1. technology and computing

Promoting the Academic, Social, and Professional Growth
of Technical Women in Upstate New York
04.
17-18
15
.
Syracuse, NY
Friday, April 17
1:30-5:30pm (Pre-Function Area): Registration
2:00-4:00pm (Lafayette A): Career and Resume Advising
4:00-6:00pm (Pre-Function Area): Poster Session
6:00-8:00pm (Horizons 3-6): Dinner w/ Keynote Speaker Florence Huban Suraci, Cisco
8:00-9:00pm: Breakout Sessions 1:
(Lafayette A) First-Timer Talks
(Lafayette B) Panel: Big Data
9:00-10:00pm: Breakout Sessions 2:
(Lafayette A) BOF: Teaching Our Students to Promote Equality
(Lafayette B) BOF: You Are Not Alone! Systers, Circles and Other Great Resources
I Wish Someone Told Me About Sooner
(Pompey) BOF: Birds of a Feather Make Each Other Better, Improving ACM-W
(Fayetteville) BOF: Male Advocacy
10:00pm-12:00am (Horizons 3-6): Friday night fun!
Saturday, April 17
Program Schedule
7:30-8:30am (Horizons 3-6): Breakfast
8:30- 9:30am (Horizons 3-6): Keynote by Krista Claude, go forward LLC
9:30-10:30am: Breakout Sessions 3:
(Lafayette A) Panel: Outreach
(Lafayette B) Workshop: Just Say No
10:30-11:30am: Breakout Sessions 4:
(Lafayette A) Panel: Life After College
(Lafayette B) Panel: My Job Is So Cool!
(Fayetteville) Research Presentations
(Horizons 1) Aspirations Awards Session (by invitation only)
11:30am-1:00pm (Horizons 3-6): Lunch w/ Keynote Speakers
Mariana Monteiro and Bouchra Bouqata, GE
Presentation of Aspirations Awards and Poster Competition Winners
1:00-3:00pm (Lafayette): Career Fair
This has been a big year of changes for NYCWiC—we moved, the planning team almost
doubled in size, we broke attendance records and filled the hotel, and we’ve partnered
with the NY Aspirations in Computing Awards!
This event is one of the many Celebrations of Women in Computing that is held under
the auspices of ACM-W, the Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in
Computing. ACM-W’s mission is to support, celebrate, and advocate internationally for
the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field. You are now part of
this growing community of thousands of people worldwide who gather at these ACM-W
events, from Canada to Cuba, from New Zealand to the Philippines and India, in the UK
and Sweden, and all across the U.S.
For some of you, this is your third NYCWiC and for others this is your first professional
conference. For some of you, it was a 10-minute walk to get here and for others it was a
drive of more than 3 hours. For some of you, this will be your first time being a minority
at a computing event, and for others this will be the first time you will see so many other
technologists “like you.” But you are all part of this community and part of the conversation about increasing gender diversity in computing.
Many people were involved in making this conference happen and we’re excited to
now turn it over to you. We hope that you’ll take advantage of everything you can—meet
people, learn about the cutting edge research happening in New York, shed your
impostor syndrome, celebrate the achievements of high school women just embarking
on their journeys. Share your resume with employers, advocate for change, use big data.
Encourage the first timers, join a birds of a feather discussion, soak up the advice of our
successful keynote speakers who have traveled far to be here. Plan for your journey after
graduation or reflect on how far you’ve come. Play games. This is your conference.
Remember that not only do you belong here, you need to be here.
We have no idea what technology tomorrow will bring. But we do know that we need a lot
of ideas to create the technology that will work for everyone. Be part of that conversation.
Take your seat at the table. Create tomorrow’s technology. Recruit tomorrow’s creators.
As I mentioned, many, many people contributed to making NYCWiC 2015 happen. Thank
you to our newest partners, Kathleen Joyce, Sarah Weber, Julie Walas, Kristina Striegnitz,
and Sheila Clifford-Bova, and thanks to Dori Farah for bringing NYCWiC to Syracuse.
Thanks to Jerry Tylutki for maintaining our website and Anne Bailey for assembling our
bags, and thanks to our career counselors for their work preparing the resume critique
and career fair. Thanks to the Program Committee for putting together a great two days.
I thank our many sponsors, the other Celebration coordinators, and all the women and
men who have offered us a seat at the table. I especially thank Valerie Barr, Sharon Mason, Mary Anne Egan, and Nick Webb who have been the driving forces behind NYCWiC
from the start. And thank YOU for joining the community.
Now go learn something new!
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Jennifer Goodall
NYCWiC General Chair
Welcome
Welcome to our Third New York
Celebration of Women in Computing!
