The Society of Women in Computing at the University of Rhode Island has been building a community for women within various technological majors since 2018, with goals of fostering confidence and camaraderie.
“I feel like SWIC is a safe space for women in computer science and other technical fields,” Riley Maguire, a third-year computer science major and the president of SWIC, said.
SWIC doesn’t limit themselves to just computing fields but other science, technology, engineering and math majors as well, according to Maguire. This includes majors like data science, cybersecurity and computer engineering.
SWIC has held clothing drives in the past and hosts a slew of fun events like murder mysteries and game nights. They also hold workshops and help other students use some valuable tools like notion and leetcode. In addition to the tool tutorials they hold events that help with other aspects of technology and computing like project and product management.
SWIC also gives back to the community. They held a clothing drive in Nov. 2024.
“Since this is predominantly a male-dominated area, it’s nice to have a safer space for women to build a community,” Maguire said.
On top of the community that can be gained through SWIC, Ayishat Oguntade, a third-year computer science and cybersecurity major and the treasurer of SWIC, felt joining SWIC helped her academically.
“I feel like SWIC helped me find people who already took classes I’ve already had,” Oguntade said. “[I felt SWIC was] kind of like a mentor that told you, ‘oh, don’t take that class with this professor’ or ‘avoid this, avoid that.’”
Oguntade said having other students in SWIC guiding her throughout her computer science journey helped her to find confidence in her field and that she loved the community feeling she gets from SWIC.
Sudishma Acharya, a second-year data science and finance major and secretary for SWIC, felt being a part of SWIC was a great opportunity to network too.
“I like having a space where I can meet other women with similar interests and talk to and form connections with them and have them as a future reference,” Acharya said.
SWIC has about 10 active members plus four people on the executive board, according to Maguire.
“There weren’t a lot of people here in the past two years, “ Maguire said. “I’d say this year we’ve definitely been growing,”
SWIC feels that when they host big events, a high number of people show up for them and they remain optimistic that they will continue to attract new members, according to Acharya.
On Feb. 5 a Valentine’s Day card making event was scheduled to be hosted by SWIC, but due to financial constraints, they were unable to hold the event, according to Maguire.
SWIC rescheduled the card making event for Thursday at 6:30 p.m in Bliss Hall Room 290, where SWIC will collaborate with the Black and Brown Women in Engineering Science Technology Sisterhood. This event will feature a caesar cipher, or encoded, love-letter creation session where the recipient has to decode a love message using a unique key to decipher it. There will also be Valentine’s Day themed treat bags.
Since this is a collaboration between SWIC and BBWESTS, it will be a great opportunity to find more women to join both organizations, according to Ndoumbe Ndoye, a third-year computer science and economics major and vice president of SWIC.
SWIC holds weekly meetings at 5 p.m. in Room 055 in Tyler Hall, located at 9 Greenhouse Road.
For updates on future events and how to get involved in SWIC, consult its Instagram @uriswic.
