IA Publication Coordinator to be Published
in Computer Science Journal

Our very own Publications Coordinator Stephan Gunsaulus recently learned that the research paper that he co-wrote with Cal Poly Computer Science Professor, Dr. Hasmik Gharibyan was accepted for presentation at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference, to be held in Bologna, Italy in June (http://www.iticse06.cs.unibo.it/papers.html). The paper will be published in the conference proceedings and the ACM journal.

The research paper: Gender Gap in Computer Science Does Not Exist in One Former Soviet Republic: Results of a Survey, addresses the first part of an investigation into social attitudes regarding the participation of women in the curriculum of Computer Science in Armenia, a former Soviet Republic.

Gunsaulus and Gharibyan surveyed more the 1,100 individuals in both Armenia and the U.S. with the majority of U.S. respondents surveyed at Cal Poly and Cuesta College. “We chose this topic in an attempt to understand social attitudes that may have an influence on the chronically low participation rates of women in the field of Computer Science in the U.S. that are typically in the single digits,” says Gunsaulus. Female participation rates in former Soviet Republics average 50 percent, with some institutions reporting participation rates as high as 70 percent.

“I had a lot of help from faculty members Mary McCorkle, Jane Morgan, and Randy Gold for surveying their students and from Institutional Research Supervisor, Ryan Cartnal in developing the U.S. survey methodology,” said Gunsaulus.

Dr. Gharibyan, a Computer Science graduate of Yerevon State University in Armenia is widely published in the fields of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science Education. Both Gunsaulus and Gharibyan have completed a second research paper comparing the Armenian and U.S. survey results. The second research paper, Women in Computer Science: Why There is No Problem in One Former Soviet Republic, was submitted to the 2006 Frontiers in Education Conference (http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2006 )to be held in San Diego this October and is awaiting approval at this time.