History

Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College ventured into a two-college Computer Science program in 1987-88. Prior to that, faculty in other disciplines, most notably Jay Anderson (Chemistry), Maria Louisa (Weecha) Crawford (Geology), John Pruett (Physics), George Zimmerman (Chemistry), and George Weaver (Philosophy), taught occasional computational courses. Starting in 1988, students were allowed to Minor in Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College. Perhaps the first Independent Majors in Computer Science were Jaya Kanal and Laura La Gassa (Class of 1987). Deepak Kumar joined the Mathematics Department in 1993 and was the first full-time faculty of the Computer Science program. In Spring 2000, Bryn Mawr College, under the leadership of its then president, Nancy Vickers, embarked on a plan to expand the Computer Science program. The program became an independent entity from the Mathematics Department in 2004. Computer Science became a regular major at the college in Fall 2005. Audrey Flattes and Sara McCullough were the first to graduate with a B.A. in Computer Science from Bryn Mawr College in 2006. In 2004-05 we also created a new Minor in Computational Methods. The Minor is designed to encourage students across the college to augment their own Majors with computational methods applied to their own disciplines. In 2006, Ben Kosky, a Haverford College students, a Cities Major was the first to graduate with a Minor in Computational Methods.

Alumnae

The following is a list of graduates from Bryn Mawr who either graduated in computer science, or went on to do important work in computer related areas.

Julia Ward (1923-1942)

Julia Ward graduated from Bryn Mawr as a History major in 1923. She began working for Bryn Mawr College in 1923 as a residence-hall warden and subsequently held a variety of deanships at the college. She earned her PhD. in history from Bryn Mawr in 1940. She left the college to join the Signal Security Agency, the US Army's cryptologic organization, in 1942, as a librarian in the agency's reference section. Ward transformed the section from a poorly organized unit of limited scope into a highly respected organization to which other federal agencies came for information. She was one of the highest ranking female officers of the National Security Agency (NSA) until her death in 1962. In June 2002, Julia Ward was inducted into the NSA's Cryptologic Hall of Honor at the National Cryptologic Museum in Baltimore, MD. She was honored for outstanding contributions to American codebreaking during World War II and the years immediately following it. A commemorative plaque recieved by the college mentions that she, "set reporting standards and used early information-management techniques to support cryptology."

Martha Evens (1955)

Martha graduated summa from BMC in 1955 with a major in Math (and having taken many courses in Greek). She shared the European Fellowship (with Nancy Degenhardt, Greek major). Martha was President of the Classics Club and played field hockey and basketball. Martha's first meeting with a computer was in the summer of 1957 when she received an MA in Mathematics from Radcliffe and was hired as a "Mathematician" by Oliver Selfridge at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The computer at that moment was an IBM 709, which became a 7090 when Martha went back to Lincoln Laboratory in the summer of 1958. She did get to take a class in FORTRAN II using the first FORTRAN compiler shipped out of IBM in 1958. Martha notes: "I also drove the two boxes of cards containing the first Lisp Interpreter from MIT to Lincoln Lab as a favor to a friend - and only later realized what a big part Lisp was to play in my life and work." In the late 1950's, Martha worked on the first ever spelling correction program at MIT's Lincoln Labs. She finished her PhD in Computer Science from Northwestern University in 1975. Subsequently, she became a member of the Computer Science faculty at Illinois Institute of Technology and has been there ever since. During her illustrious career at IIT, Martha has served as advisor or coadvisor of over 100 PhD students.

