The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing had two special technical tracks added to the program this year: open source and human-computer interaction. While I was definitely happy to see the open source track, it was the HCI talks that really got me excited. I'm just getting into HCI myself, choosing it as one of my topics for my PhD comprehensive exams and submitting my first CHI paper. There was so much to learn from a variety of great speakers!Read the rest of my post here.
Showing posts with label GHC10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GHC10. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
HCI Track at Grace Hopper
From the Communications of ACM blog:
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
NCWIT at Grace Hopper: Recruiting and Retaining Women
From the Communications of ACM blog:
Research scientists Lecia Barker and Joanne Cohoon from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) gave an excellent talk on recruiting and retaining women in computer science at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I almost didn’t attend because I’ve been immersed in these topics through my involvement with Carleton University’s Women in Science and Engineering group (known here as CU-WISE), but I found that I still learned a lot. I highly recommend taking a look at their website after reading my summary of the talk.Read the rest of my post here.
Friday, October 1, 2010
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.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Usable Security
One of the sessions I attended on Wednesday at GHC was a PhD forum. In this special type of session, three PhD students present their research in an hour, and the audience fills in feedback forms to give them suggestions and/or praise. It's a great opportunity.
The first presentation in this particular session was given by Laurian Vega, studying HCI at Virginia Tech. Her research is all about usable security, with a focus on day cares and doctor's offices. Although I'm not a security person by any stretch of the imagination, I found the topic quite interesting. (My friend Terri is also looking at usable security in her PhD research.)
Laurian is doing a qualitative study of security in the aforementioned settings by being an active observer of their everyday practices. One of the keys here in terms of security is that the users are members of communities, not individuals. And while it has been traditionally held that humans are the weakest link in security technology, neither Laurian and Terri buy it. Instead, they say that security is just not designed with user's mental models in mind.
One of the most interesting findings from the study was the reliance the practitioners have on paper records. They like the fact that the information is physically nearby. Some like that they can put more sensitive information near the back of a file where it's unlikely anyone else would look. The files can be closed and shredded. The downsides, however, include the fact that, according to some research whose source I can't remember, 41% of the time somebody is distracted they don't return to their task. This makes files left open vulnerable when whoever is reading them is interrupted.
Laurian's work will end before a concrete design is actually proposed. I am very interested in seeing what kind of technology would work well in these kinds of settings yet still be secure. I hope more security researchers become more willing to consider the human side of the security equation.
Terri also wrote about this session.
The first presentation in this particular session was given by Laurian Vega, studying HCI at Virginia Tech. Her research is all about usable security, with a focus on day cares and doctor's offices. Although I'm not a security person by any stretch of the imagination, I found the topic quite interesting. (My friend Terri is also looking at usable security in her PhD research.)
Laurian is doing a qualitative study of security in the aforementioned settings by being an active observer of their everyday practices. One of the keys here in terms of security is that the users are members of communities, not individuals. And while it has been traditionally held that humans are the weakest link in security technology, neither Laurian and Terri buy it. Instead, they say that security is just not designed with user's mental models in mind.
One of the most interesting findings from the study was the reliance the practitioners have on paper records. They like the fact that the information is physically nearby. Some like that they can put more sensitive information near the back of a file where it's unlikely anyone else would look. The files can be closed and shredded. The downsides, however, include the fact that, according to some research whose source I can't remember, 41% of the time somebody is distracted they don't return to their task. This makes files left open vulnerable when whoever is reading them is interrupted.
Laurian's work will end before a concrete design is actually proposed. I am very interested in seeing what kind of technology would work well in these kinds of settings yet still be secure. I hope more security researchers become more willing to consider the human side of the security equation.
Terri also wrote about this session.
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:
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.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sight Seeing in Atlanta
I arrived in Atlanta on Monday for this year's Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. The conference officially started on Tuesday night, so we had a bit of time to explore before registering. There's lots of great stuff we wanted to see, but settled on the Atlanta History Center.
