One student's experience at CUSEC 2013

SYSTEM.OUT - My Experience at CUSEC 2013

N.B. A revised version of this post can be found on my blog.

On January 17th, I attended CUSEC 2013 (Canadian University Software Engineering Conference) in Montreal. Initially, I was interested in going to hear a talk given by my friend and mentor, Gail Carmichael– not to mention the chance to meet notable people in the software industry.

Delegates, organizers, and presenters

The unofficial theme of the first day seemed to be "visualizing data." One of the speakers I was most excited about was Ben Fry, one of the co-founders of the Processing language. I've used Processing before, and Fry used several live examples of Processing programs being used to visualize information. Perhaps a description from the processing website tells it best:

"Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context."

Me and Gail, waiting for the next talk

Continuing the theme of visualizing data, the next talk was from the San Francisco-based company Palantir. Their mission is to simplify the process of analysing large or complex data sets, by using tools to visualize it in a more human-readable way. In the hour-long software demonstration, a live demonstration of Palanir's software was used to map E. Coli outbreaks across the United States. By adding data to the map, the user was able to locate the specific meat-distribution plant that was the source of the outbreak. It should be evident that this method is both faster and potentially more accurate that other means of tracking the outbreak.

Overall, it was a great conference, and introduced me to the cool things that people are building with software. I had a great time and learned quite a bit - from the speakers, representatives from software companies, and students from other Canadian university. I hope to volunteer with planning CUSEC 2014, and would recommend the experience to other computer science or software eng students.

- Liz Allen

@liz_codes

Liz blogged about her experience at the conference she attended as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.

Navigating Career Success

The Ottawa Chapter of WISE is proud to present an excellent event for young scientists and engineers that are going into the job market. The 2013 Event Series: Navigating Career Success is a discussion of four professional women who will share their advice and experiences as well as take questions from the audience to help them as they enter the job market. The event is Thursday January 17 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. and I highly recommend it! 

Panel Speakers:
Margaret McKay, M.Sc., LL.B., National Research Council of Canada
Josephine Davidson, Environment Canada
Mia Batchelor, Environment Canada
Michelle Illing, Ph. D., Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Date and Time: January 17, 2013; 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: Boardroom MC 2014, Minto Building, Carleton University Campus.
RSVP: Please RSVP to banu_ormeci@carleton.ca.
There is no admission fee!

CEMF Dillon Undergraduate Engineering Scholarship

The Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation (CEMF) has announced a NEW!! 2013 scholarship for women in engineering. Partnering with Dillon Consulting Limited a $5,000 Dillon Undergraduate in Engineering scholarship is now open across Canada to a woman studying engineering in an accredited university program. THE DEADLINE IS THIS FEB.22, 2013. The application in English and French is on the CEMF website www.cemf.ca.

Unmanned Systems Canada Conference Review

Amy is blogging about her experience as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details. 

The Unmanned Systems industry is a small, tight-knit community.  However, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) community goes beyond tight-knit – it is more like a family.  The few hundred people who attended the Unmanned Systems Canada (USC) Conference this year span pretty much all of Canada’s UAV specialists.  That’s it.  A few hundred researchers and companies making up an entire nation’s worth of knowledge on autonomous systems.  They know each other very well – perhaps too well. 

Walking into the conference, I knew I was an outsider.  Having worked in the UAV industry for just a single year – and as a co-op student no less – I had been introduced to many of the other players in the UAV field, but never like this, never all of them together.  I was intimidated. 

I have been intimidated before. As one of five female aerospace engineering students in my year at Carleton, I was typically made aware of being different from the rest of the crowd.  But this was not like that.  Here the questioning faces weren’t asking “why is she here?” they were just asking how I fit into the UAV family. 

It was amazing.  One of those moments where you realize you are being judged on the knowledge and experiences you bring to the table and not the fact that you are female.  I love that feeling.  I live for that moment when I can get behind the radar and fit in and share and learn.  No judgments.  The USC Conference was like that for four whole days. 

Despite the fact that I counted less than 20 women at the conference, the atmosphere told me that it wasn’t the men who were stopping women from joining their inner circle.  They are ready for us.  We just need the guts to admit we are interested and the confidence to share what we know.   At USC I struck a power pose (see video), then walked up and joined the conversation.  I hope conferences will give you the opportunity to do the same.

The Future of Research in the Alberta Oil Sands - International Oil Sands Tailings Conference Review

Lisa is blogging about her experience as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details. 

The International Oil Sands Tailings Conference (IOSTC) is a bi-annual meeting for presenting research aimed at developing innovative means of addressing tailings related issues associated with the development of the Alberta Oil Sands. The conference was held from December 2-5, 2012 in Edmonton, Alberta at the Mayfield Inn and Conference Center. The conference brought together 360 experts, and interested individuals, to address tailings technology and management. Speakers addressed challenging issues such as oil sands tailings management, the required research efforts to overcome these challenges and, how the industry is responding. Papers were presented under the following themes: Tailings Containment, Soft Tailings and Stabilization, Tailings Dewatering, Reclamation, Chemical Interactions, New Tailings Management Concepts, and Water and Heat Considerations. A full list of presenters and abstracts can be found at https://uofa-cee.gobigevent.com:443/prothos/onware.x/conference/web/index.p?!=public=13549203058167=41=25697969&Conference=10293

Keynote speakers addressed future goals and areas of future concern while stressing the importance of reclamation studies. It appears that reclaiming and monitoring reclamation is the new main industry challenge. The talk I presented was the only one that addressed ecological reclamation. The talk titled ‘The use of benthic microorganisms (thecamoebians) to assess ecological response to tailings pond water quality changes and define endpoints to remediation efforts’ introduced a means of monitoring ecosystem development with reclamation efforts. This research is currently being conducted here at Carleton University in the Earth Science department.

Upon the completion of my Ph.D. I intend to work in Alberta in relation to the oil sands industry. The general public consensus is that finding work in Alberta is easy but if you actually talk to those looking, finding a career that fits your skillset is rather difficult. The oil companies have relationships with universities in Alberta and positions are typically filled from that pool of candidates. For me attendance at the conference was vital to finding a job. Business people and company researchers mainly attended the conference so the venue was an excellent opportunity for networking. I was one of only two students from outside of Alberta in attendance so I am thankful for the funding assistance that allowed me this opportunity.

CU-WISE Women in Research

The CU-WISE Women in Research is an event to highlight the diverse research that is being performed at Carleton in the hopes of inspiring budding female scientists and engineers.  The CU-WISE Women in Research is set to take place on Thursday December 6th, 2012 from 9am to 2pm in Loeb room C264 at Carleton University.

Below you will find a schedule of speaker. To attend this event, please RSVP here.

CU-WISE Women in Research