ORLANDO, Fla. - The 2007 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference has extended until Monday, April 30, the deadline for submitting proposals for papers, panels, and workshops.

The Tapia 2007 Conference, the fourth in the series, will be held October 14-17, 2007 in Orlando, Florida with the theme of ""Passion in Computing - Diversity in Innovation."

As in past years, the program will cover several key technical areas, and the event will provide a supportive networking environment for under-represented groups across the broad range of computing and information technology disciplines, from science to business to the arts to infrastructure.

Submissions: Papers, Panels, and Workshops

Students and researchers are invited to submit papers to the Tapia 2007 Conference in their area of expertise. Specific areas of interest for this year include:

• Information Security
• Intelligent Systems
• Human-centered Computing
• Computational Math and Science

Prospective authors of papers are invited to submit extended abstracts of no more than four pages, single-spaced in 12-point type size, including results, figures, and references.

Proposals are also invited for panels focusing on technical areas or issues related to increasing diversity in the field of computing. Panel proposals should be no more than one page, single-spaced in 12-point type size.

Finally, proposals are invited for workshops focusing on issues related to increasing diversity in the field of computing. Workshop proposals should be no more than two pages, single-spaced in 12-point type size.

Details can be found on the conference Web site at http://www.richardtapia.org/2007/participate.php. All proposed papers, panels, and workshops must be submitted electronically by Monday, April 30, 2007. Authors will be notified of acceptance decisions by June 29, 2007.

Submissions: Robotics Competition, Doctoral Consortium, Birds-of-a-Feather, and Posters

Proposals for the robotics competition, the Doctoral Consortium, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are due Sunday, May 20; proposals for posters are due Friday, July 6.

New this year, the Robotics Competition will pit teams of students against each other as they send their programmed robots on "search and rescue" tasks in simulated and physical disaster environments that have applications in homeland security, national defense, and emergency management.

The Doctoral Consortium provides an opportunity for selected Ph.D. students to present, discuss, and explore their research interests and career objectives with a panel of established researchers.

Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are informal discussions based on specific topics, such as technical areas or career development.

The poster session is an opportunity for students to present their latest research results and methodologies to a wide range of conference participants and to network at the same time.

Details are available at http://www.richardtapia.org/2007/participate.php.

About the Tapia Conference Series

The Tapia Conference series honors the significant contributions of Richard A. Tapia, a mathematician and professor in the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is internationally known for his research in computational and mathematical sciences and is a national leader in education and outreach programs. Tapia has authored or co-authored two books and more than 80 mathematical research papers. His current positions at Rice are University Professor; Maxfield-Oshman Professor in Engineering; and Director, Center for Excellence and Equity in Education.

The Tapia conference series enjoys the support of a number of academic, research and business organizations. The Tapia Celebration is organized by the Coalition to Diversify Computing, and sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society, in cooperation with the Computing Research Association.

For more information about the Tapia 2007 Conference, visit the Web site at http://www.richardtapia.org/2007/ or write to info@richardtapia.org.