Founded in 1999, CSWN is a student led organization at Purdue University dedicated to helping women in the Computer Science (CS) field.
President
Year: 2021, Senior
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Rujula is a senior majoring in computer science and is excited to share her passion for supporting women tech by serving as the club's president this year. Outside of computer science Rujula in involved with Purdue Solutions a technical consulting club and has been a part of Boiler Bhangra Purdue's competitive Indian dance for the past 3 years. Rujula is excited about what the CSWN has in store for the upcoming school year and can't wait to meet all of the new members!
Vice President
Year: 2020, Senior
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Business Econ
Prasha serves as the Vice President of CSWN.
Corporate Liaison
Year: 2023, Sophomore
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Business Econ
Snekha (pronounced without the k) is a Computer Science major and hopes to pursue a Machine Learning track and minor in Business Economics. She has been passionate about achieving better representation and gender equality in the tech industry since her introduction to coding in high school. Apart from CS, Snekha has been doing Indian classical dance for over 12 years and is a DIY enthusiast :)
Secretary
Year: 2023, Sophomore
Major: Computer Science
Minior: Psychology
Beatrice is a computer science student who has just started learning about coding and fell in love with it quickly. On campus, she is also the treasurer of Purdue Hackers and a member of UGRSP (Undergraduate Research Society of Purdue). In her free time, she likes to listen to music and learn new recipes. Her favorite part of CSWN is the many interactions she can have both with fellow students and company recruiters. In the future, she plans on getting a job hopefully in the artificial intelligence field and be of help to other people in her community.
Corporate Liaison
Year: 2023, Sophomore
Major: Data Science
Minor: Management
Macie is a sophomroe majoring in data science and minoring in management. Outside of being Corporate Liason in CSWN, she plays intramural sports and plans to get more involved in clubs. She enjoys hammocking with friends, going to sports games, and playing volleyball for fun. Her favorite part of CSWN is meeting other women in her major who have similar aspirations and goals and feeling more comfortable that there are more women out there in her major even if her classes are predominantly male heavy. Her future goals and aspirations are to gain a job either in the fields of music analytics, sports analytics, or business analytics.
Treasurer
Year: 2022, Junior
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Math
Meghan is the Treasurer for CSWN for 2020-21 and she has been a member of CSWN since her first semester of freshman year. She loves to be involved with the CS department at Purdue including Hackathons and events put on by our many student-led organizations. She is also a member of AIF meant to celebrate South Asian culture at Purdue. She plans to graduate Purdue and get an MBA after some industry experience. In her free time, she likes to play guitar and sing and to have movie nights with her friends.
Webmaster
Year: 2023, Sophomore
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Management
Neerali is a sophomore majoring in computer science, her passion to be part of CSWN came from her introduction to programming from Girls Who Code. She hopes to learn more about cybersecurity and machine learning during her time at Purdue. Apart from being the CSWN Webmaster, she serves on the executive board in the Computer Science Undergraduate Student Board and is an active sister of Phi Sigma Rho a sorority for women in STEM. Her favorite aspect of CSWN is the fostering and uplifting environment where women in CS can come together and learn ways to boost their career. Her future aspirations are to work in the field of cybersecurity and lead programs that teach young girls how to code. In her free time she listens to audiobooks, goes on runs, and hangs out with her friends!
Puzzle Day Director
Year: 2022, Junior
Major: Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
Atreyee is a junior majoring in computer science and mathematics. Along with being a part of CSWN, she is also a TA for MA366 (Ordinary Differential Equations). Besides her interest in CS and math, Atreyee enjoys playing video games, painting, and playing the piano.
Puzzle Master
Year: Junior, 2022
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Science
Zoe is part of the honors college. She loves to watch TV, read, and hangout with her friends. Her favorite part of CSWN are socials in which we get to be creative and learn more about each other.
Marketing Specialist
Year: 2023, sophomore
Major: Data Science
Minor: Management
Leyla is a sophomore majoring in data science. Her favorite part of CSWN is the warm and welcoming atmosphere that the members and officers create. CSWN helped her feel more confident about being able to achieve highly in her major and showed her what there is to love about her major. She says the strong community of support that CSWN provides was crucial during her transition into college. Some of her goals after graduating Purdue include becoming an entrepreneur by inventing her own software and traveling the world. Apart from CSWN Leyla is also a Special Events Committee Member for Purdue University Dance Marathon where she organizes, plans, and sets up special events on campus to fundraise for the dance marathon. She is also a part of the Hello World Hackathon Finance Team which involves connecting and communicating with other companies in order to gain potential sponsors for the hackathon. CSWN continues to be one of Leyla's favorite parts of her college experience.
Puzzle Day Logistics Coordinator
Year: 2023, Sophmore
Major: Computer Science and Mathematics
Frances O’Leary is a sophomore double majoring in CS and Math here at Purdue. Besides CSWN she is also involved with the 3D printing club on campus and AB7G, which is a STEM outreach group. In her free time she likes to make random visualizations using Processing and playing around with microcontrollers. She also loves to read and hike. My favorite part about CSWN is Puzzle Day!
Founding Member
The woman who started it all, Barbara Clark founded the CSWN we know today. By doing so, she has brought hundreds of women together under the bond of computer science. Barb dedicated her time at Purdue making sure that CSWN was alive and thriving, and she remained the Faculty Advisor for CSWN until she retired in 2014.
Faculty Advisor
Sonia Fahmy is the faculty advisor for CSWN. Sonia started off her role as Faculty Advisor with Barbara Clark in fall 2013 and took over as the sole advisor in October of 2015 once Barb retired. Sonia is a professor in the CS department at Purdue University.