Sally Yeates Sedelow (1960)

Sally Yeates Sedelow (with her husband Walter A. Sedelow Jr.) pioneered methods of automated analysis of language and discourse, stylistic analysis, lexical databases (Roget's Thesaurus) and computer applications in the humanities. Sally is Professor Emerita from the University of Arkansas. She graduated with a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1960 and was subsequently first researcher, then consultant at the System Development Corporation (1962 - 1967); Associate Professor of English and of Computer & Informaton Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1966 - 1970); Director of the Techniques and Systems Program of the National Science Foundation (1974 - 1976); Director of the Intelligent Systems Program of the National Science Foundation (1976 - 1977); Professor of Computer Science and of Linguistics at the University of Kansas (1970 - 1985); Professor of Computer Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (1985 - 1995). She and Walter retired from Kansas in 1985 and moved to Arkansas, where they taught at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock for ten years. She edited "Current Trends in Computer Uses for Language Research" in 1976.

Elaine Surick Oran (1966)

Dr Oran received a B.A. Degree in both Physics and Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College in 1966, an M.Ph from the Department of Physics at Yale University and a Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Yale University. Dr. Elaine Oran has contributed significantly to the advancement of the engineering profession by pioneering a computational technology, which has unified engineering, scientific and mathematical disciplines into a methodology for solving complex reactive flow problems. As Sr. Scientist for Reactive Flow Physics at the US Naval Research Lab (NRL) she has led a team that has invented and implemented many of the individual algorithms and the modern computer methodology for accurate numerical simulation of reactive flows. Applications areas include combustion, rocket and jet propulsion, reentry and microdynamic flows, material engineering and atmospheric physics and astrophysical phenomena. This methodology, derived and widely published by Dr. Oran and her colleagues, delineates problem solutions in many areas in addition to the combustion and aerospace fields. Because of the nearly universal nature and importance of reactive flows, Dr. Oran's work has opened the way for other investigators to follow and undertake definition of a broad range of previously unexplained reactive flow phenomena. Dr. Oran is a Senior Scientist at the US Naval Research Lab. She was inducted into the Women in technology International Hall Of Fame in 2002.

Jane Robinson

Jane Robinson had just decided to learn Computer Science and start a second career when she was diagnosed with a rapid-growing tumor. Jane died shortly after.

Jane Terry Nutter (1972)

Terry graduated from Bryn Mawr with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1972. She finished her PhD in Logic (advisor: John Corcoran) in the Philosophy Department at SUNY Buffalo in 1980. In 1984 she earned a Master's in Computer Science (also at SUNY Buffalo) and wrote an influential thesis on Default Reasoning in AI Systems (advisor: Stuart Shapiro). From 1981 to 2001 she was on the faculty of various Computer Science Departments: SUNY Buffalo, Tulane University, Virginia Tech, University of Connecticut, University of Mississippi, and Oklahoma State University).

Ann Dixon (1983)

Ann graduated from Bryn Mawr with an A.B.in English in 1983, and later earned a M.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania in Computer and Information Science in 1994. She was Assistant Director of Academic Computing at BMC for several years (1987 - 1993) and then Senior Director, School of Arts and Sciences Computing, at Penn. She co-founded the Serendip website in 1994, and can still be found working there serendipitously.

Simson Garfinkel (1981-1983)

Simson was a special student at Bryn Mawr between 1981 and 1983, during which time he did independent research at the computer center and was a student staff member in the Office of Computing Services. After leaving BMC Simson became a journalist who followed the computer industry, wrote several books, and eventually earned a PhD in computer science from MIT in 2005. Simson's work in the field of computer security can be found on his website (www.simson.net).

1982

  1. Diana Taylor Root (Minor in Computer Science)

1983

  1. Almudena de los Casares (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Diane Morgenthaler Dembsky (Minor in Computer Science)
  3. Nina Lerman (Minor in Mathematics)

1984

  1. Jane C. Goffman (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Susan DeBoer Scott

1985

  1. Elizabeth Forster Camerota (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Laurie Penney Salverda (Minor in Computer Science)

1986

  1. Ozlem Camli (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Lisa A. Forsyth (Minor in Computer Science)
  3. Julianne J. Martin (Minor in Computer Science)
  4. Suzanne Burstin Miller (Minor in Computer Science)
  5. Susan Pruyn White (Minor in Computer Science)

