CETF 2015 Annual Survey of California Digital Divide

www.cetfund.org



The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) is pleased to share with you the results of the
2015 Annual Survey on broadband adoption in California that was released yesterday. The Annual Survey is sponsored by CETF and conducted by the Field Research Corporation in 6 languages with a sample size in excess of 1,600 randomly-selected households (50% by cell phone and a margin of error + 2.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level). The results show that progress is being made in closing the Digital Divide with 79% of all California households now having high-speed connections at home to the Internet (8% by smart phone only), but there is still much work to be done because unacceptable percentages of disadvantaged populations remain offline—35% of low-income households (below $20,000 annual income); 30% of Latino families (37% Spanish-speaking); and 41% of people with disabilities. It is important to keep in mind that the Digital Divide is just another manifestation of the Opportunity Divide and Economic Divide, and that those who are stuck on the wrong side of the Digital Divide—urban low-income neighborhoods and remote rural communities—are faced with a multitude of challenges in daily life that CETF calls the “wall of poverty” that must be tackled with strategic interventions to improve education coupled with workforce preparation and economic development.

The Annual Survey information is very timely as the Federal Communications Commission takes up tomorrow the issue of a Broadband Lifeline Program, State policymakers continue to explore how best to tackle poverty, and local governments continue to struggle to balance budgets and generate jobs. The data underscores the need to incorporate Digital Inclusion into all major initiatives to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in California.

Please feel free to distribute the results of the 2015 Annual Survey, post it on your own website and/or link to the CETF website http://www.cetfund.org/progress/annualsurvey, and reference the data as you find useful. We look forward to continuing to work together to close the Digital Divide in California. Thank you for your commitment and leadership.

Sunne Wright McPeak
President and CEO
California Emerging Technology Fund

3 Myth-Busting Reasons to Start Coding Even at an Older Age

Make Use Of

Written by Joel Lee16 June 2015

Old people are out of touch with technology. That’s the stereotype, anyway. With adages like “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and “He can’t change, he’s already set in his ways”, many of us assume that certain pursuits are for young people only — and programming is no exception.

It’s easy to see why this mentality is so pervasive. As a relative youngster myself, the programming world evolves so quickly that even I find it difficult to keep up. Most of what I learned in school was obsolete by graduation. So if youngsters like me have trouble, is there any hope for the older generation?

Yes! If you — or someone you know — have ever wondered if you’re “too old” tostart learning how to program, the simple answer is that anyone can pick it up as long as they have determination, persistence, and an open mind. The real question is, should you give it a shot?

I think you should, and here’s why.

Developing Your Mental Acuity

I started coding at the age of nine back when Gateway, Pentium, and America Online were big household brands. Again, I admit that I’m a relative youngster in the grand scheme of things, but I only bring this up to illustrate how deeply entwined I am with programming and how it has impacted me.

Over the past two decades, I’ve gone through periods of heavy coding (at my worst, I spent fourteen hours a day on my projects) and periods of no coding at all (a wonderful respite from my workaholic tendencies). In that time, I’ve noticed something peculiar.

My mind is at its sharpest when I’m working on code. Conversely, the longer I go without programming, the softer my mind gets. None of this is a real surprise.

Programming is a beautiful combination of logic and creativity. Logical in the sense that there are a strict set of rules and instructions that define the behavior of a computer program. Creative in the sense that these rules and instructions can be configured to produce an infinite number of behaviors.

Of all creative pursuits, programming is unique in that it forces you into a simultaneous process of creative synthesis and analytical diagnostics. It forces you to dream up innovative solutions and then express those solutions in a logical, step-by-step fashion. It helps structure the way you think, and this way of thinking will bleed into every area of your life.

In fact, the logical nature of programming shares a lot in common with another profession, one that happens to be dominated by older folks:

Legal work is a good example of an area with, at first glance, little in common with coding but in which coding knowledge could be surprisingly helpful, argues Eben Upton, CEO and co-founder of Raspberry Pi, an organisation that developed a revolutionary compact computer to help children learn about coding and computers in general.

“There’s a lot of similarity between the problem-solving techniques you need to be a good lawyer and those you need to be a good engineer, and the carefully crafted, (nominally) unambiguous form of English used in drafting contracts bears a lot of resemblance to computer code,” he says.

HT: The Independent

In other words, programming is good for the aging mind. As we get older, it becomes easier and easier to fall into the humdrum routine of everyday life. Outside of returning to school, there aren’t many day-to-day activities that challenge us to think like programming does.

Even if you never actually create a program worth using, the very act of learning how to program will strengthen your mental faculties. And really, that’s as good a reason as any to pick up the skill.