On the grounds are two old buildings that you can tour. The first we went to was at the old farm house.
I found this tour pretty fascinating because my husband Andrew and I own an old farm house as well, and it turns out that the style of house found in rural Georgia in the mid 1800's is a lot like ours. The clapboard exterior matched exactly, and they had pine floors, just like us. One of the noticeable differences, however, was that their windows had a grid pattern and were thus likely made out of smaller panes of glass put together. Our windows (still original!) have just one large pane of glass for the whole upper or lower part.
We had fun posing in the kitchen outbuilding.
After that tour, we headed to the Swan House. It's a fancy house built in 1928 in the style of an old English country home. It's massive with columns! It's very ornate inside too, where photography was not allowed. A little too ornate in some cases. Neat to see the original showers from the 20's though - apparently they thought that washing your dirt away was more sanitary than sitting in it. Makes sense to me.
Other than that, we took a quick look at the Abraham Lincoln special exhibit that showcased a collection of original documents related to his life and presidency, and learned about the Civil War.
You can click on any of the above images for a larger view, and see the whole collection of my Atlanta and Grace Hopper shots here (I will be adding to them over the course of the week).
On the grounds are two old buildings that you can tour. The first we went to was at the old farm house.
I found this tour pretty fascinating because my husband Andrew and I own an old farm house as well, and it turns out that the style of house found in rural Georgia in the mid 1800's is a lot like ours. The clapboard exterior matched exactly, and they had pine floors, just like us. One of the noticeable differences, however, was that their windows had a grid pattern and were thus likely made out of smaller panes of glass put together. Our windows (still original!) have just one large pane of glass for the whole upper or lower part.
We had fun posing in the kitchen outbuilding.
After that tour, we headed to the Swan House. It's a fancy house built in 1928 in the style of an old English country home. It's massive with columns! It's very ornate inside too, where photography was not allowed. A little too ornate in some cases. Neat to see the original showers from the 20's though - apparently they thought that washing your dirt away was more sanitary than sitting in it. Makes sense to me.
Other than that, we took a quick look at the Abraham Lincoln special exhibit that showcased a collection of original documents related to his life and presidency, and learned about the Civil War.
You can click on any of the above images for a larger view, and see the whole collection of my Atlanta and Grace Hopper shots here (I will be adding to them over the course of the week).
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Who I Want to Meet at Grace Hopper
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.
I recently got some business cards printed. I designed them to look like my website, and I gave myself the tagline "computer scientist, educator, blogger." Right before they arrived in the mail, I heard that I was eligible to get a free Poken to use at the conference, since I'm a student. I'm pretty excited about the Pokens (I already set up an account and installed their iPhone app), but I'm actually still excited about my business cards. I think I will try to use both together. The Poken will be a convenient way to collect online profiles of people I meet, but the business card should help the people I give it to remember me a little better.
Credit: Ninja Poken / karola riegler photography
(I'm inspired by Cate's use of CC-licensed Flickr photos in her blog posts and am going to try to be more fun and do the same!)
Now that I've started the second year of my PhD, I know what my main thesis topic will be: educational games and augmented reality. I don't know what my exact project will be. I have a few ideas, and a research project that I've been working on lately in the realm of AR should really help ground my final choice. I figure that if I get the chance to meet some others in games, AR, and HCI in general, I might get some cool new ideas! So that's who I'll be looking for.
If you're interested in education, games, and/or augmented reality, and want to meet up, I'd love to set up a time to chat with you! I'll be in Atlanta from Monday until Sunday. Contact me.
I recently got some business cards printed. I designed them to look like my website, and I gave myself the tagline "computer scientist, educator, blogger." Right before they arrived in the mail, I heard that I was eligible to get a free Poken to use at the conference, since I'm a student. I'm pretty excited about the Pokens (I already set up an account and installed their iPhone app), but I'm actually still excited about my business cards. I think I will try to use both together. The Poken will be a convenient way to collect online profiles of people I meet, but the business card should help the people I give it to remember me a little better.
