Clemson students, faculty attend national computing diversity conference

Published: February 8, 2013

CLEMSON — More than 40 students and faculty members from the Clemson University School of Computing are attending the 2013 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Tapia conference honors the contributions of its namesake Richard A. Tapia, a mathematician and professor in the computational and applied mathematics department at Rice University.

This week’s conference touts a supportive networking environment for under-represented groups across a broad range of computing and information technology.

Juan Gilbert, Clemson’s first Presidential Endowed Chair and director and chairman of the Human-Centered Computing division in the School of Computing, said students and faculty develop cutting edge technology, systems and programs to improve quality of life. He said the Tapia conference is a valuable extension of encouragement and motivation for everyone, including himself.

“Tapia conferences help build momentum by bringing together people from all educational levels, backgrounds and ethnicities,” Gilbert said.

Nearly 10 percent of the African-American computer science faculty and Ph.D. students at the nation’s research universities are at Clemson University.

“We live in a world of high technology. The dynamics associated with the many aspects of computing changes every second,” Gilbert said. “Tapia conferences support students, educators and industry leaders by recognizing their accomplishments and arming them with information they won’t find anywhere else.”

This year’s conference includes presentations from faculty, students, organizations and businesses around the country, including Google, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

Gilbert is receiving the Tapia Achievement Award at this year’s conference. The award recognizes individuals for outstanding achievements in scientific scholarship, a strong civic presence within the scientific community and a dedication to the attainment of ethnic diversity in computing and related discipline.

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The Coalition of Diversify Computing organized the Tapia conference. The Association for Computing Machining, in cooperation with the IEEE Computer Society and the Computing Research Association are sponsoring the event.