Expanding Your Career Opportunities

Are you stuck in a career rut? If so, learning how to program can open thousands of new doors for you, especially if you have what it takes to succeed in a tech-based career. After all, most people who learn programming are doing it so they can pursue a career in programming.

“But I’m too old for that. Nobody in IT wants to hire an oldie like me.”

While ageism is certainly an issue in our modern day workforce, it’s not as bad as some people make it out to be. While cutting-edge companies may lean towards the younger end of the spectrum, there are many other companies who emphasize experience and knowledge over sheer age. Consider Gary Huckabone:

Back on the job market, Huckabone was upbeat — he saw a thriving software sector and plenty of opportunities. But he found it took longer than expected to land his next gig. “I probably did twice as many interviews — this is a guess, of course — than I would have done if I was 32 instead of 56, ” Huckabone said.

[But] ageism is by no means an industry standard, and plenty of employers want the experience. Huckabone had multiple offers before accepting his current position.

“There’s definitely a lot of people that want the old guy, appreciate the old guy,” Huckabone said. “I’m just saying I’ve seen both sides of that coin.”
HT: Information Week

And then there are those who believe that older may even be better:

A common belief, at least in Silicon Valley, is that it is only the young who can innovate, and that therefore, we need to encourage more students to start companies. A better strategy may be to motivate and empower the old — the parents of these students, and maybe even grandma and grandpa.

To solve the big and complex problems of humanity, entrepreneurs need to have a world view and to be able to see the big picture. They need industry experience, knowledge of diverse social and scientific disciplines, and people-management skills. They need the abilities to go beyond wishful thinking, to step into others’ shoes, and to weigh likely outcomes of the options before them.

Older, experienced workers usually have many of these skills. Yes, they may lack an understanding of mobile technologies and app development, but these can be learnt in the same way that the kids learned them.

HT: PBS Newshour

Still think you’re too old to start programming? Then I urge you to look at the story of Jens Skou, the Nobel Prize winner who picked up programming at the age of 70:

In 1988, I retired, kept my office, gave up systematic experimental work and started to work on kinetic models for the overall reaction of the pump on computer. For this I had to learn how to programme, quite interesting, and amazing what you can do with a computer from the point of view of handling even complicated models. And even if my working hours are fewer, being free of all obligations, the time I spent on scientific problems are about the same as before my retirement.

HT: Nobel Prize

Not only does Jens Skou prove that it’s never too late to start anything, it’s never too late to change the world.

Understanding New Technologies

Programming has a few practical benefits that you can reap even if you don’t intend on a career path change. The simplest example is that it can help you connect with the ever-changing world of technology.

I realize that this sort of plays off of the stereotype that older folks are out of touch with technology, and I certainly don’t mean to perpetuate that myth. Plenty of younger folks are just as oblivious, if not more so, than those who are approaching retirement. However, the truth stands: learning how to code can help you understand and appreciate technology.

I say all of this as the son of immigrant parents who never had the same privilege of education that I have. To them, everything from VCRs to computers to digital cameras are nothing more than magic boxes. They have no idea how devices and gadgets work, so they have no idea how to use them.

I’m not saying that programming is necessary if, for example, you want to operate an Android tablet. What I am saying is that programming knowledge can help you to better operate that tablet.

After comparing a small sample of [senior computer training] students with a control group, researchers at the University of Miami found that after completing introductory courses, older adults were significantly more comfortable with and knowledgeable about computers and the Internet, and more likely to use them.

HT: The New Old Age

And being more adept with tablets, smartphones, and laptops means being one step closer towards improved quality of life. After all, there are so many helpful mobile apps out there begging to be installed, aren’t there?

It’s Never Too Late to Start Coding

Thinking about picking it up? Start off with these free programming books which cover topics like Java, JavaScript, Python, as well as a few language-agnostic topics like design patterns. Bolster your education with these tips for learning how to code and these programming project ideas.

Just be aware that programming is hard and will require some effort. Even if you aren’t meant to be a programmer, I still recommend giving it a shot. In the end,trying is more important than success.

Do you think one can be too old to start learning how to code? At what age did you start? If you’ve never programmed before, what’s keeping you from giving it a try? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Image Credits: Old Hands on Laptop Via Shutterstock, Left Brain Right Brain Via Shutterstock, Couple On Tablet Via Shutterstock, Elder Man On Macbook Via Shutterstock

WANTED: More Women in Cybersecurity

Statistics from Women's Society of Cyberjutsu womenscyberjutsu.org

CyberFed would like to CHANGE these STATS
by promoting more women to seek
CYBERSECURITY careers.