Credit: Ninja Poken / karola riegler photography
(I'm inspired by Cate's use of CC-licensed Flickr photos in her blog posts and am going to try to be more fun and do the same!)
Now that I've started the second year of my PhD, I know what my main thesis topic will be: educational games and augmented reality. I don't know what my exact project will be. I have a few ideas, and a research project that I've been working on lately in the realm of AR should really help ground my final choice. I figure that if I get the chance to meet some others in games, AR, and HCI in general, I might get some cool new ideas! So that's who I'll be looking for.
If you're interested in education, games, and/or augmented reality, and want to meet up, I'd love to set up a time to chat with you! I'll be in Atlanta from Monday until Sunday. Contact me.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
When Having a Lot of Facebook Friends is Good
Some people scoff at those who have too many friends on Facebook. "They probably just friend a bunch of people they don't know to look popular," they say. While I'm not interested in having lots of 'friends' for that reason, I do find that Facebook can be incredibly valuable for networking. That's why I tend to have 400-500+ connections at any given time.
You know how when you used to go to a conference and you met someone you were interested in connecting with? The standard practice would have been to exchange business cards. I have no idea how often people would have corresponded before email, but before social media, email was the main choice. I remember emailing people after some conferences in my early undergrad years. We'd exchange one -- maximum two -- emails and then forget about each other.
One day in early 2007, someone I met at a conference finally convinced me to join Facebook. I had been avoiding it because the concept seemed dumb at the time (shows how much I knew), but finally relented so I could keep in touch with this person and a few other conference attendees.
This kind of networking is still probably one of my most valuable reasons to have Facebook to this day. Now if I want to keep in touch with someone, I find them on Facebook instead of thinking I'll actually email them more than the first time. I can have a passive connection with them where neither of us have to put any extra work into keeping in touch, but we don't forget about each other. Plus, if I see an update from one of these people that I think I can help out with, I jump on the opportunity. Most do the same for me. I've definitely seen many of them again thanks to this!
(Note: This goes for Twitter or any other social network that you and the other person you are connecting with use often. Take advantage of the places you hang out anyway!)
You know how when you used to go to a conference and you met someone you were interested in connecting with? The standard practice would have been to exchange business cards. I have no idea how often people would have corresponded before email, but before social media, email was the main choice. I remember emailing people after some conferences in my early undergrad years. We'd exchange one -- maximum two -- emails and then forget about each other.
One day in early 2007, someone I met at a conference finally convinced me to join Facebook. I had been avoiding it because the concept seemed dumb at the time (shows how much I knew), but finally relented so I could keep in touch with this person and a few other conference attendees.
This kind of networking is still probably one of my most valuable reasons to have Facebook to this day. Now if I want to keep in touch with someone, I find them on Facebook instead of thinking I'll actually email them more than the first time. I can have a passive connection with them where neither of us have to put any extra work into keeping in touch, but we don't forget about each other. Plus, if I see an update from one of these people that I think I can help out with, I jump on the opportunity. Most do the same for me. I've definitely seen many of them again thanks to this!
(Note: This goes for Twitter or any other social network that you and the other person you are connecting with use often. Take advantage of the places you hang out anyway!)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Getting Ready for a Conference
Grace Hopper is fast approaching so I find myself, once again, madly going through my usual routine list of tasks to do before heading to a conference. Here's my process:
- Get funding. This comes from different sources depending on the conference, ranging for me from our CU-WISE budget to Carleton's Student Activity Fund to my supervisor.
- Make a Google Map. I create a new map for each conference or event I travel to. I start by plotting the main conference hotel. If applicable, I then add other hotel options. Finally, I add potential sight-seeing opportunities and restaurants I want to visit.
- Book flights and hotel. This one's pretty obvious. Best to get it sorted out early.
- Plan schedule. This certainly won't be set in stone, but I like to look through the conference program and decide what sessions are "can't miss," and add these to my Google Calendar. I also try to plan out the sight-seeing portions of the trip (I always make sure to have some extra time for looking around!).