Keynotes
How to Succeed
in Business
Friday, 6:00pm (Horizons 3-6)
Florence Huban Suraci
Thriving in Your
Career Journey:
Truths and Tips
Saturday, 8:30am (Horizons 3-6)
Krista Claude
The Gender Gap:
Challenges and
new Models;
Perspectives
from HR and
Industry
Saturday, 11:30am (Horizons 3-6)
Mariana Monteiro and
Bouchra Bouqata
Friday, 6:00pm (Horizons 3-6)
Florence Huban Suraci
Cisco
Regional Sales Manager,
U.S. Commercial East Data Center
Florence will discuss How to Succeed in Business, more from the standpoint on
how to succeed in life. She will share her background, education and then explore
what she calls the “Suraci Seven Simple Steps” to success, and the definition of
success. Florence will also share with you her role at Cisco, and Cisco’s vision of the
Internet of Everything and Cloud Computing.
Florence is Regional Sales Manager for Data Center & Cloud Architecture for Cisco
Commercial East Area leading a sales team responsible for customers and partners
from Maine to Virginia. She has successfully hired, coached, and mentored a team
of sales specialists, and inspired and led the US Commercial based sales team with
Cisco’s entry into the x86 Compute Server market, Unified Computing System, which
blends her experience with Data Center and Networking sales. The results have been
accomplishing #1 market share according to IDC in the x86 blade server industry in
the US and Americas in less than four years and leading year over year growth for all
Cisco segments worldwide for the past five years.
Florence holds a Chemical Engineering Bachelor of Science degree from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute. She began her career at IBM Corporation, where she started as
a Systems Engineer and was recognized in the top ten percent as an IBM Systems
Engineering Symposium winner in her first year, then continuing on in Sales. She
moved on to Silicon Graphics, starting the Albany NY sales office and growing the
business tenfold in five years. She joined Cisco in 1999 as a Sales Representative. She
has serviced many accounts in the northeastern U.S. by maintaining high customer
satisfaction and attaining or exceeding her sales goals.
Florence has served on diversity panels representing women in technology as a
corporate interface for her various employers. She is a past board at The Children’s
Museum of Science and Technology in Troy NY, a Board Member to Marist Center
School of Computer Science and Mathematics, has served on various speaking panels
to students and as a Corporate Advisory Board member at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, has coordinated and served in volunteer programs at Albany Medical Center
Children’s Hospital, and served in the New York State Mentoring Program.
Florence is married with two sons, ages 21 and 18.
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Keynotes
How to Succeed
in Business
Thriving in Your
Career Journey:
Truths and Tips
Saturday, 8:30am (Horizons 3-6)
Krista Claude
go forward LCC
During Krista’s 25+year career, she progressed from a software engineer to a
technology executive, and most recently became a small business owner. In this
talk, she shares what she has learned about creating a sustainable, successful and
personally fulfilling career journey.
In 2014, Krista Claude retired from a successful corporate career spanning over 25
years. She began her career as a software engineer and progressed to a technology
executive, holding Chief Technology Officer (CTO) roles of medium and large businesses. She is now very proud to be the founder of go forward LLC, a small business
focused on helping high potential leaders achieve their aspirations. Krista earned degrees in Computer Science, English and Women’s Studies from the University of Iowa,
and holds an Executive Coach Certification from the Center for Executive Coaching.
Throughout her career, Krista has led and participated in initiatives to further Women
in Leadership and Women in Technology. She currently serves on the Board of
Trustees of the Anita Borg Institute, a non-profit whose mission is to ensure that the
creators of technology mirror the people and societies who use it. She also helped to
found and then chaired a women’s network in the Minneapolis area that grew to over
1000 active members during her tenure as chair.
Keynotes
Krista has a son and a daughter who are now fabulous and fascinating young adults.
She lives with her husband on a farm in Prescott, Wisconsin.
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Saturday, 11:30am (Horizons 3-6)
Mariana Monteiro
Affinity Center of Excellence Leader and GE Volunteers Director, GE
Bouchra Bouqata
Senior Advanced Technology Program Manager, GE Intelligent Platforms
Business as usual does not yield the results we expect in terms of advancement
of women in the workplace. A model based on perceived gaps women have in
relative comparison with the standard - male counterparts - might not be the optimal approach. We will specially focus on how this gap is perceived with women in
Technology and in computing.
Join the dialogue to explore other models that could better enable women potential. The discussion will address successful cases of women that have proven to be
pioneers in the space of technology and made it through the leadership ladder.
This discussion will be given through the lenses of: an HR practitioner who has
extensive global experience and is specialized in diversity; and a senior program
manager who has been leading several initiatives for Women in Computing and
Technology.
See next page for keynote speaker biographies ...
