Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, will appear at Drexel next week to deliver the keynote lecture for the University’s sixth annual celebration of National Computer Science Education Week (CSEd Week).
Joining hundreds of educational institutions across the nation, Drexel and the College of Computing & Informatics (CCI) will continue the annual effort to raise awareness of the vital role computer science education holds in a world where computer software underlies our economy, our national infrastructure and every device we use.
CCI and its student organizations will host a variety of events Nov. 18-22 to educate both Drexel and its surrounding communities on the importance of computing and its need in early education.
The week will be headlined by a keynote lecture delivered by Wales on the subject of “Democracy and the Internet,” set for 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, at Drexel’s Paul Peck Alumni Center. In addition to co-founding the world’s largest encyclopedia, Wales is founder of the Wikimedia Foundation and was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2006.
“CCI is honored to host one of today’s greatest tech visionaries, Jimmy Wales, as a keynote lecturer for Drexel’s CSEd Week,” said CCI Dean David Fenske. “We look forward to learning his perspective on what technological progress holds for the future of our individual rights, national policies, and global society, especially in regard to the growth of open access.”
Drexel’s CSEd Week celebration highlights also include a talk on the gaming industry by The Tap Lab’s co-founder/CEO David Bisceglia, and a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Girl Rising” followed by a panel discussion with guests from the computing industry and academia.
Other events include a programming competition, computing trivia games and coding activities with local middle school students as part of CSEd Week’s “Hour of Code,” a national campaign to introduce 10 million students to one hour of computer science.
In 2009, Congress declared a week in December as “National Computer Science Education Week” to recognize the importance of this transforming industry, encouraging interest and participation in the field. CSEd Week is observed each year by educational institutions and teachers across the nation, in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (Dec. 9, 1906).
Hopper, one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, co-created one of the first modern programming languages and coined the phrase “debugging.” She was also the 1987 Commencement speaker at Drexel University, following her nomination by the Math and Computer Science Society. She died in 1992.
More information on Drexel CSEd Week events is posted at http://www.drexel.edu/cci/events. For a complete listing of all CSEd Week events around the world, visit http://www.csedweek.org/events.