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Juan e. GiLBeRT honoReD
foR incReasinG DiVeRsi Ty
when Juan e. gilbert recruits african- american students for his doctorate program in computer science, he stresses that they will not spend their
time simply “programming
things.” instead, he explains how
they will improve society.
how so? By describing
how his students designed a
voting machine that enables
handicapped citizens to vote in
elections via touchscreen, voice-
recognition, and other methods.
Or by presenting his students’
ethnocomputing software, which
teaches minority children about
mathematics through computers
that use hip hop music and video
game-themed interfaces.
“Many african-americans
and other underrepresented
groups don’t want to go into
computer science,” says gilbert,
chairman of the College of
engineering and Science’s
human-Centered Computing
Division at Clemson University.
“they want to go into the
‘helping’ disciplines instead, to
make an impact upon others. But
when i show them what we’re
doing, they realize that computer
science is an outstanding way
to transform our society in a
meaningful way.”
the same can be said of
gilbert. he currently oversees 15
african-american Ph.D. students.
(Only 245 african-americans
are enrolled in CS Ph.D.
programs in Canada and the U. S.,
according to the latest taulbee
Survey.) Overall, gilbert has
directed six african-americans
toward their Ph. D.’s since 2006.
For these and other efforts,
he recently received the U.S.
Presidential award for excellence
in Science, Mathematics and
engineering Mentoring.
Ultimately, gilbert says,
increasing the number of
minorities in computer science
benefits everyone. “You need
to be around a variety of people
with a variety of backgrounds
to discover something new,”
he says. “Diverse minds yield
diverse solutions.”
—Dennis McCafferty