Anita Borg Institute Sets Plans for 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration.

Conference on Women in Computing to Become Annual Event; Will Co-Locate With Richard Tapia Diversity in Computing Conference in Orlando

Record-Breaking 2006 GHC Event Wraps Up in San Diego

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced today that their bi-annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, which concluded Saturday in San Diego, will become an annual event. The 2007 gathering is slated for October 17 to 20, in Orlando, Florida. Additionally, ABI plans to co-locate and bridge the Grace Hopper conference with the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing conference, set for October 14 to 17. The Grace Hopper Celebration is a program of ABI, and is sponsored jointly by The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It is the world's largest technical conference on women in the field of information technology and computer science. The Richard Tapia conference is focused on increasing the number of minorities successfully transitioning into computing-based careers in academia, federal labs and industry, and is sponsored by the Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC).

Lucy Sanders, CEO and Co-Founder of the National Center for Women and Information Technology, will serve as General Chair for the 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration, and Anne Condon, Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, has been named 2007 Program Chair.

In making the announcement, ABI president and CEO, Telle Whitney, noted that the decision to hold Grace Hopper conferences annually was driven by growing demand from those in industry, academia and government. "ABI's Board of Trustees has recognized a groundswell of support for Grace Hopper technical conferences among all our constituencies, who believe that these events underpin their efforts to attract, develop and retain more women and underrepresented groups in the technical and computer science professions," she said. "The extraordinary results of this year's Grace Hopper Celebration Co the 6th since the conferences were started in 1994 Co demonstrate an even more powerful, positive support for this action." Whitney added that by co-locating with the Richard Tapia conference, common interests and concerns can be explored and positive influence can be leveraged across greater numbers of people. "Many of the issues confronting women in technical fields are the same as those faced by people of color, or others who are not equally represented in technical fields. So there is much common ground for us to examine together, even as both conferences independently explore the unique challenges of their own attendees," she said.

This year's Grace Hopper Celebration was attended by 1290 technical women and men from the U.S. and 13 other countries, representing a 49.9 percent increase over the last conference in 2004. Forty-two percent of attendees were students, from undergraduates to post-doctoral scholars, and of that number, a record 221 attended on scholarships underwritten by universities, corporations, ABI and the National Science Foundation. A record 36 corporate sponsors provided nearly $400,000 in conference funding. Over two and a half days, a roster of more than 200 presenters, including thought leaders from government agencies, leading universities and some of industry's top technology companies led programs to explore the state-of-the-art in computing technology, examine strategies for attracting and advancing women in science and technology professions, learn career-building skills and celebrate the accomplishments of women in technology. Additionally, a widely diverse technical poster session by students and researchers drew a record 66 entries.

For further information on the 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration please visit Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing - www.gracehopper.org

2006 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, Argonne National Laboratory, AT&T Labs, BMC, Goldman Sachs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Network Appliances, NCWIT, Oracle, Qualcomm, Virsalent, Walmart.com, Wells Fargo.

Gold academic scholarship underwriters: California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, UC Irvine, University of California Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, 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: Indiana University, Tufts University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Santa Cruz, UC Davis, 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 of Women in Computing (GHC) is a program of The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) 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 the world's largest gathering of women in computing, and is designed to bring the technology, research and career interests of women in IT-related professions to the forefront. Open to women and men from the undergraduate level to seasoned technical leaders and educators, GHC receives financial support from major corporations and universities and from the government through The National Science Foundation. GHC was founded by the late Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994.

About The Tapia Conference/The Coalition to Diversify Computing

The Richard Tapia conference is a project of the Coalition to Diversify Computing, www.cdc-computing.org/, which is a joint organization of the ACM, CRA and IEEE-CS. The CDC seeks to increase the number of highly trained scientists and engineers through the development of a diverse community of professionals that can effectively meet the computing demands of an evolving society.

CDC projects target students and faculty with the expressed intent of increasing the number of minorities successfully transitioning into computing-based careers in academia, federal labs and industry. Additional projects seek to increase the available pool of faculty members through partnerships and mentoring. Current emphasis is placed on the following three areas: (1) recruitment of minority undergraduates to MS/Ph.D. programs, (2) retention of minority graduate students enrolled in MS/Ph.D. programs, and (3) transition of minority MS/Ph.D. graduates into academia and industry.

The diverse membership of CDC from areas of academia, industry and federal laboratories enables a variety of different perspectives and approaches to be used in achieving CDC's goals. CDC also partners with a number of organizations with similar missions to leverage resources to optimize outcomes.

About The Anita Borg Institute:

Founded in 1997, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) is a nationally recognized organization committed to advancing women into the mainstream of technology innovation and leadership. The Institute accomplishes its goals through collaboration with industry, academic and government organizations. A growing list of leading corporations Co including partners HP, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Google and sponsors, IBM, Cisco, and Intel Co recognize that by investing in ABI's 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. With their support, and the partnership of other visionaries and thought 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.