CU-WISE Blog

Girl Develop It Recap

2011-12-08T14:26:00.000-05:00

On the evening of Tuesday, December 6^th, the second half of Girl Develop It Ottawa's Intro to HTML and CSS workshop took place - and as you can see in the pic below, everyone looks absorbed in their code!

As one of the assistants for the workshop, I had a great time and found it to be an interesting experience. If you're a developer who likes helping people learn, I think you might enjoy assisting with or leading a similar class (see this post on tumblr.)

Seeing people walk through the process of building a web page from scratch, and troubleshooting when they ran into problems, reminded me of when I first began dabbling with HTML and CSS many years ago. I liked meeting the students - who came into the class with varying levels of prior experience, but were all friendly and curious about code. I credit this to instructor Suzan Hill's teaching style, which was clear enough for the almost complete beginners in the class, while students looking for more information were able to ask the assistants questions in detail.

If this sounds interesting, you'll be happy to know that GDI Ottawa has more programming classes in the works. For anyone who wants to get started with web development on their own, I've included a link below to one of the online resources I've found helpful for HTML/CSS learning and reference.

Online intro to HTML/CSS guide

Liz Allen is a computer science student at Carleton University. She tweets about technology and life at @liz_codes

She Topped All the Men in Math and Kept Her Life in Balance

2011-11-30T16:57:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a popular blog post about a 19th century woman who beat all the men at Cambridge University in their prestigious math exams:

Philippa Fawcett did the unimaginable: she beat every other man and woman who competed in the prestigious mathematical examinations held at Cambridge University. This was in 1890, a time long before men and women were even allowed to study for degrees side by side. Even the science of the time suggested that this probably couldn't happen.

The cool thing is that she managed to do it while keeping an impressive balance in her life. Check out the entire post (She Topped All the Men in Math and Kept Her Life in Balance) to find out how!

Global Entrepreneurship Week

2011-11-13T18:22:00.002-05:00

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011 is celebrated during the week of Nov. 14th-20th 2011.

The National Capital Region will be participating as well so check out the OCRI website for details of when and where.

Carleton University will be having many events and here are a few.

Lead To Win for Women and the Technology Innovation Management program.

Most events have limited capacity therefore do not forget to register.

If you can't be there in person you can follow the conversation on twitter via these hastags #leadtowin #GEWnews

I am sure there are many more events so let us know details of how you plan to celebrate.

Two Months Before Mommyhood

2011-11-07T15:29:00.000-05:00

I'm actually not sure I've talked about this whole "becoming a mom" thing here on the CU-WISE blog yet, so, if you didn't know, I'm expecting! Not only that, but I'm due in less than two months. (That's one reason you don't see me on the current list of executives.)

I noticed on my personal blog that I hadn't written about pregnancy or mommyhood very much, so I took a few minutes to list out some of my worries and some of the things I'm looking forward to. Check it out.

What are your impressions about being a student and starting a family? It probably seems like a particularly scary notion if you're an undergrad, but can you see yourself doing it as a grad student? What goes through your mind when you see other students with pregnant bellies walking around campus?

Women-Led Start Ups Have Fewer Failures, What Does that Actually Mean?

2011-10-25T14:29:00.000-04:00

Local developer and entrepreneur Alicia Liu recently reflected on recent research that said women-run startups are generally more successful:

So these women, on top of an already gruelling process of pitching and due diligence, had to overcome additional obstacles, including investor bias. So wouldn’t it make sense that this additional selection, though unfair, means that only the very best women are able to get funding and grow their businesses to successful exits? Viewed like this, the study results are not surprising.
...
To me, the additional selection imposed on women through overt and subtle stereotypes, biases, and differential treatment contributes to fewer women in male-dominated fields, like running a tech start up, but it also results in higher quality. This is analogous to survival of the fittest.

What do you think? Do the women running these startups just happen to be better than average because they were the ones tough enough (or smart enough, or whatever quality you want to insert here) to make it? Is the same true of women in highly male-dominated fields like computer science and engineering in general?

Kudos to past WISE exec and officer for defending their PhD theses!

2011-10-24T17:08:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to recognize the awesomeness of one of the original four founding members of CU-WISE and past Executive Natalia Villanueva-Rosales, and past CU-WISE Officer Terri Oda, both of whom successfully passed their PhD thesis defences in the last few weeks. Both of their committees were rather impressed with them. Congrats ladies!!

I don't think we celebrate our own accomplishments enough, so I'm always trying to encourage others to do so here on the blog. If you're a member of the CU-WISE community and have something to share about yourself or another awesome woman in science or engineering here at Carleton, you can always contact CU-WISE (wise@carleton.ca) and have us post it!

Ada Lovelace Day: Natalia

2011-10-07T18:45:00.000-04:00

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, I wrote about one of my fellow CU-WISE founders:

I participate in Ada Lovelace Day every year by blogging about my tech heroines. This year, I had a really hard time deciding who to honour because there are so many worthy candidates! After some thought about what stage of life I'm at and what's happening today for her, I finally settled on Natalia Villanueva-Rosales.

You can read the whole post on my blog. I hope you'll consider blogging about your tech heroine today, too!

What My Little Ponies have to do with technology

2011-09-21T11:03:00.000-04:00

Terri recently wrote a piece on the Geek Feminism blog that I just had to share:

I was the sort of little girl who had over a hundred My Little Ponies, largely due to my mother’s uncanny ability to find them incredibly cheap at garage sales. With so many, we could put on pony musicals where we wrote or adapted all the music and made costumes out of whatever scraps our parents were willing to lend us. My childhood best friend and I built an entire “computer game” for my little sister to play using ponies as the characters (Gameplay was inspired by our favourite adventure game for PC, Monkey Island. Nowadays, I’d call it a roleplaying game but I didn’t know the terminology then.) We had ponies on the bridge of the Enterprise, and ponies going camping on the very conveniently green-carpeted stairs in my house, and ponies ponies ponies.

Definitely check out the entire post here, and find out what a "brony" is in the process.

14 Year Old Airplane Builder

2011-09-21T09:25:00.002-04:00

I came across this video and wanted to share it with you. It's about Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski who is very passionate about planes. She took her first flying lessons at the tender age of 9. By the age of 14 she build her first aircraft and flew it at the age of 16.

Her advice is to never let an opportunity to pass you by.

MIT Tech TV

Girl Develop It Ottawa Kicks Off its New Chapter

2011-09-15T12:30:00.001-04:00

One of CU-WISE's original founders, Serena Ngai, recently started a new chapter of an organization called Girl Develop It. It's all about getting non-technical women in Ottawa to learn how to program. To me, this has the potential to help blur the line between women in tech and women near tech, which can only be a positive thing.

I recently taught at the chapter's kickoff workshop, where participants learned some basics of programming using Scratch. You can read all about my experience on my own blog. I also posted on the new blog for the Ottawa chapter, which I encourage you to follow to keep up to date on future happenings.

If you want to learn how to program or just meet a bunch of ladies who are trying it for the first time, be sure to join the Girl Develop It Ottawa Meetup Page!

Women and Going Beyond the Game

2011-07-27T17:19:00.000-04:00

From my personal blog:

While it seems to me that many more women are playing traditionally "male" video games these days, there is also a group of women who go beyond the game in ways that, according to James Paul Gee and Elizabeth Hayes, are important to 21st century learning. An in depth look at this phenomenon and what we can learn from it is described in Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning.

Read the rest here.

What Do Women Want in Games?

2011-07-11T18:00:00.000-04:00

I happened to stumble across this article by the well-known game designer, interactive storyteller, and author Chris Crawford called What Do Women Want (Again)?

I’m intrigued by the renewed interest in this old problem, and dismayed by the complete lack of progress I see. The games community just keeps spinning the same old wheels, getting the same old wrong answers. Really, folks, some community memory would behoove us all. Nearly twenty years ago Midway addressed the problem by creating Ms. Pac-Man. Their market data showed that more women seemed to play Pac-Man than other games, so they put a bow on Pac-Man’s head and voila! the first woman’s game was created. This unpromising beginning has set the standard for all subsequent discussion, a standard that has been rigorously adhered to.

This was written back in 2001, and I can't help but wonder how much progress has been made. Certainly some I would think, given that it seems more women are playing games than ever before. Perhaps the advent of social games on the Wii and Kinect have helped by getting more people over the "I'm not a gamer" hump.

What do you think? What games are well designed for the female audience? What games do you adore?

Games for Change Festival 2011

2011-07-06T12:31:00.002-04:00

I just got back from New York City for my first visit to the Games for Change Festival. In its eighth year, this year’s festival was held on June 20-22 at New York University. I wasn’t able to attend the entire conference, but thanks to live streaming I caught most of the Tuesday talks I would have missed otherwise. (You can watch the archives of the live stream, too!)

I wrote a complete blog post summarizing the event on my own blog, which was also syndicated on BlogHer, which I encourage you to check out.

Here are some other great resources to learn more about the event:

What I love about being a software developer

2011-05-26T00:37:00.006-04:00

A developer I met on twitter told me to check out this article a while ago on the benefits of being a female software engineer. I enjoyed it, but had a few varying opinions so I thought I’d first give my personal list of the things I love about being a developer, and then also some positives about being a woman in the field.

Things I Love About Being a Developer

Feeling like I have the power to build anything

We’re so bombarded with new technology all the time that I think we sometimes take for granted the magic of it. As a programmer, almost ironically, I feel like I get to live in constant awe of this magic. I’ve always been a creative person. I started writing songs and poetry in grade 2 and still do, got pretty good at drawing in middle/HS, and even thought for a while that I might try taking up woodworking in post secondary. The spirit of creation is the midnight oil that keeps programmers glued to their monitors into the wee hours. Having the ability to create programs you can use as tools just blows my mind. If you think it looks boring sitting behind a computer, just remember that’s exactly where you’d be if you were editing that music video in Final Cut Pro, or writing your famous blog that’ll be made into a TV series, or putting together parts for a song with GarageBand, but you wouldn’t be able to do any of those things on that computer without programmers! MAGIC!! :O

Seeing my creations work/do something I wanted to accomplish

Building a program is fun, but using it after or seeing people use and appreciate it is even more rewarding. If you’ve created a piece of software that works well and looks nice, just seeing the fruits of your labor on your own screen is enough to make you do a happy dance, if that is you’re nerdy/cool enough to do something like that *brushes shoulder off*

Making an algorithm that’s just that much better than the other guy’s

Now if you’re not competitive you can still enjoy programing for a lot of other reasons, and just because you don’t have the fastest most elegant solution for something does not mean you won’t be a successful programmer (not at all!), but for myself, I can get competitive sometimes . Especially when it comes to challenging projects or assignments. I’m not proud of this one but I know I’m not the only one who enjoys this. When the guys are talking about their solutions for an assignment like “Oh yeah I used a priority queue, and my algorithm does this. Runs faster than most of the other programs apparently. What’d you use?” I love when I can respond with something like. “Oh yeah that’s cool. I used one too but my recursive function cuts off early and uses a shortcut if the player isn’t being blocked, to score faster, which happens most of the time if it’s running against random players, so it ended up working in like half the time after I did that ” If you’re a good sport a little friendly competition can be fun I don’t want to make programing look harder than it is right now though, so for anyone reading this who isn’t sure if they’d be good at programing just try it and if you don’t like a language try another one. Some of the terminology used to describe it can make it look difficult but, it’s way easier than it seems, and not everyone who is good at programing likes the more challenging problems, but they’re still every bit as good of a programmer, and they end up being every bit as successful. So many opportunities are there for you if you have this special skill so I want to encourage everyone to try it. Especially more GIRLS! Still, if you’re bright and enjoy a challenge there are career paths you can take and courses you can take that can give you a lot of that Feeling kick-ass for solving a difficult problem is just a job perk worth mentioning. If you enjoy solving puzzle games and things like that, or you enjoy math or physics, you might want to check out programing, you’ll probably fall in love with it.

Salary

Computer science students, make on average anywhere from 16 to 18 bucks an hour for their first summer jobs during school, and then it can get up to 23 an hour by the time you graduate. Now this varies greatly depending on a lot of things and these are only my estimates based on what I’ve gathered from friends and acquaintances, so if you’re a student reading this, and it’s not your story, don’t worry! Even if you graduate with no work experience you still have a very marketable skill, and probably a great career ahead of you. I just had my first computer science job at the start of this school year (4th year) and now continuing into the summer my salary has gone up. I started late, I never really went after an IT job until last summer when I was coming out of third year, and I started late for the summer so I ended up giving up and waitressing, but I’m making more now than I was waitressing, I have a steady job 5 days a week, and I pinch myself because although I did enjoy my service job, getting paid more than I was hustling tables to do what I love already in my first job is a dream come true. If you give up on finding a summer job, just don’t give up on the career. It can feel daunting if people around you have jobs in the field and you’re late for the party(how I felt with my guy friends who almost all had IT jobs since 1st or 2nd year), but even working for free for a startup can be one of the most enriching experiences, and can be worth much more to you in the end than getting paid anything if you want to even try that. It’s not all about the money, but the money is there to be made. Again LADIES! There need to more ladies in my field getting in on this!

Being an expert/ respect

I have limited experience in the field, but from what I can tell there is a lot of respect in the work force amongst developers for each-other, especially if they all bring something different to the table, it’s all “Oh well you’re the expert on the databases”, or “Well I don’t know as much about that area of the product but this is what I think, what do you think?” and “Let me know how you feel about my ideas! ” or “Let me know if you have suggestions for how else we can go about this! ” Everyone values each-others input and there’s a real feeling of comradeship, teamwork, and respect. It’s great to feel like you really have something to contribute if you have special knowledge, and it’s great to be respected for what you can bring to a project at work, or for an expertise, which you’ll almost certainly end up developing over time in development, especially if there’s a certain language or type of project that really gets you passionate at the start.