7
Keynotes
The Gender Gap: Challenges and
New Models; Perspectives from
HR and Industry
Mariana Monteiro
Affinity Center of Excellence Leader
and GE Volunteers Director, GE
Mariana joined GE, where for the last 15 years she has
held HR generalist and specialist roles with increased
responsibility and global coverage across multiple
GE segments and industries (Aviation, Energy, Global
Research, Global Growth Operations and Corporate). She
has ample experience in all aspects of human resources
operations from mergers and acquisition to talent assessment, from executive coaching to union negotiations. Mariana also worked as a financial analyst and is a certified
Black Belt. She specializes in diversity as a strategic global asset to GE, supporting
seven networks (employee/ business resource groups) - Women, African American,
Hispanic, Veteran, Asian Pacific and Veterans Networks, Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance (more than seventy thousands employees across 56 countries). She
also has responsibility for overseeing and administrating funding for GE Volunteers
across the globe. Prior to GE, Mariana practiced law in her native country Argentina,
specializing in civil and employment law, and taught Philosophy and Civil Law at
University of La Plata, Law School, in Buenos Aires. She was a prosecutor in the Fiscalia
de Estado of Buenos Aires province and was in charge of state and federal Supreme
Court Appeals. She managed a portfolio of 900 cases. She is a graduate from Purdue
University, studied at Krannert School of Management (MBA), holds an MA in Cultural
Studies and a JD from La Plata Law School National University, Argentina.
Keynotes
Bouchra Bouqata
Senior Advanced Technology Program Manager,
GE Intelligent Platforms
Dr. Bouqata is the Senior Advanced Technology Program
Manager for Analytics and Controls at GE Intelligent
Platforms. Prior to that she was a lead scientist in the
machine learning lab at GE Global Research. Dr. Bouqata’s research focuses on large-scale automated-intelligent analytics systems based on human-brain inspired
adaptive learning, perception, reasoning and memory emphasizing on solving
industrial big data problems. Currently, she is leading a big program in building an
ecosystem (from controls/sensors to analytics applications) towards the industrial
internet. Dr. Bouqata received her Ph.D. in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence
from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY in 2006, and M.S. in Computer Science
at Al-Akhawayn University, Morocco in 1999. She received several fellowships and
awards including American Association of University Women fellowship, BEYA and
YCWA REACH awards for outstanding achievements. Dr. Bouqata is the Co-founder
of Arab Women in Computing (ArabWiC). She has organized successful panels and
workshops and served as chair and invited speaker in different technical conferences
as well as women in technology focus conferences such as GHC, NYCWiC and NYU
ArabWiC. Dr. Bouqata is leading the local Women & Technology group for the GE’s
Women’s Network. She is an active member of the NY SWE, ACM-W, IEEE and AAAI.
8
Congratulations,
Upstate New York
Aspirations in Computing
Honorees!
Jennifer D.
Gianna M.
Whitesboro High School
Cicero-North Syracuse High School
Debora H.
Catherine O.
Manlius Pebble Hill School
Thomas High School
Hanna H.
Jessika P.
Cicero-North Syracuse High School
Queensbury High School
Katherine H.
Tara P.
Newfield Senior High School
Buffalo Seminary
Alison K.
Gili R.
Ithaca High School
Shaker High School
Melissa M.
Shirah S.
Cicero-North Syracuse High School
Maple Hill High School
Allison M.
Leah X.
Webster-Schroeder High School
Webster-Schroeder High School
Matthew Harbinger
Cicero-North Syracuse High School
Local runner-up
Local winner
National & local winner
National Educator Award Recipient
Breakout
Sessions
Breakout
Sessions 1
Breakout
Sessions 3
Friday, 8:00-9:00pm
Saturday, 9:30-10:30am
(Lafayette A) First-Timer Talks
(Lafayette B) Panel: Big Data
(Lafayette A) Panel: Outreach
(Lafayette B) Workshop: Just Say No
Breakout
Sessions 2
Breakout
Sessions 4
Friday, 9:00-10:00pm
Saturday, 10:30-11:30am
(Lafayette A) BOF: Teaching Our Students to
Promote Equality
(Lafayette B) BOF: You are Not Alone! Systers,
Circles and Other Great Resources I Wish
Someone Told Me About Sooner
(Pompey) BOF: Birds of a Feather Make Each
Other Better, Improving ACM-W
(Fayetteville) BOF: Equality in CS: It’s Not Just
a Women’s Issue
(Lafayette A) Panel: Life After College
(Lafayette B) Panel: My Job Is So Cool!
(Fayetteville) Research Presentations
(Horizons 1) Aspirations Awards Session
(by invitation only)
Friday, 8:00-9:00pm
First-Timer Talks (Lafayette A)
Reeb Graph Based Validation of Statistical Predictive Models
for Spread of AIDS
Akanksha Atrey Undergraduate Student, University at Albany
Elizabeth Munch Professor of Mathematics, University at Albany
Simon Lunagomez Post Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University
This work presents a method to quantify the differences in data using a newly defined
distance metric between graphs that is used to study, analyze and validate a statistical
predictive model. The proposed method constructs smoothed Reeb graphs of a given
graph, which is then used to compare different outcomes of the statistical model. We
hope to use this method to study the given AIDS data by analyzing the output of the
models in order to identify how relationships among people in a community affects
their susceptibility to AIDS.