Alumnus
Bridgette graduated from Purdue in May 2016 and is currently working as a Program Manager at Microsoft.
Alumnus
Andrea Lynn Evensen (née Carollo) (B.S. Comp. Sci. 2001) graduated from Purdue with Distinction after having received numerous scholarships and being, inter alia, the Vice President of Mortar Board and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, she attended the John Marshall Law School (J.D. 2004) and was, inter alia, a published member of Law Review, a twice published Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Morrissey Scholars, and an Associate Justice for Moot Court. She graduated magna cum laude. Ms. Evensen is an associate with Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the U.S., and is a registered patent attorney. She was named a 2009 Rising Star by Illinois Super Lawyers. Her intellectual property law practice focuses on litigation disputes, including those involving trade secrets, patents, software-related matters, and contracts. With a background in computer science, her prosecution docket focuses not only on patent prosecution in the computer arts, but also comprises patent prosecution and opinion writing in the mechanical arts, medical arts, and business methods. Her practice also includes copyright and trademark issues. Ms. Evensen is married to Michael Evensen (B.S. M.E.T. 2001), and together they have a wonderful son named Gregory and a dog named Cinder Scrumps. They reside in Elgin, Illinois.
Alumnus
Valerie Anne Fenwick (née Bubb) is a Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems with over a decade of experience in computer security. Valerie is currently working on getting the Solaris Cryptographic Framework, of which she was a designer and major contributor, certified by US Government standards (FIPS-140). She is the lead for the Open Solaris Change Request Team, responsible for making decisions as to what code changes are incorporated into the Operating System and Networking consolidation, and one of the sponsors for the Open Solaris project. She is a leader in redefining the software bugtracking strategy and processes used across Sun today. Previously Valerie was the technical lead for the release of Solaris 10 1/06 and was responsible for the NAT implementation as well as other network security features of the SunScreen firewall. Valerie has a B.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University. In her spare time, she enjoys performing at community theaters, riding her bike, and skiing.
Alumnus
Erika Shehan Poole is a PhD candidate in human-centered computing at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on how groups collaborate to use, maintain, and make sense of computing technologies; areas of study have included home technology maintenance practices, public understandings of emerging technologies, workplace adoption of collaboration software, and collaborative gaming technologies for improving health and wellness. Erika holds a BS degree in computer science from Purdue University and an MS in computer science from Georgia Tech. She is a member of IEEE, ACM, SIGCHI, and the ACM US Public Policy Committee. She has been awarded a Georgia Tech Presidential Fellowship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, a US Department of Homeland Security Fellowship, and the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. In 2006-2007, she was a pre-doctoral fellow in the Sam Nunn International Security Program. In her spare time, Erika is a group fitness instructor and personal trainer at the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center, and an active member of Toastmasters International.
Alumnus
Janice Zdankus is Vice President of Infrastructure Software and Blades Services in the Enterprise Business Group and Technology Services division at Hewlett-Packard. She is responsible for profitable revenue growth and customer satisfaction of worldwide software support services, a high-growth segment of the HP Services portfolio. She is also responsible for customer experience and quality for the company's Enterprise Infrastructure Software and Blades products. Previously, Zdankus led Worldwide Warranty Planning and Strategy as a Senior Director for the Enterprise Storage and Server Group at HP. Prior to that, she was Senior Research and Development Director leading the diagnostics and system event management engineering laboratory for Business Critical Servers Division. Since first joining HP in 1985 as a software design engineer, Zdankus has held several other senior leadership positions in marketing, customer support and business planning. Zdankus earned Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and Industrial Management from Purdue University. She also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Santa Clara University in California.
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Puzzle Day is an all day event, where participants spend the day solving fun, challenging puzzles. Winners received cool prizes like Xbox, 3D Doodler, and Rubik's Cubes. Everyone got pizza and free t-shirts!
Pictures from the annual CSWN photo shoot
A panel of proffessionals from various tech companies came and talked about women in technology. Panelists shared their experiences working at tech companies, and gave advice for leveling the playing field.
New CS students attended the 2016 Fall Callout to learn more about CSWN. The night started off with an icebreaker, and ended with Insomnia cookies.
CSWN members join Salesforce employees for dinner and pottery making.
If you are a Computer Science related company and would like to sponsor CSWN, please contact us at cswn@cs.purdue.edu.
The USB is a group made up of a maximum of twelve undergraduates in the Department of Computer Science who are determined to make Purdue a better place to study and obtain a degree.
Purdue Hackers is a community of students devoted to the idea that Purdue needs to embrace the kind of "hacker culture" that's found in places like Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Austin. Their mission is to bring that culture here by hosting events where hackers can meet and learn from one another.
ACM at Purdue is an organization for connecting students, faculty and companies for the betterment of the computing community. As a representative of one the world's most influential computing organizations, they provide academic resources, forums for the spreading of ideas, and communities for technological discovery and growth.
WISP is composed of four components: Residential Program, Tutoring Program, Undergraduate Mentoring Program, Graduate Mentoring Program. These four components work together to form a continuous environment that fosters success for students in the College of Science at Purdue University from freshman year through Ph.D.
Systers is a forum for all women involved in the technical aspects of computing. The community has over 6,000 members from at least 60 countries around the world.
A global institute that supports women in technology through many different venues such as the Systers organization and the Grace Hopper Conference.
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the World's Largest Gathering of Women Technologists. It is produced by the Anita Borg Institute and presented in partnership with ACM.
Purdue's resource for interviews, resume reviews, and help with your job search during school and after graduation.
Location to learn about and apply for scholarships for Purdue Computer Science students.
Has information for all the current events happening for the Purdue CS Department, such as job openings, club meetings and callouts, and company recruitment days.
