University of Texas at Austin’s graduate student is recognized with the Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Educator Award on behalf of the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
Corinne Vassallo, a PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin and researcher with the Center for Space Research received an honorable mention with the Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Educator Award on behalf of the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT). This award recognizes educators who have demonstrated a commitment to gender equity in computing education.
Corinne has been a mentor for NASA’s STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) high school internship program with the “Weighing Earth’s Water” team. During the SEES program she engaged students, particularly those that are underrepresented and underserved, in analyzing data from GRACE and GRACE-FO, twin satellites that are making detailed measurements of Earth’s gravity field changes and revolutionizing investigations about Earth’s water resources over land, ice, and oceans, as well as earthquakes and crustal deformations.
In the latest project, she led a team with 90% high school girls in identifying GRACE spatial patterns using machine learning algorithms. One SEES intern stated, “The project definitely exceeded my expectations. I learned so much and feel as if I am much more prepared to pursue STEM in the future.”