Investigating Health Information Behavior: A Mobile Diary Study
Grace M. Begany PhD Student, University at Albany
Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan Assistant Professor, University at Albany
Kaveh Mirzaei MSc Student, University at Albany
People seeking health information increasingly use information and communication
technologies (ICTs) to do so. The use of ICTs to connect to critical health information
resources is an important and growing activity. The proposed research study seeks to
further understand the use of ICTs, such as the Internet, social media, and mobile devices, for health information seeking and use. To do so, the researchers will investigate
the health information behaviors of ICT users in the University at Albany community
via a mobile diary study that employs a custom-developed, mobile web-based diary
as the primary participant tool of data collection.
Identifying Character Personas Using Natural Language Processing
Liana Maria Nunziato Undergraduate Student, Union College
By looking at a character’s actions, dialog, behavior, sentiment, opinions and
relationships, readers develop an understanding of a character’s overall persona.
Since authors make precise decisions on words to illustrate their characters’ personas,
I am investigating if there is a connection between words in a sentence of a specific
character’s name and the description of that character’s persona. I am developing a
tool to extract words from Project Gutenberg novels, such as Jane Austen’s Sense and
Sensibility, that act as descriptors of a character’s persona, and help in identifying the
overall sentiment of sentences that include a specific character’s name.
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Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions 1
Improving Human-Computer Dialogue Fluidity with Data
from a Collaborative Puzzle Game
Anjuli Smith High School Student, Emma Willard School
I worked with Dr. Kristina Striegnitz on a project aimed at making human-computer
interactions (like Siri) more fluid. Dr. Striegnitz had developed a game in which two
players needed to communicate online to achieve a common objective (to push a
block into a goal). But, while both players have the same wallpaper on their game display, the configuration of the obstacles in the game are different for each of them. To
achieve their common goal, they needed to communicate and develop strategies to
negotiate their steps. We hope to use data from their chat logs to improve human-computer dialogue systems.
Panel: Big Data (Lafayette B)
Breakout Sessions
Latest Trends and Technical Challenges in Big Data, Analytics and the
Cloud: Perspectives from Industry and Academia
Bouchra Bouqata Senior Advanced Technologies Program Manager,
GE Intelligent Platforms
Kaoutar El Maghraoui Research Scientist, IBM Research
Amina ElAddadi Assistant Professor, College of Saint Rose
Florence Huban Suraci Cisco
Today, huge amount of data are created every day. Indeed, it has been estimated that
data is created at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. 90% of the data in the world
today has been created only in the last two years alone. We are truly living an explosive growth of data that comes from everywhere: sensors, social media posts, digital
pictures and video, transaction records, etc. The ubiquitous availability of this digital
information has transformed the world as we know it, creating a paradigm shift from
information-poor to information-rich, and impacting virtually every area of modern
life. Yet, we are still a long way from maximizing the potential of the Information
Revolution and effectively using the ubiquity of digital information to empower
innovation. To accelerate data-driven innovation and discovery, new technologies,
infrastructure, and new social, organizational, economic, policy, and regulatory structures are needed to empower the research community, industry and the government.
From a technical perspective, the design and development of high quality large
scale analytics is a complex process, largely involving search in a space of “Big” noisy,
structured and/or unstructured data sets. Analytics require also searching in a large
pool of diverse models. Additionally, evaluating just a single model, would involve a
search across all combinations of structures and parameter values. Moreover, finding
the right scalable machine learning approach could require many expert efforts.
Nevertheless, the availability of new infrastructures at scale such as cloud platforms
has given a new direction to solving the challenges stated above. This created a shifting paradigm that needs to involve automating a significant portion of the currently
manual process involved in problem formulation (to select the appropriate machine
learning algorithms), data preparation, model selection, model tuning, etc. In addition, leveraging parallel computing environments through cloud computing (such as
Hadoop), high-performance computing, and large scale optimizations are deemed
12
In this panel, a diverse group of panelist representing Industry and Academia, will
discuss emerging trends and existing challenges in big data analytics. The technical
perspectives discussed range from large scale automated analytics to cloud computing on big data. Furthermore, we will give an overview of representative case studies
of big data analytics, their deployment solutions, current challenges, and open
research problems.
Breakout Sessions 2
Friday, 9:00-10:00pm
Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions
Teaching Our Students to Promote Equality (Lafayette A)
Moderator: Sheila Smart Sicilia Associate Professor, Onondaga Community College
We recognize the equality issues in our field, and want to equip our students with the
understanding and tools to help promote equality in their future workplaces.
How do we help students see when they may have benefited from racial or gender
privilege, without making them feel defensive? How do we prepare our underrepresented students for success in a field where they may encounter everything from
microaggressions to overt discrimination? How do we help all our students appreciate
diversity and become allies to each other?
