmar and Farheen of Toronto, Ontario in Canada, will use the award to help pay for their travel expenses to the Women in Machine Learning Workshop to be held in British Columbia. Inmar and Farheen are part of the group organizing the workshop. The workshop’s goals are to give female graduate students, faculty, and research scientists in the machine learning community an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and learn from each other. Inmar and Farheen have worked hard preparing for the workshop. They have been organizing talks, reviewing submissions of students and post-docs for oral and poster presentations, making hotel arrangements, and obtaining funding from sponsors.

Maryam A.

Application fees for graduate Computer Science studies

Project Title:

Project Description:

Maryam of Bloomfield, New Jersey in the United States, is an international student from Afghanistan who is majoring in Computer Science at Montclair State University. She will use the funding to help pursue her goal of attending graduate school to obtain a Ph.D. The funding will help pay for the expenses of applying for graduate school. Maryam plans to go back to Afghanistan after her Ph.D. is completed and help educate women in computer science.

Rachel N.

Project Title:

Tuition and fees toward Higher Diploma in Information Systems

Project Description:

Rachel of Lusaka, Zambia plans on pursuing her Higher Diploma in Information Systems with the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) through a local college in Zambia. She has completed two of the six modules required to complete the course and she will use the funding to help pay for tuition, membership fees, exam fees, transportation, and books. As part of her studies, she plans to develop a web-based system for entry and payment of Grade 12 exams. This project will be her Business Information Systems Project and will showcase the knowledge she has learned thus far. Rachel’s passion to advance herself in the field of Information Systems will help others understand that it is achievable and that they too can contribute to Zambia’s development and computer education.

Tin Wing (Winona) W.

Project Title:

Try/CATCH

Project Description:

Winona of Burnaby, British Columbia in Canada, will use the funding to encourage 8th – 10th grade high school girls to take an interest in computer science. The program, Try/CATCH 2010, will host a half-day event full of activities geared towards fostering curiosity about computer science and will provide basic knowledge that will serve as a foundation for the girls to build more advanced skills from. Scheduled activities include creating a movie-like program using the Alice programming environment that focuses on object-oriented programming concepts, showing the importance of user interfaces in software by working with iPhone applications, and having the students attend a reception where they will have an opportunity to visit with sponsors and talk with representatives from different companies. Networking will be encouraged and the advantages of working in a technology field will be highlighted through discussion with women mentors.

Trang N.

Project Title:

Sisters on IT (60IT)

Project Description:

Trang of Hanoi, Vietnam, will use the funding to launch the official Sisters on IT (60IT) website, http://www.60IT.org. The award will pay for the domain and hosting fees for two years. The Sisters on IT (60IT) project started in March 2009 and its goal is to connect and encourage Vietnamese women who study, work in, or have interest in information technology (IT), computer science (CS), and other related fields. Since it is difficult in Vietnam to find research information about women in IT and many are not able to understand English papers and reports, the project will translate and post these papers and reports for women to use. In addition, the website will have provide information about 60IT’s mission and members, online and offline activities for members, and a forum where members can discuss any topics which relate to women in IT and CS.