1987

  1. Alexandra Alexandri (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Yuejin Cui (Minor in Computer Science)
  3. Jayanti Kanal
  4. Basak B. Kotler (Minor in Computer Science)
  5. Laura LaGassa
  6. Kathryn G. Roth-Douquet (Minor in Computer Science)

1988

  1. Edith Aviles de Kostes (Minor in Computer Science)
  2. Masami Yamamoto (Minor in Computer Science)

1991

  1. Anne Cesa Klein
  2. Rebecca A. Neilsen (Minor in Computer Science)
  3. Anita Machhar Paleyanda (Minor in Computer Science)

1994

  1. Shu-Min Ng (Double Major in Computer Science & Mathematics)

1995

  1. Farhanah Akikwala (Mathematics Major with Computer Science Minor)
  2. Amy Biermann (PhD in Computer Science, 2002)
  3. Susanna Schroeder
  4. Amy Sutton (Physics Major with Computer Science Minor)

1996

  1. Jyotsna Advani (Double Major in Computer Science & Mathematics)
  2. Julie Inmon (Double Major in Computer Science & Psychology)
  3. Nik Swoboda (Independent Major in Cognitive Science)

1997

  1. Kimberly Blessing
  2. Sarah Hacker
  3. Erica Plotnick
  4. Ranjani Vedanthan (History Major with Computer Science Minor)

1998

  1. Zhenjian He (Mathematics Major with Computer Science Minor and a Minor in Economics)
  2. Lori Schwartz (Independent Major in Computational Chemistry)
  3. Tina Shen

Additionally, Chris Erwin (Physics) who took several Computer Science courses finished her MS in Computer Science (Brown University) and has been working at Raytheon since graduating from Bryn Mawr.

1999

  1. Emily Greenfest (Double Major in Computer Science & Geology), PhD at University of Chicago (in computational paleobiology).
  2. Maralee Barge Poulsen - game programmer

2000

  1. Scott Klaum
  2. Edina Sarajlic (Physics Major with Computer Science Minor)
  3. Sarah Waziruddin

2001

  1. Agata Jose-Ivanina
  2. Maria Pace (Mathemtics Major with Computer Science Minor)
  3. Heather Palmeter
  4. Leslie Roj Zavisca

2002

  1. Sharon-Rose Alterman (Psychology Major with Computer Science Minor)
  2. Renee Findley (English major with Computer Science Minor and a Minor in Creative Writing)
  3. Maria Hristova (Double Major in Computer Science & Mathematics)
  4. Laura Kim
  5. Reshma Menghani (Mathematics Major with Computer Science Minor)
  6. Meghan Rutter

2003

  1. Ananya Misra (Double Major CS + Math) - Google
  2. Minjung Kang (Mathematics major, CS minor)

2004

  1. Catherine Chiu

2005

  1. Ioana Butoi (Double Major CS + Math) - Amazon
  2. Christina Florio
  3. Darby Thompson (Double Major CS +Math) - CS Ph.D @ George Washington University - Sidwell Friends School
  4. Yuna Park (Math Major, CS minor) - CS Ph.D @ University of Florida

2006

  1. Audrey Flattes - Deloitte Consulting
  2. Sara McCullough - Synygy
  3. Benjamin Koski (Cities Major with Minor in Computational Methods (CM minor) )

2007

  1. Julia Ferraioli - CS Ph.D @ University of Rochester - Google
  2. Bhumika Patel (Chemistry Major, CS minor)

2008

Majors

  1. Jessica Billings
  2. Lauren Maksym - Accenture
  3. Leslie McTavish
  4. Anne Miller

Minors

  1. Rachael Heaton (Haverford, Mathematics Major, CS minor)
  2. Alex Ionescu (Psychology Major, CS minor)

2009

Majors

  1. Natasha Eilbert - CS Ph.D @ U. Wisconsin-Madison - Harvest Prepatory Academy
  2. Stephanie Hilton - Lincoln Investment Planning
  3. Marwa Muhammad
  4. Shikha Prashad
  5. Jesse Rohwer - Google
  6. Simona Radu (Double Major CS + Chemistry) - bazinga! Technologies

