2nd Annual NYC ACM Celebration of Women in Computing

The "2nd Annual NYC ACM Celebration of Women in Computing" is a one-day conference featuring panel discussions, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities for undergraduate women studying computer science. Attendees will learn and be inspired by a carefully curated selection of speakers; explore potential career paths; explore current trends and software being used in the industry; and expand their personal networks by meeting peers and industry professionals. In 2016, the conference attracted 125+ attendees from colleges and universities in the tri-state area. Represented institutions included: CUNY, SUNY, NY Institute of Technology, NY University, Rutgers, Barnard, Pace, Wesleyan, and others. The NYC Celebration will feature:  Keynote speech from a noted industry professional  Breakout sessions focused on technical interviews, framework testing, open sourcesoftware, and more  Career advisement Tickets are $10 for students and teaching staff.  EVENT AGENDA ***This event requires a registration code and is only for undergraduate women studying computer science and teaching staff. If you are interested in attending, please email acm@nytech.org with your school email address and we’ll provide the access code.  Feel free to share information about this event with your academic advisor, dean or fellow students.*** ------------- OPENING KEYNOTE  Deborah Estrin, Professor of Computer Science, Cornell Tech Deborah Estrin is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech in New York City. She is founder of the Health Tech Hub in the Jacobs Institute and directs the Small Data Lab at Cornell Tech. She holds The Robert V. Tishman Founder's Chair and has recently taken on a leadership role as Associate Dean. Her current research focus is on mobile health and small data, leveraging the pervasiveness of mobile devices and digital interactions for health and life management (TEDMED). Estrin co-founded the non-profit startup, Open mHealth and sits on several scientific advisory boards for early stage mobile health startups. Previously, Estrin was on the UCLA faculty where she was the Founding Director of the NSF Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), pioneering the development of mobile and wireless systems to collect and analyze real time data about the physical world. Her honors include: ACM Athena Lecture (2006), Anita Borg Institute's Women of Vision Award for Innovation (2007), The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007), The National Academy of Engineering (2009), The IEEE Internet Award (2017). -----    HANDS-ON/INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS: Framework Testing in Software Development Testing is a critical part of every major software system, but is often overlooked in undergraduate classes. An understanding of good testing practices is the hallmark of a good engineer and an important part of many job interviews. We will talk about why testing is actually one of the most exciting parts of software development, and work through some examples using popular testing frameworks and real websites.   Dan Singer, Software Engineer, Knewton (Instructor) Dan Singer has been writing software for large and small companies around New York City for 6+years. He is currently an engineering manager at Knewton, an educational software company. He has channeled his love of organizing his apartment into organizing software systems that work reliably.   Sharanya Venkat, Front-End Developer, Knewton (Instructor) Sharanya Venkat is a front-end developer currently working at Knewton. She loves the web, as well as building software that makes our lives easier. When she is not coding, she is spending time with friends and family, or visiting different places around the world. -----   Google Mock Technical Interview This workshop helps demystify the technical interview and teaches good interviewing habits by watching a Software Engineer go through and explain a Google onsite interview. The Googler will model examples of asking clarifying questions, catching a mistake, listening for hints, and coding on a white board. Other highlights include important concepts, resources, and things to look out for during the interview. Kathleen Oshima, Software Engineer, Google (Instructor) Kathleen has been a Software Engineer at Google since August 2014 and works on the Local Search UI team. She graduated from Duke University with a double bachelors in Computer Science and Environmental Science and Policy and a minor in film. She interned at Google twice during her undergrad in Mountain View, CA and Cambridge, MA. She lives in NYC and enjoys playing soccer and eating her way around the city. Julia Edholm, Software Engineer, Google (Instructor) Julia is a software engineer on the Local Search team at Google and is currently building shared infrastructure for Google Maps and Google.com. She graduated from Amherst College in 2015 with a triple major in Computer Science, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Music. Julia lives in New York where she sings with the Amor Artis Chorus. Molly Nacey, Software Engineer, Google (Instructor) Molly is a software engineer on the Google Docs team. She graduated from Princeton in 2013 with a degree in Computer Science and has worked for companies both big and small including WhatsApp and Microsoft. Having worked at Google for over two years, Molly has had the opportunity to work on a few different teams and is primarily focused on developing android apps. -----   Optimizing Code Quality Through Static Analysis Ashley and Gordon (engineers at Code Climate) will give an introduction to static analysis and its calculation, then look at how engineering teams can apply it as