14 Year Old Airplane Builder

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.

Girl Develop It Ottawa Kicks Off its New Chapter

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!

National Conference on Women in Engineering

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.

Go ENG Girl

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!

GHC10: Dancing with Hundreds of Technical Women at Grace Hopper

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.

GHC10: The Impact of the Grace Hopper Celebration

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.

Gearing Up for Grace Hopper

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.

Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing

Have you heard about the upcoming Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONCWIC), being held in Kingston by Queen's University October 22 and 23? It's a great opportunity for those of us who can't make it to Grace Hopper (and even those who do!), and let me tell you - it's a smoking deal.

Here's what it's all about:

The goal of ONCWIC is to allow students, faculty and professional women in Ontario to experience the opportunities for networking, sharing and mentoring that is unique to GHC. We recognize that attending the GHC is not an option for many women and the regional celebrations offer a comparable, low-cost alternative.

If you head over the registration page, you might notice that students pay just $25 and that includes shared accommodations in the hotel. Awesome!!

I'm thinking of putting in a poster before the September 30 deadline. I have heard there are prizes.

Whether you want to do a poster or talk or not, this conference will be awesome. If you're interested in going and might want to share a room with other CU-WISE girls, email wise@carleton.ca and let us know!

A CU-WISE Primer

Welcome to all new and returning students and other supporters of Carleton's Women in Science and Engineering! This post is all about orienting you to what CU-WISE is all about. Whether you are just starting to get involved or have been around for a while, you will find something new.

What CU-WISE Is

As our website says, "Carleton University Women in Science and Engineering (CU-WISE) is a group of enthusiastic undergraduate and graduate students who encourage and support women to pursue an education or career in Science and Engineering."

We're a support network that helps ensure women who decide to come to Carleton to study science or engineering feel comfortable and know they can succeed. Many of our activities are centred on this goal. We also want to encourage younger girls to give science and engineering fair consideration, as seen through our participation in many outreach programs. We also exist because, sometimes, it's just nice to hang out with the girls. ;)

Executives and Officers

Executives and Officers work together to organize all the activities CU-WISE is involved in, from social gatherings to guest speakers to conference participation to mentoring to ... well, you get the point. ;) Executives are a smaller core team that are the last line of defence - they aren't more important than Officers, but are able to dedicate more time to CU-WISE.

If you're interested in joining the team, find out how to apply on our website.

Mailing List

If you haven't added your email to the mailing list yet, be sure to join now. Although all of our events will be posted online as well, there are many outside events and opportunities that we only include on the list. You don't want to miss some of the amazing things going on around town and at Carleton.

Website

The CU-WISE website is the hub of all our activity. You can join our mailing list, check out our upcoming and past events, learn about various awesome opportunities (like scholarships and conferences), and sign up to be a mentor or find a mentor. A bunch of our documents are available for download, and you can peek at our latest blog posts. Basically, if you aren't sure where to look, check here first.

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr

If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of our CU-WISE page. Not everything on the mailing list ends up here so you'll still want to join that, but we do post interesting stories that don't appear on the newsletter.

If you aren't into Facebook, you can follow us on Twitter instead. Most of the content is the same, but we may soon have some dedicated Twitterers who will make things even more interesting.

If you want to see photos from CU-WISE events, check out our Flickr group. Even better, you are more than welcome to join it yourself. We encourage you to add your own photos to the group pool for all to enjoy!

Mentoring

Brand new this year is our formal mentoring program. If you'd like to mentor someone or find a mentor yourself, sign up today. This program will only work if you participate. We also want to make sure your mentoring relationship succeeds, and will provide you with all the resources you need. We are even working on hosting at least one social event per semester where mentors and mentees can get together in person and network with others in the program.

Please note that you can be a mentor even if you are still a student. For example, you might be a grad student who'd like to mentor an undergrad considering continuing her education.

Questions? Comments?

If you have any ideas on how CU-WISE should be run or want to suggest events or other activities, you can always email us, or just leave a comment to this post. Hope to see you at our Kick-Off Meet and Greet!

