Women in Technology
- WACM (Women in Computer Science): I was president of WACM in 2014-2015. Before that, I was vice-president, in which role I focused on providing programming for students in our department, particularly undergrads of any gender, with the WACM Explains... series of talks and panels. Previously, I was co-chair of the mentoring program, which matches undergrad women with graduate mentors and organizes speakers and other activities, with the goal of improving retention of undergraduate women. Prior to being mentoring chair, I was a mentor.
- Grace Hopper: I have attended four times: in 2010-2013. You can read about my experiences in 2011.
Outreach
- Expanding Your Horizons: I have participated in EYH six times now: in 2008 as an undergrad volunteer, in 2010 as an activity organizer and presenter, in 2011 as an activity organizer, and in 2012, 2013, and 2014 as an activity organizer and presenter.
- Scratch Club: In Spring 2012, I co-led a UW Scratch Club at Thoreau Elementary. We taught 4th and 5th graders using Scratch. In Fall 2013, I volunteered at Crestwood Elementary, and in Spring 2014 at Thoreau again. I also taught the UW service learning course (CS 402) on teaching Programming with Scratch (and CS concepts) to elementary students in Fall 2014.
- Wisconsin Science Festival: I organized and led an activity at the Wisconsin Science Festival in 2012 and 2013. I had a series of tutorials for creating Scratch projects to demonstrate its use for math, art, and entertainment. I organized it again in 2014, with an additional 4 sessions teaching families and school groups how to make binary bead bracelets, before passing this project off in 2015 to an excellent group of other grad students.
- Grandparents University: I was the instructor for the Computer Science major at Grandparents University in 2014.
- Madison Middle School Science Symposium: I had the pleasure of mentoring two very bright students for the 2013 symposium, and watching them learn about making a calculator out of logic gates.
If you might be interested in getting involved with outreach, feel free to send me an email (to lena AT cs).