Computer Science Professor Maureen Doyle, who is retiring after 20 years at NKU, says one of her top priorities has been building confidence in her students.

“What I think I do is provide a mechanism for students who are insecure, who don't feel like they belong, who don't feel they're good enough,” Doyle says. “They know that I'm going to listen to them, right? And I do that through the voice of having been a woman in computing.”

Senior Abby Jones said Doyle has promised to be her career mentor after her May graduation.

“She really loves sharing knowledge with students and kind of preparing them through the workforce,” Jones says. “She really loves getting to help each student … She forms bonds with the students and she's direct in what she's saying , she won't sugar coat anything, in a very, very helpful way.”

Doyle learned to be direct as one of the few women in computing during the early 80’s. She said she was initially insecure, but got positive feedback from her colleagues.”

“It really was people I worked with saying, ‘You're good at this,’” she says.

Doyle helped create systems to track submarines and weapons, technology now used to monitor the movement of whales as well. She worked in high tech for 20 years.

“I went through kind of midlife crisis and decided what I really wanted to do was teach school, and I really also wanted a PhD.,” she says.

Doyle’s first academic post was at Morehead State University, a small-town college in rural Kentucky. But NKU’s College of Informatics Dean Kevin Kirby helped convince her to join the Norse Nation.

“I wanted to work at a school that had a master's program, that worked with first-generation and at-risk students, and was regional university, with a lot of commuters,” Doyle says.

She eventually became chair of the computer science program, which dovetailed with her reason for specializing in computer science: She enjoys puzzles.

“I like solving problems, which is also why I liked being chair,” she says. “I like to solve problems, yeah, but the intellectual part of programming that I had, like, you could just lose yourself for hours thinking about and coming up with creative solutions that other people never came up with.”

Former student Kim Hatcher ('10), said Doyle’s transition from the industry specialist to professor, and her evolution to chair, was an inspiration.

“That's a huge pivot for her, from going from … a huge corporation to academia is very, it’s very different.,” Hatcher says. “And I think that part of seeing her do that, and also her growth through the school, right? Like, going from, she was a professor when I started, I don't even think she had tenure yet, and it kind of empowers us to make change and be okay with that.”

Hatcher worked with Doyle to start the Women in Informatics club. It drew from students across the College of Informatics, male and female. Doyle says it worked very well for a few years then dissipated as students went off to join organizations more focused on their specific majors.

Jones went to Doyle in hopes of reviving the group, but Doyle recommended transforming it into  a women’s chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery.

“That is just so that we were better aligned with kind of the professional organization of ACM and then also the ACM club that we already have here at NKU,” Jones says.

Both Jones and Hatcher say Doyle’s most significant influence has been bolstering their confidence because of her own.

“She exudes confidence,” Hatcher says. “She's an extremely powerful individual, and has, like the ability to make you question things and approach things curiously. I think that's important, because some of us, I think I still shy away from, like, new things, and Maureen never does that, and she encourages people to try new things and make mistakes.”

Doyle’s retirement was celebrated at a Griffin Hall reception on May 6.