CompSci Woman: Technology is Women's Work

This is cross-posted from my personal blog, The Female Perspective of Computer Science.

Have you seen the new CompSci Woman blog yet? No? Well get over there and check it out! And better yet, if you happen to be female and have any kind of computer science background, consider contributing to the blog as well.

I just wrote up my piece for this month's theme on "how I got into computer science." It's called Behind the Screen:

I once considered attending a local specialized high school called Canterbury. It’s an arts school, and I wanted to attend for creative writing. After all, I had won a writing contest or two in my day, so I thought I was pretty good at it.

Unfortunately, the bus ride was far too long from my rural home, so I never went. Fortunately, I never let go of my creative side, which also included a love for drama, music, and now photography.

You'll have to read the rest of the story over at the blog.

Cate Huston is one of the two creators of CompSci Woman (Maggie Zhou is the other). Cate shared some of the "why" behind it all:

What brought it home so strongly, how hard it had been to be a minority, is that at the time I wasn’t. Extreme Blue Canada had an amazing number of women in the program this year. There was a girl on every team - two on some, including the team I was on. It was noticeable compared to the US teams at expo - Canada had exceeded the magic ratio, at which the women were not minorities, but normal.

It was different for Maggie, who was one of two women in her building. We talked about this - we had very different coping strategies. Towards the end of the summer, I floated the idea of a blog to her - the natural next step from the many conversations we had that summer. We thought that whilst you might not want to brand yourself as a woman in CS (every woman in CS I know is so much more than that, perhaps it’s like evolution, only the most awesome/stubborn/motivated/interesting survive), you could brand a platform, provide a forum for women who don’t have the time, or inclination to run their own blog. Maggie was excited by the idea as well, and we started to sketch out a vision and pitch (EB gave us a lot of practise in that) our idea to people. They were interested. They promised to blog for us. CompSci Woman was born, although unnamed.

With your help, we can build a platform, and a community. Because more people means more mentors, and more role models, and more inspiration. And that - well, I hope it’s just the start.

Inspired? I hope so! Now get out there and write your piece! I'll look out for it in the next few weeks. ;)

New CU-WISE Mural Design!

I am happy to announce that a project that began half a year ago as a mere thought is finally coming to fruition. The project? The new WISE mural for the Carleton University tunnels!

Thank you so much to Daphne Ong, the recipient of a WISE T-shirt and a $25 Carleton Book Store gift certificate, for submitting her great ideas for the mural contest. With her help the design for a new mural shown here was developed and will hopefully decorate the tunnels by this fall. I would also like to thank fellow CU-WISE Officer Payal Bhatia for her inspirational ideas.

Men in WISE

This is a guest post from Heine Mar, Carleton grad student and awesome guy who supports CU-WISE! His article is great, so be sure to click through to read it.

Last year, Barbora Dej requested me to write an article for the CU-WISE. I agreed her request and submitted the article based on the movie “A Few Good Men”. For more info:

http://cuwise.blogspot.com/2009/03/few-wise-men.html

This year, Gail Carmichael requested me to write an article. It has been my pleasure to write articles for the CU-WISE. This year’s article is based on the movie “MIB – Men in Black”. For more info: please read the attachment.

MIW: Men in WISE

Ada Lovelace Day: The Technical Women that Inspire Me

Technical women who have inspired me while doing my Masters here at Carleton University have been CU-WISE execs and officers as well as some of my friends I met along the way. I would have to say Jennie Pryor, Sukaina Chandoo, Saeideh Ashtarifar, and Kimia Ansari have each taught me a valuable lesson during the past couple of years.

I've also learned a tremendous amount from the CU-WISE team especially Gail, Barbora, Heba, Ros, Terri, Lindsay, Katherine, and Salia. These girls have all been an inspiration to me and each has a different gift to offer.

One other technical woman that I admire tremendously is Sawitri Mardyani. I first met Sawitri in our first year Calculus course. She is one of the most intelligent and compassionate people I have ever known; truly technical and an exemplary human being.