Minors

  1. Teyvonia Thomas (Physics Major, CS minor)

2010

Majors

  1. Michelle Beard - MIT Lincoln Labs
  2. Caitlin Evans - Masters of Epidemiology @ Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
  3. Ashley Gavin - "How to Get Girls to Choose, and Stick With, STEM Careers: A Future Tense Event Recap"
  4. Mansi Gupta
  5. Julia Kelly (Double major CS + Anthropology) - CS PhD @ UC Santa Cruz

Minors

  1. Simran Singh (Economics major, CS minor)

2011

Majors

  1. Bethie Azuma - CS Ph.D. @University of Utah
  2. Alex Funk - Vanguard
  3. Kathleen Maffei
  4. Marissa Moncenigo - Rethink Robotics
  5. Pricy Pais
  6. Tanvi Surti - Microsoft
  7. Sam Wood - CS Ph.D. @UCSD

Minors

  1. Kerstin Baer (Math major, CM minor) - Math Ph.D @ Stanford
  2. Megan Clark (Linguistics major, CS minor)
  3. Alex Lee (Math major, CS minor)

2012

Majors

  1. Melanie Shafer - IBM
  2. Cara Takemoto
  3. Leila Zilles - CS Ph.D. @ University of Washington

Minors

  1. Emily Levine (Biology major, CM minor)
  2. Sarah Nelson (Mathematics major, CS minor) - MIT Lincoln Labs

2013

Majors

  1. Cristina Cabrera (Double major CS + Math) - Vanguard
  2. Jenny Chen
  3. Caitlyn Clabaugh - CS Ph.D. @USC
  4. Francine Wei, (Double major CS + English)
  5. Peiying Wen, (Double major CS + Geology) - ThoughtWorks

Minors

  1. Muna Aghaalnemer (CM minor)
  2. Sara Fielder, (Haverford, CS Minor)
  3. Stephen Lazarro, (Haverford, Econ major, CM minor) - CS Masters @ U. Wisconsin-Madison
  4. Alex Marrero, (Psychology major, CS minor)
  5. Meagan Neal, (Math major, CS minor) - Vanguard
  6. Alex Spear, (Pol. Sci major, CS Minor)
  7. Chantal Taylor (Russian major, CS minor)

2014

Majors

  1. Natalie Kato (Double major CS + Math) - Vanguard
  2. Rachel Li - U. Washington
  3. Jacy Li - NetApp
  4. Daisy Sheng - Goldman Sachs

Minors

  1. Shohini Bhattasali (Linguistic major, CS minor)
  2. Morgan Fine-Morris (Physics major, CS minor)
  3. Xinyi Shen (Math major, CS minor)
  4. Kriti Shrestha (Math major, CS minor)
  5. Emily Williams (Math major, CS minor)

2015

Majors

  1. Elizabeth Fawcett (Double Major in CS & Art) - UpClear
  2. Baijie (Siv) Lu (Double Major in CS & Mathematics) - Havard
  3. Michelle Neuburger
  4. Natan Organick - Vanguard
  5. Subin Park (Double Major in CS & Psychology) - Mint.com
  6. Warren Schwartz
  7. Maggie Xiong - Lutron
  8. Yijun Zhou (Double Major in CS & Mathematics) - Bank of America

Minors

  1. Grace Baelen-King (Pyschology + CS Minor)
  2. Samuel Hersh (Cities major, Haverford + CS Minor)
  3. Yifan Liu (Mathematics + CS minor)
  4. Manman Lu (Philosophy + CS Minor))
  5. Jennifer Rabowsky (Math & History of art Double Major + CS Minor)
  6. Zhuyun (Maggie) Xiao (Math + CS Minor) - PhD Program at UCLA/EE

