The Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) and Carnegie Mellon University released their call for participation in the sixth annual Women in CyberSecurity Conference and workshops. Running from March 28th through March 30th in 2019, the conference will gather female cybersecurity experts from industry, academia, government, and research areas to share their knowledge and experience, network, and provide mentoring to others.
It is estimated that there are about 300,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs across the U.S. according to cyberseek.org, and in the existing cybersecurity workforce only 11% to 14% of employees are women. The WiCyS conference fights to close this gap, by gathering 1,000 attendees every year of which half are students who attend thanks to scholarships from WiCyS and sponsors support.
“Carnegie Mellon University’s strong commitment to supporting women’s pathways in cybersecurity disciplines makes the institution an ideal local host for WiCyS’ annual conference,” said Dr. Janell Straach, the chair of the Governing Board at the WiCyS organization. “This event celebrates not only diversity (especially women) in the cybersecurity workforce, but also the tremendous gains that can be achieved through our unique collaboration among academia, industry, government and research.”
Interested presenters can submit their proposals for lightning talks, panels, workshops, technical presentations, and birds of a feather sessions on the WiCyS website. Scholarships for students and faculty help cover shared lodging and meals, and can be applied for on the same website. Both students and presenters have until November 1st to submit their proposals and scholarship applications.
