Bioinformatics as a Means to Attract Women to Computer Science

IF 2.1 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Informatics in Education Pub Date : 2023-02-15 DOI:10.15388/infedu.2023.25

Sarah Genut, Y. Kolikant

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Programs in bioinformatics, offered in many academic institutes, are assumed to expand women’s representation in computer science (CS). Women’s enrolment in these programs is high; Our questions are: Do these programs attract different women from those attracted to CS programs? What factors underlie women’s decision to enroll in bioinformatics programs? How do these factors differ from those of women who choose CS, if at all? What career opportunities do these women anticipate and pursue? Using questionnaires and interviews, we found a statistically significant difference between the factors that motivate women to choose bioinformatics and others to study CS. Many bioinformatics students did not consider CS as an alternative. Post-facto they learned to love computing, albeit with a biology-oriented purpose. “Computing with purpose” underlies many participants’ pursuit of careers in research, CS, and bio-tech. We thus conclude that bioinformatics programs do indeed expand women’s representation in CS.

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生物信息学是吸引女性进入计算机科学的一种手段

许多学术机构开设的生物信息学课程被认为可以扩大女性在计算机科学(CS)领域的代表性。这些项目的女性入学率很高;我们的问题是:这些项目吸引的女性和那些被计算机科学项目吸引的女性不同吗?是什么因素促使女性决定参加生物信息学课程?这些因素与选择计算机科学的女性有何不同?这些女性期望并追求什么样的职业机会?通过问卷调查和访谈，我们发现激励女性选择生物信息学和其他学习CS的因素之间存在统计学上的显著差异。许多生物信息学专业的学生并不认为计算机科学是另一种选择。后来，他们学会了热爱计算机，尽管是出于生物学的目的。“有目的的计算”是许多参与者追求研究、计算机科学和生物技术事业的基础。因此，我们得出结论，生物信息学课程确实扩大了女性在计算机科学领域的代表性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Informatics in Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

6.10

自引率

3.70%

发文量

审稿时长

20 weeks

期刊介绍： INFORMATICS IN EDUCATION publishes original articles about theoretical, experimental and methodological studies in the fields of informatics (computer science) education and educational applications of information technology, ranging from primary to tertiary education. Multidisciplinary research studies that enhance our understanding of how theoretical and technological innovations translate into educational practice are most welcome. We are particularly interested in work at boundaries, both the boundaries of informatics and of education. The topics covered by INFORMATICS IN EDUCATION will range across diverse aspects of informatics (computer science) education research including: empirical studies, including composing different approaches to teach various subjects, studying availability of various concepts at a given age, measuring knowledge transfer and skills developed, addressing gender issues, etc. statistical research on big data related to informatics (computer science) activities including e.g. research on assessment, online teaching, competitions, etc. educational engineering focusing mainly on developing high quality original teaching sequences of different informatics (computer science) topics that offer new, successful ways for knowledge transfer and development of computational thinking machine learning of student''s behavior including the use of information technology to observe students in the learning process and discovering clusters of their working design and evaluation of educational tools that apply information technology in novel ways.