2016

Majors

  1. Angie Chen - software engineer, Google , Mountain View, CA
  2. Juliette Klingsberg - software engineer, ApNexus (ad. tech.), New York, NY
  3. Aviva Kosansky - Front End Developer, Quovo, New York, NY
  4. Bryce Lewis - product management, LinkedIn, Mountain View, CA
  5. Angela Mastrianni - technology analyst, Goldman Sachs, New York, NY

Minors

  1. Ziye Lin - Masters in Data Science, Columbia University
  2. Amanda Lehman
  3. Neshka Dantinor

2017

Majors

  1. Mary Boman
  2. Adriana Hernandez
  3. Hanna Fields - Vanguard, Valley Forge, PA
  4. Jordan Henck - Roche Sequencing Labs, Santa Clara, CA
  5. Samantha Kacir - godaddy.com
  6. Kalina Kostyszyn
  7. Jingling Li - CS PhD at the University of Maryland, College Park, VA
  8. Leqi Liu - CS PhD at CMU, Pittsburg, PA
  9. Kwei Qiu - Facebook, CA
  10. Ziyan Yang - CS PhD at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Minors

  1. XiaoMeng Hu
  2. Sophie Rehrig

2018

Majors

  1. Kara Breeden - Upenn, Masters of Engineering in Robotics
  2. Nora Broderick - year abroad
  3. Stephanie Cao - Software Engineer, LinkedIn
  4. Trista Cao - CS PhD, University of Maryland 
  5. Calla Carter
  6. Xuan Huang - CS PhD, University of Utah
  7. Tu Luan - CS PhD, University of Maryland 
  8. Nicole Petrozzo - Technology Associate, PNC
  9. Ziting Shen - Software Engineer, LinkedIn
  10. Lizzie Siegle - Developer Evangelist, SAAS-Twilio
  11. Keisna Sosa
  12. Ann Tran - Technology Consulting Analyst, PricewaterhouseCoopers
  13. Rachel Xu - Software Engineer, Google
  14. Xinyue Zhang - Software Engineer, Facebook

Minors

  1. Dina Benedetto
  2. Anita Brown
  3. Taylor Cross
  4. Seher Sethi
  5. Yu Sheng
  6. Wenqi Wang
  7. Lillian Whithaus

2019

Majors

  1. Elizabeth Chan
  2. Sara Depew -- Associate Software Engineer at The Walt Disney Studios
  3. Kellie Dinh -- Software Engineer in New York, NY
  4. Kennedy Ellison - Technology Leadership Program at Vanguard, Malvern, PA
  5. Eileen Feng -- Software Engineer, Google
  6. Leslie Goloh -- Software Engineering Intern at Pandora Media
  7. Sujin Kay -- Investment Banker at R. W. Baird, Milwaukee, WI
  8. Rose Lin -- Software Engineer in Seattle, WA
  9. Chloe Sheen -- Master's of Engineering in Computer Science program, U. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
  10. Ju-Han Tarn -- Intuit
  11. Xinyi Wang -- Mountain View, CA

Minors

  1. Connie Chan
  2. Saarika Kumar
  3. Madeline Perry (Computational Methods)
  4. Emily Schalk
  5. Caroline Shen
  6. Lynn Wu

2020

Majors

  1. Nadine Adnane
  2. Lamiaa Dakir
  3. Jocelyn Dunkley
  4. Xinning Esther Fang
  5. Sonya Fucci -- Google/Alpha Inc.
  6. Liwen Guo
  7. Lisa Hou
  8. Eun Soo Jang
  9. Haa Kyung Abigail Lee
  10. Emily Lobel
  11. My Nguyen -- Microsoft
  12. Tessa (Ha-Ahn Thi) Pham
  13. Yudi Sunny Qi -- Huawei in Shenzhen, China.
  14. Runjia Ricki Su -- Bank of America
  15. Sophia Trump
  16. Maria Vivanco
  17. Ruochun Rachel Wang
  18. Linda Zhu