I think we all need to strive to be role models for those around us and every one of these girls has been a role model for me. So I thank you!

Ada Lovelace Day: The Technical Woman I admire

I am sorry! I am late for this one! 
An excerpt from my blog:

She has been a big motivation and help for me during my research. I will always appreciate her accepting to be a co-supervisor for me. Her researching and questioning skills have inspired me and taught me a lot. She doesn't know that, but seeing her has given me enough reasons to come back for a Ph.D somewhere down the lane.

Click here to continue reading and see who's inspired me.

Ada Lovelace Day profile: Jennifer Redman

This was originally posted on my personal blog

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited.

To be honest, I didn't feel much like writing for Ada Lovelace Day. It feels like writing is all I do lately: a paper and a poster proposal due this week, plus the all-consuming nature of my thesis proposal that I finally submitted this month after more than a year of work. I love research/coding and I even like writing, but when they're too far out of balance I start to feel like I'm one of those people who's all talk and no action.

But Jennifer Redman is one of the people who's been pulling me out of talking and into doing, which makes it even more important that I honour her today.

GHC09: Jen and Andrea at the Systers code sprint
by Terriko.

I don't honestly remember when I first met Jen online -- probably through Linuxchix or maybe Mailman -- but I got to meet her for the first time in person at GHC09 after she invited me to help out with the Systers code sprint.

Jen really grabbed my attention because she was using Systers to focus on something that sometimes gets overlooked: getting individual women who already know how to code to the point of making open source contributions. And not just in a general supportive way, but in a specific, defined, "here's a project, let's hack!" sort of way. And it doesn't hurt that geeking out with other women is fun. Not that computers for girls isn't a great idea, but getting more women involved now means we've got the role models we want for those girls. And here's Jen with some grand ideas and bugs to fix and a pile of virtual machines to get women playing around in open source software sooner rather than later.

I often hear talk of such ideas, but often no one has time to follow through. What makes Jen especially incredible is how dedicated she is to the follow through. She helps keep the Systers mailing lists running (and on-topic!) She got that code sprint together, and already has plans for next year. And now she's assembling an all-star team of mentors for the Systers GSoC 2010 projects, getting us all talking and thinking, and making sure we're committed, and ready to go both mentally and technically as the students start to arrive. She's got a great level head and a willingness to say what needs saying when things get rough -- her sane commentary on some really horrendous geek feminism issues made me feel just that much more grounded when we chatted at GHC. And I'm sure she's doing all sort of other awesome stuff that I don't even know about because I'm so wrapped up in my own world.

I've been scaling back my volunteer/open source activities for the past few years as I get more deeply involved in my PhD, which means that I say no to a lot of things. But Jen and Robin Jeffries chatted with me about doing archives at the code sprint, and managed to come up with exactly my perfect project: Mailman development (on archives, no less!) where I get to work one-on-one with students and women in computing. That's three of my favourite things right there! But I'd probably still have said no if some stranger came up and offered that to me. What makes this a project worth rearranging my life for is Jen: I don't know everyone else yet, but I know that if she's involved, things will happen, and I'm going to be proud to have been involved.

So thank you, Jen. Here's to a great summer!

Participate in Ada Lovelace Day 2010

Have you blogged about a technical woman you admire for this year's Ada Lovelace Day? You haven't? Well, you're in luck - it's not too late! Just get your post done before the end of the day (or sneak it in a day or two late), and let the world know at the official website.

I just finished my post. I wrote about a researcher I admire:

I met Michelle for the first time at last year's CRA-W Grad Cohort in San Francisco. We were both second year grad students, so we happened to sit at the same table when given time to mingle with our cohort.

I quickly learned that although Michelle was also a second year grad student like me, she was much further ahead in her research. In fact, she had finished her Masters thesis in January! She was going to do her PhD in September and work on cool stuff until then. She told me about the projects she'd been working on, and I just couldn't help but be impressed.