Students, faculty, and industry professionals are invited to share their insights and
experiences.
You Are Not Alone! Systers, Circles and Other Great Resources I Wish
Someone Told Me About Sooner (Lafayette B)
Moderator: Christine E. Wania Assistant Professor, The College at Brockport,
State University of New York
Although you may be the only woman, or one of a few women, in your class, program,
department, school or organization, you are not alone. There are many groups,
organizations, networks and other helpful resources for women just like you. The goal
of this session is to make participants aware of the variety of resources, networks, and
organizations available for women in computing, such as Systers, Lean In Circles, and
ACM-W. Participants will receive materials that summarize and categorize various resources available for women from many organizations including: discussion groups,
newsletters, mentors, job postings, scholarships, awards and more.
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Breakout Sessions
important to create, maintain and deploy large scale machine learning on Big Data.
Birds of a Feather Make Each Other Better, Improving ACM-W (Pompey)
Moderators: Liana Maria Nunziato Undergraduate Student, Union College
Julia Isaac Undergraduate Student, Union College
ACM-W chapters from Union College, and Siena College invite other colleges to join
them in discussing how to create and improve successful events to help promote college students in their careers, such as inviting alumni back to hold “mock interviews”.
They will also discuss examples of ways they are promoting the education of girls
in computing at their local community, such as providing educational workshops to
children, or traveling to local high schools to teach students how interesting computer
science can be. Our goal is to increase knowledge and interest in the contributions of
women in computer science.
Equality in CS: It’s Not Just a Women’s Issue (Fayetteville)
Moderators: Nick Webb Assistant Professor, Union College
Valerie Barr Professor, Union College
Do you need to be a woman to promote the equal representation of women in
computing? We believe that the answer is no, that the important aspect is the equal
treatment and encouragement of all students and all employees, no matter the gender of the person at the front of the room or in the manager’s chair. That said, over the
past 10 years of involvement in promoting the role of women in computing, we have
noticed that by far the majority of people working in this area are women.
It is our belief that this is an issue that impacts us all, and requires male advocacy
as much as women’s advocacy. This BoF is to promote a discussion about the role
everyone, including men, can play in establishing equality in the classroom and in
the workplace.
Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions 3
Saturday, 9:30-10:30am
Workshop: Just Say No - Exercising Your Best Option for
Achieving Balance (Lafayette B)
Presenter: Cathy Parker Associate Director of Career Services, University at Albany
Is that a brilliant strategy or just an oversimplification of our lives? We all want to
say yes to a more balanced life, if we could only find the time. Balancing all of the
facets of our lives is not just an exercise in efficiency. If it were, most of us would have
solved the problem by now. In today’s world there is no limit to the things we could
do and also no limit to the advice we get on what we should do. This session would
give participants an opportunity to explore and share their challenges with saying no.
Specifically we will look at what motivates us to say yes to some things and not others
and where we have the most trouble saying no. Participants will participate in an
exercise that will help them identify specific areas where they want to take action and
to develop specific plans for what they will begin to say no to.
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WiC at RIT: Paying it Forward
Amanda Barton Undergraduate Student, RIT
Deb LaBelle Lecturer, RIT
Lana Verschage Director of Women in Computing, RIT
WiC at RIT is an organization committed to the success and advancement of women
in computing. WiC at RIT facilitates opportunities for professional development,
leadership roles, and community outreach. The members introduce young women to
computing by holding library workshops and a summer Camp for Girls to learn AppInventor. WiC women are also present at the popular Imagine RIT event each spring.
In addition, the members of WiC attend the Grace Hopper Women in Computing
conference. They plan major events that focus on the role of women in computing
include: WiCHacks, WiConnects, and WiC After Hours.
Meninas++: A Brazilian Project to Attract More Girls to IT
Gilvanna Ráisa Silva e Sato International Student, University at Albany
& Universidade Federal de Viçosa-campus Rio Paranaíba
Rachel Carlos Duque Reis Professor, Universidade Federal
de Viçosa-campus Rio Paranaíba
Meninas++ is a project developed with high school students from an institution in
Brazil. It has the purpose of attracting more girls to Information Technology. The project explained more about IT and aroused the interest of some girls to the field using
lectures about Computer Science and Information Systems, activities from the project
Computer Science Unplugged and a workshop about HTML and CSS.
It Girls Alumnae: The Foundation for Women in Tech
Christie Jasmin Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Elizabeth Griffin Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Jessica Murray Staff Adviser, Syracuse University
Chelsea Hawkins Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Rosaly Salcedo Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Megan Swanson Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
The It Girls Overnight Retreat at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies
aims to inspire, engage, and celebrate high school women and their interest in
information technology. Recently, a group of former participants formed a student
organization to create a network of It Girls on campus. It Girls Alumnae focuses on
connecting young women who attended an It Girls Retreat. Attendees of this panel
will learn about the organization and notable successes and learnings. Attendees will
also gain insight into how to develop programs that help foster relationships between
students as they study technology.
