女学生在加州学校攻读计算机科学

 

Women are under-represented in the technology industry around the world.

At colleges and universities in the United States, women represent only one in six students of computer science.

That number is changing at some schools, like Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. The school is a leader in getting women interested in technological¹ professions.

At its robotics laboratory, a small robot performs the movements of tai chi, an ancient Chinese meditation² exercise.

Student Jane Wu writes commands from a nearby computer. With these commands, she is demonstrating a simple form of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Wu is a third-year student in mathematics and computer science at the college.

She says she decided³ on a career in computer science after taking a robotics class called Autonomous⁴ Vehicles. In the class, she and other students built robots that can act on their own, without any human control.

“And, in that class, we got to make our own autonomous robots from scratch.”

Harvey Mudd College has just 800 students. It was named after a mining engineer who helped set up the school. It is part of a group of schools called The Claremont Colleges in the eastern part of Los Angeles.

Ten years ago, the college re-created its computer science program to make it less difficult for students without much experience with computers. The effort has produced noticeable results: last year, more than half of the students who completed the program were women.

Students are first placed in groups based on their knowledge of computers to reduce their fear of technology. Many of the students later find that computer science is “a beautiful intellectual discipline,” says professor Ran Libeskind-Hadas, but also a useful one.

Taste of coding

All Harvey Mudd students are required to take an introductory computer class. That class fueled the interest of Veronica Rivera, who is studying computer science and mathematics.

“It was a very balanced class and I think the professors also do a very good job of making sure everyone feels welcome, regardless of their coding ability.”

Rivera hopes to develop computer programs to help people who have difficulty moving parts of their bodies.

Women were well-known coders in the early days of computers when Grace Hopper helped invent programming languages. She later became a top official in the United States Navy.

Jim Boerkoel is an assistant professor who supervises the robotics lab. He spoke⁵ to VOA about Grace Hopper.

“So she [Hopper] is the original coder. It was only in later decades, the 1980s and 90s, that computer games and the idea of computer programming got heavily marketed toward boys rather than girls.”

Women technologists

At Harvey Mudd, some women who come to study engineering rediscover programming. Each year, many attend what is said to be the world’s largest conference of women technologists. It is called the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing⁶.

Emilia Reed is a computer science student at Harvey Mudd.

“With coding, I can just have my computer, have some programming language I’m working in, and I can make almost whatever I want.”

Reed is helping⁷ create computer apps to increase the productivity of workers and students.

Internship⁹ programs are part of the training. Samantha Andow, a third-year student, is making plans to serve as an intern⁸ at Microsoft Corporation in the state of Washington.

“I’m really excited to see all the problems that computer science is working on right now.”

Maria Klawe is president of Harvey Mudd College. She says computers are important to all areas of life, and the technology industry needs the best and the smartest.

“If we don’t manage to get a more diverse community into technology,” she said, “we’re not going to get as good solutions, as much progress as we need on the problems facing the world,” whether it is climate change or education, health care.

Klawe says today’s issues need the creativity that diversity brings, and that the field needs more women and minorities as future programmers. Both groups do not have enough representation in the technology industry, she says.

Words in This Story

meditation - n. the act or process of spending time in quiet thought; the act or process of meditating¹⁰

artificial intelligence - n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence

regardless - adv. without being stopped by difficulty or trouble

coder - n. a computer programmer

app - n. a computer program that performs a special function

internship - n. a job for a student or recent graduate who works for a period of time at a company or organization to gain experience

diverse - adj. different from each other

discipline - n. the suppression or control of desires

introductory - adj. of or related to the beginning of something

1 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

2 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 intern   

v.拘禁，软禁；n.实习生

参考例句：

• I worked as an intern in that firm last summer.去年夏天我在那家商行实习。
• The intern bandaged the cut as the nurse looked on.这位实习生在护士的照看下给病人包扎伤口。

9 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

10 meditating   

a.沉思的，冥想的

参考例句：

• They were meditating revenge. 他们在谋划进行报复。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics. 这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。