Two students collaborate in a hands-on computing lab space at UIC

Chicago

The tech world of tomorrow will look different. There will be more diversity: in gender, in background, in ways of thinking. It will be that way because of the important work we are doing here today.

Amita Shetty
Director, Break Through Tech Chicago

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Break Through Tech Chicago stories

mirror-image style portrait of Monse Castillo against a dark black background

Finding chemistry outside of chemistry

Just because every step of your future isn't mapped out by your first day of college doesn't mean you won't succeed. Monse Castillo shares the story of how she eventually found her way to computer science — and the discoveries about academics, her university community, and herself that she made along the way.

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Break Through Voices: In Conversation with Chu Huang, Site Director at MIT for Break Through Tech AI

The best way to understand the shape and power of Break Through Tech’s work is to hear from the people who are part of it — from the young women participating in our innovative programs, to the leaders who host those programs inside their organizations and the team members who run our programs in cities around the country and online. Meet Chu Huang, director of Break Through Tech AI at MIT, a collaboration with MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, home to one of the world’s top-ranked computer science programs and pioneers of breakthrough research in computing and artificial intelligence. Now entering its second year at this location, the program serves diverse undergraduate women and non-binary students from across Greater Boston; between the thriving and historic academic presence in the city and the dozens of startups emerging, it’s a place with lots of students where the tech landscape is evolving every day.

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Crains: Layoffs bring latest challenge in closing tech’s gender gap

More than 280,000 technology workers have lost their jobs since the start of 2022—and the data shows you’re more likely to have been laid off if you’re a woman.

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