15
Breakout Sessions
Panel: Outreach (Lafayette A)
Brooklyn and the Innovation Economy
Jessica Santana & Evin Robinson Co-Founders, Brooklyn On Tech,
info@brooklynontech.com
The growing technology ecosystem in Brooklyn leaves an economic impact above 3.1
billion dollars. This has transformed Brooklyn into a market demanding techno-savvy
professionals. 93% of firms surveyed in Brooklyn report there is a lack of local talent.
Brooklyn On Tech’s mission is to develop the next generation of technology thought
leaders emerging from Brooklyn. We provide marginalized students with the resources necessary to excel in the techno-centric society we live in today. Our vision is to lessen the digital divide in the innovation economy and create an inclusive technology
sector. This presentation will discuss our initiatives to date.
Breakout Sessions 4
Saturday, 10:30-11:30am
Research Presentations (Fayetteville)
Breakout Sessions
Renaissance Art Perspective Model for Computer Graphics
Elodie Fourquet Assistant Professor, Colgate University
When perspective was re-invented in the Renaissance artists discovered how to
construct accurate perspective without having to work in 3D. Doing so they combined
perspective with composition, which is dominantly 2D. In comparison computer
graphics seems gratuitously difficult in forcing users to develop full 3D models. The
seminal construction in Renaissance artists’ perspective is the tiled floor, the many
constructions of which I will explain in detail. Having reduced it to 2D perspective
geometry, other useful constructions can be similarly reduced, including the double
projection required for accurate shadows. Artists did these computations geometrically, drawing lines to find their intersections.
Sub-modular Optimization (SMO) for Detecting Adverse Drug Reactions
from Online Health Forums
Yan Hu PhD Student, University at Albany
Rui Wang PhD Student, University at Albany
Feng Chen Assistant Professor, University at Albany
Existing approaches to detecting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in discussion forums
are based on association rules and have drawbacks such as lower dataset coverage
and under-reporting. With the novel ‘Submodular Optimization’ method, we focus on
exploring subsets of undiscovered ADRs among administered drugs mentioned in
health forums. A sub-modular score function is proposed to characterize the degree
of ADRs for a subset of drugs and symptoms, and an efficient algorithm is designed
to maximize the score function over all possible subsets. Extensive experiments on
online health forums demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed
approach.
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Panelists: Zumrut Akcam PhD Student, University at Albany
Aviva Rutkin Reporter, New Scientist
Christy Viccaro Software Engineer, Xerox
Recent college graduates will talk about their experience transitioning from college
to the next step in their careers. They will answer questions about their jobs, how they
got them, and the things they wish they had known as college students.
Panel: My Job Is So Cool! (Lafayette B)
Panelists: Katharine Chajka Project Manager, Envisage Information Systems
Amy Edwards Account Manager, Cisco
Erica Gierke Welch Business Development Executive, Hewlett Packard
Meghan Servello Product Manager, ALM Media
Debbie Weigand Software Development Engineer in Test,
Envisage Information Systems
Women working in different computing related roles will explain why their jobs are so
cool and talk about the career paths that led them to their current positions. Come to
this panel to talk to more experienced computing professionals and to get a glimpse
of the variety of computing careers and career paths.
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Breakout Sessions
Panel: Life After College (Lafayette A)
Poster
Session
Friday, 4:00-6:00pm (Pre-Function Area)
Research Posters
Posters on Engaging
Students Outside the
Classroom
18
Assessing the Policy, Management, and Technology Challenges
of Releasing Open Health Data in New York State
Grace M. Begany PhD Student, University at Albany
Erika G. Martin Assistant Professor, University at Albany
One day after the 2009 U.S. Presidential Inauguration, President Obama’s first
executive action was a directive encouraging transparent, open government. Since
then, and the subsequent 2013 Executive Order on open data, health departments,
including New York State’s Department of Health (NYSDOH), have released a variety
of de-identified data. We are conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews with
practitioners at the NYSDOH and other agencies to assess the capability needed to,
and value propositions of, integrating researchers into their open health data ecosystem. Data will be coded and analyzed using grounded theory, a systematic approach
to discovering themes and concepts in qualitative data.
Climate Changes
Shelby Cohen Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College
Our primary goal is to assess the extent to which global climate instability is increasing. We have data for the 2006-2015 period for the continental U.S. We have a raster
file for each day with a maximum/minimum temperature and precipitation reading
for each 50-by-50 grid cell. We are using smoothing techniques to calculate the
changes on the data for specific pixels over time. We also are using image-processing techniques to analyze the growth of the number of regions with similar climate
patterns. We plan to correlate these two measures of interest with agricultural fields
of the country.