- Gather documentation and currency. I print out all my flight and hotel info, my schedule, and make a packing list. I make sure I have my passport and enough money in the appropriate currency. I also bring my marriage certificate because I changed my name on a lot of my documentation, but not my passport. This time I'm also going to order custom business cards to hand out at the conference.
- Prepare camera. Fresh batteries, clean memory cards, and in my case, clean lenses. I also have to decide what equipment I'll take (lenses? flash? carrying cases?).
- Prepare laptop/phone. Again, want to make sure they are well charged for the plane, and that I have all the charging cables. I also try to make sure all the software I might want is installed on the computer I'm bringing.
- Pack. It really is best not to leave this until the last minute. Use the packing list you made earlier and cross stuff off once it's ready in your "packing pile." Be sure to be strategic in what you put in your carry-on if you are checking your main bag. Just pretend your main bag will get lost and put your essentials in the carry-on.
- Triple check flight times. I've been wrong before.
- Check in online. Even though it doesn't take much less time to do it online, I feel more comfortable, since I think it means I have a little more leeway time to get to the airport (since the cut-off for boarding is later than the cut-off for checking in). I hope I'm not wrong on this!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Grace Hopper How-To's
The Online Communities Committee for this year's Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing has been working to bring you a series of how-to's that are intended to help you get the most out of the conference this year (before, during, and after).
I kicked things off with the basics of using Flickr:
Conference goers have rated the usefulness of participating in any online community very highly, and I can vouch for the fact that getting involved in any way really does enhance the experience. So don't delay! Go upload last year's photos or introduce yourself in a community today!
I kicked things off with the basics of using Flickr:
With the advent of digital cameras, we can all consider ourselves photographers. But what happens to the hundreds of photos you'll inevitably take at this year's Grace Hopper? Instead of letting them sit unopened on your hard drive, why not share them with fellow attendees and those who couldn't make it? The best place to do this is on Flickr!Valerie continued the series with some great tips for LinkedIn:
While Grace Hopper is a great technical conference, it is also a wonderful place to network and find jobs. When you're preparing for the conference, you should consider creating a LinkedIn profile or updating your existing one. LinkedIn is a great professional networking site, ripe with opportunities to reconnect to past colleagues and find new employment.And most recently, Kate tells us the ins and outs of Facebook:
Those of you who have been to GHC know what a great opportunity it presents for networking - and those of you who haven't been before are soon to find out! Facebook is a great tool to help you make new connections and maintain them after the conference, so I wanted to share a few tips on using it to help you get the most out of this year's GHC.Watch for posts on Twitter and YouTube later at the Grace Hopper blog.
Conference goers have rated the usefulness of participating in any online community very highly, and I can vouch for the fact that getting involved in any way really does enhance the experience. So don't delay! Go upload last year's photos or introduce yourself in a community today!
Monday, July 12, 2010
My Favourite Grace Hopper Memories
My fellow Grace Hopper Communities Committee members wanted to share our favourite Grace Hopper memories over the next few days, and we hope you'll do the same! It's so much fun reflecting back on what has made Grace Hopper so special to me. I'll pick just a few aspects to share here.
One of the things that has made Grace Hopper so exciting is the opportunity to travel to new places. I never would have imagined visiting Keystone, CO in 2008 or Tucson, AZ in 2009. We arrived early both years so we could look around and enjoy the surroundings. Lazing in the lake 11,000 feet up in the mountains in Keystone was beyond relaxing.
And getting to meet the saguaro cactus in Tucson was surreal.
But even more important than the scenery was who I got to enjoy it with. Both years, members of the CU-WISE executive managed to scrounge together enough money to make it to Grace Hopper (getting scholarships last year certainly helped!). The group of us got a suite of rooms both years because, believe it or not, doing so is actually cheaper for that number of people. The bonding that took place was so wonderful, and we learned more than we ever knew we could at the conference talks. I can honestly attribute the smashing success of our WISE group to our ability to attend Grace Hopper together.
