Natural curiosity drew computer scientist to her profession
Computer science is the new English, according to Mary Sanseverino.
Sanseverino makes the provocative statement every year as she stands in front of a class at the University of Victoria called The Practice of Computer Science.
The course is meant to introduce undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines to the basics of computer science such as algorithms, cryptography and databases, along with ethical and social issues.
As a computer scientist, Sanseverino goes on to ask students to write a few sentences about whether they agree or disagree with the statement and what it might mean. She does that at the beginning of the course and again at the end to see if their ideas of computer science have changed.
They usually do, especially when they discover the extent to which computer science is used today. Sanseverino teaches them that computer scientists can work in fields that range from recording and analyzing birdsong and music to business and mapping — along with traditional areas in physics and math.
“Afterward, students come out and say: ‘ I didn’t know computer scientists did that,’” Sanseverino said.
She admits that saying computer science is the new English is a little West- centric. If she was addressing a class in China, she’d say computer science is the new Chinese. A more neutral way of making the same point is to say that computer science is the new language of choice in the world.
In the classroom, she sees more and more examples of students who consider the computer a tool they can program to do what they want. She thinks young people’s familiarity and ease with computers will soon lead to an explosion in the number of applications or apps.
“The making of apps, that is going to be where I think the next really big thing ( is). Everybody should know a little bit about how a computer works and how to mould something like an app to create something that does what you want it to do,” she said.
“I think that we’re seeing that with young people today. They’re not daunted by picking up the electronic quill.”
Sanseverino is unusual in a faculty known for its dominance by men. A senior instructor in Computer Science, she has seen the number of female faculty members increase from four out of 20 in 1997- 98 to 10 women out of 31 today.
Sanseverino has been a key player in UVic’s Women in Engineering and Computer Science group, which began about 15 years ago to address gender disparity within the sciences. “It started off as a bunch of women who got together to say ‘ we’ve really got to improve the profile of women in our field,’” she said.
Over the years, Sanseverino
It’s possible to have children and a good life and do all the things you want to do and have this interesting job.
MARY SANSEVERINO SENIOR INSTRUCTOR, COMPUTER SCIENCE, UVIC
has dedicated hours each week to the group, which grew into an official office in the school of engineering before cuts relegated it back to being a grassroots initiative.
Sanseverino said she believes computer science has an undeserved bad reputation among women.
“The perception is that a computer scientist is someone in the back doing the heavy lifting without being engaged with the people for whom you are doing the heavy lifting,” she said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
But Sanseverino didn’t start out in computer science. While in high school, she was always very interested in technology. Referring to U. S. theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, Sanseverino said she has always taken “pleasure in finding out how things work.”
She grew up in Revelstoke and fondly recalls spending time skiing, climbing and hiking in the Selkirk Mountains.
“As a ski patroller, many was the day that I would go down to the end of my road: if I was going right I was going to school, if I turned left, I was going skiing,” she said. “I turned left a lot.”
Because of her interest in the outdoors and conservation, she went into geography. In the 1980s, a growth area was called geographic information systems. Today, it is called geomatics — an interdisciplinary area that combines computer science and geography. Sanseverino is still passionate about conservation, which she imparts to kids as a volunteer with national science outreach charity Let’s Talk Science. She is also an elected director on the board of the Land Conservancy of B. C.
While she has worked in the private sector as a programmer/ analyst, she recognized that her calling was in postsecondary education. She was interested in a new field: computer- assisted language learning.
“The idea of designing technology to work for us is a simple, but key, concept for me,” she wrote in her biography. “I’ve applied it in almost every learning situation ever since. I’ve applied it in any application I’ve built, and in any technological leadership it has ever been my privilege to facilitate.”
Sanseverino said she feels honoured and surprised to have been chosen by the Minerva Foundation, an organization which she believes helps women realize their dreams of having both a career and a family.
“It’s possible to have children and a good life and do all the things you want to do and have this interesting job,” she said.
Sanseverino is one of the women being honoured at The 7th Annual Minerva Foundation for B. C. Women at its annual Women In lunch to recognize women working in nontraditional fields.
This year, the focus is on women working in technology. Sanseverino is being recognized for her work in philanthropy as a volunteer.
The lunch is on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at the Four Seasons Hotel from 12 noon to 2 p. m.