a real world measure of code quality. You'll learn how to break code down to an abstract syntax tree (AST) and how those trees can be leveraged to measure quality of that code. Gordon Diggs, Director of Engineering, Code Climate (Instructor) Gordon is the Director of Engineering at Code Climate. He spends his days managing and growing the engineering team. When he is not at work, he can usually be found at the nearest record store or at home cooking lasagna. Ashley Baldwin-Hunter, Software Engineer, Code Climate (Instructor) Ashley is an engineer at Code Climate where she focuses on writing in Ruby and JavaScript, and running things in containers. Outside of the office she enjoys dabbling in Rust, playing soccer, and trying to merge her passions for knitting and programming. -----   IBM Case Studies and Chatbot Hands on Lab Create your own Watson chatbot and learn how easy it is to start using AI with IBM Watson's Bluemix platform. Also, hear about how Watson is transforming industries from health care to media from a group of women who work with the technology everyday. Anna Quincy, Watson Prototype Development, IBM (Instructor) Anna is a developer who builds cognitive prototypes to show clients how they can quickly start using Watson within their own industries. She focuses on natural language processing and using analytics to pull out cool insights from the unstructured data Watson converts to structured data. A career peak has been teaching Watson how to understand what a "frenemy" is within reality TV shows. When she is not nerding out over data science blogs, she loves playing spike ball and taking full advantage of all the amazing food New York has to offer. Laura Vang, International Business Development - IBM Watson Health, IBM (Instructor) Laura is an IBMer catalyzing transformation at IBM Watson Health. Laura leads the International Business Development team, which is responsible for devising and implementing a world class international strategy for the Watson Health Go-To-Market team. When she is not impacting global strategy and change at work, Laura can be found pursing her other passions for dancing, cooking, and tinkering with cool new technologies like Watson. She holds her Bachelor of Engineering from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. -----     GENERAL PANEL DISCUSSION - "I Am A Software Engineer" Software engineering is a broad industry, and the jobs are just as varied. In this panel discussion, four software engineers in different roles and in different stages of their careers will talk about landing their first job, cultivating their career path, and taking risks. Janet Lee, Head of Engineering, Conde Nast Entertainment (Speaker) Janet Lee is the Head of Engineering at Condé Nast Entertainment, providing video delivery and management for brands like GQ, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. She contributed to building the company’s custom video players as well as bringing The Scene brand to web, iOS, and Roku. Previously, she worked at VEVO as the Tech Lead for Windows & TV, launching the Xbox, Roku, and Windows Phone apps. She has also worked for the government with a focus on computer forensics. Janet earned her B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Elena G. Washington, Site Reliability Engineer, Greenhouse Software (Speaker) Elena G. Washington is a Site Reliability Engineer for Greenhouse Software. At Greenhouse, she is a diversity and inclusion champion and has helped start a D&I initiative within the company. Elena is also an organizer for the New York City chapter of the TechYes! Diversity in Tech Meetup. Prior to making a career shift, Elena put her mechanical engineering degree to use as a Controls Commissioning Engineer and traveled the world performing service work on gas and steam turbine control systems. When she isn't working on a pet project, Elena spends her time with her lovely fiancée, Sydney, and her adorable dachshund, Watson. Neha Singh, Founder & CEO, Obsess (Speaker) Neha Singh is the Founder & CEO of Obsess, a Virtual Reality Platform for Experiential Shopping. She was previously the Head of Product at Vogue, where she was responsible for the product strategy and technology execution of Vogue’s digital business including content products, ad products and distribution platforms. While there, she launched the Vogue website, Vogue Runway and 2 mobile apps. Prior to that, Neha was VP of Product and Engineering at AHAlife, an ecommerce startup for luxury lifestyle products. Neha began her career at Google, where she was a Software Engineer and Tech Lead for 5 years and worked on Google AdWords and Google News. She holds an undergraduate Computer Science degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a graduate Computer Science degree from MIT. Dan Singer, Software Engineer, Knewton (Speaker) Dan Singer has been writing software for large and small companies around New York City for 6+years. He is currently an engineering manager at Knewton, an educational software company. He has channeled his love of organizing his apartment into organizing software systems that work reliably. Richard Murby, Head of Business Development, DevPost (Moderator) Richard leads the hackathon business at Devpost, the world's largest platform and community for hackathons. This means his weekdays are spent helping companies interact with, and increasingly hire, developers. His weekends are spent not sleeping with thousands of developers at events all around the world. He's also the co-host of Devpost's weekly YouTube show 'The Commit'. Prior to joining Devpost, Richard worked at the World Bank's Innovation Labs where he focused on civic hackathons and open data.  -----   Additional workshops and biographies will be added shortly.