Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Conjunction with: Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology © Linda Chastain, CSCI Instructor, 2009 Butte-Glenn Community College

GHC The celebration is a four day conference bringing together technical women in academia, research, computing, industry and government. It is both a celebration of achievement, and a call to action to mentor and increase the ratio of women in technical and non-traditional fields.

Day One Day one was dedicated to recognition of PhD research dissertations by women in the Computer Science / Technology fields. The presenters ranged from those in the medical, psychology, and research fields. They all had a basis in Computer Science, whether is was creating an algorithm or a new technology.

Day One Nora Ahmed – “ a Path Based System for Guidance in Pervasive Environment” Implementation of RFID in nursing home environment. Unaizah Obaidellah –”Retrieving Cognitive Chunks from Graphical Tablet Drawing” Retrieving / storing and compiling cognitive research from graphical tablet drawings. Andrea Schweer – “Augmenting Autobiographical Memory” development of computer aided memory systems.

Day One Natalia Villanueva-Rosales – “Towards the semi-automated Building of Knowledge Bases for Biological Research” Creation of semantic web search engine for tracking and dissemination of Pharmacological and genetic research. Esin Saka – “Dynamic Clustering and Visualization using Swarm Intelligence” Utilizing swarm intelligence clustering to create dynamic real time data updates for research purposes.

Day Two Keynote Speaker: Megan Smith – VP New Business Development & General Manager, Google.org. Broad based changes that emerging technologies can make and the social impact on global society. Emerging Markets: Stressed importance of emerging African Markets and SMS implementation in E. Africa Importance of Global tracking of flu epidemics through Google symptom queries Relevance of Data mining in trend tracking Civil liberties and the role of social networking technology in aiding underrepresented populations Environmental tracking and awareness i.e. carbon war room, etc.

Day Two Breakout session: “Best practices for introductory Computer Science” Breakout session: “Best practices for introductory Computer Science” Panel discussion featuring solution for recruiting and retention of women in intro CS classes. Rochester Institute of Technology- Formal written invitation for high school girls, Open houses, connection between CS and different fields. Rochester Institute of Technology- Formal written invitation for high school girls, Open houses, connection between CS and different fields. Technical College of NJ – include non-technical multimedia track that includes “Scratch” to teach programming lite, without “dumbing” down subject. Technical College of NJ – include non-technical multimedia track that includes “Scratch” to teach programming lite, without “dumbing” down subject. Union College – 5 Theme based intro courses: Engineering, AI, Robotics, Data structures & Games Union College – 5 Theme based intro courses: Engineering, AI, Robotics, Data structures & Games General Consensus: Need to get girls interested at a much earlier age!

Day Two Break out session: Inspiring Girls in Technology: Making every Outreach a Success. 5 panel discussion and activities with Google and Techbridge. Google and Chabot have created a program that successfully introduces girls to technology and engineering at the middle school age through the use of fun hands on labs. 5 panel discussion and activities with Google and Techbridge. Google and Chabot have created a program that successfully introduces girls to technology and engineering at the middle school age through the use of fun hands on labs. Their suggestion is a partnership of College / High school and Middle school teachers and students creating a mentoring network that creates a continuing technical learning environment. Utilization of “Alice” programming language. Their suggestion is a partnership of College / High school and Middle school teachers and students creating a mentoring network that creates a continuing technical learning environment. Utilization of “Alice” programming language. For tools: For tools:

Day Three Keynote Speaker: Fran Berman, VP for research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Director San Diego Supercomputer center, International Leader in Cyber-infrastructure, Fellow of ACM, Senior Member of IEEE. VP for research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Director San Diego Supercomputer center, International Leader in Cyber-infrastructure, Fellow of ACM, Senior Member of IEEE. In depth discussion of 10 year to 100 year plan for data preservation. In depth discussion of 10 year to 100 year plan for data preservation. More Info: More Info:

Award Winners: Ruzena Bajcsy, Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award Winner Professor Electrical Engineering at UC Berkeley, Director CITRIS Research and development of Tele- immersion technology For More Info:

Award Winners: Nadya Mason, Denice Denton Award winner. Assistant Professor Physics at University of Illinois, BS Harvard, PhD Stanford Condensed matter experimentalist focuses on how electrons behave. Condensed matter experimentalist focuses on how electrons behave. Research in Carbon Nanotube technology for Micro scale technology computing. Research in Carbon Nanotube technology for Micro scale technology computing. More Info: More Info: mason mason mason mason

Conclusion: Amazing experience and celebration of women and how far we have advanced and how we can continue to aid in the advancement of young women in technology and non-traditional fields. Next year it is being held in Atlanta, GA. Student scholarships are available. Next year it is being held in Atlanta, GA. Student scholarships are available.