Anita Borg Institute Announces Speakers for Grace Hopper Celebration; Helen Greiner, Sally Ride and Shirley Tilghman to Provide Keynotes at World's Largest Technical Conference for Women in Computing

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2006--The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) has announced a prestigious line up of keynote and invited technical speakers for the 6th Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing Conference to be held October 4-7, 2006, in San Diego, California. Sponsored jointly by ABI and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Grace Hopper Celebration is the world's largest technical conference for women in the field of computer science. www.gracehopper.org

    Keynotes for the event will be delivered by:

        --  Helen Greiner 
        Ms. Greiner is co-founder and chairman of the board of iRobot,
        Corporation, producer of robots for industrial, consumer and 
        military markets. She has been honored by Technology Review 
        Magazine as an "Innovator for the Next Century," and was 
        recently named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News 
        and World Report.

        --  Sally K. Ride 
        A former NASA astronaut and the first American woman to travel
        in outer space, Dr. Ride is president & CEO of Sally Ride 
        Science, a company she founded in 2001 to develop science 
        programs for elementary and middle school students, especially
        girls and young women. She is also professor of physics at the
        University of California, San Diego and serves as Director of 
        UC's California Space Institute.

        --  Shirley M. Tilghman 
        Dr. Tilghman is president of Princeton University and 
        professor of molecular biology. Renowned for her pioneering 
        research in genetics and biosciences and for national 
        leadership on behalf of women in science, she was a founding 
        member of the National Advisory Council of the Human Genome 
        Project Initiative and is a member of the National Academy of 
        Sciences.

    In addition to the keynote speakers, ABI has announced six invited
technical speakers:

        --  Justine Cassell          Associate professor, Media Arts &
                                     Sciences, Northwestern University

        --  Trish Millines Dziko     Director, Technology Access
                                     Foundation

        --  Deborah Johnson          Olsson professor of Applied 
                                     Ethics; department chair, 
                                     Science, Technology and Society,
                                     University of Virginia

        --  Marissa Mayer            Director, Consumer Web Products, 
                                     Google

        --  Radia Perlman            Senior distinguished engineer, 
                                     Sun Microsystems

        --  Yuanyuan Zhou            Assistant professor, Department 
                                     of Computer Science, University 
                                     of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The complete GHC conference schedule can be found at: www.gracehopper.org/conference/schedule

“We are honored to welcome this remarkable group of technical women to this year's GHC program. Each of them is an extraordinary role model and a positive example of how technical women are seizing opportunity and changing the face of technology”

"We are honored to welcome this remarkable group of technical women to this year's GHC program. Each of them is an extraordinary role model and a positive example of how technical women are seizing opportunity and changing the face of technology," said Dr. Telle Whitney, ABI president and CEO.

Open to women from the undergraduate level to seasoned technical leaders and educators, this year's GHC event is expected to attract more than 1200 women from industry, academia and government. The conference program includes plenary sessions, technical papers and workshops designed to inspire, educate and encourage technical women and to celebrate the considerable achievements of women in the computing field. Additionally, recipients of the prestigious Anita Borg Technical Leadership and Social Impact Awards will be announced, along with other honors for women in technology, at an Awards Banquet on Thursday, October 5.

As a result of sponsorship and underwriting by scores of businesses and universities and by the National Science Foundation, a record number of attendance scholarships will be awarded for this year's GHC. Lead corporate gold sponsors include Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, IBM and Yahoo!. Universities providing lead underwriting include CalTech, UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Barbara, Harvard, Princeton and University of Illinois.

In addition to their lead sponsorship of GHC, Microsoft and Intel recently announced that they will underwrite the Anita Borg Award for Social Impact and the Anita Borg Award Technical Leadership, respectively. Each is a $10,000 award that recognizes an outstanding woman technical leader, one who has inspired the women's technology community through outstanding technological work and the other through outstanding social contributions. The Anita Borg Award Winners will be announced at a Gala Awards Banquet dinner on Thursday evening, October 5th at the Grace Hopper Celebration.

Registration for GHC is underway with early-bird discounts in effect through August 15, 2006. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference -- www.gracehopper.org/participate/registration/.

About the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing:

The GHC is a program of The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and is co-presented by ABI and ACM. Inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, GHC is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. GHC was founded by the late Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Gold sponsors: Computer Associates, Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! -- Silver sponsors: Amazon, Cadence, EMC, Thoughtworks, USENIX -- Bronze sponsors: AT&T Labs, Goldman Sachs, NCWIT. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Gold academic scholarship underwriters: California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, UCIrvine, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- Silver academic scholarship underwriters: Information Networking Institute Carnegie Mellon, DePaul University, Georgia Tech, Michigan State University, NCSA, New York University, Purdue University -- Bronze academic scholarship underwriters: Tufts University, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Texas at Austin. Founding Sponsors: CRA & CRA-W

About The Anita Borg Institute

Founded in 1997, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a nationally recognized organization dedicated to changing the world for women and technology. The Institute accomplishes its goals through collaboration with industry, academic and government organizations. A growing list of leading corporations, including partners HP, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Google and sponsors, IBM, Cisco, and Intel recognize that by investing in its programs to engage and develop technical women, they can achieve a more diverse, globally competitive workforce capable of producing higher levels of technology innovation and better financial performance. Partnering with these visionaries, as well as leading universities, government organizations and influential individual business and political leaders, the Institute is delivering programs that are changing the world for women and technology. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) : www.anitaborg.org.