Non-majors Explore Less Well-Known Contributors to Computing

A typical US college student who is asked to name people who have made significant contributions to computing will likely produce a short, predictable, fairly homogeneous list. To help increase awareness of the diversity of people involved in computing, we introduced a biography project into an introductory non-majors course at a small liberal arts college. With each student exploring and presenting on the life and contributions of a less well-known contributor to computing, the class is exposed to a number of people that students likely haven't heard of previously. Moreover, with fairly open-ended requirements for the assignment, we can learn what students find interesting and noteworthy about these individuals, perhaps finding ways to more broadly increase awareness.