Artificial intelligence systems and machine-learning algorithms have come under fire recently because they can pick up and reinforce existing biases in our society, depending on what data they are programmed with. A Stanford team used special algorithms to detect the evolution of gender and ethnic biases among Americans from 1900 to the present. (Image credit: mousitj / Getty Images) But an interdisciplinary group of Stanford scholars turned this problem on its head in a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published April 3. The researchers used word embeddings - an algorithmic technique that can map relationships and associations between words - to measure changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes over the past century in the United States. They analyzed large databases of American books, newspapers and other texts and looked at how those linguistic changes correlated with actual U.S. Census demographic data and major social shifts such as the women's movement in the 1960s and the increase in Asian immigration, according to the research.

Atmospheric scientist Maria Zatko was close to completing her thesis on ground-level ozone in 2014 when she learned of a perfect opportunity to fill a gap in her research on this air pollutant.Zatko and her adviser at the University o f Washington in Seattle realized she could join an ongoing research project in Utah that was studying causes of the area's unusually high ozone levels during winter. Zatko wanted to measure the release of nitrogen oxides from snow. But collecting the snow samples would require a month of fieldwork, and Zatko had no funding to cover the costs. So Zatko decided to try an emerging source for research funding - online crowdfunding. Through a campaign on a website, Experiment.com, she raised $12,000. The cash was ''critical'' to completing her Ph.D., she says. ''Even more important is how it has played out postgraduation,'' she adds, because presenting the data at a conference led to her current job with an environmental consulting firm. ''I'm just eternally grateful'' to the 155 people who responded to her funding plea, she says.

The business world has long been a boys' club. Women C.E.O.s and founders of color make up a small portion of entrepreneurs who have reached the top. Each one of the women in this group tableau has raised $1 million or more in outside capital, breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings along the way.

Technology innovation is the bedrock of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NCWIT employees are the engine that fuels it. Over the past three years, they have been on a journey to rapidly transform the company to better align with changing technology trends and evolving customer needs. A critical element of this transformation has been the re-ignition of our innovation engine. Every HPE innovation comes from a team of individuals, each contributing their unique perspective, knowledge and experience to advance the way the world works and lives. The full power of our people is driving HPE's success. A focus on Inclusion and Diversity helps to drive new business, fuel innovation, attract and attain the best employees. Their culture supports and inspires women in technical roles through the stages of their careers and lives as we continuously push the boundaries of technology to deliver life-enriching innovations that impact our customers, partners and the world. HPE has provided leadership and financial support, as an NCWIT investment partner, for the NCWIT Collegiate Award, an honor that annually recognizes undergraduate and graduate women's technical contributions to projects that demonstrate a high level of innovation and potential impact.

The pay disparity between women and men is often framed as a difference in experience. But women actually miss out on pay as they gain experience, according to new data from tech job platform Hired. Within the first two years of working in a tech job, women in the U.S. ask for and receive 98 percent of what their male counterparts make in the same job at the same company, according to the report. Over time, that disparity grows. On average, women with seven to 10 years of experience, for example, ask for about 90 cents on the dollar and are offered slightly more - 93 cents for every dollar a man is offered. Women with 13 to 14 years of experience ask for 94 cents for every dollar and receive just 92 cents.

When most of us think of Google, our immediate thought is of the search engine that answers our every question, the massive tech giant with the enviable work environment, or the creeping Big Brother collecting our data. But the company is also making a name for itself as the go-to resource for promoting diversity in on-screen depictions of STEM fields.

Many economists call the current era of technology growth a boom era, not unlike previous gold rushes such as the Dot-com bubble. But the thing about bubbles is, they usually pop. And that has some people concerned. Is another bust on the horizon? It's not only tech employees who are paying attention to these patterns. In higher education, the number of computer science bachelor's degrees follows market trends in finance and technology in particular-growing when times are good and plummeting when economies crash. Since 2010, computer science majors have again been increasing, going from about 39,000 to more than 64,000 in 2016. And the Computer Science Research Center claims that the current enrollment surge has in fact exceeded previous CS booms. But what have we learned from these patterns? And what can it tell us about the future?

Tech Women/ Tech Girls Committee has anaunced three recipients of it's 2018 awards that will be honored at a special event on April 4. Three distinguished women with the designations of TechStudent, TechProfessional and TechTeacher of the Year will be honored at the annual TechWomen|TechGirls Awards Luncheon at the Bedford Village Inn on Wednesday, April 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The annual event honors women who work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) who have advanced the role of women and girls in New Hampshire's technology sector. The event also features a keynote address by Jessica Gelman, CEO of Kraft Analytics Group.

The era of human computers didn't begin with the West Computers or the Bletchleyettes. Toward the end of the 19th century, Harvard College Observatory drafted in dozens of women to take on one of the most unique mathematical computing jobs in its 178-year history: to unravel the mysteries of the heavens by calculating the positions of the stars.

The ride-hailing company commits to a third-party audit of employees to ensure it doesn't have pay discrepancies based on race or gender. Uber has also promised pay equity. Lyft is following the lead of some other tech giants in promising equal pay for equal work. The ride-hailing service said Tuesday it's committing to an annual third-party audit to make sure everyone at the company earns the same amount as their peers and there aren't any discrepancies based on gender or race.