MICWIC 2019

Join us for presentations, panel discussions, a poster session, and career exploration. We welcome participation by anyone interested in learning about rewards of careers in computing fields or in advancing technology through broader representation of women.

Students! Come meet other people interested in computing, learn about career choices and graduate study, and attend a career fair.

Professionals! Meet and mentor the next generation of computing professionals, network with other technology leaders, and share your experiences and strategies for success.

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Keynotes


Anita Sarma

Associate Professor, Oregon State University

Anita Sarma

Anita Sarma is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University. Before this she was an Assistant Professor at University of Nebraska, Lincoln; a post-doctoral scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctoral student at University of California, Irvine. Through this journey her passion has been on helping humans make better software and work together. A primary focus of her research is in helping onboarding of newcomers and increasing diversity in Open Source Software. Overall, Dr. Sarma’s research has resulted in 42 peer-reviewed publications (33 conferences, 9 journals). Her work has been funded through NSF and Airforce (AFOSR). She has been the recipient of the NSF CAREER award.

Is the Software Itself Gender-Biased? Open Source Tools and More

Gender inclusiveness in software companies is receiving a lot of attention these days, but it overlooks a potentially critical factor: software itself. Research into how individual differences cluster by gender shows that males and females often work differently with software for problem-solving, such as when trying to contribute to Open Source Software (OSS) communities. In this talk, Dr. Sarma will describe a field-tested method based on 5 facets of statistical gender differences in preferred cognitive styles. She will then present what the method reveals about Open-Source Software tools and infrastructure — namely that the tools themselves are deeply implicated in gender disparities in OSS communities. She will end the talk with ways to get involved with OSS, get involved in removing gender biases from software, and more.


Cheryl Howard

Senior Data Scientist, IBM Hybrid Cloud Lab Services Practice

Cheryl Howard

Cheryl Howard is a Senior Data Scientist with IBM's Hybrid Cloud Lab Services practice. She has over two decades experience helping clients build solutions using data science and machine learning across a broad range of applications and domains. She has worked on government and commercial applications in the defense intelligence, homeland security, tax, financial, and telecommunications domains. She has extensive experience in fraud prevention, insider threat detection, market analysis, and customer behavior prediction. She particularly enjoys coaching and mentoring emerging data scientists and teams on best practices in model development and deployment. Her current focus is on creating synergy between enterprise and open source tools in heterogeneous data environments. She was recently cited as one of the "Outstanding Women in Analytics 2017" on Forbes.com. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees in Computer Science with a concentration in Machine Learning from The George Washington University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester.

Is Data Scientist Really the Best Job in America?

In 2018, the popular job site, Glassdoor, ranked Data Scientist at the top of its list of “Best Jobs in America” for the third year running. Data Science is an incredibly fast-growing field which combines aspects of computer science, statistics, engineering, and business understanding. Its interdisciplinary nature and applicability to virtually any industry provide limitless career possibilities. Dr. Howard will reflect on her long career in Machine Learning, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence (and on whether those are actually different things.) She will discuss opportunities, challenges, and current trends in the field as well as skills and strategies for success.

Keynote Speakers Sponsored by:

What is MICWIC?

The 7th biennial Michigan Celebration of Women in Computing (MICWIC 2019) is part of a nationwide effort to increase the meaningful participation of women in the computing profession. In the tradition of prior ACM Celebrations, MICWIC 2019 will focus attention on the research success and career interests of women in computing and information technology. It will bring together students, faculty, and business leaders from across Michigan and neighboring states to discuss the role of women in today's technology fields, share experiences and strategies for success, and explore issues common to women working in these fields.

MICWIC is an ACM Celebration. For more information, contact micwic@acm.org


Countdown to MICWIC!

Early Bird Registration Deadline: Extended to March 8 (6:00 PM EST)

Poster Deadline: Poster submissions accepted until the poster session fills or March 15, whichever comes first

March 15: Pledges accepted until this date (space permitting)

March 22: Last day to submit resumes.

March 29-30: MICWIC 2019
Friday, March 29:
4 pm - 10 pm: MICWIC Conference

Saturday, March 30
9 am - 4 pm: MICWIC Conference
1 pm - 3 pm: Career Fair

All MICWIC 2019 events are in the Eberhard Center, Grand Valley State University, 301 Fulton W, Grand Rapids, MI 49504.

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