Can always grow/ go new places/ go anywhere

There are so many options in a developer’s career. As an indecisive person it can make my head spin sometimes when I try to think exactly what direction I want my career to take, but as someone with a lot of interests it also makes me glad to know I can always explore new dimensions of the industry. From government jobs, to startups, to contract work, to open source, to future managerial possibilities, to starting your own business, or going to grad school. There are just a whole world of possibilities for career options in computer science/ computer engineering, and you can always learn more if you’re ever bored with where you are. There’s always more to learn and new exciting technology to explore

Entrepreneurial spirit of the industry

Since my second year at Carleton when I was exposed to a few startup companies in Ottawa I’ve thought that starting my own company was something I wanted to do eventually. I’ve seen other Carleton graduates succeed at it and after working on a 48 hour coding competition to make a game for Windows phone 7 (the Great Canadian Appathon), I know that when I’m working with friends on something we designed and came together to create, I can work tirelessly for days and it doesn’t ever feel like work. I know I’m not alone in catching the startup bug either. It’s something that comes from being a part of an industry where the product is completely digital (so no building materials or shipping or packaging costs to worry about), the industry can change so quickly that being a small and agile company has major advantages, you can be personally involved in all aspects of the creation of your product from start to finish (entrepreneurs like to have control), and the impact your service could have on society seems only limited by your imagination. I say seems because a lot of developers feel like once they build an amazing product people will just come use it, and aren’t used to the marketing/customer service side of the industry. As someone who has always been fascinated with human behavior and motivation, with a minor in psychology, who’s a big people person, I’m also passionate about how people are going to use and react to software so I love all sides of the process of getting an idea from someone’s head, on to people’s computers, and into their lives.

Things I Love About/ Advantages of Being A Woman in The Industry

You are well liked because you bring an energy that’s missing

Before I came to University to study computer science in a program with a girl guy ratio of 1 to 9 (not even: women make up 7% of my program a percentage that’s gone down since the 80′s when the percentage was closer to around 45%) I was in an arts HS with a girl guy ratio of 7 to 1, and I notice now that the guys in our school were very well liked, whereas in computer science the girls are more well liked, and I’m not just talking about crushes here, there’s just an energy that’s missing when a population is heavily dominated by one sex, the dynamic is out of balance, and people are drawn to the energy that’s missing. In HS I couldn’t wait to get to university because I wanted to have tons of guy friends, I wanted buddies to joke around with, I’d had enough of talking with girlfriends about feelings, of shopping and sleepovers, after a couple of years of comp sci, I got sick of having so many guy friends (not that I got sick of the friends I had ) and started trying to make more girlfriends outside my program to balance my life. That’s just how it is. Whether by nature or nurture, male and female friendships have a different quality to them and we need both in our life. I’m very grateful for all the wonderful friendships I’ve made in my program and in my industry

Men compete more agressively with other men they work with

If you’re a woman this means less butting heads or trying to show each-other up on teams who’s members should be co-operating, and smooth sailing in general. Generally once people get older I think they’re more mature and secure so everyone is more supportive and less competitive with each-other in general, but they’ll still compete more with each-other which makes co-operation easier for women in the field. This isn’t because they don’t think you can hold your own. They’re not going easy on you. It’s evolutionary for men and women to compete more with members of the same sex.

I love that I have an unexpected occupation

I get some surprised looks when I tell people I’m a software developer and I know what you’re saying, “Lana maybe they’d be surprised if you were a guy too!”, and yes maybe they would have, it doesn’t always have to do with gender, but it may have something to do with it considering the very low number of women in the industry. When someone says “Wow!…wow good for you!” I’d never be upset by it. They didn’t expect me to be a programmer because people use mental heuristics to try and guess my profession, mental shortcuts, which usually work well. I’m a woman and so chances are you’d be better off not guessing that I’m a programmer if you want to have the best chances of winning the guessing game, but to see someone ask me if I work at the mall, while I put my makeup on on the buss and then get to see their face as they question their assumption, is just a lot of fun for me, especially as a feminist. Never make assumptions about people Not even yourself

Compliments/ not hard to find a date

A guy friend of mine, in computer science, gave me this one: “Computer Science: the odds are good but the goods are odd” While this is pretty funny, to be blunt, you’d find just as odd goods in any of the other more gender balanced sciences, like chemistry or bio, but in comp sci you don’t have other women to compete with. Seriously though the guys in my program are some of my favorite people in the world, there are a lot more cool down to earth computer nerds out there than you’d think, and if you’re intimidated by the gender ratio, just remember, a lot of them are more afraid of you than you are of them, so extend an olive branch to one or two and you’ll have at worst a guy who stalks you but also makes you feel good about that freshman 15 you put on, or a douche who you quickly get over because all the guys around you are asking you why you’re dating his douche ass, or at best a lifelong friend, or a lifelong partner, maybe even a business partner if you’ve caught the startup bug. Either way most of the guys in my program are wonderful intelligent fun and creative people, so this is just a bonus worth mentioning.

Being able to act like a total dork and get praised for it

I’ve always been nerd at heart. You wouldn’t know it if you passed me on the street or saw me out with my girls but if you could see how I am on the inside I’d probably look like a skinny teenage boy with braces and really thick glasses, and it shows when I’m with my guy friends in computer science. I’m a music nerd, I’m a comic book nerd, I’m a psychology nerd, I’m a Youtube nerd, I’m a video-game nerd, I’m a book nerd, and a very proud computer science nerd, and I let out quite a snort sometimes when I laugh, and I snort a lot around the guys in my program. I feel like we’re all one big nerdy family. I love it! I've never laughed harder or spoke more freely, candidly, or passionately with any other group of people. These guys are my soul-mates :P Why is this under the advantages of being a woman in computer science? Why not stick it with things I love in general? Because I think it’s really good for me, as a woman, to be around guys who couldn't care less if I was wearing any makeup, around guys who wouldn't notice the difference if you died your hair red, blonde, lost 20 pounds, or gained 20, guys who don’t care about social graces or which other crowd you’re friends with, around guys who make you feel like you can be yourself, even if that means you feel like swearing like a sailor, not doing your hair that day, and snorting really REALLY loud when you laugh just cuz you feel like acting a little crazy, because I think us girls need to learn to love ourselves more unconditionally, and worry less about our image/appearance and more about what we can do with our lives, and what we can experience. These guys want to hear if I’m working on a software project or learning to play ukulele, because that’s cool and fun, they don’t care if I buy new clothes or get new makeup, or start wearing my hair differently, they’ll just compliment you whether you have makeup on or not. They’re chicken soup for the female soul. :)

My ambitions are not just for myself. I want to succeed for other women/girls

I think I’m naturally a very ambitious person, not in a power hungry or status hungry sort of way, just in that everything I’ve wanted to do in my life I’ve wanted to be the best at it, I’ve wanted to do something great with it, even if no one but my family is going to see it, I want it to have an impact. I want whatever I do to create something awesome that makes a difference and moves people. I also have a deeply rooted sense of fairness and justice and if I see something that runs up against that, it upsets me a great deal. I won’t ever become upset to the point where I let it invade my life in a negative way, and I’m a very balanced and grounded person, but as Martin Luther King said “True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.” I think that there are a lot of leftover outdated attitudes in our society from the women’s movement and before it, that go unnoticed and effect women and men for the worse. When men and women are offered a salary, men will reject it and ask for more 8 times more often than women. In fields like nursing that are dominated by women people are underpaid, and men avoid them, in fields like computer science and engineering we’re paid more and women avoid them, and I know that these things won’t just naturally balance out without effort, because when you act unconsciously in life as an individual, imbalances don’t just go away, they’re self perpetuating, and it’s the same thing with society as a whole.

Salary is a big deal. How much we think we can/should make is about how much we think we’re worth to the world, and it’s a sensitive topic, which is why people don’t like to talk about it, but I’m someone who craves real conversations with strangers, I want to talk about things like this because it matters so much, which is why I’m writing so much in this post .

If you’re a woman and you make a conscious effort to keep yourself aware that the guy next to you is asking for a higher salary 8 times as often, and that you’re worth just as much, and you make a conscious effort to do the same thing, which is not easy at all for most women, then the difference in money you’ll have made over your lifetime by the time you retire is in the millions, but even better than that if you can think about the difference it would make if you end up being the first woman to start a tech company that makes such a significant impact on the industry that your face is on the cover of Time and all the IT and business magazines and that gives little girls something to stick on their walls instead of the fashion models on all the covers of all the magazines they’re used to seeing women on, that’s not just an ambitious goal that’s revolutionary, that’s an Obama moment just waiting to happen that some woman is going to get to have. Don’t you want to be the woman to make that moment possible? You can be. If you pursue a career in computer science or engineering haha obvious plug right there, but that’s why I’m so passionate about my industry, all the opportunity and all the frontiers out there just waiting for whoever is brave enough to take them.

Hope that you enjoyed the reasons I love software development, and I also hope that you’re a young girl and this got you to thinking about where you want your post secondary education to take you, and maybe that you’ll pick computer science or engineering as a career :)

If I’ve left an advantage out or if you disagree with anything I’ve said let me know I always love a good discussion about these things

Shalom!

WIE at Carleton University

2011-05-17T12:24:00.000-04:00

Check out this wonderful video about women in engineering at Carleton. CU-WISE is mentioned a few times as well! :)

Reminder: Grace Hopper Celebration scholarship applications due May 31st

2011-05-10T12:36:00.002-04:00

Edit: The deadline has been extended to May 31st.

Just a quick reminder: scholarship applications to attend the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration are due May 31st, ~~so you've got a bit less than a week to get them done~~!

The Celebration is being held on November 9-12, 2011 in Portland, Oregon. CUWISE has limited funds to help with travel expenses, so if you're interested in going this year please apply for a scholarship so that more CUWISE members can afford to go!

Don't forget that you'll need a letter of support from a faculty member, so make sure you go out and ask for that now so they have time to write it before the deadline! You'll also need an updated resume and a 500 word essay, so the sooner you start the better.

My friend Leslie recently gave a presentation on the scholarship application process that I'm embedding below so you know what to expect:

Grace Hopper Infosession

View more presentations from Leslie Hawthorn

Good luck!

"Stop Playing Homework and Do Your Video Games - A Video Game Quintet"

2011-05-04T09:00:00.007-04:00

Welcome to summer term! I don't know if I'll be keeping up the Wednesday fun videos all summer, but here's a live performance of a great little video game quintet to ease you out of exams and into whatever you're doing next. I really love that they've got people doing stuff in the background (check out pong at 4:04) and that girl in the foreground with the cards to tell you what you're listening to for people who might not recognize all the tunes. A very fun performance!

This one sets the bar high for geek parents

2011-04-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Want to be the coolest geek mom on the block? Maybe you could try building this neat marble run around your kid's room:

How's that for some Wednesday fun?

The kind soul who made this video also provided instructions on how to build the marble run. Forget kids, I kind of want to build this for myself!

Carleton Students Win a Prize For Innovative and Challenging Mobile Game

2011-04-21T10:23:00.014-04:00

I recently competed on a team with three other students from the School of Computer Science (Jamie Madill, Andrew Erdeg, and Jacob Agar) in the Great Canadian Appathon. It was a 48-hour mobile game development competition. Our team didn't place in the top three, but we did get a prize for the most technically challenging game! (I will admit that wasn't thanks to me - Jamie happened to be working on fluid simulation for his thesis and implemented it for the game.)

From the Carleton newsroom article:

The goal of the single player puzzle game is to fill coloured drains with matching fluids that takes full advantage of the interfaces offered by modern mobile devices. The player can dig trenches in the sand to channel the fluid by drawing shapes on the touch screen in the same way they would trace out shapes in the sand. In order to move the fluid, the player simply tilts the phone, causing it to spill down the channels. The challenge lies in not wasting fluid by channelling it down mismatched drains.

The most unfortunate part of the competition? There were hardly any female programmers! (I guess that's why the National Post featured me in one of their articles covering the event.) This was a great experience, so why not give it a shot at your next opportunity?

Super mario bros accapella

2011-04-20T09:00:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of covers are the mario bros theme, but this one Jimmy Wong's version is especially cute and singable because it goes beyond the source to make something really fun:

And as if the song itself weren't amazing, the artist himself is a pretty neat guy. Check out the NPR story on him: Jimmy Wong Saves The Internet:

Jimmy Wong reminded me that the tools that can be deployed by the so-called cyberbullies are also freely available to those they harass.

[...]

The lyrics are funny and good-spirited, and effectively turn the tables on the original rant. And the song itself has a catchy hook, has been viewed about 800,000 times, and is now for sale on iTunes.

When I was a kid, here's one thing I never thought of saying to a bully who was about to pummel me:

"Hey, don't mess with me. I've got a quirky sense of humor, a great singing voice, and I know how to code!"

But Jimmy Wong and many others are proving those types of creative skills could be a decent way to put up a defense.

Jimmy's Mario song is available on iTunes along with a bunch of his other music, and proceeds are currently going to the Japanese relief efforts.

A terribly educational video about turtles

2011-04-13T09:00:00.001-04:00

Since I know your brains are all filled with studying now that exams have started, I thought it best today's wednesday fun had a nice simple "educational" video that won't take up too much memory space. Enjoy!

And best of luck with your final exams!

Reminder: Google Summer of Code!

2011-04-07T18:14:00.000-04:00

A quick reminder: Google Summer of Code applications are due tomorrow!

Summer of Code is a program where students can get paid for working on open source projects over the summer. It's a pretty neat opportunity if you're looking to try open source development, because you get matched up with a mentor who's volunteered their time to help you work on your project.

You don't need a lot of experience to contribute. We're hoping to find new contributors this way, so we're prepared to train you on how to set up your development environment and contribute to the project.

I'm going to be mentoring for GNU Mailman this year. If you're curious about our proposed projects, you can find them on our wiki. We've got a bunch of really great mentors and I'm hoping we'll have some great students to match. I've already had a chance to meet some of our applicants on our IRC channel (#mailman on irc.freenode.net)

There's a whole slew of projects just waiting for great people like you. While the deadline is super close now, you've still got enough time to put together a good application if you're interested! Geek Feminism has run a few posts about preparing applications that you might find helpful: Google Summer of Code 2011: application tips from this year, and Showing your awesomeness for Google Summer of Code from last year, and many mentors are anxiously watching their email/IRC/mailing lists for last minute questions from students.

