Undergrad Wins Grace Hopper Poster Session

The CS department is proud to announce that Manasi Vartak '10 was the winner of the undergraduate poster session at the Grace Hopper Women in Computing conference held in Tucson, AZ this year (Sept.30-Oct.3, 2009).

Manasi also served as a panelist on "Computational Biology Trends and Careers" at the conference. Manasi and Olena Marchenko (a student at Colby) proposed the panel discussion that featured professors Anne Condon (U. British Columbia), Nancy Amato (Texas A & M), and Stephanie Taylor (Colby College).

Manasi is one of the 2009 U.S. Anita Borg Finalists. Her profile on the finalist's facebook says:

Manasi is a junior at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, majoring in computer science and mathematics. She is originally from Pune, India. Her interests lie in areas like database systems, algorithms and interdisciplinary computer science. In her spare time she enjoys painting and being outdoors.
My mother inspires me the most because of her great wit, interest in helping others, and faith in everyone.

This is the largest conference for women computer scientists with over 1600 attendees, half of them students. The conference is named after the computing pioneer Grace Murray Hopper, and was established "to celebrate the achievements of women in computing and to pledge ourselves to extend them."