There and back again: 2012 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

What a whirlwind trip I had to Baltimore for the 2012 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing! It has been a little over a week since I got back and my head is still spinning.

The purpose of this conference, which is put on by the Anita Borg Institute, is to encourage and support women to choose careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Both organizations celebrate the unrelenting passion of their name sakes (Grace and Anita) to further the advancement of women in technology. It was incredibly inspiring to stand "on the shoulder" of these giants in the field: to know that their hard work has opened so many doors for me and my cohort.

I was lucky enough to get a scholarship from the Anita Borg Institute to come - and I did my best to represent my fellow Systers.

The conference had something for everyone: there were tracks for undergraduates, graduate students, and professional women. There were research talks on cutting edge technologies and panels on how to navigate through your career. There was even a three day long career fair running throughout the entire event. If anything, my one complaint was there was almost TOO much to do and I was overwhelmed with all the options I had to choose from.

But it wasn't all just work: it was a blast getting to catch up with old friend and make new connections.

At the Maryland Science Center to celebrate Syster's 25th anniversary

This year's conference was sold out with 3600 participants - which is amazing considering that just 10 years ago the conference only had 500 participants.

I got to see my mentor from this summer, Nadyne Richmond (second from the left), present on a panel about how to influence without Authority. The big take away: always know your audience! Persuasion is not hard if you can empathize and understand what their perspective is.

There were also a lot of great photo opportunities. This one is of me and my SI friend Andrea having fun in the Google photo booth.

This is me, Andrea, and our friend Mary (also from SI) taking at anti-gravity photo at the Maryland Science center. Priceless....

Baltimore was a lot more fun than I was anticipating. The downtown, with its restaurants and museums offered hours of post-conference entertainment.

Not to mention all the amazing fried-crab-inspired food options.

All in all it was an amazing trip that I will strongly recommend to all the first-years at SI. This conference is about more than just saying that diversity in technology is important .... this conference makes you feel the power of how much women can contribute to STEM fields. It is a shot in the arm to anyone whose felt frustrated or discouraged that they weren't good enough: this experience is about reminding you that you can do anything you set your mind to!

Ruling the school as a 2nd year MSI...

Apologies for the radio silence - I've been conquering my school BWWHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAH [insert manicle hand rubbing, shifty eye movements, and imaginary mustache twirling here]

But seriously, I've come back to take SI by storm! I'm an officer in two clubs, both related to my major career interests, and am already starting to plan for next year's A2 DataDive. I'm a first name basis with our Dean, who is lending his full support to our event. And apparently, I'm quite literally an SI poster child...

...using information analysis is what it is suppose to say [facepalm]

Apparently all my hard work last year paid off.... In more way than one I'm learning; I only needed 5 classes this entire year to graduate. So I'm taking it easy: 3 this term and 2 next term. What's great is the classes I'm taking (Interaction Design, Fundamentals of Human Behavior, and Information Visualization) all look like they will feed well into each other.

Plus I got a sweet internship at a local start up, DeepField, with a former classmate of mine. It is an internet analytics company; we monitor traffic and flows and report back on the infrastructure costs to customers. This job literally combines all of my loves: economics, big data, and information visualization of that data. I'm going to be working on how to represent all this information to users in a useful way through the interface.

There are a ton of articles out there about how awesome DeepField is, but I'm going to point you to this most recent one in the Atlantic not just because of how cool we sound, but also because I have a little cameo over Naim's shoulder.

Who is that intelligent looking woman in pink?

Allen's deep in the throes of applying for academic positions for next year ("GoTeamAllenGetAJob!"). There is a lot of material he has to present with each application, including writing samples and prospective syllabi ... but he seems to managing to juggle this work and his fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art quite nicely. I'll leave it to him to give you an update on what he's doing (cough, cough) ...wink, wink, nudge, nudge Allen.....

But just know we're both happy, active, and amazingly productive!

There and back again. Goodbye SF! Hello A2!

What an amazingly eventful summer we've had. Apologies for neglecting this blog for so long, but once you get through this doozy of a post I hope you'll understand what was keeping us so preoccupied.

I finished up my internship at VMware by mid-August. Put simply, VMware sells software to help IT departments maximize the efficiency of their hardware by allowing them to create virtual machines. I had an amazing time working with their User Experience team doing research on how virtual infrastructure administrators did troubleshooting when their customers complained that their machines weren't working properly.

Presenting my Tri-force of Communication at the R&D Poster Session

You can read more about what I worked on here. Not only did I get to offer design recommendations for two of VMware's products based on my research, but I also was named a semi-finalist in the R&D interns poster presentations. There were a lot of professional highlights for me during the summer and they were all made possibly by the open and collaborative team I worked with.

