#BlackComputing

Fall 2014 marked the beginning of my tenure at Spelman College, a four-year liberal arts HBCU women's college. One of the courses I taught was Data Structures, commonly known as Computer Science II (CS2). While I reviewed the more finalized version of the CS2 syllabus with this group of brainy and excited aspiring computer scientists, several students informed me that they would be missing classes in order to attend Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (btw, a great conference for any woman in computing). Of course, I asked the class if they had heard of Dr. Grace Murray Hopper, the conference's namesake. Unfortunately, they had not. I told them. The impromptu factoid resonated with my class.

So each week thereafter, I introduced them to a computer scientist who is Black. I named it the #BlackComputing series. I selected a mix of men and women, those in academia, industry and government, and a couple of Spelman alumna for extra emphasis. In the spirit of celebrating February as Black History Month, let us not forget to acknowledge current Black accomplishments. Here are the scientists in my #BlackComputing series (and a couple more), in random order.

• Kyla McMullen, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at University of Florida. 
• Bryant York, Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University.
• Andrea Lawrence, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Spelman College. 
• Ayanna Howard, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. 
• Tyrone W. A. Grandison, CEO of Proficiency Labs International.
• Tony Baylis, Director of Office of Strategic Diversity Programs, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 
• Mave Houston, Founder & Head of USERLabs and User Research Strategy at Capital One.
• Kwesi Steele, Chief Technology Officer at JoMedia Inc.
• Roy Byrd, Research Staff Member Emeritus at IBM Research.
• Raquel Hill, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University-Bloomington
• James Mickens, Researcher at Microsoft.
• A. Nicki Washington, Associate Professor of Systems and Computer Science at Howard University and Owner of 'A' Game Educational Services.
• Juan Gilbert, Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and he is the Associate Chair of Research in the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department at University of Florida. 
• Leshell Hatley, Founder and Executive Director at Uplift, Inc. and Graduate Research Assistant at George Mason University.