Watch a recent episode of



as Dr. Dan Manson and Dr. Jason Pittman discuss gender diversity in the cybersecurity sector.



ABOUT CYBERSECURITY COMPETITION FEDERATION (CyberFed):
The Cybersecurity Competition Federation (CyberFed) is an umbrella organization that provides players of all ages and skill levels a point of entry into cybersecurity competitions. CyberFed focuses on communications, promotions and autonomy of competition creators, business models and does not interfere with funding sources. Each week, CyberFed produces The CyberFed Show that covers the world of cybersecurity competitions.

www.cyberfed.org

Women in tech: The numbers don't add up

The percentage of female employees working at large technology companies is oddly consistent. But drilling down finds the problem is worse than the numbers suggest.

by Roger Cheng @RogerWCheng
May 6, 2015 6:01 AM PDT  CNET

When it comes to women in tech, the numbers reveal a continuing challenge.Getty Images/Caiaimage
This story is part of Solving for XX, a CNET special report exploring what people and companies are doing to make the tech industry more diverse, more equitable and more welcoming to women.

There's something about the number 30.

It's the age Silicon Valley considers workers over the hill.

It's how old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now.

And it's the average percentage of women working in the tech industry, based on diversity reports published by 11 of the world's largest tech companies last year. In comparison, women make up 59 percent of the US labor force and almost 51 percent of the US population, according to the US Census Bureau.

CNET
Is 30 percent really so bad?

It is when you drill into the percentage of women filling leadership and technical roles -- that's when the numbers get downright depressing.

Consider Microsoft: In October, the company reported that women comprise 29.1 percent of its workforce, but only 16.6 percent work in technical positions and just 23 percent hold leadership roles. Twitter said women fill 10 percent of its technical jobs, with 21 percent in leadership. And women Googlers account for 17 percent of the search giant's tech jobs, while only 21 percent manage others.

These figures matter. For starters, they show few women influencing product development or business strategy -- the two rungs at the top of the industry's corporate ladder. That's not just harmful to women; it's bad for business. Studies show that companies with different points of view, market insights and approaches to problem solving have higher sales, more customers and larger market share than their less-diverse rivals.

So what's behind that 30 percent number at tech companies? It could be basic human nature, says Virginia Clark, a recruiter for executive search firm Knightsbridge: diverse enough to show effort, while still surrounding ourselves with people who think and act as we do.

"It's almost like water seeks its own level," says Clark. "This is the level where the majority feels comfortable. I would say its unconscious."

Scott Page, a professor of complex systems, political science and economics at the University of Michigan, has another theory. At 30 percent, there's an extremely high chance you'll see at least one woman in every meeting. That might be enough to gloss over the lack of diversity. If people see at least one woman in each meeting, they're not seeing a problem.

"That's not cause for alarm," Page said.

But the problem becomes glaringly obvious in meetings made up completely of men -- a likelihood that increases as the percentage of women falls below 30 percent. Heck, the testosterone-heavy Marvel superhero film "The Avengers" includes just one female super heroine, "Black Widow."

"The first step is acknowledging that there is a problem," says Clark. "The problem is that the culture is obviously consciously or unconsciously exclusive, and people are exhibiting chronic behaviors that keep women -- and likely people of color -- out or not moving up."

Slow change
Awareness of the diversity problem has spurred some action. Microsoft has been working on the issue since October, when CEO Satya Nadella said women in the tech industry should trust in karma instead of making a case for a raise.

"It's not really about asking for the raise but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," Nadella said in an interview at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (of all places). The company now provides training on unconscious biases that can prevent men from seeing their female colleagues' contributions.

Intel has pledged $300 million toward building a more diverse workforce, including tying managers' compensation to their progress in that area. Apple is donating $50 million to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Center for Women and Information Technology to help swell the pipeline of qualified women and minorities.

But the problems begin at an early age.

"Girls don't get as much opportunity to use computers," says Ariane Hegewisch, a study director for the Institute for Women's Policy Research. They also get fewer chances to explore subjects like mathematics or science, in part because of lack of encouragement, curricula that appeal more to boys than girls and a negative stereotype about girls' technical abilities.

Indiana University gets 8,000 freshmen every fall, about half of them women. Science and computing isn't on the radar for 97 percent of them, according to

Maureen Biggers, assistant dean for diversity and education at Indiana's School of Informatics. "It doesn't occur to them as a career path," she says.

