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A better system, better technology
In the long run, diversifying the SMET workforce
is not only an effort to change the face of technology workers
and researchers but also a push to bring systemic change and
to create an environment in which race, gender, ethnic background,
and physical abilities are not issues when choosing a career
or college major.
“What I’d like to see is a situation
where the progress of underrepresented groups through the
university system is no different than it is for other people
and where advancement up the career ladder is natural,”
says Bryant York, an African American computer science professor
at Portland State University.
Tapia is more blunt. “No first-world nation
can maintain its economic health when such a large portion
of its population is outside mainstream activity, including
all technological, scientific, and computational activity,”
he says. “For the health of the domestic science and
engineering enterprise, we must now seriously consider the
inclusion of members of underrepresented groups in the science
and engineering workforce.”
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