Computer Science

Regarding Anna Lewis's Aug. 28 Outlook commentary, " Why don't more women become computer geeks? ": It's true that young women today face fewer deterrents than their predecessors did to pursuing computer science, but deterrents remain. The iconic image of a computer science student as male, with an intense if not single-minded focus, persists. Students, both women and men, who don't fit that image lose interest and confidence in the field. A 2001 Carnegie Mellon University study found that the culture of computer science...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Computer Sciences returned to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, bolstered in part by a tax benefit and gain on the sale of an Australian IT staffing business. The company, which provides information technology services to a wide range of industries, also boosted its fiscal 2014 forecast for earnings from continuing operations on Wednesday. Shares rose in premarket trading. Computer Sciences Corp. earned $281 million, or $1.81 per share, for the period...

John McCarthy, 84, a computer scientist often credited with creating the very name of the futuristic field in which he was an honored pioneer — artificial intelligence — died Oct. 24 at his home in Stanford, Calif. The death was announced by Stanford University, where he was a professor in mathematics and later computer science from 1962 until his retirement in 2001. He had pulmonary hypertension, his daughter Sarah McCarthy said. When Dr. McCarthy launched his career, in the years after World War II, there was...

BOULDER, Colo. — Ethan Welty is thinking ahead to harvest time as he cycles through tidy Boulder streets pointing out apple, plum and mulberry trees on public and private land. "We're coming up on the best apple trees in Boulder," said Welty, a geographer and PhD student specializing in glaciers in the University of Colorado's Environmental Studies program. He was approaching a front-yard grove of trees. Last summer and fall, Welty said, he never went to a supermarket for fruit.

BLACKSBURG, Va. — A Virginia Tech software engineering class in 2009 was discussing world problems and how computer science might offer solutions when a student piped up with a personal gripe. "You know what I hate?" the student said, according to assistant professor Eli Tilevich, who was teaching the class. "I never know when the bus is coming. " As Virginia Tech and other universities train a new generation of computer scientists, professors are asking students to create programs that address...

It would be hard to find a student at Stone Bridge High School who has never used the Internet for a research assignment, socialized with Facebook or played a video game. But few know much about how computers and the Web actually work. About 70 students at the Ashburn school are taking introductory or Advanced Placement courses this year in computer science, getting a glimpse behind the games and Web sites they use all the time. For an hour and a half every other day, they enter a...

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include links to sources, research and statistics that were omitted from the original publication. "It's just like planning a dinner," Adm. Grace Hopper, a computer science pioneer, explained to "Cosmopolitan" readers in a 1967 story. "You have to plan ahead and schedule everything so it's ready when you need it. " Pot roast or computer programming — both, Cosmo told its readers, could be women's work. I first came across a mention of that...

As the parent of a teenage son who attended the Washington Waldorf School (where my wife is also employed) for grades 1-8 and is now finishing his junior year at the Flint Hill School in Oakton, I have a unique perspective on Cecilia Kang's May 13 front-page article " Two schools of thought: High-tech vs. no-tech . " The fact is, both schools do a very good job of educating students but, as Ms. Kang pointed out, they do it in very different ways....

Alec Ross, senior adviser for innovation at the State Department, has a piece of advice for students tasked with the nerve-rattling problem of choosing a college major. "If any college student asked me what career would most assure 30 years of steady, well-paying employment," Ross said, "I would respond, ‘cybersecurity.' " That's because cybersecurity is a field where the rules of the recession seem flipped: There's plenty of jobs, but relatively few qualified applicants.

In communist North Korea — tightly sealed off from the Internet and foreign news — a fledgling private university is offering hand-picked students a rare window to the outside world. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology , backed by evangelical Christians and Western-trained scientists, aspires to give future leaders tools to develop the country's backward economy and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. This week, the year-old school...

Upper Marlboro native Sean Turner spends much of his time as an information technology sales consultant, but he would never consider it his "full-time job. " His acting career comes first, after he became a recurring character in the television drama series "Dallas," he said. Turner, 43, who goes by the stage name Akai Draco, lives in Dallas, where he auditions for acting jobs and does IT consulting for California-based computer technology corporation Oracle. He said he'd rather have "acting and screenwriting pay the...

Noreen Welch, 74, a computer science engineer who at the age of 60 changed careers and became an intellectual property lawyer, died Dec. 28 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. She had complications from colon cancer. Her husband, James Welch Jr., confirmed the death. Dr. Welch retired from her computer science career in 1994 after 30 years as a computer specialist with Mitre Corp. in McLean and then with Computer Science Corp. In 1998, she received a law degree from the University of Maryland, then became a...

Students studying in math or science fields at the College of Southern Maryland have an opportunity to receive scholarship money to continue their studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland. St. Mary's College will use most of a $598,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to interest students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Professors at St. Mary's College received the five-year grant to fund the college's STEM Navigators project, which will award scholarships...

Women are attending college at higher rates than men, graduating in greater numbers and earning higher grades. Yet one year after graduation, women were making only 82 percent of what their male colleagues were paid, according to a report by the American Association of University Women set to be released Wednesday. Nearly every occupation has long paid men more than women, despite laws aimed at narrowing and dissolving the differences. Often the gap is attributed to...

Regarding the Oct. 20 editorial " Maryland is for gerrymanders ": I agree with the piece about the "handiwork of Gov. Gerrymander and his hyperpartisan assistant draftsmen. " But voters need to be made aware of how Question 5 appears on the ballot . It reads: "Establishes the boundaries for the State's eight United States Congressional Districts based on recent census figures, as required by the United States Constitution. " Granted, the sample ballot I received in Howard County included a...

In 1994, I started an after school club called Girls Excelling in Math and Science to encourage girls to build rockets, mix chemicals and get messy. Over the past 18 years, we've had a ball — and the girls have thrived. In 2012, I am doing something a little different and focusing club activities on motivating girls to embrace technology — as creators, not users. For some of us working directly with girls in elementary and middle schools, it has been easier to ignore technology and offer experiences and activities in the other...

What's good for women's basketball will be good for nuclear physics. To most Americans, that statement will sound odd. To President Obama, it apparently does not. In an October letter to women's advocacy groups, he declared that Title IX, the law that requires universities to give equal funding to men's and women's athletics, had made "an enormous impact on women's opportunities and participation in sports. " If pursued with "necessary attention and enforcement," the same law could make "similar, striking advances" for women in science and engineering.

Women are attending college at higher rates than men, graduating in greater numbers and earning higher grades. Yet one year after graduation, women were making only 82 percent of what their male colleagues were paid, according to a report by the American Association of University Women set to be released Wednesday. Nearly every occupation has long paid men more than women, despite laws aimed at narrowing and dissolving the differences. Often the gap is attributed to men...

Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives, Google Alfred Spector joined Google in 2007 and is responsible for research across Google and also a growing collection of special initiatives, such as open source, university relations and more.  Recently Dr. Spector has assumed the executive engineering leadership for  google.org , an effort that uses Google's strengths in information and technology to build products and advocate for policies that address global challenges.