Attitude adjustment
While it's true the industry needs more women proficient in the hard sciences, success in the technology industry doesn't really require a technical degree. Oracle's co-CEO, Safra Catz, earned a law degree before becoming an investment banker. Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman has a degree in economics and an MBA. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg also has a degree in economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

But few women with MBAs are likely to enter tech-intensive industries; and 53 percent of those who do, switch industries (compared with 31 percent for men), according to a study by Catalyst, a nonprofit organization focused on expanding opportunities for women.

The study also revealed that women in business roles within tech companies are more likely to start at the entry level compared with men. And when it comes to pay, women in Silicon Valley earn less than their male peers. In 2013, the median income for men with an undergraduate degree in Silicon Valley was 61 percent higher than for women, according to a February report by Joint Venture Silicon Valley.

"It may be that some of these professions have become more and more geeky and nerd-like," says Hegewisch. "Smart young women don't necessarily want to hang out in that culture and feel pushed out."

And that's the crux of the problem. Tech companies, no matter if they're industry heavyweights or fresh-faced startups, need to rethink how they assess job candidates, says Clark, the executive recruiter from Knightsbridge.

"This comes down to a war for talent, and the best possible talent may not look like you," Clark said.

Undergrad 10-week Summer Research Experience in Accessible Computing

AMI :  Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Research Experience with Accessible Multimodal Interfaces for All Consumers
A ten-week summer research experience for undergrads in accessible computing; work with a diverse set of peers and experienced mentors in an inclusive setting.

Examples of exciting projects:

• Online video enhanced captions with tactile feedback for deaf consumers 
• View management or guided magnification for low vision consumers 
• Smartphone tactile keyboards and applications for blind consumers 
• Speech-to-text conversation applications for hard of hearing consumers 

Application: http://avd.rit.edu/apply
Deadline: April 17, 2015
Internship dates: June 1 through Aug 9

Who should apply:

• Undergraduates in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related fields 
• Underrepresented people with disabilities, minorities and women strongly encouraged to apply 
• US citizenship or permanent residency is required 

Email: reuami@rit.edu


Benefits include:

• Stipend 
• Travel Support 
• On-campus housing 
• On-campus meals 
• Hands-on research 
• Faculty/Peer mentoring 
• Professional Development 
• Interaction with a diverse set of peers and mentors who are: 
• Deaf and Hard of Hearing 
• Blind and Low Vision 
• Learn and practice American Sign Language (ASL) on campus 

NPR: A 12-Year-Old Girl Takes On The Video Game Industry

APRIL 08, 2015 4:04 PM ET  NPR
STEVE HENN  JESS JIANG

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered
4 min 58 sec
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Transcript

You have to pay to play as Scarlett Fox, a character in the mobile game Temple Run.Imangi Studios

Maddie Messer is 12 years old. She loves science, her dog, and a good video game. One of her favorites is the mobile game Temple Run.

In Temple Run, you run along a path through a swamp or a forest, while being chased by a tribe of fierce monkeys. Maddie loves the game, except for one thing: Her character is a guy.

In a lot of video games, the default character is a guy. If you want to play as a female character, it's not easy. Often you have to pay.

"It's not fair," Maddie said. "Because if I'm being forced to play as a boy, like, why?"

Maddie decided to test her claim with a research project. She downloaded the 50 most popular games in the same category as Temple Run. She counted up how many offered female characters and how much they cost. And she handwrote her results on a spreadsheet.

Out of the 50 games, 37 offered free male characters. Just five offered free female characters.

"I was hoping there would be more girls. But there just weren't," Maddie says. "And I was kind of bummed, like, come on!"

Maddie found that in a lot of the games, she could unlock the female characters by playing the game and amassing credit, but that could take hours. Or she could buy the character. On average, the female character cost $7.53.

In one Disney game, there was just one female character. She cost about $30.

Maddie wrote an op-ed with her research results. And The Washington Post published it. People all over the world saw it, including the makers of Temple Run.

"It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to read that," says Natalia Luckyanova, one of the creators of Temple Run.

As Natalia and her husband were creating Temple Run, they realized a lot of the people playing the game were female. So they added female characters. And since Temple Run was free, they decided to charge for those new characters. The female characters didn't have special powers in the original game. But still, 60 percent of the players were female, and the women characters brought in a lot of cash.

Natalia had stumbled into an age-old business strategy. Economists call it price discrimination. Businesses charge different people different prices for nearly identical goods. Airlines do it when they charge different prices for the same seat on a flight. And movie theaters do it when they charge less for students or senior citizens.

But when a business charges different people different prices based on gender, price discrimination starts to look a lot like gender discrimination.

Natalia, the Temple Run creator, says Maddie has a point. "For all of our good intentions, and for all of my good intentions, it's true that you start out with this male character. ... The white male is always the default, and anything else, it's like, you have to work for it."

