Youngmoo Kim
TEDxPhiladelphia returned to the City of Brotherly Love after a four-year hiatus with a conference centered around the theme of "Unintended Consequences." ECE's own Dr. Youngmoo Kim contributed to the discussion with a talk on the widening digital divide and how technology companies and higher education institutions can shrink the gap.
By digital divide, Dr. Kim does not mean access to technology--today, 77% of all Americans own a smartphone--but equity in technology. While access to tech has democratized, degrees earned by underrepresented minorities have not. Dr. Kim illustrates this by pointing out that bachelor's degrees in computing disciplines awarded to black students has only increased 0.1% in the past 15 years, from 3.6% to 3.7%. Growth in master's degrees was not much better: 1.3% in 2002 to 1.6% in 2017. Only 18 doctoral degrees in computing were awarded to black students in 2017--18 nationwide. Obviously, these numbers are not representative of our nation as a whole, and it is especially not representative of Philadelphia.
Dr. Kim advocates for a paradigm shift in how we approach tech: we need to increase equity in STEM degree programs and the tech industry. "Look for companies that are embracing the principles of inclusive design, not only for accessibility, but for broadening representation," said Dr. Kim. "The tech industry has tried so hard to inject tech culture into the mainstream, but what it really needs is a culture transplant, replacing an exclusionary, white and Asian monoculture, with one of equal representation and inclusion."
A detailed description of Dr. Kim's TEDxPhiladelphia talk is available at Technical.ly, and you can view the talk here.