Information Theory Society Outreach Effort

Muriel Medard

Recapitulation

At the meeting in Porto, the BoG voted to have a concerted effort from our Society aimed at enhancing women’s participation in a way that is inclusive and beneficial to all members in the Society (led by Bob Gray, Muriel Medard and all interested)

Concrete steps: The Society approved a request for an initial $3 K from the

Society for such efforts Balancing career and family for members of our

Society (planning such an event at ISIT 2008)

Community specific efforts – successful approaches ICASSP has run a successful women’s lunch

networking event for several years Networking and communications has a successful

N^2 Women (networking networking women) initiative http://www.comsoc.org/N2Women/

Main components of success: Events at main conferences (lunch/breakfast workshop),

co-organized by a student (who is given a small travel award) and by a more senior member of the community, happening early in the conference

A mailing list with very few but useful e-mails (the event at ISIT has already been sent to the N^2 Women list)

A visible web site hosted by the relevant society

Role of women in the IT Society Very few senior (50+) members and Fellows

(counted 7 in the last 8 years, many of them not through our Society)

Limited participation in TPCs: ISIT 2008 3/63 ISIT 2007 6/56 (and 2/4 TPC co-chairs) ISIT 2006 1/55 ISIT 2005 3/58

Better participation on BoG 3/20

Going forward

We would like to continue meetings at ISIT and some of our main events (IT Summer School, some ITWs): organized by students/postdocs in conjunction with senior

members support from the Society for travel grants and event emphasis on networking, mentorship development and

career skills, open to all Connect the outreach website to the IT Society

website as an integral part of our Society’s services to its members