The very same day Maddie's op-ed came out, Natalia and her husband wrote to Maddie. They told Maddie she was right. Soon, they say, there will be a free female character in Temple Run.

Disney is also changing its pricing. They'll no longer be charging $30 for its character.

The makers of one game went a step further. They created a new character, called Maddie.

Despite demand, women comprise only 11 percent of cyber security workers

Andrew Russell | Trib Total MediaKelsey Derringer, 25, of Point Breeze and STEM Stars instructor for Manchester (middle) describes the video editing process to her students during the STEM Stars afterschool program at Pittsburgh Manchester PreK–8, Thursday, March 19, 2015. STEM Stars is a collaboration between YWCA Greater Pittsburgh’s TechGYRLS program and Carnegie Science Center’s GEMS (Girls Engage in Math and Science) program designed to improve academic achievement for economically disadvantaged girls.

By Andrew Conte

Saturday, March 21, 2015, 10:30 p.m.
TribLive

Ambareen Siraj looks out at the 75 students in her computer security class and often sees that she's the only woman in the room.

At most, one or two women sign up each semester for her information assurance and security course at Tennessee Tech University, but often no female does.

“It bothers me,” Siraj said. “In every other thing, we work side-by-side. Why not cybersecurity?”

Even in the male-dominated world of so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — computer science and security careers stand out for having so few women. Females make up about half of the workforce and a quarter of STEM jobs, but they represent just 11 percent of cybersecurity workers.

That low percentage has remained stagnant despite growing demand for computer security workers, according to the Information System Security Certification Consortium, a Clearwater, Fla., education nonprofit.

Frustrated about her classroom enrollment, Siraj applied to the National Science Foundation for a grant to host a Women in Cybersecurity conference for 100 people last year. She kept expanding the registration limit until the fire marshal cut her off at 350 people.

This year's event will start Friday in Atlanta. Facebook agreed to be the strategic partner with support from Google, IBM, Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University among more than two dozen other backers. Siraj has received federal grants of $244,160 for the conferences, training and outreach programs. She set the registration limit at 500 people this year, and the event again sold out in weeks.

“Building a pipeline is so important, but what's even more important is building a diverse pipeline,” said Jennifer Henley, Facebook's director of security operations, who will speak at the event.

Henley said the public focuses too often on negative images of hackers and neglects to see the many professionals — men and women — working to keep online communications safe.

“What we're missing is the people who go into this field, who are driven by the desire to protect people, to protect their information, to protect their livelihoods, in some cases to protect people's lives by keeping them safe online,” Henley said.

STARTING YOUNG

Educators have shifted to engaging girls while they're in middle school, showing them that there are successful women in scientific fields and then giving them a support network of mentors. It's a critical age for young women to develop interests or get discouraged, said Linda Ortenzo, director of STEM programs for the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

“Girls get very subtle messages early on ... that there are certain fields and certain endeavors that are ‘boy things,' ” Ortenzo said. “It's astonishing that in 2015, we're still talking about some of these things, but it's true. (Girls) are as interested and as capable — when they are given those opportunities and supported — as boys.”

Carnegie Science Center runs an after-school program with 211 middle school girls, mainly at Pittsburgh public schools. The program encourages girls to engage in relevant scientific experiments and introduces them to women in the computer field, said Nina Barbuto, program manager of the science center's STEM Girls program. A girl connected with a visiting engineer when they talked about a popular dance called the “Nae Nae.”

“We bring in different mentors or role models to talk to the girls,” Barbuto said. “The girls see themselves. They see a point of relation with a woman.”

Connecting with mentors starting in seventh grade is what convinced Natalie Nash that she wanted to work with computers. The Shaler native got involved early with the Carnegie Science Center's Pittsburgh Regional Science & Engineering Fair and found adults who could give her advice and direction.

“Being able to share my research with an adult who has experience and who has been in the field for years, and to be able to talk it out with them was something that what was really great for me,” said Nash, 20, a junior computer engineering major at Penn State University.

CMU's School of Computer Science offers Creative Technology Nights for middle school girls, run by women studying computer science. The group meets on Monday nights and often draws more than 40 girls to learn about robots, code-breaking and other computer-related fields, said Carol Frieze, director of Women@SCS, a support program in the school.

“Our students realized that a lot of girls were missing out and weren't being exposed to computing skills and science technology,” Frieze said. “If we can give them the opportunity, we have found that they love to discover and learn about computer science.”

Other programs for girls and women have grown up across the country. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, held each fall, claims to be the largest gathering of female technologists.