Go check out the list of mentoring organizations and put in an application now!

Dominoes!

2011-04-06T09:00:00.002-04:00

Back in the tech boom, I worked in a research group at a very fun company that not only had plenty of toys around, but let us play with them during meetings. Some weeks I'd grab our huge set of dominoes and set up a lengthy run. When I finished, we'd pause the meeting, knock them over, then get back to discussing the business at hand. It might sound ridiculous, but playing with stuff like that really kept us energized during the meetings, and meant we looked forwards to them even when we had heavy stuff to discuss.

And in that spirit, today's Wednesday fun video features dominoes and tic tac toe:

Random Advice for an Undergrad

2011-03-31T11:49:00.017-04:00

I recently wrote an email with a bunch of advice based on my own undergrad experience and thought, 'why not share!' So here it is, my random and somewhat long list of what helped me be successful in undergrad:

For math classes, I took notes the whole class, and I worked in the library on the practice problems. The only way to do well in math is to do all the assigned problems. It's so easy to let it slip but it's important. Especially with today's distractions, going to one of those study desks in the library and putting on music on headphones will help a lot.
In computer science classes (which are likely similar to a lot of your technical classes), I didn't really take notes because there were always slides, but I did try to read the textbooks in many (but not all) cases. When reading or when in class you end up getting to the point of thinking "ugh, I've seen this before." But that's exactly where you want to get! Without ever reaching that point, you never truly know the topic. If you read the book and go to class and don't get to that point, you can find other ways to get there. There are TA's, profs, online resources... (Though one tip is to learn to recognize when little details are less important and when it's a core topic you really really have to know.)
Speaking of TA's and profs, learn how to use them to your advantage. It's a bit intimidating at first, but seeing the profs and coming with well thought-out questions will actually impress them, and you will get a ton of help.
Study groups can be good, but they can also be a bit of a time suck if it doesn't stay on focus, or if you work on problems you don't need help with. I recommend getting together with the right people to work on particularly difficult assignments. Take notes during these sessions but don't write the whole answer. This will force you to think about it for yourself later on.
Here's what I do for studying for an exam and sometimes larger tests:

Make a hand-written summary sheet of all the important details. This is very time consuming so it can't be left to the last minute, but just the act of writing is the first step to remembering it.
Go through the sheet and try to memorize what needs to be memorized, and understand the rest.
Ask a friend or parent or roommate to ask you questions based on what's on the sheet. If you wrote it right, they don't even need to be all that knowledgeable of the material.

I guess the last major thing will be time management. This is always tricky, but if you are having a hard time with it, you might try the time-sheet technique - I did this in my Masters and it was useful.

Another great resource from the CU-WISE archives is the Advice for Undergraduates document.

What else do you do to study and make the grade? Share your wisdom here!

World's greatest paper rollercoaster

2011-03-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Who needs expensive plastic toys when you can build marble rollercoasters out of paper? This coaster is over 12' high!

Here's a picture of a shorter one:

and the video to go with it:

For more pictures and videos of various paper coasters, check out his website, PaperRollerCoasters.com. It looks like he does a lot of school visits -- maybe this would be a great outreach activity!

The Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is Just Around the Corner!

2011-03-29T12:16:00.000-04:00

Last year's Celebration was pretty awesome, but this year is going to be something special. You see, we've made a big effort to ensure our talks are fun and exciting no matter what your background is.

So, for example, if you're in biology, you'll understand what the computer scientists and engineers are talking about. Even if you aren't in science or engineering at all, you will enjoy what we have to offer!

Even better, we've invited a group of high school girls to be in our audience this year. We've already got more than 25 signed up. We're hoping that we can ignite a love of science and engineering in these students, and show them the awesome choice that Carleton is for post-secondary education.

The full schedule with talk titles and descriptions is now posted online, so go check it out and we'll see you on April 6!

What's it All About?

The link above describes it like this:

The Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is a showcase of graduate students, faculty, and alumni of Carleton University. The number of women who enrol in many science and engineering programs is quite low, so the amazing things they do can easily go unnoticed. This day puts them in the spotlight.

The goal of this event is two-fold. First, we aim to provide networking opportunities for all female science and engineering students. Second, we would like to see members of the greater Carleton community and the general public attend these talks and learn about some of the great things happening in science and engineering. We want the world to know that there really are successful women in these fields!

This year's Celebration will showcase research and projects done by female students and faculty from Carleton in a way that is accessible to the general public, including high school students.

Everyone is invited!

Scientific Tuesdays on Wednesday: Colourful Milk

2011-03-23T09:00:00.003-04:00

For this week's Wednesday fun video, we've got a video from Household Hacker's Scientific Tuesday series. It's a neat trick to do with milk, food colouring, and soap:

Do video games have to be about combat?

2011-03-16T09:00:00.003-04:00

By the time this is posted, I'll have just come back from PAX East, a huge video game convention. So here's a video game related video, but something a little more educational than the standard trailers. The question here is "Do video games have to be about combat?" Extra Credits says no, so here's their video on the subject for a bit of Wednesday meta-fun:

Disturbing stuff happening at the University of Waterloo

2011-03-09T11:58:00.000-05:00

Normally I try to focus on the positive for this blog, but I think it's important to be aware of this story:

For just under a month, women at University of Waterloo have been terrorized by an anonymous propagandist who claims that women’s “defective moral intelligence” poses a serious risk to the planet. ... [The communications] have bit by bit advanced the thesis that women should not be educated as highly as men, and that universities should not teach gender equity, because woman’s deceptively weak exterior hides her evil interior. When women are educated and treated as equals, according to the propagandist, they pose a real danger to the planet.

While everyone hopes these are just delusional rantings and will stop at that, women at UW are understandably worried that this is a precursor to violence like the massacre at École Polytechnique in Montréal.

Having been the target of such ravings in the past, I really feel for the women at Waterloo. You try to convince yourself that it's not a threat to your safety so you can continue your life, but you really can't be sure. They've had to shut down the university’s volunteer-run Women’s Centre and LGBT student centre out of concern for the volunteers' safety, and that seems like the right choice to me but must be frustrating at a time when women might want more support available to them, not less.

Read more, including how poorly the administration has responded to the threats, at Hook and Eye: How we're 'celebrating' International Women's Day at the University of Waterloo

Fun uses of technology: "Just the way you are" cover video

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today's wednesday fun is a great example of creative use of technology. When Dawen decided to do an acapella cover of Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are," he did the video all shot in one continuous take with 4 iPads, 3 Macbooks and an 1 iTouch. How cool is that?

Found via Angry Asian Man (who made the screenshot used above).

Happy Women's International Day

2011-03-08T17:22:00.004-05:00

Today is a very special day, it's the 100th International Women's Day and it's up to each country to pick their theme. There are 246 events in Canada alone, with Ottawa having their own version. Companies are reaching out to women and Google created a special doodle for the occasion.

The Washington Post did a brief mention of women in tech.

"The top tech women named in the list are Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz (recognized in the "Business & Trade Unions section), lastminute.com founder and philanthropist Martha Lane Fox and Ushadi.com blogger Juliana Rotich. The list also includes seven scientists and doctors: Hawa Abdi, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Athene Donald, Fabiola Gianotti, Jane Goodall, Molly Stevens and Susan Wicklund."

There is a lot of focus on some very serious issues facing women however it is very hard to find info. on women in tech. Do any women in tech come to mind? If so can you share your story about them.

Till then, Happy International Women's Day.

How CEOs' daughters are helping close the wage gap

2011-03-07T19:09:00.000-05:00

I found this quite interesting:

A new, not-yet-published study that tracked 12 years of wage data in Denmark finds that when male CEOs had daughters, their female employees' wages went up 1.3 percent while their male employees only gained .8 percent raises. So the birth of a daughter effectively shrunk the male-female wage gap by .5 percent on average.

If the daughter was a first child, the gap closed by a whopping 2.8%!

The rest of the article: After CEOs have daughters, women employees’ wages go up

Can you accomplish more with a female instructor?

2011-03-04T09:00:00.007-05:00

IBM Extreme Blue Case Study Competition-4264
by Terriko.

I don't get what the bit about Obama and Desperate Housewives at the start of this article from Slate entitled "Pscyh-out sexism" is trying to say, but the research summarized later sounds interesting. Here's a quote about the first study:

The psychologists asked female students studying biology, chemistry, and engineering to take a very tough math test. All the students were greeted by a senior math major who wore a T-shirt displaying Einstein's E=mc² equation. For some volunteers, the math major was male. For others, the math major was female. This tiny tweak made a difference: Women attempted more questions on the tough math test when they were greeted by a female math major rather than a male math major. On psychological tests that measured their unconscious attitudes toward math, the female students showed a stronger self-identification with math when the math major who had greeted them was female. When they were greeted by the male math major, women had significantly higher negative attitudes toward math.

In the next study, they found that university-level women asked fewer questions in class and in office hours after a term with a male prof than they did after a term with a female one. And in the final study, they found that women had more confidence with a female teacher... even if tests showed that they were outperforming their male colleagues.

The latter two studies could be for reasons other than the gender of the teacher: previous studies have shown that although fewer women reach the level of prof, those who do tend to be exceptional so it might be their innate talents and not as much their gender that allows them to reach their students better. But still, it's an interesting selection of research, and really speaks to why it's so valuable for the women of WISE to teach others!

So next time you wonder if it's worth coming out to an outreach event, remember that your smiling face may be just what another young woman needs to get her to try that little bit harder!

Great Canadian Appathon

2011-03-02T13:53:00.004-05:00

I wrote the following on my personal blog and thought the CU-WISE community might be interested in participating, too!

Carleton's Game Development Club is one of six host schools for the upcoming Great Canadian Appathon:

The Great Canadian Appathon is a chance for post-secondary students across Canada to showcase their skills in developing great games. Students can get together in teams of up to 4 people to hack their game together for 48 hours. The event is presented by XMG Studio and the National post. The Prizes are being sponsored by TELUS and the finale event is being sponsored by KPMG.

A few friends of mine were hoping I would join their team, and yesterday I finally decided that I would. (I was a little worried about time because there are a few projects I have to wrap up in the next couple of months, but this looks like a really fun opportunity I don't want to miss.)

This is supposed to be one of those hackathon-type events where you work for 48 hours straight to come up with a game programmed completely within the allotted time. I've never participated in any of these before. The closest I've come is the one all-nighter we pulled for our school's notorious software engineering class project. (And that's the only all-nighter I've ever done in my life!) I'm a little nervous about it because that's not really how I work usually. My eye problems alone make it impossible to work all night.

Luckily, it sounds like the plan is to design as much of the game ahead of time as possible, and maybe even prototype it. Then the idea is to have us work in shifts with partners, so those who like working at night can. According to the Appathon's rules, you don't even have to be on campus - you can work online if you want. I don't know if it's a gender thing or just because we're getting older, but I personally really appreciate this flexibility.

The competition is happening March 11-13, so I'll post about our experience after that. In the meantime, if you happen to be a student, consider giving it a shot yourself!

Top Women in Tech Lists

2011-03-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

There has been a sudden increase in "top women in tech" lists lately, which is pretty awesome. Just wanted to stop by to share some of my recent favourites:

Now if only the third hit when Googling "top women tech" wasn't "Top 10 hottest women in tech: AskMen.com." :(

The Speaker Orchestra

2011-03-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a cool little promo video involving paint, speakers, symphonic music and a conductor to tie the whole experience together. If you've got 3d glasses, you can watch it in 3d which is probably pretty cool, but I'll just embed the regular video here for some wednesday fun:

DTS: The Speaker Orchestra from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Want to know how they set that up? Ross Ching has an amazing blog post on how the production was done including lots of pictures.

The advantage of being me

2011-02-28T21:46:00.000-05:00

From The Advantage Of Dual-Identities (A Case Study of Nabokov), I bring you this quote:

It’s also important to note that the advantage of having a “dual-identity” – being both a novelist and a scientist, for instance – isn’t limited to Nabokov. According to a study led by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, people who describe themselves as both Asian and American, or see themselves as a female engineer (and not just an engineer), consistently display higher levels of creativity.

So as a female, half-asian all-canadian researcher, I'm clearly better at creativity than all those boring white dude researchers?

... I don't even know exactly where to begin on this. So I'm going talk about Bones for a minute. I've been watching it with my sister lately while we do other things (crochet, do mending, wander around looking for things in an mmo, eat dinner, etc.) and the other day she pointed out that she loves how the show deals with Angela, or really, how it doesn't. See, Angela Montenegro is the team's artist: she does sketches of the victims. But she doesn't stop there: she also coaxes data off broken camcorders and swallowed flash drives doing digital forensic work. She's an adept computer programmer who writes software that helps visualize and model what happened during a crime. What's cool about Bones is that it's totally taken for granted that she can be an artist and a coder. (And really, pretty much whatever else she wants to be.)

So I guess while I fundamentally agree that having multiple "identities" is a huge asset to my work and creative abilities, I sort of feel like... why are they making such a big deal about this, as if it's some hugely abnormal thing. Why can't they just accept that Angela can draw and code? Why do people insist on compartmentalizing people into single skill sets? I can drive a car and code and no one thinks that's weird, but plenty of people have commented with surprise that I can edit a magazine (yes, I used to do this) and write code. Hello, world?

The article just makes me a little uncomfortable. This worst part is the paragraph about how the US will be overrun by mixed-race folk like me with superior creative skills -- awkward racial superiority with a different spin -- but even the study methodology doesn't quite sit right with me at a first reading. But maybe the article is simply a journalistic reflection of research into of a real logical fallacy that people often employ: the assumption that one must specialize in only one skill to be the best person one can be. That's one of those things that might be true for programs, but I really haven't seen much evidence of it being true for people.

