UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eleven students from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) attended the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, held Sept. 16-18 in Atlanta. Hosted by the Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT and the Association for Computing Machinery, this year’s event focused on frontier artificial intelligence (AI), assistive technologies and cybersecurity.
The Tapia Conference brings together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers and professionals in computing from all backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities and genders to celebrate diversity in computing and create communities that extend beyond the conference, according to the conference website.
“Investing in our students’ experiences at conferences like Tapia is an investment in the leaders and changemakers they are becoming,” said Madhavi Kari, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging specialist, student success, in the College of IST. “The students hone new skills, meaningful connections and a strong sense of community that they can carry forward through their academic journeys, careers and lives.”
The conference featured plenaries, workshops, posters, a career fair and a generative AI hackathon. The keynote speaker was AI researcher Omar Flórez, who works to ensure diverse voices and perspectives help shape the future of AI.