Lauren Ribordy has several theories as to why women are not better represented in the field of computer science. But the 18-year-old senior at Glenbrook South High School is fully committed to changing that.
In mid-November, Ribordy, a Glenview resident, competed alongside five undergraduate students — all men — from the Illinois Institute of Technology as part of a team at SC14 Student Cluster Competition in New Orleans, a supercomputing event that brings together students from all over the world.
Though high school students are invited to participate, they rarely ever do, said Ioan Raicu, an assistant professor at IIT and the coach of Ribordy’s team.
In fact, Raicu said Ribordy was the only high school student to take part in this year’s competition. And according to the organizers of the event, she is the only female high school student to ever compete in the two-day event, he said.
Ribordy and the five IIT students on her team competed on eight computers using hardware worth roughly $250,000 provided by industry sponsors Intel, NVIDIA and Mellanox. Representatives from Argonne National Laboratory, a nonprofit research lab operated by the University of Chicago for the Department of Energy, offered further assistance to the team, Raicu said.
During the competition, the students put together top-of-the line hardware to run a set of applications using a limited amount of power, Raicu said.
As part of her team duties, Ribordy was tasked with building a device that would visualize how much power the team was using at any given time, Raicu said. She constructed the device using LED strips she programmed herself, he said. The task likely took weeks of her time, he added.
“She was bright and smart and she invested her weekends and evenings into this (competition) and she did well,” he said. “She did very well. I think in the end, it was a very good decision on my part.”
Ribordy’s interest in computers stems to her childhood, she said.
“I remember Lauren showing me how to make a PowerPoint when she was in second grade,” said Eileen Ribordy, Lauren Ribordy’s mother. “It was so funny because she didn’t need any help. She did the whole thing. It came so naturally to her.”
But her interest in the in field intensified after meeting Raicu through mutual family friends. Following their meeting, Raicu offered Ribordy an internship while she was a sophomore in high school.
“I went into this internship not knowing exactly what computer science was, but came out having a good grasp of the breadth and scope of computer science and how it touches everything,” Ribordy said.
Following her internship, Ribordy said Raicu suggested she apply for an award from the National Center for Women and Information Technology. She did, and much to her surprise, she was selected as the Illinois runner-up for excellence in computing. The following year, Ribordy applied again and was selected as the state winner and was the national runner-up for the organization’s women in computing award. Through her experience with the National Center for Women and Information Technology, Ribordy also was offered an internship at Bank of America.
Ribordy said that though she hasn’t personally experienced discrimination as a woman in a field dominated by men, she knows it exists, and she’s committed to getting more women interested in computer science.
“I hooked up with my science and engineering program at school and developed a club specifically for women interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” she said. “Right now, we have 40 members.”
Ribordy and her family credit Raicu for the mentorship provided.
Ultimately, Ribordy said she and fellow club members hope to get students involved with computer science at the middle school level.
Both Raicu and Ribordy say a lack of exposure to computer science at a young age may be, in part, what’s keeping women from entering the field.
But Ribordy is exceedingly hopeful. Her sister, Anne Ribordy, who is in sixth grade, has received computing and coding training in school — something Lauren Ribordy was never exposed to as a middle school student.
