Computer Science Education Week Profiles: Yukihiro Matsumoto and Dr. Cecilia R. Aragon


This week (December 7 – 13, 2020) is Computer Science Education Week.

Introduced by a collection of ACM Education Policy Committee in partnership with Congress, the first CSEdWeek was recognized by Congressional Resolution. This annual call to action calls upon partners throughout the United States like iUrban Teen to advocate for Computer Science Education as well as to “underscore the critical role of computing in all careers.”

As the 2020 theme for CSEdWeek is CS for Social Justice, we continue to honor our Heroes past and present in the field of Computer Science. We are excited to celebrate Leaders of Color who have helped pave the way not only for the BIPOC community but have also made widespread contributions to the field of Computer Science, globally.

Creator of the Ruby programming language, Yukihiro Matsumoto, also known as Matz, is a world-leading computer scientist and software programmer. Born in Japan, Matsumoto taught himself programming until the end of high school, before going on to study at the University of Tsukuba. Along with creating his own programming language, he is also a top advocate for open-source software, which means allowing the entire online community access to use, study, change, and distribute software to anyone and for any purpose. Matsumoto released an open-source version of his Ruby programming language called mruby in 2012.

In 2011, Matsumoto received the Award for the Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Today he serves as a fellow at the Rakuten Institute of Technology and serves as a technical advisor for VASILY, Inc, along with continuing his work as the Chief Architect for Ruby at Heroku in San Francisco.

Today we also highlight computer scientist Dr. Cecilia R. Aragon. Along with being a computer scientist, Aragon is a professor, author, and champion aerobic pilot! She holds the honor of being the first Latina pilot on the US Aerobatic Team, as well as the first Latina Full Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Washington. She is also well known as the co-inventor of the treap data structure, which is a unique type of binary search tree that has changed the way the computing world thinks about computer science.

Aragon also has been worked as an advocate in the Seattle area to bring more Latinas into STEM fields. Along with all of this, Aragon released a memoir in 2020 called Flying Free which is about “how to use math to overcome fear and expand your life until it becomes amazing.”

In today’s technological world, computer science is woven into all sorts of interesting and well-paying career tracks. Here at iUrban Teen, we encourage Youth of color to pursue careers like these as we connect them with industry leaders via our many programs. Programs such as iCode, iSpy (CyberSecurity), and MindStream endeavor to give students the holistic experience they need to make an informed decision about what type of career they want to pursue based on what sparks their curiosity and creativity. Computer Science is woven into all three of these programs and in honor of CSEdWeek, we are offering (3) special classes to introduce students to Computer Science!

For more information on iUrban Teen Programming and to learn about volunteer opportunities, please contact us! We’d love to hear from you and are always happy to welcome new partners on our mission to serve students in STEM and The Arts! Your contribution, whether in your time or through donation is sure to help us continue to guide and cultivate Students as they become the Technology Leaders of tomorrow!

Content Curated By iUrban Teen Staff Writers

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