A group, the Expanding Your Horizons Network, grew out of work by women such as Lenore Blum, a CMU computer science professor, in San Francisco in the 1970s. It hosts 80 conferences a year for girls interested in science.

COLLEGE, CAREER SUPPORT

The gender gap in computer science fields might be most visible in undergraduate education, where women represent 14 percent of computer science graduates at colleges across North America, according to the Computing Research Association, a Washington nonprofit.

CMU has worked to encourage and support women through its Women@SCS program while fighting stereotypes of computer workers as men in black T-shirts and hoodies with images of women in sneakers and yes, high heels.

The program provides peer support, mentors, leadership opportunities and social events. It has become so popular that the school started a parallel program that includes men.

“Women are not just part of the culture, but they shape the culture,” Frieze said. “We don't believe that you need to change the curriculum. That's kind of insulting. Women can do well in the curriculum, but they do need to have an environment in which they can be part of it, just like the guys.”

Rachel Holladay, a second-year computer science major at CMU, said she feels more connected with women in college than she did in high school, where she often was the only girl in technology groups. The women at CMU use their group to talk about ways of dealing with sexism while leaning on one another for support, she said.

“If you ever have a scenario where you want to talk to another girl or feel connected, there's this built-in support system that's always there,” said Holladay, 19, of Slidell, La.

A Virginia nonprofit called Women in Technology started a Cyber Security Special Interest Group in November for women in the field. Loren Friedel, a lawyer and fellow at The Cyber Security Forum Initiative, agreed to conduct outreach based on her experiences of working in male-dominated fields as a stockbroker and then in the military.

“With time and experience, I personally decided that I could continue to pursue my interests — male-dominated or not — or I could give up,” Friedel said. “Giving up was not an option for me.”

More than 20 percent of the 6,757 applicants to CMU's School of Computer Science this fall are women. The school will accept about 350 people with a goal of hosting an incoming class of about 140 students.

Women accounted for 40 percent of CMU's incoming freshman-class students last fall. But the school does not give them special treatment in the admissions process, Michael Steidel, the director of admissions, said through a spokesman.

“The top women are just as good as the top men,” Steidel said. “We're just lucky to have so many to choose from.”

Siraj, founder of the Women in Cybersecurity conference, wants to get more women into the room. When she organized the event last year, she discovered a support community and found herself surrounded by female computer scientists.

“That was exciting, inspiring, motivating,” she said. “There are so many opportunities out there, but the key is knowing where they are and how to get them.”

Andrew Conte is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7835 orandrewconte@tribweb.com.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/7985131-74/women-science-computer#ixzz3VKYLo6ga
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FACT SHEET: President Obama Launches New TechHire Initiative

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

March 09, 2015

President Obama Announces Multi-Sector Effort and Call to Action to Give Americans Pathways to Well-Paying Technology Jobs; Makes Available $100 Million in Grants

The President and his Administration are focused on promoting middle class economics to ensure that all Americans can contribute to and benefit from our American resurgence. Part of that effort requires empowering every American with the education and training they need to earn higher wages. Today’s announcement is the latest part of that effort: In his remarks to the National League of Cities, the President will announce his TechHire initiative, including a new campaign to work with communities to get more Americans rapidly trained for well-paying technology jobs.

Middle class economics has driven the President from day one, and it is what has fueled our comeback. On Friday, we learned that our economy created nearly 300,000 new jobs in February. American businesses have now added more than 200,000 jobs a month for the past 12 months, the longest streak of job creation at that pace in 37 years. All told, over the past five years, our businesses have created 12 million new jobs.

While we are seeing an economic resurgence, the President has made clear that there is still work left to do. America has about 5 million open jobs today, more than at any point since 2001. Over half a million of those job openings are in information technology fields like software development, network administration, and cybersecurity- many of which did not even exist just a decade ago. The average salary in a job that requires information technology (IT) skills – whether in manufacturing, advertising, retail or banking – is 50 percent higher than the average private-sector American job. Helping more Americans train and connect to these jobs is a key element of the President’s middle-class economics agenda.

