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The Computing Partners Program (CPP) enables students to attend national conferences

September 10, 2022

In the past few months, funding from the CPP has enabled nearly 50 students to attend three top conferences, DEFCON, TAPIA, and Grace Hopper. They connected with future employers, heard from the best in the industry and academia, and learned about the latest technology.

Eight students from the CSE Whitehatters Computer Security Club attended the Defcon 30 Cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Defcon is the world's largest cybersecurity/hacking conference hosted annually. The students gained valuable experience in lockpicking, game hacking, infrastructure manipulation, and technical CTF (capture-the-flag) challenges.

"I don't think the Whitehatters as a team could have planned a trip that was both as exciting and insightful as our DEFCON 30 travel. We definitely gained some knowledge in social engineering, lockpicking, CTF, and most importantly, friendship."

-Ethan Couch (WCSC Secretary)

Whitehatters (WCSC) is a CSE student organization with a long history since the 1990s.

Twenty CSE students attended the TAPIA conference in Washington, DC. The Tapia conference is the premier venue to acknowledge, promote and celebrate diversity in computing. The conference is named after Professor Richard Tapia, a seminal figure still inspiring generations of African-American, Native American, and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics. The conference involves keynote talks from leaders in the industry, workshops on technical topics, and sessions on diversity in computing.

Grace Hopper Celebration is the world's largest gathering of women technologists. 12 CSE students, mainly from the Women in CSE (WiCSE), attended the 2022 edition in Orlando, Florida. They attended talks, workshops, hackathons, mentoring, and networking sessions. Participation in this leading global venue widened their knowledge of computing and helped build their professional networks.