Despite my issues with the article, I think it's got a nice take-away message: it's a-ok, normal, and maybe even superior to have and use your multiple identities. And don't let incredulous folk tell you otherwise.

This was originally posted on my personal blog.

"Image Enhancing" Has Nothing to do with Photoshop

2011-02-28T16:16:00.001-05:00

After listening to Gail's informative presentation on 'Unlocking the Clubhouse', I began thinking about the issue of image in computer science. Many disciplines have their own Hollywood representations, glamorous (though unrealistic) portrayals of their field. Archaeology and anthropology have the Indiana Jones films. The English department has The Dead Poets Society. Even physics has a photogenic ambassador thanks to Professor Brian Cox (on whom People magazine bestowed the title of "World’s Sexiest Quantum Physicist.") In fact, the only area I can think of without such a superstar is accounting... sorry, accountants.

But I digress. While some may find "image" to be a trivial matter, the importance of public perception shouldn't be so easily dismissed. A positive image of computer science is important for recruiting diverse talent to the field. There are many capable, intelligent people who may pass over CS as a career because of misconceptions about the job of computer scientists. Dilbert-esque scenarios of cubicle rows and "code monkey" work may spring to mind. I think that a key part of recruiting more women to CS involves breaking down stereotypes of the field. In that respect, I think the media can have a role in reshaping people's perception of computer scientists. One of my favourite recent examples is Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, featuring the grey-hat hacker Lisbeth Salander (pictured). Another favourite of mine is the television show Numb3rs, a crime drama that follows two dramatically different groups of people - a team of FBI agents and a group of academics - who collaborate to solve crimes using the power of applied mathematics. And as tacky and cliché as the 1995 movie Hackers seems today, to my ten year-old self it was the coolest thing ever.

Is the use of technology in such media unrealistic? For the purpose of entertainment, there's bound to be some exaggerations for dramatic effect - but that's missing the point. The point is to break down preconceptions of what "kind of person" uses computers, and what they use them for.

(Have any favourite fictional scientists of your own (female or not)? The comments section is wide open!)

Weird Al's Patterns

2011-02-23T09:00:00.005-05:00

One day, several years ago, I was hanging out in the Math Society lounge when it came up that pretty much everyone used to watch the educational kids show Square One. (It turns out an inordinate number of people in that room also played trombone, but that's another story.) This show was my introduction to a lot of fun math concepts, including Fibonacci numbers, and it was also probably my introduction to Weird Al.

I've had this song about patterns from Square One stuck in my head many a time, starting with the first time I heard it now several decades ago... and now I'm giving this earworm to all of you as today's Wednesday fun video. No no, you don't have to thank me. ;)

Video Games as a Stealth Learning Tool

2011-02-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

My PhD research is all about using augmented reality in games designed to teach you something. I think educational games has had a bit of a bad rap for a while, and maybe this is for good reason. There so seem to be memories among many students of basic skill and drill activities thinly disguised as games.

But game designers are getting better at making their players smarter. For example, there's been a lot of cool research happening in the area, and we seem to know a lot more about how to create a compelling experience that teaches you something at the same time. (Take a look at this article I wrote on my own blog about educational games.)

Even better, more and more research is coming out that games is actually a really effective way to learn. There's a recent article in Psych Central News that says this:

To kids, such games would remain a pleasant diversion. But to Mom and Dad, they would provide reassurance that their child is acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to excel in an increasingly competitive world. “The concept is known as ‘stealth assessment,’” said Shute, a professor of instructional systems. “Essentially what we try to do is disguise educational content in such a way that kids aren’t even aware that they’re being assessed while they’re engrossed in game play.”

I say it's never been a better time to be in this field, and if you're in computer science or anything related, then maybe it's the right time for you to join us and study educational games in graduate school. ;)

Finally, a reason to watch game shows

2011-02-16T11:24:00.002-05:00

Computer scientists have a reason to cheer tonight for Watson, IBM's artificial intelligence that is attempting to beat two of Jeopardy’s human champions and expand the frontiers of artificial intelligence. Last night's broadcast ended with Watson at $35,734, Brad Rutter at $10,400, and Ken Jennings at $4,800 after a fascinating game (in which Watson strangely thought Toronto was a U.S. city.)

I've been closely following Watson's progress because of the implications "he" has for computer science. I like the idea of "grand challenges," as IBM calls their ambitious projects - not only for the innovation they produce, but also because of their power to engage the public and promote interest in computer science. For those interested in learning more, IBM.com/watson has many interesting videos on the project. The videos cover the actual tech behind the system (dubbed "DeepQA" by IBM), and its implications for data management and analytics in various industries. The human element is given special attention, too - my favourite segments are the ones profiling the various teams of IBM researchers from different disciplines, and showing how each of them contributed to this ambitious project.

The videos are entertaining, fascinating - sometimes even amusing. In one of the video commentaries, one of the developers said his favorite misparse of a question was when the clue was:

"Category: Bottoms Up!:
It's made with equal amounts of champagne and orange juice."
and Watson said "What is breakfast?"

Ottawa IBM employees and Carleton students (including yours truly) will celebrate tonight with a party and screening of the final game at Oliver’s Pub. For A.I. enthusiasts, it's perhaps a more exciting broadcast than the Superbowl!

Math song for extra credit

2011-02-16T09:00:00.003-05:00

I just love the description of this math song video:

During my Freshman year, my Algebra 3-4 teacher, Mr. Krenz, gave me extra credit if I wrote him a Math Song. So I did!

Here's the chorus, in case you need to sing along. ;)

math is my happiness
and life is a total mess without you
one plus one equals two
if you be my one, i'll be yours dude
cuz love is about adding stuff together
its math and me forever

Hm, I wonder why so many of the math/science/engineering songs I find seem to be about love?

Coldplay's "The Scientist" -- Cover by Jennifer Chung

2011-02-09T09:00:00.004-05:00

You know, I'd heard this song a lot of times, but never really listened to the lyrics until I happened across this cover version. Given the name, I figured it'd make a different sort of Wednesday fun video.

Ever found science or mathematics in a song where you didn't expect it?

I was just guessin' at numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart.
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

Chemistry Professor Maria DeRosa Honoured for Research

2011-02-02T18:14:00.000-05:00

From the Carleton University newsroom:

For the millions of people worldwide who suffer from psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia, Carleton Professor Maria DeRosa’s next research initiative provides hope for a new treatment. DeRosa is one of 10 Carleton professors who will be honoured with a Research Achievement Award from the university for her innovative research that helps find solutions to real-world problems. The other winners will be announced throughout Carleton’s Research Days celebration that runs until Feb. 11.

Read the rest here and join us in celebrating the amazing accomplishments of all Carleton women in science and engineering!

Fashion show with Google

2011-02-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

Via the design blog Today and tomorrow, this wednesday fun video show a neat way to use Google search to put on a fashion show. Just get a projector and take advantage of those image search functions!

Fashion Show with Google from Robbin Waldemar on Vimeo.

The video is 30 second TV commercial made by Robbin Ingvarsson & Waldemar Wegelin for the campaign ‘more with Google’ in Japan.

WISE Steps to Success a Big Success

2011-01-31T12:11:00.001-05:00

This post originally appeared on my personal blog, The Female Perspective of Computer Science.

Last Wednesday CU-WISE held a professional development event called WISE Steps to Success for a second year. It's one of our flagship events, and was designed to give women in science and engineering the networking, negotiation, and confidence skills we aren't taught in class.

From the event description:

There's more to success than just passing your courses. There are a lot of skills to be learned outside of the classroom that greatly contribute to your future. And the earlier you start learning them, the earlier you can reach your goals.

Carleton's WISE, IEEE WIE, and Career Services have joined forces to give you the career building essentials and help you stand out. Whether you are actively looking for a job or not, this is an event you don't want to miss. This year we have also teamed up with local organization Dress for Success.

The event is free for Carleton's women in sciences and engineering, and will include a light dinner and dessert. You will hear from experts on networking, the importance of making a great first impression, dressing for success, confidence building, and negotiation skills. You will also have the opportunity to speak to mentors from academia and industry, to meet other students in your field, and to practice your skills.

This event was a huge success. We had great attendance by both Carleton students and industry and academic mentors. We saw a lot of networking happening during the breaks between talks, and the three speakers were amazing.

Best of all, I didn't even have to organize the event - four amazing Executives and Officers did it all! I got to play event photographer instead. ;) You can see more photos from the event on Flickr.

The Speakers

Moyra McDill, a professor in engineering at Carleton, spoke about her experiences being the first woman to graduate with a degree from Mechanical Engineering at Carleton. She told us about the "life rocks" philosophy. She started with an empty measuring cup and added large rocks representing the most important things in her life, like family. She then added smaller rocks into the spaces, sand in the remaining spaces, and water after all of that. The point was that it's amazing how much you can fit into your life; just start with the big rocks, because you can't put those in after the sand/water/small stuff is already in there.

Next up was Andrew Moizer with an enthusiastic message about self-confidence and some tips on negotiation. He encouraged everyone to step out of their comfort zone often. I personally enjoyed his story very much, as he went from a big-wig in high tech to an entrepreneur with his own cattle farm. Talk about outside the comfort zone! What's really cool is his farm and cafe are in a small town my family and I visit frequently (it's on the other side of us from Ottawa). I'm looking forward to visiting his and his wife's cafe soon.

Finally, by chance, a friend of mine was our last speaker. Louise Grace came on behalf of Dress for Success Ottawa, whose mission is "to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life." She told us about what Dress for Success does and then gave us tips on making the best first impression possible. Her fashion advice was practical and reasonable, which I always appreciate, being someone who isn't all that into clothes. I will always remember to check my shoes for salt stains before an important meeting or interview now thanks to Louise. ;)

Fun classroom trick

2011-01-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure I believe the title which claims this video to be the Best Math Prank Ever, but it is definitely a memorable lecture! You may not know it, but some of our profs here also pull some neat stunts. I fondly remember a magic show put on by a professor of... I think it was economics? If only I could remember who it was and convince him to put videos online too!

Canada + boiling water = instant fog

2011-01-19T09:00:00.011-05:00

Now that we're getting down to -20C in Ottawa, it's time for a Wednesday fun science experiment! It had never occurred to me to try throwing boiling water outside in the middle of winter, but darned if it isn't a neat effect.

Math class doodles: binary trees

2011-01-12T09:00:00.004-05:00

Despite the fact that I grew up to earn a degree in mathematics, I remember math classes in my elementary school as pretty much the dullest subject on earth. Which is probably one of the reasons I love Vi's doodles so much. Experiencing mathematics through doodling while bored seems way more fun than paying attention did. Here's a video of binary tree and fractal doodles to spice up your beginning of term review boredom:

Still bored? Check out the other neat stuff at vihart.com.

They Might be Giants: Science is Real

2011-01-05T13:28:00.001-05:00

Today's Wednesday fun video is the cute music video for They Might Be Giants' song "Science is Real". Enjoy!

New Brunswick girl youngest to discover a supernova

2011-01-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

Having been part of a field naturalist club when I was in public school, I really love stories of amateur scientists with big impacts:

Ten-year-old Kathryn Gray had lots of fun over the winter holidays. She especially liked going to Nova Scotia to visit with family.

Then, after returning home to New Brunswick, she discovered a supernova about 240 million light years away.

I'm doing science (and I'm still alive): Games and the scientific method

2011-01-03T15:45:00.001-05:00

Cross-posted from my personal blog

It's the time of year where people evaluate their lives and look back over the previous year, and with that in mind, I'm going to bring you a not-about-new-years post about gaming and science to mess up your reflective blog feeds. If it helps, it's a reflective post about gaming and science.

But they were pretty good at figuring out how to defeat the bosses. One day she found out why. A group of them were building Excel spreadsheets into which they'd dump all the information they'd gathered about how each boss behaved: What potions affected it, what attacks it would use, with what damage, and when. Then they'd develop a mathematical model to explain how the boss worked -- and to predict how to beat it.

Often, the first model wouldn't work very well, so the group would argue about how to strengthen it. Some would offer up new data they'd collected, and suggest tweaks to the model. "They'd be sitting around arguing about what model was the best, which was most predictive," Steinkuehler recalls.

That's when it hit her: The kids were practicing science.

You can read the rest here: "How Videogames Blind Us With Science"

My gut reaction to this article (which is actually several years old, but new to me) is "well, duh." When we neighbourhood kids got interested in a new game, we might have skipped the spreadsheets, but we definitely would resort to exploring in a structured manner if we got stuck. We'd compare notes, share ways to beat challenges, and sometimes try to improve upon the techniques (only sometimes because many games weren't really flexible enough to have multiple solutions).

A game of Saboteur
by Terriko.

I guess I'm missing some of that collaborative effort nowadays in that I can always just look up game faqs if I got stuck... but because I like people and because my brother and I grew up with a community of friends to ask for help rather than a community of internet FAQs and wikis, sometimes I ask people instead of the internet because it's more fun. And goodness knows, my sister and I have been comparing Super Scribblenauts solutions all week. ("You solved that with a mosquito? Why didn't I think of that? I made an undead blood-sucking harpy!")

I grew up in a household with two scientist parents, so not only was experimentation a daily fact of life, but the word "hypothesis" came into our lexicons fairly early on. I've grown up looking through life through a very scientific lens as a result (also a very biology-oriented filter, which accounts for my very ecologically-oriented view of computer security, but that's another story). My parents were constantly frustrated with my early science education, and I'll bet they'll find this next paragraph pretty familiar:

Ottawa Regional Science Fair-4900
by Terriko.

One of the reasons kids get bored by science is that too many teachers present it as a fusty collection of facts for memorization. This is precisely wrong. Science isn't about facts. It's about the quest for facts -- the scientific method, the process by which we hash through confusing thickets of ignorance. It's dynamic, argumentative, collaborative, competitive, filled with flashes of crazy excitement and hours of drudgework, and driven by ego: Our desire to be the one who figures it out, at least for now. It's dramatic and nutty and fun.

