Alumni and Friends

Grace M. Mirsky, Ph.D.

B.S.’04, Computer Science

2018 Rising Star

Grace M. Mirsky, Ph.D. earned her B.S. in Computer Science from Benedictine University in 2004 as well as her B.S. in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology the same year. She went on to earn her M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2008, both from Northwestern University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Upon graduation, Mirsky worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation until 2014, when she became an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Benedictine University. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she conducts research with undergraduate students in the areas of machine learning, computer vision and robotics. She has co-authored 19 conference and journal papers as well as two book chapters.

Inspired by her father’s strong support of achieving her goals, Mirsky has sought to encourage young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) throughout her career. In 2003, she participated in the Benedictine University mentoring program, which helped teach eighth grade girls about math and science. While interning at Argonne National Lab in 2003 and 2004, Mirsky volunteered for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, a program designed to encourage girls to develop an interest in STEM. In 2008, she served as an instructor in Northwestern University’s Summer Technology and Engineering Program, which introduced junior high girls to engineering through a variety of hands-on projects. During her time at Northrop Grumman from 2009-2014, she informally mentored a number of junior female engineers and interns. In 2017, Mirsky received an unrestricted gift from Google to create a summer robotics camp for junior high girls to introduce them to computer science. This camp, held at Benedictine University in June 2017, involved 27 sixth to eighth grade girls from seven different area schools.