Women Outnumber Men in Berkeley's Intro to Computer Science

23 February, 2014

Here's an exciting first which hopefully indicates a promising trend: This year women outnumber men in UC Berkeley's introductory computer science course. The fieldĀ  is vastly dominated by men, and the Berkeley course seems to be an exception, according to Tech Crunch. The difference is small--106 women to 104 men; yet the potential reasons why there is this rare lead provides invaluable insight into how to attract more women to computer science.

Overall, the number of women in the STEM world has been down since 1991. What is Berkeley doing right? Professor Dan Garcia, who taught the class last spring, attributes the increase to significantly more team-based project learning and increased opportunities for students to become teaching assistants. Tech Crunch provides interesting data on computer science's gender gap overall. And Maria Konnikova for Big Think breaks down different approaches for understanding the gender gap in education and the workplace.

Image credit: Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr

Northwell Health
Northwell Health

3D printing might save your life one day. It's transforming medicine and health care.

What can 3D printing do for medicine? The "sky is the limit," says Northwell Health researcher Dr. Todd Goldstein.

Northwell Health
Sponsored by Northwell Health
  • Medical professionals are currently using 3D printers to create prosthetics and patient-specific organ models that doctors can use to prepare for surgery.
  • Eventually, scientists hope to print patient-specific organs that can be transplanted safely into the human body.
  • Northwell Health, New York State's largest health care provider, is pioneering 3D printing in medicine in three key ways.
Keep reading Show less
health care health science technology future human body medical research medicine

Hyperdimensional computing discovered to help AI robots create memories

New computing theory allows artificial intelligences to store memories.

Credit: Perception and Robotics Group, University of Maryland.
Technology & Innovation
  • To become autonomous, robots need to perceive the world around them and move at the same time.
  • Researchers create a theory of hyperdimensional computing to help store robot movement in high-dimensional vectors.
  • This improvement in perception will allow artificial intelligences to create memories.
Keep reading Show less
artificial intelligence computer science computers robots future brain memory

10 new things weā€™ve learned about death

If you don't want to know anything about your death, consider this your spoiler warning.

Culture & Religion
  • For centuries cultures have personified death to give this terrifying mystery a familiar face.
  • Modern science has demystified death by divulging its biological processes, yet many questions remain.
  • Studying death is not meant to be a morbid reminder of a cruel fate, but a way to improve the lives of the living.
Keep reading Show less
death animals evolution human body nature time anthropology humanity

Why inequality is a ticking time bomb ā€“ for poor and rich

Riots may ensue as more poor Americans recognize their "miserable" long-term prospects.

Videos
  • How bad is wealth inequality in the United States? About 1 percent of Americans hold 80 percent of the money.
  • In the United States, the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up is higher than in any other country in the world.
  • One of the big underlying reasons for poverty is receiving a crummy education, which in turn leads to crummy jobs. When people recognize their miserable long-term prospects, they are more likely to partake in riots.
inequality united states money economics capitalism social change society violence history jared diamond