A Facebook Chat with WIC Undergraduate Chapter Co-founder Meera Ramakrishnan

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Hi everyone, we're about to chat with Meera Ramakrishnan, one of the co-founders of the undergraduate chapter of Women in Computing. Meera, are you there?

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    Meera Ramakrishnan Good morning everyone. Yes, I am here.

    37 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Welcome! Can you tell us a little bit about what WIC's goals are for the new undergraduate chapter?

    36 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan The undergraduate chapter of WIC is committed to foster an innovative and informative environment for women in computer science and engineering. We will engage in technical/career discussions and debates. We are planning to bring in a few keynote speakers, provide interview and career fair preparation, and expose our members to all the latest CS research. We are also planning to host a few CS coding competitions based on the CS technical level of our members. Of course, we will also have social events with other UCSD engineering organizations.
    
    The only requirement to be a member is to create a collaborative, friendly, and stimulating environment to all who wish to enter the field of Computer Science and Engineering. We do not discriminate based on gender, race, age, or religion.

    33 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Tell us a little more about the kind of keynote speakers you'd like to bring to campus.

    30 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan We would like to invite women CS professors and UCSD alumnae to come speak to our members and provide tips for interviews, career life, and gender issues many CS women face.
    
    Many engineering companies do a great job in supporting women. I was contacted by two leading women CS researchers from a software engineering company, and they seem very eager to come speak to our members. A few other companies have already started contacting us, and we are in the process of planning tech talks and events with them on our campus itself.

    27 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering That's terrific! In the long run, are you hoping to retain and attract more female students to the major? Provide a support network?

    26 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan That is one of our main goals as an organization.
    
    From personal experience, I can say that a support network is very important not just for CSE, but for all majors. It is crucial to create strong relationships with your professors, counselors, and peers in order to have a successful undergraduate career at UCSD and beyond in the real world.
    
    We are hoping to increase the retention rate of women in CSE and foster an environment which encourages strong, intelligent, and confident young engineering women who are eager and motivated to achieve all of their goals.

    22 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering If students are interested to join the new chapter, who should they contact?

    21 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan You can find us on facebook atWIC@UCSD. Our first GBM will be on September 29th at 7pm in CSE 4140. We are looking forward to seeing everyone there.

    18 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan We also have a google group for WIC which our members can join in order to be updated on all the latest news about our organization.
    http://groups.google.com/group/wic-ucsd

    17 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Meera, before we sign off, is there anything else you'd like to tell us about the new WIC undergraduate chapter? Anything we didn't ask you about?

    15 minutes ago ·
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    Meera Ramakrishnan I just want to encourage all men and women who are interested in CSE and supporting women CSE majors to come to our first GBM and hear about what we are planning to do for this academic year.
    
    For all engineering majors, I cannot stress enough how important it is to form study groups, create a strong collaborative academic environment, get to know your professors, and also maintain a life of balance.
    
    Thank you, Jacobs School of Engineering!

    13 minutes ago ·
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    UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Thank you for chatting with us Meera! We'll keep in touch to find out how your organization is growing.

    11 minutes ago · · 1 person