Machine Learning with Images of a Microbial Mutant Library
Georgia Doing Undergraduate Student, Bard College
Rebecca Thomas Professor, Bard College
Brooke Jude Professor, Bard College
Machine learning was used to classify images of microbial mutants. First, computer
vision techniques were used to process and extract 30 features from the image library
describing color and texture as well as convexivity and a Fourier transform. These
features captured the phenotype of the colonies’ biofilm. The unsupervised clustering
methods k-means and Ward’s hierarchical clustering were used to determine a subset
of mutants with altered, minimal biofilms. Subsequently, a Support Vector Machine
was trained to classify all mutants in the library as biofilm-deficient or not, providing
high throughput functional information about a previously unexplored microbial
genome.
Attracting Peoples Attention To A Social Robot
Julia Isaac Undergraduate Student, Union College
Grabbing a person’s attention is a key component in engaging a conversation or
when relaying information. A social robot must be able to attract a person’s attention
in order to be successful. In this research, we are exploring how successful different
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Poster Session
Research Posters
robot appearances and actions are in attracting people’s attention with a focus on
those in a public area in a college academic building. In the preliminary experiments,
we are focusing on three different scenarios with a stationary robot without any visual
or audio output, displaying a static image of a face and displaying a dynamic face.
Mount Holyoke College Housing Assignment
Liye Fu Undergraduate Student, Mount Holyoke College
Phuong Vu Amazon
Monica Chelliah Undergraduate Student, Mount Holyoke College
Elodie Fourquet Assistant Professor, Colgate University
This poster presents a web-application built for a course project in User Interface at
Mount Holyoke College. We created an online system for the annual dorm choosing
process. Traditionally it is done inefficiently as residency staff work 3 nights, with 500
students lining up for 4 hours to pick dorm rooms. Our website allows students from
anywhere to choose dorm room. All housing options and their benefits are explored
via an interactive campus map developed using JavaScript and CSS. Our project also
promotes computer science in our community as our knowledge solved a practical
problem.
Users’ Emotion and Engagement in Mobile Devices
Wen Geng PhD Student, University at Albany
Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan Assistant Professor, University at Albany
We are interested in how users change their emotions when they browse the web
sites at different levels of aesthetics. The goal of this research is to investigate the
relationship between the aesthetics level of the web sites and users’ emotions. In particular, we would like to explore user behavior in a mobile technology environment.
In addition, a comparison between their behavior in a mobile and a non-mobile
environment will be carried out in a user-centered lab experiment. Implications of
system design will also be discussed.
Poster Session
An eLearning Visual Environment for Electronic Medical Record Education
Karish Johnson PhD Student, State University of New York at Oswego
Isabelle Bichindaritz Assistant Professor, State University of New York at Oswego
The presented project develops an on-line learning environment and instructional
resources for electronic medical records (EMRs) training purposes with the goal of increasing computer proficiency, data enter accuracy, and content specific competences
and consequently improving workflow productivity. Focusing on the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) VistA EMR, the web-based online learning environment and
supplemental instructional resources will address unique learning styles, barriers
to learning, and learning curve for VistA users. The advantages of the eLearning
environment are: remote access, self-pace and level of learning, more interaction with
peers, computer proficiency skills, flexible scheduling, and accommodate different
learning styles.
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This project addresses the problem of collecting and viewing nonspatial data in a spatial context. Specifically, the goal was to connect the data associated with the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection and the geography of the neighborhoods in the
District of Columbia where the individuals had lived. Historically, the neighborhoods in
Washington D.C. have been lacking racial diversity. We hypothesized that by linking the
individuals visually to their place of death and their address, a pattern would emerge
associating, race and cause of death compared to living situation. This project utilizes
both database and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies.
Automated Anamorphic Projections on Planar and Arbitrary Surfaces
Van Mai Nguyen Thi Undergraduate Student, Bard College
An anamorphic projection is an image that is intentionally distorted so that the original
image can be seen only from a certain perspective, or using a special device, for example a mirror. The goal of this project is to apply computer vision techniques to create a
program that automates the process of generating anamorphic projections. We use a
projector camera system to derive homography mappings between the projector image
and the projection surface, and propose a method for generating an optimal anamorphic image for multiple viewers using the least-squares estimation.
The Effects of Task Domain and Task Type on the Usefulness
Assessment of Web Pages
Ning Sa PhD Student, University at Albany
Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan Assistant Professor, University at Albany
In this project, the effects of task domain and task type on webpage usefulness assessment during web search are investigated. The two task domains involved are health and
travel and the two task types are fact finding and decision making. In an experimental
environment, 24 participants were asked to do an internet search on 4 pre-defined
tasks. In the interview after each task, the users were asked to evaluate the usefulness of
each web page they have clicked. The task domain, task type, and the user’s familiarity
with the domain were found to have effects on the webpage usefulness assessment.