Minors

  1. Merrilyn Adzo Fiagbenu ( Computational Methods)
  2. Isabel Floyd (Haverford)
  3. Marilyn Harbert (Computational Methods)
  4. Nina Inman
  5. Sara Golobish (Computational Methods)
  6. Riya Philip

2021

Majors

  1. Elia Anagnostou
  2. Millicent Auma 4/18/19 (double major psychology)
  3. Zainab Batool -- Microsoft in Sunnyvale, CA
  4. Viki Braun -- U. Penn 4+1 Program in CIS
  5. Yichun Cao -- U. Penn 4+1 Program in CIS
  6. Nisha Choudhary -- Lockheed Martin 
  7. Chen Fan -- U. Penn 4+1 Program in CIS 
  8. Allison Gong -- Graduate Program at Drexel University
  9. Tanjuma Haque
  10. Sara Abo-Harp
  11. Abbie Hurwitz
  12. Faith Meacham -- Flipboard, Inc. 
  13. Haley Nolan
  14. Laya Paladugu --  Barclay’s Bank
  15. Lipi Paladugu
  16. Yupei Sun -- U. Penn 4+1 program in CIS
  17. Fariha Tamboli -- Wells Fargo Bank, the U. Penn 4+1 Program in Robotics 
  18. Mahika Vajpeyi -- Tresata, Inc. 
  19. Jenny Wang
  20. Kejing Wang
  21. Julia Weakley
  22. Yutong Wu -- U. Penn Program in CIS

Minors

  1. Saumyaa Mehra
  2. Bella Merchant
  3. Peyton Moriarty (Computational Methods)
  4. Ananya Prakash
  5. Shaili Regmi
  6. Phoung Linh Tran
  7. Peiran (Esther) Xu
  8. Dana Yang

2022

Majors

  1. Rosie Arasa
  2. Nitisha Bhandari
  3. Sarah Coufal -- Syncro Medical Inc.
  4. Nigina Daniarova
  5. Zaynab Ghazi -- Facebook/Meta
  6. Jiangxue Han
  7. Haiqa Kamran -- U. Penn 4+1 in CIS
  8. Menna Mustafa Khalil - Micosoft Corp.
  9. Faryal Khan
  10. William Lawrence
  11. Linh Nguyet Le
  12. Rachel Lee
  13. Ruby Malusa 
  14. Alyssa (Al) Mazzoli -- Wizards of the Coast
  15. Tino Nguruve,
  16. Ha Phan
  17. Enora Rice -- U. Penn Program in CIS
  18. Olga Shevchuk --  Coinbase
  19. Angela “Angie” Yang

Minors

  1. Caspian Macky
  2. Benjamin Roodman
  3. My Tran 

2023

Majors

  1. Silvia Alemany -- Penn 4+1 in Computer Science
  2. Yitian (Zoey) Cao -- Penn 4+1 in Computer Science
  3. Xufeng (Caesar) Dai
  4. Trang Dang -- DRW
  5. Elly Fernandez -- Penn 4+1 in Computer Science
  6. Anna Goncharova
  7. Maya Johnson -- Lutron
  8. Tova Just
  9. Jasmine Lei
  10. Xinran Liu -- Penn 4+1 in Computer Science
  11. Minolta Ndlovu -- Microsoft
  12. Mai Anh Tran Nguyen
  13. Yen Thu Nguyen -- Bank of America
  14. Ashley Park -- General Motors
  15. Isabelle Sanford
  16. Paige Schaefer -- Better Collective
  17. Foqia Shahid -- Blackrock
  18. Linh Tran -- Morgan Stanley
  19. Ben Valenti
  20. Judy Wang -- Salesforce

Minors

  1. Tsenguun Chinzorig
  2. Jenifer Fabian Dubon
  3. Seamus Flannery
  4. Cameron Wheeler
  5. Bethany Ho
  6. Lucy Nguyen
  7. Avi Serebrenik
  8. Edward Shin