Check out the rest of the post on my blog, then get started on your own. A short paragraph will do!

Don't have a blog? Just email wise@carleton.ca and we'll post it here for you!

Need a little inspiration? You can follow many of the blogs written all around the world for Ada Lovelace Day on Twitter via #ald10.

The Earth Hour

An excerpt from my blog:

The Metro, Ottawa today mentioned that ever since the launch of Earth Hour in Ottawa in the year of 2008, Ottawa has saved some electricity. The City people are hoping to have the darkest hour of Ottawa ever this year. From a 4% decrease in usage in 2008 to 6% in 2009 is definitely improvement. Can it get better? I say it can.

Click here to continue reading and see how you can contribute to the noble cause of saving some energy.

Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering

Ever since I attended my first Grace Hopper in 2008, I've dreamt of having our own celebration here at Carleton, no matter how small. My dream is finally coming true. I'm very excited to announce the very first (and hopefully annual) Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering!

The idea with this event is to bring together Carleton women who are studying or working in any science or engineering discipline, and share with each other and the rest of the Carleton community what we've been up to. After the talks, the idea is to get the speakers together for dinner on us. The Celebration will be a wonderful opportunity to network and to socialize. It is important to show ourselves that we are not alone and that we do amazing things!

So take a look at our Call for Proposals, and consider being a speaker! You don't need to be an expert - you just have to share something interesting you've been doing lately. Only a short description of what you want to talk about it required, so what do you have to lose?

What Toastmasters Can Do For You

This is a guest post by Shirley McKey, ISSNet Director of Operations at the School of Computer Science. I spoke with her recently about her involvement with Toastmasters, and could tell how enthusiastic she was about it. CU-WISE members hoping to gain leadership and communication skills, and get more opportunities to network, should definitely check it out!

I have been a member of Toastmasters since 2003 and am convinced that you will flourish as a communicator and a leader if you follow the program provided by this international organization. The communication and leadership program offered through Toastmasters provides outstanding and economical professional development.

Carleton Toastmasters meets every Wednesday at 6:55 p.m. in 3324 Mackenzie Building on the Carleton Campus. Please join us to learn how you can use this proven program of professional development to enhance your communication and leadership skills and gain confidence in yourself and your abilities.

Toastmasters International is a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. Good communicators tend to be good leaders.

For more information, please e-mail guests@carleton.freetoasthost.info or visit www.carletontm.ca (Carleton Club), www.tm61.org (District 61) or www.toastmasters.org (Toastmasters International). We look forward to seeing you.

Global Game Jam 2010: Anyone is Welcome

So I just found out about this event being held this weekend and think it sounds really fun so I figured I'd share.


The Global Game Jam consists of groups all over the world getting together this weekend, seperating into local teams and spending 48 hours developing a game prototype relating to the years topic. But what really hooked me was the NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY not so fine print. To quote their website:

Although having computer skills is helpful, code experience is not necessary. Designers, developers, artists and anyone is welcome to try their hand at making a game during the GGJ.

I'm in computer systems now but coming out of high school I laughed at my friend who wrote a program to calculate the quadratic formula on his graphing calculator because I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to spend their time working with bloody computers. I still don't get along with computers on a regular basis which is a constant source of amusement to people who know me as I'll be happily typing along one moment and the next time they notice me i'm literally growling and shaking my fists at it since throwing my laptop across the room would be a bad thing. The point is I now really like programming and the logic puzzles it presents but I simply don't have the experience to jump into most projects that are looking for programmers.

This competition is a chance to get to see how a game is made and contribute ideas and pieces without anyone expecting you to know all of it or understand half of it.

Yes there's sure to be some top notch programmers which is all the better for a beginner to team up with as you can follow what they do and ask questions. But if programming isn't your thing but you'd like to help design a game you can also do graphics or audio or a whole bunch of other stuff i probably don't even realize is involved in making a video game.

Check out the Carleton Game Day Mini-Conference and School of Information Technology's Game Jam site to sign up (registration for both events is free)