I actually didn't go into proper experimental science because I'm terrible at drudgework... easily bored, and not very good at the rigour required, and used to be prone to spending more time avoiding a boring task than doing it (at least until I learned perl and other automation tools). (My sister became the scientist, since as she likes to put it "I excel at boring tasks" -- but it's really that she's organized, precise, and takes a lot of joy in implementing a consistent system. I went into security because I like breaking things; she does regulatory work because she likes making things consistent. Sometimes, we have noticeable overlap in our skills and jobs, other times not so much.) I went into non-experimental computer science, though, because I love the collaboration and the competition and the ideas and the learning. But I hadn't really thought about my unsuitability for experimental science as being related to the reason I don't go into massively multiplayer online games hoping to be the first on the server to down some big raid boss.

Game lending room
by Terriko.

But I do science with every new game I play, as do my friends. When we picked up Dominion (a card game which includes a variety of types of cards, and you chose some subset of them to use for any given ame), we'd play a few rounds and argue strategies and then try to implement them in different ways to see how they played against each other, or changed the groupings of cards to see how it changed the strategy. I guess maybe some people play these things closer to their chests and won't share with their friends, but we toss in a few new cards and suggest to play off each other because that's part of what makes it fun for us.

So now I'm thinking... what to games do to make sure they stay in that fun exploratory part of science and avoid the drudgework? And the answer of course is that they don't really avoid the drudgework. Earlier games had you wandering around "grinding" to get your character high enough level to take on the big boss... Let me tell you, playing final fantasy III on my DS was at times significantly less fun than "grinding" courses for my PhD has been. But they've done a lot to provide fun while you do that. One relatively modern invention has been letting players level their guild (I first saw this in Dungeons and Dragons online, but I expect the idea's been around longer... it's only recently gone into World of Warcraft) and we were shocked to discover that doing the same darned quest for the 4th time wasn't nearly as bad when there was a chance that we'd get to guild level 2 that night. Achievements, leaderboards, crafting, even ridiculous pets... there's a lot of stuff tangential to the end game that makes getting there more fun.

WoW Minatures
by Terriko.

How do we put that joy back into science education? I'm not talking about gamification in the modern sense; I'm talking about those great teachers we managed to get. My chemistry teacher (and many others) did it through fun demo science: he'd do experiments we weren't ready to do on our own and had us all on the edge of our seats waiting for the final explosion... or sometimes the final terrible pun. Even his "you have to be careful in the science lab" talk at the beginning of the year included opening a book that promptly burst into flame. Each lecture was filled with discovery, even when it was tangential to the point. (The lecture on molar concentrations involved terrible puns involving moles and mole-asses.) And of course there's actually *doing* the hands-on experiments ourselves, which can be incredibly fun when they're well-chosen and interesting.

I guess in hindsight, we put the joy into science by enhancing the opportunities to learn and discover and accomplish... very similarly to the way we put the joy back into gaming.

Perhaps it's not really that surprising that there are a large number of scientist-types who also enjoy gaming, and that gamers will employ some science to tackle the challenges within a game.

And finally, I'll leave you with the last lines of the article, which made me smile:

At one point, Steinkuehler met up with one of the kids who'd built the Excel model to crack the boss. "Do you realize that what you're doing is the essence of science?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "Dude, I'm not doing science," he replied. "I'm just cheating the game!"

Women need to be at the table

2011-01-02T08:18:00.003-05:00

As we start the New Year I would like to share this video with all the young women out there who are embarking on their careers.

It's a well known fact that there are too few women in leadership roles, tech or otherwise. While there are various programs in place to try to solve this problem it just does not seem to go away.

Sheryl Sandberg, COO from Facebook, has some really great insights and advice for women.

She breaks it down to 3 main points and advice for women to have their foot on the gas pedal, so to speak, before they make a decision to stay or leave once they have children.

As an entrepreneur, student, wife and mom I can relate to what she says and there is no right choice, it's up to to the individual.

I encourage you all to watch the video. What do you think about what she says?

Google's 2010 in review video

2010-12-29T09:00:00.001-05:00

For the final Wednesday fun video of this year, we bring you Google's Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review. Happy new year!

Christmas light display & music

2010-12-22T09:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Holidays! I'm sure you've all seen similar displays on youtube before, but in case you haven't here's a Wednesday fun video showing one town's large-scale christmas light display synched to music.

Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce and the pursuit of happiness

2010-12-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Wednesday fun is a bit longer than usual, but I think this video of Malcolm Gladwell's TED talk in 2004 is worth a little extra time. You're probably wondering what spaghetti sauce has to do with science, let alone happiness, and he guides you through the food science, how that fits with our changing philosophies in other sciences, and how one man's quest to make people's tastebuds happy taught us a lot about people and figuring out what we really want.

Water Watch

2010-12-14T16:29:00.000-05:00

CU-WISE Outreach Officer Natalie Linklater and faculty advisor Banu Örmeci were recently featured in Carleton University's Research Works:

Banu Örmeci is the Canada Research Chair in Wastewater and Public Health Engineering. Together with grad student Natalie Linklater, she’s developing an innovative new monitoring system for water supplies that uses real-time methods to assess change in quality, and achieve rapid screening of water for toxic substances and pathogens.

Way to go ladies! Keep up the great work.

Science Cheerleaders

2010-12-08T09:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Wednesday and gooo... science!

The Science Cheerleaders--current and former professional NBA and NFL cheerleaders who are also scientists and engineers--perform LIVE at the U.S.A. Science and Engineering Festival in Washington D.C., October 23-24, 2010. The Science Cheerleaders are now available for appearances! Visit http://www.sciencecheerleader.com for details and to learn more about each of the Science Cheerleaders!

National Conference on Women in Engineering

2010-12-01T11:48:00.001-05:00

This past month I had the pleasure of attending the National Conference on Women in Engineering as a delegate representing Carleton University. This weekend long conference was hosted by the University of Ottawa and was inspired by the theme of ‘Expanding Horizons’. The aim of the weekend was to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of women in the male dominated field of engineering, as well as to better understand and be prepared for the challenges that women face in the workforce. The conference was an inspiring way for a young female engineering student to spend the weekend and included keynote speakers, breakout sessions, a banquet, and networking opportunities.

I believe that most of the delegates will agree with me when I say that the highlight of the conference was listening to the experiences of the keynote speakers. Each speaker left a lasting impression through their personal story and words of wisdom. I would like to share some of the key takeaways from the speakers which helped them to become the successful women they are today:

- Recognize opportunities to demonstrate leadership
- Seek out people who think differently than you
- Set a goal – evaluate the tools you will need to attain it
- Be prepared – manage risk, commit, speak with credibility
- Don’t be afraid to change course based on your experiences
- Accept that you cannot control everything
- Be involved in your community

While at the conference, delegates had the opportunity to network with students from other universities from all across Canada (coast to coast!) This was a great way to talk about their respective engineering societies and to share ideas about how to increase the involvement and enrolment of women within engineering.

This conference made me feel very proud to be a woman in engineering. I can say with great certainty that NCWIE brought together future leaders of the engineering community and I am very hopeful for the opportunities which lie ahead for each and every one of these delegates.

Science party tricks!

2010-12-01T09:00:00.002-05:00

Today's Wednesday fun is all about the party tricks. Prof Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire (UK) made this fun video of science tricks you can do at parties. I love how these are all very quick to do once they're set up, and I'll bet they'd make great outreach activities if you're stuck for a fun demo to do!

You might want to check out Prof Wiseman's blog too: http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com

Clean the fan

2010-11-24T09:00:00.008-05:00

Today's Wednesday fun comes from what seems like a terribly mundane task: cleaning the computer fan. Unfortunately, it seems that cleaning a laptop fan can be a bit of an epic quest...

Smartphone stunt: random acts of public music

2010-11-17T09:00:00.001-05:00

This was originally posted on my personal blog but Gail suggested it'd make a good Wednesday fun post, so here you go!

Techcrunch has this great little post, Just Four Dudes Jamming On The Subway — With Their iPhones As Instruments.

You know what I find most astounding about it? Not so much that they're using phones (I've been to multiple concerts which used phones as instruments [1]), but that they conceived this stunt, brought the equipment on a train, and were able to just do this. No one called security, freaking out when they brought speakers on board, even though the person quoted there said that was her first thought.

Here's the video:

Amazing what a real band can do with what's on hand, eh? Now I want to perform random acts of music using all that computing power that fits in my pocket. The phone's a whole lot easier to carry around than my guitar, and a lot easier on my fingertips... Anyone want to work on some tunes?

[1] My personal favourite was Danny Michel at Westfest a few years back. He performs by himself using a loopback device and often doesn't make much deal of it (in fact, I've been with folk who didn't notice) but for one song he laid down the intro using the beeps of an older cell phone, and worked that into the mix that was repeating throughout. It fit incredibly well with the fact that he was singing a song heavy with nostalgia ("In Full Effect").

Bacteria in a petri dish

2010-11-11T19:15:00.001-05:00

The recent (excellent) Green Energy Symposium put together by the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering Society of Carleton University got me wondering about the issue of sustainability. Everyone has heard this buzz word by now. Sustainable energy is generally being taken to mean an environmentally benign renewable energy source capable of satisfying energy demands of the entire world population now and in the future. If you have ever been to any green energy talks you have certainly seen the graph of standard of living vs energy consumption

and the increase in energy consumption worldwide over the the past couple of centuries

Both undoubtedly seem to imply that to live well more energy is needed. Here is where the awful truth comes out that we don't really have a large enough supply of the conventional energy sources left to sustain our standard of living much longer and especially to improve it in the developing countries. And the general theme of any such green talk will surely be that of tightening our energy belts and thinking hard about alternative energy sources like wind and solar. Though the is no simple answer, if we conserve energy and learn to rely on solar power we are sure to arrive at a sustainable solution, right?

(The theme of energy conservation always revolves around the need for us to change our mentality and behaviour when it comes to energy use. We have to change the way we think! Communism tried and failed at restructuring the human mind, so why should the sustainable movement succeed?)

Certainly there is some room for power usage improvement, but is Iceland really that energy-greedy or is it just cold? And have we really been getting increasingly power-hungry since the industrial revolution or are there simply more of us now? For some reason no one seems to ever show the population growth data to go with the energy consumption graph. And the world population exploded after world war II just as the power consumption did. Could there be a connection?

People have certainly gotten crafty at exploiting the Earth to the max, making the most of the available resources such that an ever increasing population can be sustained. Thus if we include solar and wind and biomass into our energy arsenal we are bound to push the envelope even further. But when the population doubles again will that be enough? Ultimately, we are not that different from bacteria in a petri dish. No matter how far we can push our resource envelope, we will eventually hit the resource ceiling and the population will level off in the stationary phase where the birth rate equals the death rate.

So perhaps it's not our resource management that's not sustainable. Perhaps it our population growth?

Peggy Seeger - I'm gonna be an engineer

2010-11-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, listening to an old feminist anthem makes me feel like we've come so far. Even if there's still some things I'd like to see fixed (see the end of the song) it's kind of neat to think that many young women won't ever be told that they can't or shouldn't be an engineer. So that's why I think this video is perfectly good for a little Wednesday video fun!

When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy
I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys
Everybody said I only did it to annoy
But I was gonna be an engineer

Momma told me, Can't you be a lady
Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until you're older, dear, and maybe
You'll be glad that you're a girl

You can read the rest of the lyrics here if you're curious.

Amazing fuel sources

2010-11-08T11:18:00.007-05:00

I thinks it’s really cool how the search for fuel sources that replace petroleum has evolved in the last decade. There are so many researches to find ways to sustain our ever growing need for energy. Some of these are almost unreal. For example it’s really hard to believe that algae can be good for anything yet research has shown that a lot of oil can be gotten from algae. An article in the IEEE spectrum talks about "Green gold". It talks about using algae as a biofuel in the coming years. An article in the London times talked about a bug that excreted oil.

IEEE spectrum Article
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/betting-on-algal-biofuels/3

The video shows how algae is used to power a toy car.
http://science.discovery.com/videos/invention-nation-algae-biofuel.html

Sunday Times article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

Miniature kinetic sculptures (small enough to send by post!)

2010-11-03T09:00:00.002-04:00

I love kinetic sculptures. They often blend the open-ended near-ridiculousness of public sculpture with more accessible motion to get even non art-lovers to stop and stare and go "hey, that's pretty cool." Even more fun is when you're allowed to interact with them. So these little card-sized sculptures are pretty amazing, in my books. Check out the video for a little Wednesday fun!

CU-WISE talk - Prashant Shukle

2010-11-02T22:33:00.000-04:00

Tonight, Prashant Shukle came to give us a talk entitled "Careers in the Geo-spatial World." Here's a few photos from the event:

CU-WISE talk - Prashant Shukle (3 of 13)
by Terriko.

CU-WISE talk - Prashant Shukle (7 of 13)
by Terriko.

CU-WISE talk - Prashant Shukle (5 of 13)
by Terriko.

More here:

CU-WISE talk - Prashant Shukle

And remember that our flickr group contains photos from previous events! Feel free to contribute your own!

Santa's Dirty Socks

2010-11-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

CS Unplugged is a series of activities designed to teach computer science without a computer. I've used them many times for outreach activities and even in an undergraduate course I taught. The creators have been uploading some great videos relating to computer science topics, and I wanted to share this one:

This original story introduces the idea of a divide-and-conquer algorithm using a narrated picture-book verse about the serious problem of finding a pair of dirty socks that have been accidentally wrapped with a child's present. The idea is that this can be played or read to students, and then can be used as the basis for a follow-up discussion. A set of discussion starter questions is available (http://csunplugged.org/divideAndConquer) to encourage students to engage in computational thinking and think about algorithm analysis in the story 1024 presents are searched in 10 steps, and students can be asked to extend this to other cases, and generally think about the implications of having an algorithm with logarithmic complexity.

Check out all the videos.

