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Black engineers made up for only six percent of computer programmers across the nation in 2020, compared to white engineers accounting for 68 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Karat, a technical interviewing company, released a new research report in partnership with Howard University (HU) that explores the job access barrier for Black software engineers. The pair teamed up to host focus groups earlier this year to survey 300 Black computer science students and alumni from Howard University, Morehouse College and University of North Carolina Charlotte. The Interview Access Gap for Black Engineers report is co-authored by Dr. Legand Burge, III, a computer science professor at HU; Dr. Katherine Picho-Kiroga, assistant professor of educational psychology at HU; and Portia Kibble Smith, head of diversity and inclusion at Karat. “There’s been a lot of research conducted on STEM education and the opportunity gaps that exist for Black students,” Kibble Smith told...
The number of engineering degrees earned by Black and Latino undergraduate students is increasing, though not enough to close the attainment gap. A new report from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) reveals that while Black and Latino undergraduate students are increasingly enrolling in college, the number of engineering degrees conferred to underrepresented minorities fails to match the demand for tech workers. Latino students who earned engineering degrees increased 79 percent while Black engineering degrees increased by 35 percent between 2011 and 2016. While those increases are promising, the overall percentage of black and brown students graduating with engineering degrees is still low. According to the study, 19 percent of undergraduate students are hispanic, but only 11 percent have engineering degrees, a figure that only increased by two points from 2011-2016. That number is even lower for African Americans, who make up 13 percent of college...
More than a year after ride-sharing giant Lyft announced its Round Up & Donate program, Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gender gap in the technology industry, has received $1 million in rider donations, according to TechCrunch . According to a report by the National Center for Women and Information Technology, 26 percent of the computing workforce was made up of women in 2017. For minority women, the numbers were even lower — only three percent were African American, five percent were Asian and one percent were Hispanic. Since its creation, Girl Who Code has received donations and recognition from other large tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. “We couldn’t be more excited to be celebrating the $1 million milestone with our friends at Lyft,” Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani said in a statement. “And the moment is made even more special knowing that this was made possible by the riders themselves.” Riders can...
A 15-year-old Nigerian girl’s coding skills are changing the technology sector in her country. Tomisin Ogunnubi is the creator of My Locator, an app that helps locate missing children. She created the app in 2016 and it has been downloaded over 1000 times since it hit Google Play , according to BBC. My Locator uses Google Maps to track users as they move from location to the next. Users can add numbers to the app that will receive the user’s location in the event of an emergency. “It also has a functionality where when you click on an alert button. It sends a text message and makes a phone call, that’s if you’ve enabled it in your settings, to a particular number that you’ve designated to it,” said Ogunnubi. “It could be an emergency number or it could be a family member’s number. It’s basically your choice. So in case of an emergency, when you need an urgent response, it sends your current address to that number so somebody can easily locate where you are.” The teen learned how to...
According to a new report from Code.org , more minorities — including women, black and Latino students — took Advanced Placement computer science classes than ever before in 2018. Even rural participation was up in a major way, expanding the average demographic for who takes AP courses in America. In general, 31% more students are taking AP computer science exams than previous years, but within that group, black students who took the courses grew 44 percent, Hispanic and Latino students grew by 41 percent, women grew by almost 40 percent this year and rural participants grew by 42 percent. The growth is significant, especially when you consider that just 2 percent of schools with high percentages of underrepresented students of color offer AP computer science classes to begin with. These courses are essential because of the power and opportunity that comes from computer science. We’re still on the technology wave, and through these courses, students can get exposed skills that lead...