FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Eric Mason
650-236-4079
Anita Borg Institute Announces Sponsorship for Grace Hopper Celebration
Host of leading tech companies and universities provide funding for
World’s largest technical conference for women
PALO ALTO, Calif., August 15, 2006 – The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) has announced that a total of 38 organizations, including corporate sponsors and academic underwriters, will provide financial backing for 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.
In addition to funding from the National Science Foundation, ABI and 17 university underwriters will subsidize conference attendance scholarships for more than 200 female technical students. The Grace Hopper Celebration will be attended by more than 1200 leading technical women, nearly 50 percent of who are college students.
Charlene (“Chuck”) Walrad, Development Director for ABI and the Grace Hopper Celebration, noted that seven organizations are first-time supporters. These include corporate sponsors CA (formerly Computer Associates), Yahoo!, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Arrow Electronics.
“Our sponsors and underwriters recognize the Grace Hopper Celebration as a prime opportunity to motivate and inspire their own technical women and keep them current with new and emerging technologies,” Walrad said. “They also believe it’s a great place to influence and recruit new, top-notch technical talent.”
Libby Sartain, Yahoo!’s senior vice president, human resources said of Yahoo!’s sponsorship, “The Grace Hopper Celebration attracts the kind of big thinkers we recruit at Yahoo! to help us define the next generation of the internet. Yahoo! is constantly expanding our pool of talented and smart engineers and we look forward to meeting the technical talent assembled for this event.”
“Since the initial event in 1994, the Grace Hopper Celebrations have always provided an outstanding forum for HP to build new relationships and strengthen long-time associations throughout the business and university communities,” said Wayne Johnson, Vice President for University Relations at HP. “We particularly value our participation because it allows us to meet and engage with people who are passionate about technology and enhancing industry opportunities for women.”
Walrad said the growing list of Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing sponsors and underwriters includes the following:
Gold sponsors: CA, Cisco Systems, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, YAHOO! –
Silver sponsors: Amazon, Arrow Electronics, Cadence, EMC, Fair Isaac, Symantec, Thoughtworks, USENIX –
Bronze sponsors: Adobe, AT&T Labs, Goldman Sachs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NCWIT, Oracle, Walmart, Well Fargo
Gold academic scholarship underwriters: California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, UCIrvine, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Silver academic scholarship underwriters: Information Networking Institute Carnegie Mellon, DePaul University, Georgia Tech, Michigan State University, NCSA, New York University, Purdue University – Bronze academic scholarship underwriters: Tufts University, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Texas at Austin, UC Berkeley.
Founding Sponsors: CRA & CRA-W
Government Sponsor: The National Science Foundation
In addition to Gold sponsorship of the 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration, Microsoft recently announced that they will underwrite the Anita Borg Award for Social Impact and Intel announced that they are underwriting the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership. Each is a $10,000 award that recognizes an outstanding woman technical leader, one who has inspired the women’s technology community through outstanding technological work and one for outstanding social contributions relating to technology as it benefits women. Winners will be announced at an Awards Banquet at the Grace Hopper Celebration on Thursday, October 5.
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 underway with early-bird discounts in effect through August 15, 2006. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference
About the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing:
The GHC 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, GHC is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. GHC 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.
