http://www.tapiaconference.org/2009

Portland, Oregon, USA--Registration is now open for the 2009 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference. The conference brings together diverse leading researchers from around the world to present their work on state-of-the-art research in the field of computing. The 2009 event, the fifth in the series, will take place April 1-4, 2009 at the Portland Oregon Marriott Downtown Waterfront.

Early bird registration, with discounted registration fees, closes on March 1, 2009. March 1 is also the date by which hotel reservations should be confirmed. Registration information can be found at http://tapiaconference.org/2009/travel.html.

The conference theme of "Intellect, Initiative, Insight, and Innovation" will be featured in all aspects of the event, including papers, panels, workshops, posters, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, a Doctoral Consortium, and a Robotics Competition.  While the Tapia Celebration is centered on an extensive technical program, the conference also provides a supportive networking environment for under-represented groups across the broad range of computing and information technology, from science to business to the arts to infrastructure.

According to the 2009 Tapia Celebration Chair, Nina Berry of Sandia National Laboratories, "we have a strong focus on student participation, particularly throughout the technical program. Student presenters gain valuable experience in conference participation while also networking with national leaders in computing." As at the last event, the posters competition will be organized as an ACM Student Research Competition (SRC), and the top posters will advance to the ACM SRC Grand Finals.

Students' work is also highlighted through the Robotics Competition, which includes a search and rescue task in simulated and physical disaster environments, and the Doctoral Consortium, a one-day workshop at which Ph.D. students discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers in computing and in computational mathematics, science, and engineering.

About the Tapia Conference

The Tapia Celebration is organized by the Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC), and sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in cooperation with the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS). The CDC (http://www.cdc-computing.org/) is a joint organization of the ACM, CRA, and IEEE-CS.

The conference honors the significant contributions of Dr. Richard A. Tapia, University Professor and Maxfield-Oshman Professor in Engineering in the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics and Director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

The Tapia 2009 Celebration is made possible by the financial support of a number of academic, research, and business organizations at several levels, including:

Gold Supporter: Empowering Leadership Alliance, Rice-Houston Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate

Silver Supporters: Google, Microsoft, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Bronze Supporters: Georgetown University, IBM Corporation, Indiana University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oregon State University, Tufts University, Virginia Tech University

Contributors: Anita Borg Institute, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Center for Women & Information Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology

Organizations interested in supporting the conference should write to funding@tapiaconference.org. Benefits for supporters at several levels are posted on the conference Website.