Grace Hopper Celebration 2010 - View from the Program Chairs - by Wendy Rannenberg

You might not realize it, but we started planning for this spectacular conference in July 2009. For us, it is wonderful to see the schedule come together, the letters of acceptance go out to the hundreds of presenters, the keynotes lined up, all just in time for us to start work on next year's conference.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This year's conference theme, Collaborating Across Boundaries, highlights collaboration across boundaries of: academics, industry and government; international borders; multidisciplinary aspects of computer science; K-12 and higher education. There are probably more but you get the gist. It is a very broad set of topics.

This is a milestone conference. Not only is this the 10th celebration, it is the largest and we have responded to your input by adding new tracks, new collaborations, all at an exciting venue. This year the program committee saw an increase in the number of papers, panels and workshops that were submitted for review. Wow. So many great ideas. We have seen an increased interest in the conference from both academia and industry, here in the US and abroad. We are truly getting noticed.

Here, in this first article in our "View from the Program Chairs" series we take a look at many of the conference features and a closer look at a new event, the new Career Fair, and the Open Source track as well as the Technical Papers track.

In response to requests from our industry partners, the committee has added a Career Fair to be held on Tuesday (Note that is a day earlier than usual! Be sure to mark your calendars.) The Career Fair will have simultaneous tracks where you can meet up with our many sponsors who are hiring and also where you can work on your resume. In addition to the Career Fair and Resume Clinic there will be a Women of Color Workshop on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we will have the Phd Forum and New Investigator talks, and lots of career development workshops for both industry and academia. These will be followed by the poster session and opening reception.

After that great start the conference will have 10 tracks for you to ponder on both Thursday and Friday. (remember, it is the10th anniversary). We highly recommend you attend the Newcomers session on Wednesday to get tips for selecting from the wide variety of choices. The tracks are focused on Academia, Industry, Technical, Student, Career, our Theme track, Invited Technical Speakers, a special Steering Committee track, an Open Source track and an HCI track. There are Executive Forums, Leadership workshops and more.

The Open Source technical track is being designed specifically for the conference by a team of women who are dedicated to increasing the number of women involved in the open source community. A series of talks and hands on exercises will lead you through the process of getting started and understanding the tools out there.

In addition to the Open Source track we will be presenting a special track on Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This will be highlighted in our next article, along with some of the other special topics and presenters that we have lined up.

All in all this is going to be a very exciting conference!


Wendy Rannenberg is the Grace Hopper 2010 Program Co-Chair

The Fight or Flight Moment: Understanding Why We Leave or Stay in Industry

This session was a lot to take in (in a good way) but I did my best at writing notes. The presenter was Sue Dorward from Sudo Coaching. I could tell she knew what she was talking about and I am thankful that she took the time to present her data to us.

First off I would like to mention that both industry and women benefit from retaining women in industry. Companies are starting to work more at retaining women because there is more demand than supply and it is expensive to replace us. At least that is the short version of the answer.

Sue highlighted three studies that were done on women in industry. They were the Athena Factor by Harvard University, the Catalyst, and a study called "Climbing the Technical Ladder". They are available online except for the Harvard one. Check out the notes page for where to find them.

Like I mentioned, there was a lot of awesome data to take in, so I will briefly mention what these studies concluded.

Why do women leave industry?

1. extreme job pressure and they feel isolated, lacking mentors and so on
2. culture not women-friendly and they are still experiencing sexual harassment
3. compensation and they feel their careers are stalled by mid-career

What can women do?

1. work in a company with >= 10% women in management positions
2. get mentors, sponsors (who make your accomplishments known), role models, and figure out your career paths
3. work in a company with more flexible career track timing, on-ramps, etc.

My notes also go into more details about how mid-level women are more likely to have a partner working full time than mid-level men, what companies can do, and so on. So check it out and I encourage you to write your comments below!

Student Support Groups: How to Build Them and Do They Work?

