UO undergraduate Zoe Olson blazed a new trail recently when she became the first UO student to take part in Harvard’s annual Women Engineers’ Code Conference, where she also was the only woman from the Pac-12.

For Olson, a computer science major and member of the Women in Computer Science Club, representing the UO at the conference validated an increasingly inclusive computer science culture on the UO campus. The UO now offers the Women in Computer Science Club, has hosted networking events in the field and has, overall, taken many steps towards building a positive environment for women in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

“My representation of the UO at the conference highlights the progress this campus has made towards creating gender-balanced classrooms in STEM fields,” Olson said. “As a female student, I’ve definitely noticed a greater sense of community among the women in my computer science classes in recent years.”

The gathering, known as WECode, is the largest student-run conference in the country for women in computer science, with sponsors including Google and Microsoft. The three-day event included workshops on new technological innovations, how to ace tech industry interviews, the social impact of technology, an introduction to 3-D printing, among several other topics.

Keynote speakers included Laura Butler, a technical fellow at Microsoft; Pooja Sankar, the founder and CEO of Piazza; Cathryn Posey, of U.S. Digital Services; and Tracy Chou, a software engineer for Pinterest. In addition to the keynote speakers, hour-long panels were held each day on subjects ranging from data analytics to how computer science impacts other professional and academic fields.

While Olson was the only UO woman who was able to attend the conference this year, she hopes more people from the Women in Computer Science Club and around campus will be able to participate in 2017.

“Next year more women will try to go,” Olson said. “It was inspiring to see that many women getting involved in tech. It’s a movement that starts with students; seeing how other women are coming together at their schools to provide support and mentorship for one another was incredible.”

—By Nathaniel Brown, University Communications intern