As part of that agenda, TechHire is a bold multi-sector effort and call to action to empower Americans with the skills they need, through universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” and high-quality online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job, often in just a few months. Employers across the United States are in critical need of talent with these skills. Many of these programs do not require a four-year degree. Key elements of the initiative include:

• Over twenty forward-leaning communities are committing to take action – working with each other and with national employers – to expand access to tech jobs. To kick off TechHire, 20 regions, with over 120,000 open technology jobs and more than 300 employer partners in need of this workforce, are announcing plans to work together to new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their actual skills and to create more fast track tech training opportunities. The President is challenging other communities across the country to follow their lead.
• $100 million in new Federal investments to train and connect more workers to a good job in technology and other in-demand fields. The Administration will launch a $100 million H-1B grant competition by the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient workers, among others. This grant competition will support the scaling up of evidence-based strategies such as accelerated learning, work-based learning, and Registered Apprenticeships.
• Private sector boosts tools and resources to support and expand continued innovation in technology training, with a focus on reaching under-served populations. Private sector leaders are announcing commitments to provide free training through online training slots and expanding “coding bootcamps” – which provide intensive training for well-paying jobs, often in the course of just a few months – to low-income and underserved Americans including women, minorities, and veterans across the nation. National organizations are committing to work with interested cities to share job and skills information, job-matching tools, and other resources to help support the growth, adoption, and creation of promising practices across the United States.

Details on the Tech Hire Initiative

The TechHire initiative builds on work communities like Louisville, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York City and the State of Delaware are doing to connect more Americans to well-paying technology jobs through a potent combination of new tools and training models:

Over twenty forward-leaning communities are committing to take action – with each other and with national employers – to expand access to tech jobs: The TechHire initiative will achieve its goals by connecting communities together so promising ideas happening in one community can be rapidly adopted by other regions. Today, 21 communities are stepping up and responding to the President’s call-to-action, including:

Louisville  New York City    Philadelphia     Delaware        City of Kearney and Buffalo County, NE
Colorado                       St. Louis                 Salt Lake City                      San Antonio
Los Angeles            Minneapolis          Kansas City         Memphis             Rural Eastern Kentucky
Nashville         Rochester            Detroit            San Francisco          Albuquerque
Chattanooga                     Portland

Building on the promising work already underway in their communities, they are all committing to three actions:

• Using data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring: Having a data-driven assessment of employer demand is critical to building a successful regional strategy. Communities are committing to work with employers to build robust data on where they have greatest needs and what skills they are looking for; communities will work with employers to build willingness to hire from both nontraditional and traditional training programs; and communities will work with employers to review -and upgrade -their recruiting and hiring practices to enable non-traditional hiring.
   
• Expanding models for training that prepare students in months, not years: Communities will recruit, incubate and expand accelerated tech learning programs – such as coding bootcamps and innovative online training – which enable interested non-tech-experienced students to gain coding skills in months, not years. These new models also have potential to reaching to a broader set of students than have traditionally chosen to pursue tech careers. These new training programs can be run both independently or embedded as part of a local community college or university education offering.
   
• Active local leadership to connect people to jobs with hiring on ramp programs: Communities will build local strategies and partnerships to connect people to jobs, with steps ranging from investing in and working with industry-trusted organizations, which will vouch for those who have the skills to do the job but who may lack the typical profile of degrees and career experience. They will host local tech community gatherings with engaged employers, attract new non-traditional training providers to their regions, and bring visibility to existing local activities such as tech meet-ups, startup co-working spaces or startup-weekends - which are already in place in most middle-size cities or encouraging the founding of these groups if they are not available locally.

The Administration is encouraging more communities and employers to follow in their lead with similar innovative strategies to advance these goals.

Examples of TechHire Community Commitments

• St. Louis, MO. A network of over 150 employers in St. Louis’ rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem will build on a successful Mastercard pilot to partner with local non-profit Launchcode, to build the skills of women and underrepresented minorities for tech jobs, and will also place 250 apprentices in jobs in 2015 at employers like Monsanto, CitiBank, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and Anheuser Busch.
• New York City, NY. With employers including Microsoft, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Facebook, the Tech Talent Pipeline is announcing new commitments to prepare college students in the City University of New York (CUNY) system for and connect them to paid internship opportunities at local tech companies. NYC will also expand successful models like the NYC Web Development Fellowship serving 18-26 year olds without a college degree in partnership with the Flatiron School.
• State of Delaware. The new Delaware TechHire initiative is committing to training entry-level developers in a new accelerated coding bootcamp and Java and .Net accelerated community college programs giving financial institutions and healthcare employers, throughout the state, access to a new cohort of skilled software talent in a matter of months. Capital One, Bank of America, Christiana Care and others are committing to placing people trained in these programs this year.
• Louisville, KY. Louisville has convened over 20 IT employers as part of the Code Louisville initiative to train and place new software developers, including Glowtouch, Appriss, Humana, Zirmed, and Indatus. Louisville will build on this work in support of the TechHire Initiative: the city will recruit a high-quality coding bootcamp to Louisville and establish a new partnership between Code Louisville and local degree granting institutions to further standardize employer recognition of software development skillsets.