Go ENG Girl

2010-10-27T20:27:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I had a chance to share my passion for engineering when Go ENG Girl took place at Carleton University on Saturday October 16th. Go ENG Girl is hosted every year at universities across Ontario as an opportunity for girls in Grades 7-10 to learn more about the field of engineering.
The day started off with a welcome and keynote speakers. Students and their parents heard from women studying and practicing engineering and learned more about what it meant to be an engineer. The girls were introduced to the many types of engineering and the opportunities that could arise within the different fields.

While parents heard from a panel of speakers about such things as entrance requirements, academic support, campus life, and career expectations, the students headed off to participate in a hands-on activity.

The grade 7-8 students were given a small design project involving snap circuits. They were asked to create a morse code generator and were then given the freedom to create their own circuits. One group created a lie detector test in which the ‘liar’ would answer a question and then would be required to place their index finger and thumb at a given location on the circuit, which would then detect if they were in fact telling the truth. The detector would hum if they were telling the truth and would make a loud high pitched sound and flash a light if a lie was being told. The circuit detected a ‘lie’ if there was enough moisture on the finger or thumb from nerves and sweat. I have included a picture of this particular circuit. The grade 9-10 students had a chance to use their design solution skills as they were asked to create a catapult which would launch a small mass the greatest distance while having a cost effective design with minimal materials. The projects were presented to the parents and it was clear that there were some future engineers among us!

Students and their parents were given a pizza lunch while being able to browse engineering exhibits and speak with current students. Lunch was followed by an engineering lab tour where some of Carleton’s engineering and research and project labs could be seen.

Go ENG Girl was measured a success when the girls whose parents had ‘forced them to come’ had declared that they would be returning next year and had become interested and excited about engineering. It was very rewarding to volunteer at an event where I could help answer student’s questions and be a representative for my field of study.

I strongly encourage prospective students to seek out opportunities to learn more about their educational interests – it is never too early to start! I also encourage current students to find ways in which to become involved in sharing their experiences and passions – it is never too late to start!

Dot Diva: The Webisode

2010-10-27T09:00:00.002-04:00

This Wednesday fun is actually something connected to CUWISE: We met the fine folk working on Dot Diva at GHC09 and got to hear about some of their plans to make computing seem like a cool career for girls. While most of us seem to focus on fun outreach science programs, they took things in a different direction: seeing as crime shows like CSI have increased the public interest in careers in forensics, they thought perhaps TV would be the best way to make younger girls realise that computer science is actually pretty cool.

They've released the first episode of Dot Diva:

KATE, a sarcastic fan of alt- and indie-rock. ALI, a lover of kittens, chick flicks, and the mall. Two girls with NOTHING in common... except for being ace programmers at a seriously-crazy video game company.

As they work to launch Rocklette's first-ever game, these two Dot Divas have to outwit their smarmy boss, Kate's doofus boyfriend, and the spy within their midst.

I wasn't too sure about the first episode initially, since it seemed like they were throwing a lot of the stereotypes in there, but I think they dealt with them ok for a first look, and I expect we'll be seeing more nuanced stuff as the characters develop. I found myself caught up in their story despite my initial feelings of awkwardness. One thing I really loved was how different the two women main characters are, while still both being programmers. What do you think?

Mandelbrot Set

2010-10-20T09:00:00.003-04:00

The world lost a great mathematical mind this past week with the death of Benoît Mandelbrot. So this week's Wednesday fun video is in his honour:

My Grace Hopper Experience

2010-10-17T20:29:00.004-04:00

I really enjoyed my Grace Hopper experience. I gravitated to the less technical sessions because I'm a mathematician, and I don't have a strong background in computer science. I found a number of talks that were interesting and not over my head.

One of the sessions that I was most interested in was "Open Source for Good". Back in May 2007, I attended a talk on a similar subject at a VAGUE, Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts, meeting (oddly enough there is another VAGUE group in Vermont; they are the Vermont Area Geocachers United Everywhere). It was given by Jessamyn West, a consulting librarian who travels from library to library in Orange County, VT helping with the computers. She installs free open source software on library computers.

Years ago, the Gates Foundation provided free computers and technical assistance for two years to libraries and then left the libraries on their own. Most librarians don't know how to do Windows update or don't have time to. She's been going around trying to help these libraries and whenever she can she installs Ubuntu, including at least one time when the computers were requiring a Windows product key code. Most people who use these library computers don't have a lot of experience with computers so whether it's Ubuntu or Windows it doesn't really matter as long as they can go on the internet or use a word processor. She was invited to the meeting after she put a video on YouTube about installing Ubuntu at the library. She mentioned that any one interested in volunteering to help with the computers at a library in Orange County would be very greatly appreciated.

"Open Source for Good" focused on the Sahana Free and Open Source Disaster Management System. It is used during disasters for keeping track of missing and found people, of which aid organizations are doing what, of supplies, of volunteers, of shelter information, and an overview of the situation. This software was originally used in Sri Lanka after the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 and is still being used in Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake they experienced on January 12, 2010. This shows the power that free open source software can have. In this case, it can literally be the difference between life and death. It's such a powerful tool because anyone from anywhere in the world can make a contribution. It was even said during the session that reporting a bug is considered a contribution to making the software better. This talk really struck a cord with me.

I also attended a session about managing graduate school and/or a career while having children. It was called "Mommies Know Best: Pregnancy, Graduate School and Beyond". This interested me because I'm almost done my PhD and within the next five years my husband and I will be ready to start a family. The session started off with the following quote: "It's never the right time, but it's always a good time." This relates to one of the reoccurring messages during these sessions, that you shouldn't wait for the perfect time to have children because there never is one.

It was also mentioned that you should discuss the division of labour with your partner before the baby is born. This won't guarantee that things will be split evenly but at least it makes your partner aware of what is expected of them, and they will probably do more to help than if you didn't discuss it. Some of the panelist had very helpful husbands (one was, and might still be, a stay at home dad) while others weren't as helpful until the child was more fun to play with (around the 1 year mark). One panelist described the first year as an experiment in who needed more sleep. In the end, it was her husband who needed more and he doesn't even remember the first year.

One of the things during these talks that kept surprising me is how short the maternity leave is in the United States. It was said several times by a number of different women that their companies had 'generous' maternity leave of 3 to 5 months. This is beyond my comprehension. I'm used to the idea of people getting a full year of paid parental leave. I even checked the Wikipedia page to see if I was just out of touch with the rest of the world. I was shocked to see that the United States was the only country listed (and they listed a lot of countries) that had 0 weeks of paid parental leave. So basically, in the US, it all depends on how generous your employer is. At the beginning of the session it was mentioned that according to some studies women are negatively affected professionally by having children. I can't help but wonder if this affect is more pronounced in the US since clearly there is less value placed on paid maternity leave and therefore on motherhood compared to other countries.

At the end of the session, a list of helpful books was given. Here they are broken down by category:

Breastfeeding:
The Milk Memos
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

Helpful but might be a bit depressing:
Mama Phd
Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out

The following book isn not specifically about motherhood, but might helpful in getting you to ask for more help when you need it:
Women don't ask

Codeathon for Humanity

2010-10-17T13:51:00.009-04:00

I wrote a post about the Codeathon for Humanity held at GHC this year for the Open Source Business Resource (OSBR), a publication of the Talent First Network, in which I talked about the great strategies used by the organizers to ensure maximum participation and engagement.

I’ve just returned from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Atlanta and had the opportunity to experience my first open source mini-codeathon and learn about the humanitarian open source project, Sahana Eden.

Sahana Eden is an open source disaster management platform that can be used in a wide variety of ways to provide organization on the ground in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

Read the complete post here. A special thanks to Terri Oda for the photos.

OSBR also has a great issue on Women and Open Source, which is worth the read.

Cross-posted on the Grace Hopper Blog

GHC10: Open Source Codeathon for Humanity (a blog post in pictures)

2010-10-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit late in reposting my GHC10 blog posts here, but better late than never! This was originally posted on my personal blog

There comes a time when you just have to code like a girl:

So building on some success last year, we had a codeathon at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. This year, we were working on Sahana Eden, a free and open source disaster management system.

I'm going to admit that the start was a litle rough. Even the mentors found the trainings a bit overwhelming and found that a lot of little issues cropped up when you were setting up your dev environment. One of my "favourites" was an issue where you'd have to run something twice in Eclipse before it would work. There were some perplexed faces!

But gradually, people started having success, and having more fun chatting and hacking with the women around them:

It certainly took some work, and some people even came back after the keynotes to keep hacking until late in the night. Fueled with some wine, though, it was pretty fun and I think there was even a patch going in when I stopped by around 11pm. Thanks to everyone who came out and gave it a shot!

The open source track was graciously sponsored by the NSA, and we'd love to have it again next year, so if you have any comments about how much you enjoyed it, please let us know! You can post here, or Stormy Peters is collecting all the comments together and you can contact her at stormy at gnome.org.

And if you've got suggestions on how we could make the codeathon run more smoothly or things we should do again, we'd love to hear those too! It was very challenging, from getting mentors trained to getting development environments set up through to figuring out what needs doing and how to do it, and I'm sure there are things we can improve upon for next year.

PS - You can see more of my GHC10 photos, including more from the codeathon here, and don't forget to check out our GHC10 flickr group and the professional event photos

GHC10: PhD Forum 3: UI/Education

2010-10-15T21:03:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit late in reposting my GHC10 entries here, but better late than never! This was originally posted on my personal blog

As always, I've got to say that it's a real breath of fresh air to hear people talk about their research at GHC. Often times, I dread grad student presentations (despite being a grad student myself!) because the quality of presentation isn't polished... but this is totally not the case at GHC. These women are enthusiastic, interesting, and great communicators and it's been a joy to attend these sessions. So here's the three women whose talks I caught today. (My apologies for the poor quality of the pictures: the room was quite dark and I was too busy listening to focus on photography!)

Usable Security in Practice: Collaborative Management of Electronic & Physical Personal Information
Presenter: Laurian C. Vega (Virginia Polytecnial Institute)

Security literature likes to imply that humans are the weak link in the security chain, but that's not actually true: much of the problem is that security work doesn't take the human into account when designing systems, so we wind up having to do things just that don't make sense. I sort of take this as a given, since it's a common theme within my own security group and our larger research network, but it's sometimes a hard sell in the larger security community.

So I was really thrilled to see Laurian's presentation about how she's investigated taking the human into account in security research for electronic health records. She points out that we need to go beyond focusing on getting medical folk to adopt them, figuring out their workflow, etc. and understand the entire environment in which a system is used, particularly when considering records in medicine.

Laurian's been doing active observation at childcare centres and physician's offices, specifically in rural southwest-virginia. Because she was working with rural sites, she's found a lot of the records are non-electronic, which in some ways can make things more secure: physical records can be hidden behind someone's desk, files can be hidden in the back, cabinets can be closed. One problem she found in childcare and physician's offices is there are quite a lot of interruptions, and many people do not return to the task when they're interrupted. Laurian's looking at ways to design systems which can handle this sort of interruption, as well as other realities of what goes on in the offices. This is pretty neat and not much like traditional security work, which assumes a user who's paying attention and will always do all the right steps. It sounds like some really fascinating work to deal with some very specific challenges!

In the Beginning: The Early Lives of Users in Online Communities
Presenter: Katherine Panciera (University of Minnesota)

From the title, I was expecting a more broad look at various online communities, but Katherine's work actually focusses on wiki contributions, specifically a site called Cyclopath where users can contribute cycling route information, including the roads to follow and details about what to expect along the way. The idea was to see how the top 5% of users ("cyclopaths") differed from other users, and how cylopath users in general differed from users of Wikipedia.

It turns out that you can actually determine which users will become cylopaths from day one: they start off by making many more edits than more casual users (50ish versus 5ish), and like Wikipedia users it turns out that people start high and then slowly tail off to a stable editing pattern. But what was even more interesting about Katherine's research is that you could see patterns in the future cyclopath uers use of the site even before they started editing.

I can only imagine how helpful it might be to be able to identify your top users and perhaps encourage them right from the beginning so they feel even more at home in the community. Very neat!

Building Professional Identity as Computer Science Teachers: Supporting Secondary Computer Science Teachers through Reflection and Community Building
Presenter: Lijun Ni (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Lijun says she got interested in computer science teachers because there are very few of them at the K-12 level, so there's a great need to prepare and support the teacher. She's focused on two problems: it's very difficult to retain teachers (46% will leave teaching within 5 years, and math and science are worse than some other subjects) and teachers have some resistance to change (many in-service teachers will not adopt curriculum innovations). It's also surprisingly difficult for CS teachers to develop a sense of identity as a CS teacher, since there's inconsistent certification, it's hard to fit them into the school hierarchy, they have few peers, etc.

What I really thought was interesting about Lijun's work is that she's working on finding ways to support teachers over the course of their carrers, giving them opportunities to learn and grow and develop an identity as a CS teacher. She's looked at how their identities change over time to see how to better support them. This is really interesting because most effort thus far has been in training them to start rather than retaining people with very little focus on retention.

It got me thinking that this is something you also see as a problem when talking about women in computer science: there's lots of programs for younger girls who want to get involved, but fewer programs in place to help keep women from leaving in disgust. I wonder if Lijun would be interested in tackling that problem next?

Dolphins blowing bubble rings

2010-10-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

This Wednesday's random fun video isn't a music video. Instead, we have a neat little video from Seaworld, where apparently the dolphins have learned to blow bubble rings under the water.

Observing animal behaviours is an important part of biology, but a part that maybe doesn't have as long a history as one might think: one of my relatives told a tale of how birdwatchers used to shoot the birds and identify them later, rather than the more modern (and humane!) way of trying to identify them on the wing. I've met naturalists who hope we'll see a switch to observing bugs the way we do birds. And Jane Goodall, when she was visiting Ottawa for the Writer's Festival, talked about how when she recorded her observations of chimpanzees many people told her that she was being foolish to ascribe emotions to them when trying to explain their behaviour!

So here's the video some dolphins who've learned a neat trick and seem to be having fun with it. What animals have you observed lately?

