The Center for STEM Education at UCCS

Hosted a great group of D2 G/T students on campus today inventing their own board games. Fun times!

A few robots and alka seltzer rockets

Fun day with School District 2 elementary students doing science and engineering

Training our student STEM On Wheels instructors on Strawberry DNA extractions. Getting ready to work with 6 middle and elementary school STEM clubs

Highlights from the first Colorado Springs MiniMaker Faire. A great event!

Colorado Springs Mini Maker Faire Highlight Reel Highlights from the 2014 Colorado Springs Mini Maker Faire at Pikes Peak Library District's Library 21c.

This is the sort of "princess" that I wish all girls wanted to be when they grew up. Rather than being rescued by the "handsome prince", they are the one doing the rescuing..... OF OUR WHOLE TECH-DEPENDENT WORLD! Parisa, you are da' bomb!

Professional hacker Parisa Tabriz is responsible for keeping the nearly billion users of Google Chrome safe by finding vulnerabilities in their system before malicious hackers do. Tabriz, a "white hat" hacker who calls herself Google's “Security Princess", is head of the company's information security engineering team. The 31-year-old Polish-Iranian-American is also an anomaly in Silicon Valley according to a recent profile in The Telegraph: "Not only is she a woman – a gender hugely under-represented in the booming tech industry – but she is a boss heading up a mostly male team of 30 experts in the US and Europe."

Tabriz came up with “Security Princess” while at a conference and the unusual title is printed on her business card. “I knew I'd have to hand out my card and I thought Information Security Engineer sounded so boring,” she says. “Guys in the industry all take it so seriously, so security princess felt suitably whimsical.” Her curiosity, mischievousness, and innovative thinking are all assets in her business: a high-profile company like Google is constantly in the crosshairs of so-called "black hat" hackers.

Tabriz came into internet security almost by accident; at the University of Illinois’ computer engineering program, her interest was first whetted by the story of early hacker John Draper, who became known as Captain Crunch in the 1960s after he learned how to make free long-distance calls using a toy whistle from a Cap’n Crunch cereal box. She realized that, to beat the hackers of today, she had to be prepared for similar -- but more advanced -- out-of-the-box thinking.

While women at still very under-represented in the tech industry -- Google recently reported that only 30% of its staff is female -- Tabriz has hope for the future: “[F]ifty years ago there were similar percentages of women in medicine and law, now thankfully that's shifted.” And, while she hasn't encountered overt sexism at Google, when she was offered the position, at least one classmate said, “you know you only got it cos you're a girl." To help address this imbalance, she mentors under-16 students at a yearly computer science conference that teaches kids how to "hack for good" -- and she especially encourages girls to pursue internet security work. One 16-year-old who attended, Trinity Nordstrom, says, “Parisa is a good role model, because of her I'd like to be a hacker.”

Tabriz, who was named by Forbes as one of the "top 30 under 30 to watch" in 2012, also wants the public to realize that hacking can be used for positive ends. “[H]acking can be ugly,” she says. “The guy who published the private photos of those celebrities online made headlines everywhere. What he did was not only a violation of these women but it was criminal, and as a hacker I was very saddened by it. I feel like we, the hackers, need better PR to show we're not all like that... [A]fter all I'm in the business of protecting people."

To read more about Google's "Security Princess" in The Telegraph, visit http://bit.ly/Z6Z5RG

For both real-life and fictional stories about women in technology and science, visit out "STEM Books" section at http://www.amightygirl.com/books/general-interest/science-technology

To spark your children's interest in learning about programming and science in a hands-on way, visit our "Hands On / Science Kits" section for lots of fun science kids for children and teens at http://www.amightygirl.com/toys/toys-games/science-math

And, if your Mighty Girl loves to show off her love of science and technology, visit our "Science & Tech" clothing section at http://www.amightygirl.com/clothing?clothing_themes=146

Photo credit: Tim Hussin

Thought provoking article about AI. Teach kids ethics!: "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should"; http://t.co/BkZHFashJO— Kathleen Fitzpatrick () September 15, 2014

Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat? Fueled by money from Silicon Valley, machine intelligence is getting smarter and harder to control.

We were honored to be able to share these two weeks with these amazing kids. Thank you, Dr. Harris, ExxonMobil and UCCS for making this possible

Students prepare for Mars landing at ExxonMobil Bernard Harris summer science camp Forty-eight middle school students from throughout Colorado will have an out-of-this-world experience during the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp June 16-26 at UCCS. In addition to oth...

http://youtu.be/2h8JH9Jb_ac

ExxonMobil Day 9 ExxonMobil Day 9