While I was wrapping up at VMware, Allen was working diligently on his dissertation. He and his advisor set a hard deadline for submitting his final draft for Aug 20th and we're happy to report that he was able to turn it in a day early! So, now he gets started working on job applications - Whoohoo! It is really too early to say anything about where the two of us might end up, but the number of job postings is (thankfully) growing by the day for positions all over the country and all over the world. Fingers crossed!

But thankfully our time in San Francisco isn't all work and no play. I was keeping track of my comings and goings on Foursquare this summer and as you can see ... we definitely got around.

Locations covered in North, East, and South Bay

Zoomed-in on the City, with transit lines shown

What makes me laugh is how all my activities in San Francisco proper are limited to the Mission (where I was living for the first part of the summer) and then within walking distance of the Muni and BART lines.

I feel so thankful for all of the wonderful friends I got to spend time with this summer. New co-workers, classmates from Barnard and the University of Michigan, and random other friends from all corners of our life came out for our going away party in Dolores Park.

Party in Dolores Park

Its good to know that we have roots to come back to if we ever find our way back to California.

But our summer hasn't ended in California folks! Oh no! We flew back to NJ, recovered from jet-lag, hung out with my parents and brother, and then hit the open road for Asheville..... where no visit to the Roda household would be complete without copious amounts of bridge playing!

What's trump again?

... and because Allen was able to wrap up his dissertation draft earlier than expected we've actually had the chance to hang out with some of our other friends in town.

Blueberry picking in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Victoria, Stephen, and Samantha

But soon we were back on the road again, this time to visit our Kentucky family. It was so wonderful to see Richard, Mary, and baby Caroline! It was a little too hot to do much of anything other than play with the baby, which ... honestly, didn't mind us at all.

Don't you remember your goofy Uncle Allen?

And with that we drove the 6 hours up to Ann Abor!
Weeeeee'rrrreeeeee BAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCKKK! And we're already up to silliness. Tonight is Mediterranean food and trivia and then for the rest of the week I'm booked with helping out at SI's orientation for the incoming kiddie-winks.

Its a little bitter-sweet being here. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with some of my awesome classmates. But I can't also help thinking of all my 2nd-year friends who have moved on and I know that I only have one more week with Allen before he heads off to NY and his fellowship at the Met..... but I'm keeping my hopes up that I'm going to be making more life-long friends this upcoming year!

SHAKESPEARE

Been seeing loads of Shakespeare here in London. And it has been delightful.  I hope I will get to see productions of all of his plays at some point in time.

We saw 12th Night, the Tempest, and Comedy of Errors all performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was amazing to see Malvolio transform into Prospero in the same day!!

We also got to go to the Globe where we saw Henry the Vth, which was also spectacular.  here are some pictures:

The view of St. Paul's walking back along the Millenium Bridge is definitely photo worthy:

Wimbledon!

Since the Finals are on right now, I thought I'd throw up some pictures of when we went to Wimbledon last week. It was super fun!

At Center Court

The highlight was probably seeing The Williams Sisters totally dominate Women's Doubles!

St. Dunstans!

Gina learned about a cool church that was bombed out during WWII, however, the walls still remained. Some really smart people decided to make it into a garden by planting trees and vines that would grow along the walls and through the windows. The result is fantastic. It was just a wonderfully beautiful little public park tucked in behind some buildings in an out-of-the-way corner of London.

Overdue: Google Scholars Retreat, 10K Run, Twin Peaks, and Pride in SF

Allen's post yesterday shamed me into posting about all the crazy things that happened last weekend!  ;)

It was a whirlwind and it started last Wednesday at the Google Scholar's Retreat. I was made a finalist for the Anita Borg Scholarship for Women in Technology that Google sponsors in collaboration with the Anita Borg Institute. The retreat was for all the diversity scholarships that Google sponsors, so there were groups that represented Native Americans, African Americans,  Hispanic Americans, Veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

A fun place to work, literally, with a slide in the office

I'll admit it was pretty cool to hang out at the Googleplex. We got a previewed look at the Google Glass Project...

Sebastian showing the before and after

And I tried to talk the advice of one of my professors and gorge myself on Odwalla that was "in the building behind the dinosaur" ... sadly, I failed on that mission, it must have been moved. Sorry Dr. Chuck.

 Me and Stan the T-Rex

But honestly the best part of the retreat was meeting all the other amazing and inspiring scholars.