Quick hit: Women = Men when it comes to math skills

2010-10-12T17:16:00.000-04:00

Females Are Equal to Males in Math Skills, Large Study Shows

These studies, all published in English between 1990 and 2007, looked at people from grade school to college and beyond. A second portion of the new study examined the results of several large, long-term scientific studies, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In both cases, Hyde says, the difference between the two sexes was so close as to be meaningless.

But despite these findings, we still may be a ways away from the day when I can quit doing back of the napkin demonstrations about gender and math ability:

The idea that both genders have equal math abilities is widely accepted among social scientists, Hyde adds, but word has been slow to reach teachers and parents, who can play a negative role by guiding girls away from math-heavy sciences and engineering. "One reason I am still spending time on this is because parents and teachers continue to hold stereotypes that boys are better in math, and that can have a tremendous impact on individual girls who are told to stay away from engineering or the physical sciences because 'Girls can't do the math.'"

(Read the rest of the article here.)

Geocaching in Atlanta Part 2

2010-10-11T12:48:00.006-04:00

On September 30th, Gail, Shruti and I decided to spend part of the morning doing the USAA geocaching challenge. We had a chance to win an ipad and some t-shirts. It wasn't the kind of geocaching where you find a container with a log book. Instead it was the kind where you collect specifc data at the coordinates. These kinds of caches are called virtual caches. This challenge took us on a tour of the area around our hotel. The most interesting location was the SunTrust building. The coordinates took us inside the building to a hanging statue that the security guard told us that even though it appears to be moving, it's not. It's actually the earth rotating around it. We completed the challenge but all three of us came up empty handed at the draw.

While we were completing the USAA geocaching challenge, we found a real geocache. We found 'Arms Wide Open'. It was Shruti who spotted the cache under the statue's shoe. It was definitely a clever hide. Later in the day, I had some time to myself and decided to find 'Shining Light #2'. The cache page explains that a shining light award is given each year to recognize "a Georgian who has been an inspiration to the lives of others through service to humanity. A gas lamp and plaque is installed in their honor at a site of their choice." This cache was a nano cache. This is the smallest kind of cache container. The cache has a magnet on it and it was placed on one of the screws on the back of the plaque so it looks like it belongs there.

October 1st was a busy day for me so I only had a chance to look for a cache right before heading over to Sponsor Night at the Georgia Aquarium. Just before heading out to look for a cache I ran into Terri and she was interested in helping me look. We headed to 'Allons-y Alonso' which I wanted to do because of its French name. We ended spending several minutes looking in some trees without having any luck. It finally occured to me that it might be a lamp post skirt cache. This is a cache that is hidden near the bottom of a lamp post. You need to lift the 'skirt', a metal piece near the bottom of a lamp post, in order to find the cache. That's exactly where it was. We had to be discreet since there were a couple of cab drivers parked close by.

I decided that on October 2nd, our last full day in Atlanta, I would geocache for most of the day. I made a plan with my husband, Tom, to complete the 'Downtown U Web Cam Cache'. A webcam cache requires to you to have your picture taken by a webcam. They usually suggest that once you are at the spot, to call a friend with your cellphone and have them save a picture on their computer. I do not own a cellphone so Tom and I made a plan for me to be at the location from 11:00am to 11:05am. It all worked out and Tom was able to get a picture of me in from the webcam. Next, I walked to the state capitol to attempt '23 Karat Dome'. Unfortunately, there were too many people around and I wasn't able to find this one without being spotted.

After lunch I completed 'Reading Rainbow Cache'. This one, like 'Quilt of Nations', was a multi. The first stage took me to a statue and I had to count the number of books in it. After a few calculations with this number, I had the coordinates for the final. This took me to the Atlanta-Fulton County Library. In order to find the exact location, I had to some research on the internet. I had to find four numbers and do some more calculations to get another number. This number turned out to be a Dewey decimal classification number. So I made my way to the books with this number and started looking for the cache. I had done a similar cache in Montreal a couple of years ago where the cache was in the book "Geocaching for Dummies". This time the cache wasn't in a book but stuck using a magnet to the bottom of a shelf.

The next cache I attempted was 'Gone With The Wind'. It took me to the cemetery where Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With The Wind, was buried. This cemetery, the Oakland Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Atlanta. Unfortunately, I was unable to find this cache. The cemetery also has two virtual caches here which I found. The first virtual cache I found was a monument to the Confederate dead that was dedicated April 26th, 1894. It is called 'The Lyin' Cache'. After collecting some information from the monument and a headstone of confederate soldier, I was on my way to the other virtual cache in the cemetery called 'The Master'. This brought me to the headstone of Bobby Jones, one of golf's greatest players. To complete this cache, I had to collect some information from one of the headstone's close to Bobby Jones'. Once I got back to my hotel later that day, I emailed the cache owners the information and was them able to log my finds.

Later that day, Gail, Terri, Shruti and I wanted to try out The Varsity and there happened to be some caches on the way there. We ended up not finding two of them but we did find the one at The Varsity called 'What'll Ya Have?'. It was another lamp post skirt cache. On the cache page, it recommended trying the chilidogs, onion rings, glorified steaks and frosted orange drinks. Since I wasn't all that hungry, I tried the onion rings and a frosted orange. I always love places like this because they do fast food the way I imagine it used to be done and their portion sizes aren't ridiculously huge.

On Sunday October 3rd, I only had time to find one cache. Gail, Terri, Shruti and I headed back to one of the caches we couldn't find the night before called 'Atlas Shrugged'. It's a statue of Atlas holding an advertisement. During our initial search we didn't have the hint (it was "Do you really kneed one?"). This made all the difference and we easily found it this time. Also during our initial search for this cache, a guy in his car stopped at the light asked "Are you geocaching?". I guess four girls frisking a statue isn't very subtle.

Before putting 'Atlas Shrugged' back, I grabbed a travel bug from the cache. A travel bug is an item that is moved from cache to cache which is logged each time it is moved. The travel bug I took from 'Atlas Shrugged' is called Maori Ducky and is trying to get to the South Island of New Zealand. This is a map of its travels to date.

During my 6 day stay in Atlanta, I managed to find 13 geocaches. Not a huge amount but not bad considering how busy I was with the conference and that I mainly got around Atlanta by walking. A lot of these caches took me to places I never would have known about and made sightseeing more interesting.

Developing Skills to Enhance Group Intelligence and Productivity

2010-10-10T18:31:00.011-04:00

I read Terri's blog on the importance of collaboration and social sensitivity in increasing the collective intelligence of a group and wanted to share my experience with two programs that I found useful in developing the social skills necessary to work effectively in group settings.

The first is Dee McCrorey's Collaborative Risktaking™ workshop which was held at the recent concluded Grace Hopper 2010 conference (check out this amazing video on women risktakers through the ages!). This session is designed to provide guidance on how to build an effective group, how to harness the collective intelligence of that group and thereby innovate and create value in today's changing business world .

The move towards knowledge-based jobs and globalization make innovation a key differentiator for firms. Firms which are able to develop and manage their innovation processes are more likely to succeed and sustain their success. However, innovation requires change and can be risky and so it becomes very important to understand how to mitigate the risk.

Dee's workshop focuses on teaching participants on how to build their "innovation tribe", a diverse group of people that can collectively make the best decisions in the face of uncertainty. In order to do this, Dee works to help people identify their personal risk taking style, to learn to recognize the styles of others, and shows them how to move towards Responsible Risktaking™ as a group. By being cognizant of the different roles needed in a group, leaders can effectively build an innovation tribe that is varied in its talent and expertise.

Not only does this apply in business settings, but these skills are also great to develop in your personal life - to recognize when you are falling into a rut and need to take that next risk/challenge. It also gives you tools to be able to build a support system and network around you that can offer their mentorship, experience and knowledge to you (and vice versa) when the need arises.

The second piece of the puzzle is the ability to foster better communication among the group you have assembled. In this, the skills taught by the Crucial Conversations program can be invaluable. Crucial Conversations provides techniques for making it "safe" for everyone to contribute, improve your listening skills and increasing the productivity and quality of interactions.

I feel that in the technology industry, we can take a step to differentiate ourselves by developing our social sensitivity and collaboration skills. The above two programs have helped me in this regard and I hope you benefit from them too.

Please do share your thoughts and any resources you have used for developing these oft ignored "soft" skills.

Information about Dee McCrorey and links to her blogs can be found on her website. Notes on her session at GHC 2010 can be found here (this was the largest workshop on collaborative risktaking ever!).

Advice on conversational strategies can be found on the Crucial Conversations blog and via their newsletter.

Meritocracy? Might want to re-think how you define merit.

2010-10-10T00:27:00.001-04:00

This has been cross-posted from Geek Feminism, but I found this research really fascinating so you're getting a full copy here too.

You might think if you put together a lot of smart people, you'd get a smart group, but new research into group intelligence shows that's not always the case. (For those of you who don't have access to online journal subscriptions through your local library or university, there are more details in the Carnegie Mellon University press release.)

What we found is that the intelligence of the team members was not significantly related to the collective intelligence, either positively or negatively.

[...]

Our first observation and the one that surprised us the most was that the proportion of females in the group seemed to be strongly predictive of the collective intelligence of the group.

However, when they looked more closely they realised that it wasn't the gender that mattered, but rather the social sensitivity of the group members (previous studies had shown that women tend to score more highly in social sensitivity).

It's not the intelligence of the group members that matters; it's their social sensitivity.

So the more your group members were socially sensitive, the better the group performed in measures of collective intelligence. The key here was that group members need to collaborate, and to do that they needed those social skills to help them work together. This includes some different conversational patterns: groups where one or two people dominated conversations exhibited low collective intelligence, while groups where more people contributed had higher collective intelligence.

This scientific research is potentially a big blow to the standard "meritocracy works" theory often espoused in open source and computing groups. Standard meritocracy rules say you do clever things and you get accepted, and this will make for perfectly good teams. But given that there's often bias that dismisses "soft skills," it turns out that folk may actually be using typical geek meritocracy rules to weed out some of the people we need to make the group most effective as a whole.

Some of my female colleagues would like to conclude that you simply just need to hire more women. While that might be easier, what it really suggests is that you need to pay attention to what people refer to as these "softer skills" and thinking about who's going to be a good team player, not necessarily focused solely on individual achievement, individual accomplishments.

So if you want to claim that the best way to build tech teams is meritocracy... you might want to think more carefully about how you define merit.

The quotes in this article are drawn from Bob McDonald's conversation with Dr. Anita Williams Woolley, the lead author, on the Quirks and Quarks interview aired October 9. You can download the podcast of the segment on collective intelligence here.

The DaRosa lab is competing in "Dance your PhD"

2010-10-09T16:52:00.002-04:00

Followers of our twitter and facebook feeds or even the university press releases have already heard, but for those who haven't seen this great video yet, the DaRosa lab at Carleton is a finalist in a contest called "Dance your PhD":

The dreaded question. "So, what's your Ph.D. research about?" You could bore them with an explanation. Or you could dance.

That's the idea behind "Dance Your Ph.D." Over the past 3 years, scientists from around the world have teamed up to create dance videos based on their graduate research.

Check out their dance, which teaches you about Maureen McKeague's work on "Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment." (Long name, but it's a fun and innovative way to explain some chemistry!)

Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.

McKeague's Ph.D. dance, based on her research at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, is about a technique called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). The target is a small molecule called homocysteine. SELEX uses natural selection to find the small strands of DNA called aptamers (the other dancers) that bind specifically to the target. Watch for the hilarious Taq Polymerase scene in the middle of the dance.

And when you're done watching, you can check out the other entrants and vote for your favourite (we hope it'll be chemistry!) on the sciencemag website. The results will be announced on October 19th.

Career and Economic Opportunity in Open Source Software

2010-10-08T00:59:00.009-04:00

As part of the open source track at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) this year, there was an informative session on career and economic opportunity in Open Source Software (OSS).

The session served two main purposes -

a) to show that participating in open source projects can provide many skills that can be relevant in obtaining a job and building a career, and,

b) that open source does not necessarily mean free software and therefore, there are multiple ways in which to make a living from OSS.

I've provided a summary/transcript of the discussion in this session on the GHC 2010 Wiki, so below I list some of the key takeaways for me.

a) Building Job and Career Skills from OSS projects

1. Online and multi-site, multi-timezone collaboration and communication is perhaps one of the best skills you can pick up from an OSS project. Interacting with people of different cultures and in different physical locations can prepare you to handle multi-site activities that occur in many large companies today.

In my own experience, I find that being able to interact effectively with a geographically dispersed and culturally diverse team is an increasingly important skill in our globalized world. These kind of soft skills set you apart from those who have equivalent technical expertise.

2. OSS is a great way to slowly build up skills, be it programming, organizational etc. and be able to get feedback (it helps to develop a thick skin :)

I think this is something I will keep in mind when I think I need to build expand my technical skill set.

3. Flexible timings can provide women with the work/life balance that they might be looking for.

OSS might be a great way to keep in touch with the industry and keep your skills and experience up to date while taking a hiatus (like maternity leave)

b) OSS Business

1. Making money from OSS projects is not a bad thing, and shouldn't be seen as such. Indeed, many OSS projects become richer (in quality, and in participation) for having had a few high profile customers that were willing to pay for custom development

2. Providing complementary software, services and support is a widespread revenue model adopted by many companies that leverage OSS

In general, I was inspired to see such names as Cat Allman, Leslie Hawthorn, Stormy Peters and Margo Seltzer participating in the open source track and it served to reinforce the quality of the content that GHC offered this year.

Cross-posted to the Grace Hopper Blog

GHC10: HCI Track at Grace Hopper

2010-10-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

From the Communications of ACM blog:

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing had two special technical tracks added to the program this year: open source and human-computer interaction. While I was definitely happy to see the open source track, it was the HCI talks that really got me excited. I'm just getting into HCI myself, choosing it as one of my topics for my PhD comprehensive exams and submitting my first CHI paper. There was so much to learn from a variety of great speakers!

Read the rest of my post here.

