Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing Opens Call for Participation

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 8^th Annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing announced today it has opened its Call for Participation. The annual conference, sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing and will be held October 1-4, 2008 at the Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colorado. The deadline for program submissions is March 16, 2008.

The Grace Hopper Celebration is a three-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Presenters are leaders in their respective fields representing industrial, academic and government communities. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering. The technical conference features more than 85 sessions across seven tracks including well known keynote speakers, invited technical speakers, panels, workshops, new investigator technical papers, PhD forums, technical posters, birds of a feather sessions, the ACM Student Research Competition and an awards celebration.

This year's theme, "We Build a Better World," recognizes the significant role women play in creating and utilizing technology to improve world conditions. Submissions on both technical and professional topics are encouraged, and should reflect the conference theme in the areas of innovation within a company, academia, or individual contribution through social and environmental entrepreneurship. The conference encourages technical submissions that cross disciplines and other boundaries. To learn more visit www.gracehopper.org.

The 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration attracted 1,436 participants from 23 countries with more than 250 presenters. A research study of last year’s participants revealed that a significant percentage of women reported an increased passion and commitment to their roles as technical women after attending the conference.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and is co-presented with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, the Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs for industry, academia, and government to help them recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high tech fields resulting in higher levels of technology innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Google, IBM, Intel, Cisco, Juniper Networks, National Science Foundation, Symantec, NetApp, and Capgemini. For more information visit www.anitaborg.org.