My roommate, Amanda 

Nicki, Nikki, and Kehontas... Retreat BFFs

I'm really looking forward to keeping in touch with these wonderful ladies. I know they will be doing amazing things in the future ... and I only hope I can be a part of it.

But this wasn't the end of my crazy weekend. On the Saturday after the retreat, I met up with my coworkers in Palo Alto to run a 10k in the Packard Summer Scamper, a race that is apparently a lot more serious than I was expecting - oops!

We did it! Rafae, Lisa, Nikki, and Steve

And we totally finished - in a little over an hour! Which as you can tell from my surprise, that was an entirely un expected outcome.  :p

But the fun didn't stop there! It was an absolutely gorgeous day - the clearest since I arrived in SF. So Rafae and I went up to Twin Peaks, which has the best view of the city....

Where's the fog?

And ... the view definitely did not disappoint.

Last but not least, I got to go to the San Francisco Pride Parade. This is one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the country and it was an amazing spectacle to see. It was so bright, colorful, open, and friendly... it would have been incredibly difficult to not be affected by all the love and celebration that surrounded you.

Fabulous!

Believe it or not, I'm in for another amazing adventure this weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to try to rustle up some of my SI friends for a trip to Muir Woods. Then on Sunday, I'm doing a full-day bootcamp to learn the programming language Ruby. Fingers crossed, I'm in for some more excitement.

The English Countryside with Dutch Family!

So it has been awhile since I updated on life here. A few weeks back I went to visit my cousin in Marlborough, Wiltshire and meet her fiancee, David, the dapper young man in the photo below.

While we were there, we decided to go to Avebury Henge, which is sort of like Stonehenge only much bigger and the stones are farther apart (so it's not really as spectacular). BUT, you can walk up to them, touch them, bring your dogs, etc. It's much more accessible than Stonehenge and not filled with nearly as many tourists.

Aunt Lucy and Uncle Harry at the first Stone we encountered. It was so great to see them. We've been really blessed that our paths have crossed 3 summers in a row!

Panoramic of the village and the site. The village just sort of spills into the archeological site. they can't really be separated.

And some of the rocks are quite big!

B.ay A.rea D.erby: A league of their own

So my friend Amanda, from my NYU days and who has been hosting me in SF, competes in the Bay Area Derby League (BAD for short) and I finally got to see her play in a bout last night.

But first - the volunteering to set up the track! This is an entirely volunteer organization, so anything that needs doing they have to do themselves. The event was being held at Craneville Pavillion in Richmond but it was BYOT (bring your own track). So we loaded up the UHaul truck with the plastic tracking that the ladies use on such occasions (since there isn't a dedicated track in SF) and began the laborous process of putting it all together, literally piece by piece.

Laying out the floor

What can't these ladies do!?

Track is all laid out

Setting up the lines and barriers

The finished product in use

I could try to write up all the rules of bouts (the pack, the jammers trying to lap the pack, penalties, etc) but its probably best if a professional explains it. See the video below for a brief intro of how the game is played.

Amanda - excuse me, I mean Cass, as in Cass Warfare, her derby name; which is literally what all of the other players know her as. Anyway, Cass plays for the Oakland Outlaws.

Oakland Outlaws warming up

Enthusiastic crowds are the order of the evening at derby matches I've learned. And it is pretty common to come with homemade signs cheering your favorite players on. Below is the sign of one of Cass's teammate's boyfriend's (mouthful!)

Go Sinnocent!

It was like a giant party: there were food stalls, vendors of all sorts, merch, bar stands ... you name it. And I was really super impressed with how many very enthusiastic fans there were in the crowd (myself included).

The ladies in black, unfortunately, didn't win their bout, but they didn't go down without a fight.... quite literally in some cases

But, despite the loss, these women are all still friends (or maybe frienemies?). Yeah, emotions get riled during a game, but they all mix together in the all stars league or the traveling team. They are competitors and teammates... and maybe most importantly friends.

All smiles!

But honestly, that camaraderie really blew me away. We had been joking on our way to the bout that derby girls would have their own A League of Their Own style reunion 60 years from now and reminisce about the "old good days" --- but there is something truly remarkable, I think, about a bunch of women doing traditionally masculine things (hard-contact sports) but doing it in their own unique way. Maybe their more like the Greek Amazons, a tight knit collection of warriors.... It is very hard not to feel inspired by them as you see them racing around the track

Newest derby girl? Probably not......... yet?

That said, I'm probably not ready yet for the commitment to derby. Cass commits between 10-15 hours a week to practice, team meetings, setting up and helping at bouts, etc.... and I just don't think I have that time to commit right now. But it really makes me happy to see women making roller derby a fun and fascinating sport to watch.