Celebrate Black History Month with ACM
Join us in celebrating Black History Month! From groundbreaking research in artificial intelligence to advancements in cybersecurity, Black computing leaders have consistently expanded the boundaries of what’s possible, often overcoming systemic challenges to do so. This year, we invite you to revisit some of our past Bytecast interviews with Black computing pioneers including Nashlie Sephus, Jelani Nelson, Yaw Anokwa, Denae Ford, and Ayanna Howard, showcasing their insights, achievements, and enduring impact on the global tech community.
About Our Experts
Yaw Anokwa
Yaw Anokwa is a research scientist, software engineer, and entrepreneur. Yaw holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Washington and is the founder and CEO of ODK, the offline data collection platform that helps fight disease, poverty, and inequity. His volunteer work with Partners in Health in Rwanda and an internship at Google showed him the potential for technology to empower people and change lives. Through his chief project, ODK, Yaw is passionate about working on a product that focuses on public good.
Nashlie Sephus
Nashlie Sephus is a Principal Tech Evangelist for Amazon AI. Her primary focus is on fairness and identifying biases at AWS AI. Formerly, she led the Amazon Visual Search team in Atlanta, which launched visual search for replacement parts on Amazon Shopping using technology developed at her former start-up Partpic, where she was CTO. Nashlie is also CEO of BeanPath, a nonprofit startup developing the Jackson Tech District in Jackson Mississippi. Nashlie earned her PhD from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Denae Ford
Denae Ford is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research in the Software Analysis and Intelligence Team group and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Human Centered Design and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. In her work, Denae’s research interest lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and software engineering. She identifies and dismantle cognitive and social barriers by designing mechanisms to support software developer participation in online socio-technical ecosystems.
Ayanna Howard
Ayanna Howard is the Dean of the College of Engineering at the Ohio State University and founder and President of the Board of Directors of Zyrobotics. Previously, she was chair of the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing. There she founded and led the Human-Automation Systems Lab. Before that, she worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ayanna earned her PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.
Jelani Nelson
Jelani Nelson is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Research Scientist at Google. His areas of interest include the theory of computation and design and analysis of algorithms. He is founder of AddisCoder, a computer science summer program for Ethiopian high school students in Addis Ababa. Jelani earned his PhD in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Awareness Months Archive
Embracing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences enrich the ACM community and strengthen ACM's ability to support the global computing community. Awareness months are a time dedicated to reflection, education, and engagement to understand and embrace the diverse membership within the ACM community. Our archive display the past and current celebrations ACM have created to foster an inclusive and equitable environment for all within the computing community.
How Diverse Is Your Team?
ACM's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is an essential resource for SIGs, conferences, boards, and councils looking for best practices to improve diversity in their organization and develop programs with a broader reach in the computing community. Our guide provides examples of both inherent and acquired characteristics, which should be taken into consideration when looking at ways to improve the diversity of your team.
Words Matter
As part of ACM’s efforts to combat exclusion in the computing profession, ACM's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council has launched an effort to replace offensive or exclusionary terminology in the computing field. They have developed a list of computing terms to be avoided in professional writing and presentations and offer alternative language. The Council plans to expand this list in the future and invites the community to submit suggestions for consideration.