I'm part of a group of amazing women who are presenting a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session at 4:30 on Thursday October 1. It's called Support Groups for Women in STEM: International Perspectives:

Retaining women in STEM fields has been a challenge globally. Studies suggest that peer support, mentoring, and female role models help. This session brings together student leaders from around the world to discuss the strategies and challenges of building and sustaining support groups. Are these groups working? Surprising results from our research will be presented in this interactive discussion with group leaders.

I'm really excited about this talk. The five executives of Carleton University's Women in Science and Engineering (aka CU-WISE) - Barbora, Natalia, Serena, Lindsay, and me - will be showing you how we rebuilt our group. We started only a couple of years ago from nothing, but you wouldn't know it if you saw us today! We believe everyone can be successful in creating a similar support group, whether it be for students or industry professionals.

The second part of the talk is also going to be very interesting. Students from the Women in Computer Science group at Simon Fraser University and from MenTe (Mujeres en Tecnologia) in Mexico will tell us about their research on how well these student support groups are actually working.

Whether you can attend our talk or not, you can participate in the conversation! We have set up a website called Support Groups for Women in STEM, where we have posted all kinds of useful links and resources for you. We hope you will leave comments on the pages and come with all kinds of great ideas and questions in Tuscon!

What is the GHC Poster Session and Why Should I Go?

We asked Bettina Bair, co-chair of the GHC Poster Committee, to explain what the Poster Session is and what's in it for you. Here's what she wrote. — bj

When I first started attending professional conferences, I had no idea what a "poster session" was. I visualized some sort of Woodstock-esque gathering, with people sitting on the floor of a blacklight lit room, wallpapered with posters that espoused "Peace, Love & Computers". Okay, that was a little scary. And, it turns out, really really wrong.

Now I know that the poster session is just about the best activity at any conference. And the poster session at the Grace Hopper Celebration is better than most, and I'm not just saying that because I've been the GHC Planning Committee Poster co-Chair twice. At the GHC poster session there might be 70 to 100 research posters, all tacked up on screens. Each poster will have one or two friendly and knowledgeable presenters on hand to explain the findings. The poster session at GHC is also a welcome reception, so there is a lot of time for meeting and chatting. Don't forget to enjoy the hors d'oeuvres, and beverages (cash bar).

1) Research Posters are a great way to quickly skim research and get an overview of what's new in your field. A research poster is usually about a new issue or concern -- usually with some preliminary insights. Most posters are prepared by grad students, but undergrads, faculty and industry professionals present posters too.

2) The Poster Session makes it easy to find others with similar interests. After skimming through all of the posters, I usually have two or three that I want to look at more carefully. When I get back, if I see other people at the same poster, its a perfect time for me to open a discussion with them, "Isn't this interesting? Are you doing anything similar at your institution?". Make sure to exchange cards with them.

... oh my gosh, this would be a perfect time to get CONNECTed. Find a scanner and get linked up in the database. Read more: gracehopper.org/2009/community/connect

3) If you are an undergraduate student, the poster session is a good time to shop for grad schools. Wander around and see what schools are doing research that is interesting to you. Talk to the student presenting the poster and ask her about her school and professors. Make sure that you take some notes and get her name, because these details look good in a grad school application letter.

Another thing that you can do, is look for the posters being presented by other undergrads. This year there are about thirteen undergrad posters. Think about proposing a poster yourself next year.

4) If you are a graduate student, you may already be presenting in the poster session. It's good practice, and you will meet others who are doing related work. If you are not presenting a poster this year, then use your time to plan a poster for next year.

5) If you are a faculty member, you may be looking for students that will be ready to apply for faculty positions with your college soon. Or you might be interested in seeing what other institutions are doing. Or you might be supporting your own students who are presenting posters.

6) If you are an industry professional [note from bj: or a sponsor!], this is a recruiting opportunity for you too. The undergrads that propose and present a research paper are clever, motivated and friendly. They'd make great employees, wouldn't they?

The Opening Reception & SRC Poster Competition and General Poster Session will be on Wednesday, September 30th from 7pm to 9pm. The reception is informal and unstructured. Come early and stay late -- or vice versa. It's all good.