I can't wait until Atlanta!
Do you have a favourite memory? Check out the sister post on the Grace Hopper blog to see how you can join in the fun!
One of the things that has made Grace Hopper so exciting is the opportunity to travel to new places. I never would have imagined visiting Keystone, CO in 2008 or Tucson, AZ in 2009. We arrived early both years so we could look around and enjoy the surroundings. Lazing in the lake 11,000 feet up in the mountains in Keystone was beyond relaxing.
And getting to meet the saguaro cactus in Tucson was surreal.
But even more important than the scenery was who I got to enjoy it with. Both years, members of the CU-WISE executive managed to scrounge together enough money to make it to Grace Hopper (getting scholarships last year certainly helped!). The group of us got a suite of rooms both years because, believe it or not, doing so is actually cheaper for that number of people. The bonding that took place was so wonderful, and we learned more than we ever knew we could at the conference talks. I can honestly attribute the smashing success of our WISE group to our ability to attend Grace Hopper together.
I can't wait until Atlanta!
Do you have a favourite memory? Check out the sister post on the Grace Hopper blog to see how you can join in the fun!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
My Grace Hopper Communities Introduction
I'm on the Grace Hopper Online Communities Committee this year, and our first mini-campaign is all about introducing ourselves and trying to encourage others to the do same. I wrote an introduction post on the official Grace Hopper blog:
Hi everyone! My name is Gail, and I'm on this year's Grace Hopper Online Communities Committee. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and hope that you, too, will find a community you can introduce yourself in.You can read the rest of this post and many others on the Grace Hopper blog. Be sure to check out some of the communities available to us. Now is a great time to start meeting other conference attendees with similar interests!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
GHC10 Talks
It's that time of year again! My travel scholarship application is in, our committee on online communities is starting to make headway, and the results of our talk submissions are out. Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2010 to be held in October in Atlanta, Georgia is in season.
I was involved with a couple of submissions this year, but unfortunately only one got in (but I'm still excited to be a speaker in some capacity!). The panels I organized were on making the most of grad school. The concept was that there are lots of risks and rewards for going beyond the research, and not everyone is aware of them, nor does everyone know about the extra-curricular opportunities available. The topics and panelists I gathered together were really amazing, but our submission document probably needed some work. For instance, it looked like we had too many panelists and topics for a one hour slot. I learned a lot from the reviewers and will definitely try again next year.
The other panel I'm on came out of the blue, and I'm really excited to meet and work with the other ladies on that one. It's going to be on outreach using video games, but with a particular focus on attracting girls to the programs in the first place. I've had good luck with my mini-course, but other groups have had a harder time with recruitment, so what is it that makes them give it a chance?
This conference always reinvigorates me and makes me that much more motivated to be the best I can in my graduate program. This time I'll be more or less just starting my PhD research when I attend, and expect that I'll have many interesting conversations with chances to mentor and be mentored. I can't wait for October!
I was involved with a couple of submissions this year, but unfortunately only one got in (but I'm still excited to be a speaker in some capacity!). The panels I organized were on making the most of grad school. The concept was that there are lots of risks and rewards for going beyond the research, and not everyone is aware of them, nor does everyone know about the extra-curricular opportunities available. The topics and panelists I gathered together were really amazing, but our submission document probably needed some work. For instance, it looked like we had too many panelists and topics for a one hour slot. I learned a lot from the reviewers and will definitely try again next year.
The other panel I'm on came out of the blue, and I'm really excited to meet and work with the other ladies on that one. It's going to be on outreach using video games, but with a particular focus on attracting girls to the programs in the first place. I've had good luck with my mini-course, but other groups have had a harder time with recruitment, so what is it that makes them give it a chance?
This conference always reinvigorates me and makes me that much more motivated to be the best I can in my graduate program. This time I'll be more or less just starting my PhD research when I attend, and expect that I'll have many interesting conversations with chances to mentor and be mentored. I can't wait for October!
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