1. TekSpark – Diversity in STEM
Shobana Radhakrishnan
Founder and CEO, TekSpark
Vice President of Engineering, Mindflash
2. Why Care About Diversity?
• Diversity -> more innovative products and higher earnings
• Tech Jobs grew 27 times higher than other jobs 2001 to 2011
• Women received only 18.2% of CS and 18.4% engineering
Bachelor’s degrees in 2011
• Female Full Professors in STEM 1/5th of total
• Women: Google – 17%, Twitter – 10%, Apple – 20%
• African-American: Google – 1%, Twitter – 1%, FB – 1%, Yahoo –
2%
**Source: http://women2.com/2014/06/30/women-leaving-tech/?hvid=6Fr83h
3. What is TekSpark
A non-profit organization to
create a gender-balanced and
diverse STEM university and
work environment
4. TekSpark Approach
• Engage with the community at grass-roots level
• Keep it Simple to engage
• Spread the joy of STEM and help children experience this
early
• Identify strong STEM talent, sponsor and mentor them to
success at the university and career levels, including all the
way to advanced leadership positions
6. Programs
• ONE MINUTE FOR WORLD CHANGE
• Simply share your experience
• Participate in email questionnaire
• Make a simple youtube video under 60 seconds
• ONE HOUR FOR WORLD CHANGE
• Event volunteer
• Mentor
• Speaker
• Panelist
8. School Awards
• Best STEM project – individual or group, can be self-
nominated or by friend
• Best STEM achiever – based on academic achievement in
STEM, nominated by school
• Submissions due May 31, Awards - June
• Details – http://www.tekspark.org