Sami Rollins

Research interests

• Broadening participation in computing
• Computer science education
• Mobile and distributed computing
• Home energy management

Education

• PhD in Computer Science, University of California Santa Barbara
• MS in Computer Science, University of California Santa Barbara
• BA in Computer Science, Mills College

Biography

Sami Rollins is a teaching professor and Director of Graduate Computing Programs in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University in Oakland. She was previously a professor of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco (USF), and she has served as a program director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation and as a faculty member at Mount Holyoke College. She holds a BA in Computer Science from Mills College and MS and PhD degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Rollins's research interests include broadening participation in computing, computer science education, and mobile and distributed computing. She contributes to an NSF-funded S-STEM project that awards scholarships to students studying computing at USF. The project implements a suite of community-building activities designed to improve scholars' self-efficacy and develop computing identity. Rollins also co-directed a project that developed system support and user-driven strategies for improving energy efficiency in residential buildings.

Rollins has served in a number of service roles. She was chair of the Computer Science department at USF from 2013-2016. She also served on the editorial board of Sigmobile’s GetMobile Magazine from 2014-2018. She has been involved with the discipline-specific Networking Networking Women community since 2010, serving as mentor, fellowship co-chair, and workshop co-chair. She was co-chair of the board of Networking Networking Women from 2016 to 2018.

Recent publications