Prof on list of influential women

Boston University professor

Margrit Betke was named one

of Mass High Tech Magazine's

"Top Ten Women to Watch" out

of 100 nominees in academic,

business and non-profit fields.

Betke, a computer science

professor, said she was honored

to have received the recognition

and hopes to inspire others to

join her field.

"They want to say 'look,

there are some women who

work in these fields and love

it,'" she said. "This gives me

exposure to younger women

who need the inventive."

Mass High Tech Editor Jim

Malone said the nominees had

to have at least five years of

managerial experience or academic

research and a science or

engineering degree.

"The overriding criteria are

that these are women who are

on the way up," he said. "They

have to have accomplished a

great deal, but judged by their

colleagues, they have a long

way to go in their careers. The

last really important criteria is

that they will serve as role models

for young women."

According to Computer Science

Department Azer

Bestavros, Betke joined the

department's computer vision

group, Image and Video Computing,

in 2000.

"She added an important

dimension to the group, particularly

in the Human Computer

Interactions," he said. "She

helps design software for differ-ent environments. For example, she

designed software for children with

disabilities."

Betke said she has three main

areas of research in her department,

including medical images, some of

which help to find new techniques

to detect lung cancer. Additionally,

she explores ways in which people

with severe disabilities can interact

with and use computers.

"Her last dimension is teaching,"

Bestavros said. "She teaches computer

intelligence. She has been

instrumental in reinventing the

courses, especially artificial intelligence,

which is now very popular."

Both colleagues and students

said they applaud Betke's teaching

style.

"She encourages class participation,"

College of Arts and Sciences

graduate student Bill Mullally said.

"Her lectures are generally a mix of

motivation examples, theoretical

discussions and practical algorithm

development."

CAS graduate student Angshuman

Bagchi said Betke stands out

on both an academic and personal

level.

"As a faculty advisor, she has

been instrumental in mentoring

young researchers," he said in an

email. "Her contributions to the

field have been not only significant

as a researcher, but also as a mentor."

Though the article recognized

10 women, only two were academics.

Malone said this discrepancy

reflected the business nature of the

magazine.

"With our emphasis on the commercialization

and products, you

eliminate many academic nominations,"

he said in an email. "Even if

work has real world applications,

those women are not on the career

path that leads to products or commercialization."

CAS graduate student Jingbin

Wang said the competition to be

named to this list was fierce.

"The area included many highly

respected schools, like Harvard

[University] and [the Massachusetts

Institute of Techonology]," he said.

"It is difficult even for her to win

this recognition."

While Betke said she felt honored

to be recognized by Mass High

Tech, she also received the Award

for Junior Faculty from the National

Science Foundation.

"It's pretty competitive," she

said. "Basically, a peer panel of scientists

look at your career and

decide if they want to support you

for five years. The funding pays for

grad students, summer expenses

and travel."

Additionally, Bestavros said she

was recognized by the Committee

on the Status of Women in Computing

research, which helps to recruit

the best undergraduates in the

nation.

"The reason this is so important

is because woman in computer science

are significantly underrepresented,"

he said. "There are very

few qualified strong women in

graduate programs and Margrit has

been great here."

Betke, Bestavros and Malone

said they were disappointed in the

lack of women in the computer science

and engineering departments.

Malone said Mass High Tech strives

to attract young women to these

fields.

"It's sad that women don't take

advantage of wonderful career

opportunities," Betke said. "With

this award, maybe I can reach out to

more people."

Although the number of women

in computer science and engineering

is significantly lower than that

of men, faculty and students said

the recognition of women already

involved in such fields can evoke

change.

"The recognition is an acknowledgement

of the cutting edge

research conducted in computer science

and BU in general," Bagchi

said. "I believe it will act as positive

encouragement for young

researchers (especially women) in

[computer science]."