The Grace Hopper Celebration: A Conference Not to Miss!

The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing is the world's largest conference gathering of women technologists. If you are in computing, you definitely need to attend this conference at least once in your life! 

Last year, we were six Carleton students to attend GHC in Phoenix, AZ. It was epic! You can read about last year's conference here:

• Ramblings of an Ordinary Girl by Kristyn Girard
• The Female Perspective of Computer Science by Gail Carmichael
• That Eng Girl by Daniella Niyonkuru
• Out of the Box: Getting Involved Beyond The Classroom by Daphne Ong

The Grace Hopper Celebration features multiple tracks including invited technical speakers, academic, industry, student, and career tracks. Keynote speakers are usually well known leading women in tech (e.g. Sheryl Sandberg, Maria Klawe, Mary Lou Jepsen, Arati Prabhakar) who are greatly inspiring. There are also sessions for students (undergraduate and graduate) and mentoring opportunities. You get to hear from women who went through the same path and also advise younger ones. It is an awesome networking occasion. Plus, if you are interested in getting a job, GHC has a career fair with great companies, and instant interviews possibilities.

The 2015 edition, themed "Our Time To Lead", will be held in Houston, Texas. If you have been reading our newsletter lately, you probably know that applications for GHC Scholarship Grants will be opened until April 15. For more information, read here. I highly recommend you to submit an application if you would like to attend GHC this year. This post is full of good tips about applying to opportunities for women in STEM (Feel free to send me an email as well). And, stay tuned for upcoming GHC info sessions! It is our time to lead!

Stay great! 

Daniella

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Daniella is a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of her dreams is to inspire more women to embrace STEM careers and unleash their full potential. Although she is hardworking and can be very serious, she enjoys comedy and dancing, has a big sense of humour, and believes that a little kindness goes a long way!

@niyodanie

2014 - Retrospective and Resolution

A brand new year is upon us! I thought it would only be fitting to write a retrospective post on how my CU-WISE experience has gone in 2013. [Yes, I’m the kind of person who does retrospectives, looks back on events, tracks opportunities for improvements and celebrates achievements!]. So, ladies and gentlemen fasten your seat belts, we are about to time travel!!! 

It all started in September 2013! I was new at Carleton and looking for some extra curricular activities. I've always been interested in encouraging girls in engineering and couldn't resist when I discovered that CU-WISE was looking for volunteers for the Throwback Kids Activities. I met wonderful ladies who volunteered as well and the experience was quite memorable. It’s outstanding how little kids can remind you all you love about what you do, and re-sparkle your interest. I was in charge of the Snap Circuits activity [By the way, I still can’t believe that Santa never got me one of those electronic snap circuits!] which is a great and fun way to learn about electronics and get a working project (From adjustable light control to FM Radio).

Testing her flying saucer, Snap Circuits at the Throwback Kids Activities

Go Eng Girl took place shortly after. We had girls in grades 7 to 10 come to learn more about engineering. This event included hands-on design projects.This time, I was leading the Scratch team. Scratch is a tool developed by MIT that uses simple blocks and offers an easy way to learn programming. For this activity, we asked students to implement their own interactive story/game. Again, young minds amazed us with creative ideas and projects.

The girl who amazed us all, SCRATCH at Go ENG Girl 2013

Finally, the Woman in Research Event was held in mid December. The event invites High School girls to hear from Carleton leading female researchers about what inspired them to go into science and engineering. It’s always awesome to volunteer for this kind of event as you might be inspired along the way. And that’s what happened to me! Every speaker made me realize that we are not fully aware of our capabilities and we have to keep going [Keep in mind that doing it right doesn't always feel like it] :

Keynote Speakers, Women In Research Event 2013

• “Engineering is for everyone!” Dr Cynthia Cruickshank
• “Education is important and it’s an investment in you!” Natalie Linklater
• “I didn’t know that I had that capability! You have to tell yourself that you can do it.” Dr Winnie Ye

The point : All the presenters turned out to be just as human as you and me! They all faced struggles, doubts and setbacks but kept going and achieved the amazing results that you can read on each biography!

Along the way, I became more than a volunteer and joined the WISE team. 

So, if you are looking for a resolution for 2014, volunteering for WISE might be a great one! Imagine the university becoming a place where you can inspire, be inspired and leave a legacy… How awesome would it be? 

Happy New Year!

Stay great,
Daniella

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Daniella is a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. One of her dreams is to inspire more women to embrace STEM careers and unleash their full potential. Although she is hardworking and can be very serious, she enjoys comedy and dancing, has a big sense of humour, and believes that a little kindness goes a long way!

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

CU-WISE Research Day

We are very excited to announce that applications for the CU-WISE Women in Research event are now open! This event aim’s to highlight the diverse research that the female undergraduate, graduate and faculty of Carleton University are actively involved in and is set to take place on December 6th, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Carleton.

To help make this event a success, we are looking for dynamic individuals who are excited about what they are doing and would like to share their journey into their respective fields. You will be given 15 minutes to present your research topic to an audience of budding female engineers and scientists from high schools around the city. Demonstrations and hands-on activities are also welcomed. To participate, please tell us a little more about yourself by filling out an application below. Deadline to apply is November 24th at midnight!

** Update: Applications for the CU-WISE Women in Research are now closed. **