From 2018 to 2019, the number of students from underrepresented groups who completed a Ph.D in computer science decreased by 13 percent. Computer science research has broad implications for billions of people—which is why it’s so important that researchers doing this work represent the experiences, perspectives and concerns of people all around the world. So we’re working with the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) and the CMD-IT Diversifying Future Leadership in the Professoriate Alliance (FLIP) to increase the diversity of Ph.D graduates in computing.
In 2019, together with Google Research, CAHSI and CMD-IT FLIP established separate competitive dissertation awards programs across their network of institutions. They invited doctoral students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to apply for the awards to be used for the last year of the completion of the dissertation requirements.
Meet the 11 graduate students who received this award. By pursuing research in computer science and related fields, they’re positively influencing the direction and perspective of technology. Here’s what they’ve shared about themselves, their aspirations and dreams for the future.