A $100 million competition for innovative approaches to connect Americans with disabilities, disconnected youth, and others to the fastest path to a good job in technology and other in-demand fields.

Today the Administration is announcing its commitment to make $100 million available through the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to moving lower skilled workers with barriers to training and employment on the fastest paths to well-paying information technology and high growth jobs in industries like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services and other in-demand sectors. The grant will focus on providing workers the skills for a pathway to the middle class while providing employers with the skilled technology workers need to grow and expand. This grant will serve people with barriers to accessing training including people with childcare responsibilities, people with disabilities, people with limited English proficiency, and disconnected youth, among others. It will serve both unemployed and low skilled front line workers.

Grants will pilot and scale innovative partnerships between employers, workforce boards, training institutions, non-profit organizations, and cities and states across the country. These partnerships will support the implementation of job-driven training strategies to help workers complete basic and technical skills training using evidence-based strategies such as accelerated learning, work-based learning and Registered Apprenticeships. A solicitation for applications for these partnerships will be available this fall and awards will be made next year. These grants will be financed by a user fee paid by employers to bring foreign workers into the United States under the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.

Private sector leaders are announcing tools and resources to scale continued innovation in technology training, with a focus on reaching under-served populations.

Expanding accelerated models for training in months not years:

• A group of 10 bootcamps are jointly announcing a shared, third-party validated format for annually publishing completion and employment outcomes to help continue to drive innovation in the bootcamp model.
• The accelerated training providers Dev Bootcamp, Hack Reactor, Microsoft, Treehouse Island, Inc., andUdacity will all be expanding free or discounted training slots for underserved communities and individuals.
• General Assembly will work with community colleges, other training providers, and employers with the aim of further standardizing web development training
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• Flatiron School, Hackbright Academy, and Rural Sourcing are announcing they will provide pro bono consulting to help interested communities expand and improve training.
• Cisco will provide select individuals interested in career opportunities in IT with free access to online IT networking skills including hundreds of online training assets.

Support for local leaders:

• Opportunity@Work, a national civic enterprise that is launching at New America today, will aim to connect policy to action and will collaborate with private and philanthropic partners to create freely available tools to scale-up employer commitments to inclusive hiring practices, to facilitate a nationwide learning network for communities, and to create new financing to help lower-income Americans be trained and placed into technology jobs.
• Capital One, through its FutureEdge initiative, a $150 million effort that will help increase tech skills and hiring, will collaborate with Opportunity@Work to provide support tailored to the needs of communities.
• #YesWeCode commits to delivering $10 million in scholarships for 2,000 underserved minorities across the nation, to attend coding bootcamps over the next ten years.

Using data and innovative hiring practices to expand hiring to include non-traditional training paths:

• CEB will develop their own best practices playbook for employers with guidance to private and public employers on how to recruit tech talent from non-traditional sources.
• LinkedIn will provide free data about the supply and demand of IT skills to communities to help them identify shortages and focus training resources on skills most in-demand.
• Knack will for the first time make its aptitude test technology available free of charge to employers, communities, and accelerated training providers that are launching inclusive training and hiring campaigns aimed at underserved minorities, women, and veterans.

A complete list of private sector commitments can be found here.

The President’s Agenda to Create Pathways to the Middle-Class Through High-Quality, Job-Driven Training. TechHire is part of the President’s broader agenda to invest in job-driven training:

• Vice-President Biden’s Job-Driven Training Review. The President’s TechHire initiative builds on the job-driven training review that the President asked the Vice President to lead in the 2013 State of the Union. Amongst other findings, the Vice President’s review identified information technology generally and cybersecurity in particular as an emerging area of growth that requires job-driven training strategies to meet business needs and provide more workers with a path to the middle class.
• VA Accelerated Learning Competition. To ensure that Veterans can take full advantage of innovative learning models, VA will apply $10M in innovation funding to leverage accelerated learning and test its effectiveness for transitioning Servicemembers and Veterans over the next two years. VA will concentrate this initiative in communities where conditions are conducive for VA to provide industry-specific and place-based support to Veterans and transitioning Servicemembers
• American Apprenticeship Grant Competition. Last year, DOL opened a $100 million competition to spur partnerships between employers, labor, training providers, and local governments to expand apprenticeships into high-growth fields like information technology and scale models that work. The deadline for this application is April 30, 2015, and more information is available at the Grants.gov application page.
• Information Technology Industry-Credentialing partnerships. The President’s FY2016 budget proposes $300 million to fund IT jobs partnerships between regional employers to develop and adopt assessments and credentials that will give more people the chance to qualify for a better, higher-paying tech job regardless of their pedigree.