Anita Borg Institute Announces First ''Change Agent'' Award Recipients; Technical Leaders from Brazil, India and Nigeria Recognized with Full Scholarships to 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration Conference.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) has announced that Ijeoma Terese Ihenachor, Claudia Bauzer Medeiros and Suriya Mayandi Thevar, representing Nigeria, Brazil and India respectively, have been granted ABI's first Change Agent Scholarships in recognition of their technical leadership and advocacy for women in technology. The awards cover full fees and expenses to attend the 6th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference to be held October 4-7, 2006, in San Diego, California. Produced jointly by ABI and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Grace Hopper Celebration is the world's largest technical conference for women in the field of computer science.

--Ijeoma Terese Ihenachor is a professional engineer with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. An executive member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and active in numerous engineering organizations, she has served as a member of the governing council of a technical school and has been a leader of that country's "Take a Daughter to Work" program, which annually offers cash awards to top math and physics students at the primary and secondary levels. Ihenachor earned a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Anambra State University of Technology.

--Claudia Bauzer Medeiros, Ph.D., is a full professor of computer science at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil. With a focus on design and development of scientific databases, her work includes lead roles in over 30 multi-national R&D projects, particularly those involving agro-environmental planning, biodiversity and educational systems. Dr. Medeiros has served in leadership positions for several Brazilian government initiatives on computer science research and education. As president of the Brazilian Computer Society she has established key goals and programs aimed at attracting and fostering women in IT professions.

--Suriya Mayandi Thevar, Ph.D., is senior professor and head of the Department of Library and Information Science at Annamalai University in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, South India. She also serves as director of the University's Women's Training Center in Information and Computer Technology. The recipient of numerous awards for her work in library and information science, Dr. Suriya serves on the board of International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists-Canada and as India's ambassador to the Association of Computing Machinery. She is president of the Indian Association of Women in IT and secretary of the Women in Technology Research Forum.

Telle Whitney, ABI president and CEO, said, "We are so pleased to honor these three exceptional women. Each has achieved a distinguished career in technology, and demonstrated an intense personal commitment to encouraging and advancing women in technical professions. They are representative of a truly international community of women who are making significant contributions to the world of technology on a daily basis."

The Change Agent Scholarships are underwritten by Fran Allen, Ph.D., IBM fellow and the 2004 recipient of the prestigious Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership. Fran points out that "Anita Borg was a change agent with a vision of women as equal partners in the development and use of computing around the world." The scholarships honor technical women outside the U.S. who are change agents working to attract and support women in technology.

The 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration will be attended by more than 1200 leading technical women and men. The last conference, held in Chicago in 2004, drew technical people from the U.S. and 12 other countries. The Grace Hopper Celebration is open to women and men from the undergraduate level to seasoned technical leaders and educators. The conference program includes plenary sessions, technical papers and workshops designed to inspire, educate and encourage technical women and to celebrate the considerable achievements of women in the computing field.

Registration for the conference is currently underway. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (http://www.anitaborg.org/programs/ghc/).

Grace Hopper Celebration Sponsors:

Gold sponsors: CA, Cisco Systems, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! -- Silver sponsors: Amazon, Arrow Electronics, Cadence, EMC, Fair Isaac, SAIC, Symantec, Thoughtworks, USENIX -- Bronze sponsors: Adobe, AT&T Labs, Goldman Sachs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NCWIT, Oracle, Qualcomm, Walmart.com, Wells Fargo, Virsalent.

Gold academic scholarship underwriters: California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, UC Irvine, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- Silver academic scholarship underwriters: Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon, DePaul University, Georgia Tech, Michigan State University, NCSA, New York University, Purdue University -- Bronze academic scholarship underwriters: Tufts University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Texas at Austin.

Founding Sponsors: CRA & CRA-W

Government Sponsor: The National Science Foundation

About the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing:

The Grace Hopper Celebration is a program of The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and is co-presented by ABI and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). Inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, this technical conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. The conference was founded by the late Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994.

About The Anita Borg Institute:

Founded in 1997, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a nationally recognized organization dedicated to changing the world for women and technology. The Institute accomplishes its goals through collaboration with industry, academic and government organizations. A growing list of leading corporations, including partners HP, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Google and sponsors, IBM, Cisco, and Intel recognize that by investing in its programs to engage and develop technical women, they can achieve a more diverse, globally competitive workforce capable of producing higher levels of technology innovation and better financial performance. Partnering with these visionaries, as well as leading universities, government organizations and influential individual business and political leaders, the Institute is delivering programs that are changing the world for women and technology. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3): www.anitaborg.org.