OCWIC 2011, February 18-19, 2011

A few of us attended Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing which took place in Ashland County, in Mohican Resort and Conference Center. As the organizers put it,
OCWIC (say Oh, Quick!) is a low cost, regionally-tailored, professional conference, modeled after the international Grace Hopper Celebration. The goal of the conference is to provide social and professional support for women in computing.
We attended a lot of lightning talks, career panels, paper presentations, and learned, learned, learned. But we also enjoyed ourselves. We came back to Detroit reinvigorated, with a reignited passion for anything and everything that is computing related - and this says a lot, given the middle of quite a winter we've had in Michigan this season.
Thank you, our Ohio neighbors for welcoming us with open arms and for creating this opportunity (and for all the cool goodies, too :)

Tea with Fahima

On Wed, October 27, Fahima shared with us her experience with the Imagine Cup competition, including her team's national finals in Washington, D.C. Her team, LifeCode, has been working on the project that "aims to combat diseases through a tele-health data-capture and analysis platform, with the potential to track patient vital signs and profiles in remote, urban, rural and developing areas."

There are two articles about the team available online: one at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/apr10/04-20LifeCode.mspx and the other at http://media.wayne.edu/2010/04/09/wayne-state-university-students-selected-as-finalists

Fahima's team has a video available on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfEKdbiSR2U

Career Prep Series Panel

Tuesday, September 21, 2010
3:00pm Rm. 110 Purdy-Kresge Library
Job fairs, conferences, and other research and technical events have one thing in common - they all constitute the first point of contact among interested parties: employers and job/internship seekers, established researchers and Ph.D. students, experienced industry representatives and less experienced newcomers. Given the nature of such events - the short amount of time and the great number of participants - it is important to understand how to network and what makes a person stand out among others. This panel, consisting of academic and industry representatives from the greater Detroit area, will discuss the importance and techniques involved in networking and speed interviewing skills.

Student Organization Day, Sept. 15, 2010

We had a Student Organization Day on campus and Amber, Charnique, and Nariman prepared the table to represent our ACM and ACM-W. There was a poster (of course), Lego robots, Pico Crickets, and a bunch of handouts. Amber and Charnique were working the crowd like there was no tomorrow. Just look at the pictures - need I say more...

CHICAGO Trip (May 4-5)

The visit was AWESOME!

May 4: Talia organized the tour of ThoughtWorks and Ruby on Rails night! The atmosphere was fantastic! Then, some of us went networking with Ruby developers, while others opted for the night stroll of Chicago.

May 5: First, the Museum of Science and Industry. My personal favorite: Fast Forward... Inventing the Future and don't forget to check out Peter Diamandis's Laws for Life quoted below. In the afternoon, a visit to Argonne National Lab, coordinated by Monika. Since it is a government facility and some of us were not allowed in at the last moment because of nationality (watch out US government, some of us might pose a serious threat to your secure functioning), we were forced to split into two groups: Chicago walkers and Argonne visitors.

Overall, the Chicago trip was incredibly great - touristy, inspiring, educational, you name it! And of course don't forget...

Peter’s Laws
The Creed of the persistent and passionate mind
1. If anything can go wrong, Fix It!!… To hell with Murphy!
2. When given a choice… Take Both!!
3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
4. Start at the top then work your way up.
5. Do it by the book… but be the author!
6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.
7. If it’s worth doing, it’s got to be done right now.
8. If you can’t win, change the rules.
9. If you can’t change the rules, then ignore them.
10. Perfection is not optional.
11. When faced without a challenge, make one.
12. “No” simply means begin again at one level higher
13. Don’t walk when you can run.
14. Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary.
15. When in doubt: THINK!
16. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.
17. The squeaky wheel gets replaced.
18. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.
19. The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!
20. The ratio of something to nothing is infinite.
21. You get what you incentivize.
22. If you think it is impossible, then it is… for you.
23. An expert is someone who can tell you exactly how it can’t be done.
24. The day before something is a breakthrough it’s a crazy idea.
25. If it were easy it would have been done already.
26. Without a target you’ll miss it every time.
27. Bullshit walks, hardware talks.
28. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
29. The world’s most precious resource is the passionate and committed human mind.
30. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

Grid and C&IT Tour: March 26

On Friday, March 26, we went to tour our own, WSU, grid facility. Turned out it is located in our C&IT server room so we got to see the living and breathing heart of all Wayne State operations. It was AWESOME! Big thanks to Mike Thompson and Aragorn Steiger who were our wonderful tour guides and to Grace Metri who helped me organize this tour.

The link to our grid facilities:

Tea with Nariman

On Tuesday, Mar. 2, at 5 p.m. in 400 State Hall.

Nariman presents her software engineering research and brings delightful Middle-Eastern pastries. Monika serves tea.

Our next activity will be organized by Grace - the tour of the WSU grid facility. Monika will give an intro on parallel programming and how to go about using the grid.