Enzyme, what you doing today? (GTCA)

2010-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last week's Wednesday fun video might have been a bit more hard for everyone to understand (I know I barely know anything about PCR, being a mathematician/computer scientist) but here's the reason I showed that one first. It has a hilarious video follow up about DNA: GTCA to the tune of YMCA. Enjoy!

Overcome Personal Barrier - Duy-Loan Le

2010-10-05T20:10:00.009-04:00

Duy-Loan T. Le, Thursday's keynote speaker, senior fellow and world wide advanced technology ramp manager at Texas Instruments. She arrived in US at age of 12 without knowing the language. However, she became the first Asian and the first woman to be elected to senior fellow at TI. She took herself as an example to show how to overcome personal barrier and encourage collaboration across the boundary.

Read more on ABI's Wiki

http://community.anitaborg.org/wiki/index.php/Keynote:_Duy-Loan_Le_%28Texas_Instruments%29

Pyramids, Not Ladders - Carol Bartz

2010-10-05T19:21:00.009-04:00

Carol Bartz, Thursday keynote speaker, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Yahoo!. Carol talked about how to build a solid foundation for your career instead of climbing up the ladder, stand by your values and don't forget your family.

The Power of Abstraction and The Barriers Women Could Have - Barbara Liskov

2010-10-05T19:01:00.035-04:00

Barbara Liskov, Friday’s keynote speaker, MIT Professor and Associate Provost , 2008 ACM Turing Award Winner, highlighted the evolution of her career and the technical papers that influenced her thinking. Some of the wisdom she shared included the need to persevere, the importance of doing work that is interesting rather than expedient, and the rewards derived from intellectual honesty by understanding the pros and cons of what you are working on. ( From ABI)

In her interview with Silicon.com, Barbara mentioned the barriers women could have:

Exactly what the barriers are--people have theories about this (but) they don't totally understand it. I think a lot of it has to do with our societies. It's probably strongly related to other things we see going on like the fact that women are not well represented...in the top maths. If you look at, for example, who's doing well in the maths contests that happen internationally you'll see that women are underrepresented there.

I don't believe any of this has to do with basic abilities but I do think it has a lot to do with the way that our society is--what we think is appropriate for women to do (and) what we think is appropriate for men to do. I do think it's mostly a problem before they get to college--if they get to college and they still are open-minded enough to be interested and they didn't cut themselves off by taking the necessary science and math ahead of time then I think at least they aren't going to hit the glass ceiling until they get quite far along.

About Barbara Liskov, you can read more on MIT EECS website.

http://www.eecs.mit.edu/spotlights/liskov_jvg-bio.html

Grace Hopper at David Letterman show

2010-10-05T18:53:00.003-04:00

The hotel we stayed

2010-10-05T17:16:00.022-04:00

Because of the limited budget for our GHC trip, we have to find the most economic ways of travelling. The conference hotel has been sold out at the discounted group price, we looked around trying to find some place at reasonable price. Shruti came up with Hyatt Place which is just one block from the conference hotel – Hyatt Regency and it is even cheaper. The hotel is pretty new and modern. The interior design is a little different from the conventional hotel room with the wash basin in the living room. The toilet is still in the bathroom, thank God! Besides, there is a "huuuge" L-shape couch in the living room - if you ever been to Steve Jobs' keynote then you know what size he really means!:) It is actually a folded bed and very comfortable.

The hotel has complimentary breakfast which I like. This is the example for a typical breakfast, with cooked cereal, toast, fruit and juice. I was reading the paper newspaper and there is a lady sit beside me reading the morning news on her iPad.I found it very interesting and took a picture at her permission.

Mentoring, Encouraging and Celebrating at GHC 2010

2010-10-05T12:15:00.009-04:00

It sounded very interesting to me when I first heard about the Grace Hopper Conference. After I reviewed the program book, it seemed apparently that I really need to be there, at least once.

Finally I arrived in Atlanta with four other Carleton students under the support of WISE . They are Gail and Terri from Computer Science, Bridget from Mathematics and Shruti who is my roommate from Innovation in Technology. The weather coordinated perfect in Atlanta for the conference, sunny and the temperature was always in the middle of twenties. And we couldn’t wait for the conference.

It turned out a great surprise to me and at the same time full of joy. I have never seen so many technical women (about 2100 people) coming to conference together in my whole life. Because I am an electrical engineer, every time I went to conferences I was always the minority. Although I never feel awkward in those circumstances, I still feel the big difference when so many women get together, talking about their ups and downs, mentoring and encouraging each other, and at the same time celebrating. Just like the keynote speaker Duy-Loan Le mentioned in her witty talk – now it is the time to let those men to feel what it is like when they are surrounded by so many women.

Before we came to the conference, the conference committee sent out a newsletter asking all the participants to introduce themselves to people sit around them and make new friends. So the overall atmosphere during the conference was very positive. Participants introduce themselves by either shaking hands or exchanging the Poken, which is pretty cool. Company staff standing besides their booth would tell you that they really, really want to meet with you, which made all the people laugh.

Every day I was very busy running between different sessions and the most important, never missed a keynote speech and plenary panel. Those women are all excellent role models and at the same time good speakers. Some of them are very straightforward and witty, others are deliberate and full of wisdom. But all of them showed us how wonderful their lives are, how proud they feel as the leaders in their own fields, and how grateful they are to their mentors and families. Many of the award winners were talking in tears especially those from academia. Then I saw a different picture in these amazing women, as intelligent and strong as men, as delicate and sensitive as ordinary human being. Gender is not an issue anymore in these occasions, instead I saw those beautiful minds coming across long journeys and sharing their struggles and happiness at the podium.

GHC10: NCWIT at Grace Hopper: Recruiting and Retaining Women

2010-10-05T10:51:00.000-04:00

From the Communications of ACM blog:

Research scientists Lecia Barker and Joanne Cohoon from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) gave an excellent talk on recruiting and retaining women in computer science at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I almost didn’t attend because I’ve been immersed in these topics through my involvement with Carleton University’s Women in Science and Engineering group (known here as CU-WISE), but I found that I still learned a lot. I highly recommend taking a look at their website after reading my summary of the talk.

Read the rest of my post here.

GHC10: Dancing with Hundreds of Technical Women at Grace Hopper

2010-10-01T16:16:00.001-04:00

From the Communications of ACM blog:

When I tell someone about the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, I start by explaining the dance parties. I tell them, “You wouldn’t think that an all-female dance would be fun… but you’d be wrong. There’s nothing like dancing with hundreds of technical women who let loose because there’s nobody around to feel stupid in front of.”

Read the rest here.

Geocaching in Atlanta Part 1

2010-10-01T15:41:00.029-04:00

I guess any blog post about geocaching should start with an explanation of what it is. It's basically a high tech treasure or scavenger hunt. You log onto geocaching.com, do a search of a location you want to geocache in, put the coordinates on a GPS and then go find the cache. A cache is a container that contains at least a log book that you sign once you find it. It can also contain trade items. These are items that you can take if you leave something else in the cache.

I got into geocaching a few years ago when visiting my friend Dave (whose geocaching name is Juicepig). He had been doing it for a couple of years and was very passionate about it. The first cacheI ever found was at an abandoned campsite in Utopia, Ontario. It was interesting to visit and we would never have gone there if it wasn't for this geocache. This is one of the great things about geocaching in a city you are visiting; it takes you to places you never would have known about. That was one of the reasons I decided to geocache in Atlanta while attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. The other reason is that before I left for Atlanta, I had found at least one cache each day for the last 58 days and wanted to keep up my streak.

I also wanted to find two caches that were really far apart on the same day. So on Monday September 27^th, before leaving for Atlanta, I found 'OLYMPIQUES 3 - TIGRES 2' near the Robert Guertin arena in Gatineau, Quebec and once in Atlanta, I found 'Birds Eye View' with Terri and Gail. The distance between these two caches is about 1500 km (900 mi). The 'Birds Eye View' cache was magnetic and stuck on a pole that had to road signs on it.

On Tuesday September 28^th, Gail, Terri and I spent the day at the Atlanta History Center (you can read about it here) so I didn't end up caching until after 5pm. Gail and I decided to find a cache before heading over to the Hyatt to pick up our badge and swag for Grace Hopper. We attempted 'Folk Art Park Part 2' but couldn't find it. We moved onto 'Folk Art Park Part 1' and found it without any trouble. Both of these caches brought us to two interesting parks with Folk Art.

On Wednesday September 29^th, I went to Centennial Olympic park and started working on finding 'Quilt of Nations'. This cache is what is called a multi cache. It takes you to several locations and often you have to collect some information at each spot in order to find the next stage of the cache. The first stage took me to a 'quilt of nations'. I had to count the number of flags, add it to a particular number and that would complete the missing portion of a coordinate. I did this and went on to the next stage.

This stage was at a building that used to be a church but is now a music hall. I had to find the three numbers to the left of the box office and add them to a number and this gave me the missing portion of the coordinate for the final. I made my way to the final but there were two police officers nearby so I moved on to another cache called 'Shining Light' which was at one of the entrances of Centennial Olympic Park. Its container is the smallest kind of container in geocaching. It is called a nano and I'll talk more about this type of container in my next post.

After finding that one, I headed back to the final for 'Quilt of Nations' and easily found it. One of the hints on the cache page told you to remember the numbers from the music hall. I needed it in order to open the combination lock on the cache. The final for this cache was a gray plastic container attached to a telephone poll. It is out in the open but unless you were looking for the cache you would never give it a second look.

In 'Geocaching in Atlanta Part 2', I'll talk about the rest of the geocaches I found in Atlanta as well as explain what a travel bug is.

GHC10: Usable Security

2010-09-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

From my blog:

One of the sessions I attended on Wednesday at GHC was a PhD forum. In this special type of session, three PhD students present their research in an hour, and the audience fills in feedback forms to give them suggestions and/or praise. It's a great opportunity.

The first presentation in this particular session was given by Laurian Vega, studying HCI at Virginia Tech. Her research is all about usable security, with a focus on day cares and doctor's offices. Although I'm not a security person by any stretch of the imagination, I found the topic quite interesting.

Read the rest here.

GHC10: The Impact of the Grace Hopper Celebration

2010-09-30T15:25:00.002-04:00

In addition to my own blog, I'm writing a few posts for the Communications of ACM blog about the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

From my first post:

This year's edition of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is officially underway, and you can almost taste the excitement. Last night I had the opportunity to speak with an external evaluator about my experiences with the conference in an effort to determine what kind of impact it really has. I quite enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on my role this year and the previous two years I’ve attended.

Read the rest of the post on CACM.

GHC10: Sight Seeing in Atlanta

2010-09-30T15:21:00.002-04:00

One of the coolest things about attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the opportunity to explore new cities with a few other awesome CU-WISE ladies. This year's conference is in Atlanta, and a few of us went to the Atlanta History Center to learn more about life in the south.

I wrote about our trip and posted some photos on my own blog. Check it out.

Scientists for a better PCR, the music video

2010-09-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

More random wednesday fun. This is another one for the biologists: a tribute to PCR. Enjoy!

Another year off to a good start

2010-09-26T20:58:00.003-04:00

Last Wednesday CU-WISE welcomed its new and returning members to another year here at Carleton. With over 40 members in attendace this year's Kick Off event held at Carleton's own Oliver's Pub was a success. Delicious treats, lively conversation and a raffle draw for cool WISE swag opened this year's line up of WISE activities. We hope to see many of you coming out to the other events we are planning for this year. To stay in the loop check out our events page often or sign up for our newsletter.

Grace Hopper 2010 - The Celebration Begins!

2010-09-26T20:05:00.007-04:00

Less than 2 days till the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing starts in Atlanta!

I learnt about the conference last year (was too late to register) and ever since then I've been waiting for GHC 2010. Since this will be my first time at the conference, I've been reading blogs from veterans of the conference (check out the GHC blog feed) and following #ghc10 and @ghc on Twitter to get pointers on how to prepare for the week.

And prepare you must! The sheer volume of planned activities is mindboggling, leave alone those impromptu meetings and outings that are bound to happen. I've taken some time to look through the abstracts of the various seminars and mark those that are most interesting to me.

I'm especially excited about the track on Open Source as I am taking a course on Open Source Business as part of my Masters. I hope to share what I learn with my classmates. There will also be a chance to participate in open source development via the Codeathon for Humanity for the Sahana-Eden project. As a facilitator for this event, I'm looking forward to learning more about their disaster management software platform and how I can use my coding skills for social good.

The codeathon is a brilliant example of the conference theme of "Collaborating Across Boundaries" and my aim will be to look at the talks I attend in this broader context.

I'm also eager to meet many of the accomplished women participating this year, especially those interested in mobile platforms and wireless applications and those who (like me) have taken or are interested in a business career path after a technical degree.

The rest I'm leaving to serendipity :)

Gearing Up for Grace Hopper

2010-09-26T13:41:00.003-04:00

This year's Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is just around the corner, and I'm super excited to head down to Atlanta tomorrow to soak it all in once again! We have five CU-WISE members attending this time from a range of backgrounds, including engineering, computer science, and even math. We'll all be blogging here or on our personal blogs, so keep your eye out for our reports on the fun stuff we do in Atlanta and the informative and inspirational sessions we attend at the conference.

There are a couple of posts from my blog that I want to share. First, I wrote up my list of things I do to get ready for a conference. I did this with Grace Hopper in mind, but if you're thinking of heading to any conference soon, you should find it useful.

Second, I wrote about my personal networking goals:

A great way to gear up for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is to decide what your goals are for when you get there. This year, for the first time, I actually have some specific types of people I want to meet, so this is what I'm going to focus on.

It's really important to figure out what you want to get out of a conference like Grace Hopper before leaving, because it's a whirlwind of activity once you get there. There's little time for figuring these things out on the fly.

In addition to CU-WISE bloggers, you can enjoy Grace Hopper from afar via the official community blog feed (check back often though, since only the most recent posts show up!), and find out about many sessions on the notes wiki.