CodeMyThing: Draw, Click, Code
Assessment of Web Pages
Humaira Orchee Undergraduate Student, Mount Holyoke College
Vedika Birla Undergraduate Student, Mount Holyoke College
CodeMyThing is a 2D drawing application that auto-generates Processing code such
that the user can visualize their creation in terms of function calls. In addition to allowing users to minimize time and effort spent on coding complex splash screen designs,
this application also serves as an introductory educational tool for programming. The
learning process is facilitated in a creative environment, where the user can create
images using basic geometric primitives with varied outline and fill styles, shape size,
orientation and drawing order in a GUI and then see the lines of code used to replicate
the image creation process.
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Poster Session
Exploring Societal Racism through Geographically Connecting
Living Situation and Cause of Death
Colleen Kimball Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College
Imagination to Visualization: Designing Your Own Floral Bouquet
Laura Stalker Graduate Student, University at Albany
This is a demo for a prototype system that enables experienced and aspiring floral
designers alike to create visual representations of their own floral arrangements. A
database stores and organizes images of individual flowers and containers based on
information provided by the florist. Through a simple interface, the artist chooses the
flowers and style for their piece. After finding the desired images, the system creates
a picture of a finished floral bouquet that has the same look and feel as one that was
created by an actual floral designer.
Development of Methodology for Automatic Detection of Prehistoric Stone
Walls Using LiDAR Data
Smita Sharma PhD Student, University at Albany
Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Rang-ing) images have shown to reveal earth
surface features of archaeological deposits often unnoticed when using more conventional discovery techniques. This project aims to assess the usefulness of LiDAR data to
locate prehistoric stone walls by developing a methodology of automatic or semi-automatic detection of linear features. Moreover, this research makes recommendations
for geographical feature detection methodology that can be implemented for a
larger geographical area. For ground-truth comparison, field data is being collected
in the town of Brunswick, NY by mapping stone walls using a GPS unit and gathering
information on old land deeds.
Posters on Engaging Students
Outside the Classroom
Poster Session
WiC at RIT: Paying it Forward
Amanda Barton Undergraduate Student, RIT
Deb LaBelle Lecturer, RIT
Lana Verschage Director of Women in Computing, RIT
WiC at RIT is an organization committed to the success and advancement of women
in computing. WiC at RIT facilitates opportunities for professional development,
leadership roles, and community outreach. The members introduce young women to
computing by holding library workshops and a summer Camp for Girls to learn AppInventor. WiC women are also present at the popular Imagine RIT event each spring.
In addition, the members of WiC attend the Grace Hopper Women in Computing
conference. They plan major events that focus on the role of women in computing
include: WiCHacks, WiConnects, and WiC After Hours.
Creating a Maker Community While e-NABLEing the Future: A Poster
Presentation About How We Came Together as a Community to 3D Print
Hands for Children in Need of Prosthetics
Caroline Buinicky Informatics Undergraduate Advisor, University at Albany
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It Girls Alumnae: Forming a Sisterhood in Tech
Christie Jasmin Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Elizabeth Griffin Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Chelsea Hawkins Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Rosaly Salcedo Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Megan Swanson Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University
Jessica Murray Staff Advisor, Syracuse University
In 2011, the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University launched the It Girls
Overnight Retreat to inspire, engage, celebrate high school women and their interest
in information technology. Recently, a group of previous participants formed a
student organization to create a network of It Girls on campus. It Girls Alumnae unifies
and connects all generations of young women who attended an It Girls Retreat. This
poster will highlight the organization’s unique development, network of support, and
fun and educational programs offered exclusively to It Girls Alumnae.
Solar Link
Sarah Jastrzab SUNY Alfred State College, Project Vice President
Solar Link is a cross-departmental research organization at SUNY Alfred State College
of Technology. Seven departments are working together with over 50 students
involved. Our objective is to use Fresnel Lenses to concentrate the sun’s energy, then
use this energy to distill water and make biofuel. The system will track the sun to
optimize energy. The project will be donated to help people in third world countries
harness natural, clean energy. The ultimate goal of our research organization is to
bring different departments together to learn and create unique projects the help our
local, state, national and global community.
UAlbany ASIS&T Open Source Festival
Dima Kassab PhD Student, University at Albany
Catherine Dumas PhD Student, University at Albany
The Open Source Festival (OSF) is a student-led initiative that introduces students
to new open source tools, allows them to connect with the larger open source
communities of practice within industry, academia, and the government, and gives
them a platform to present their projects. This poster highlights the lessons learned,
the challenges we face, and the valuable opportunities it brings to student population
and the community from organizing the event.
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Poster Session
During Fall 2015 the Informatics Department of the University at Albany introduced
our Makerspace, called (in)3: Innovation in Informatics. We launched (in)3 with a
series of workshops. Our goal was to use these workshops as an opportunity to increase interest in (in)3 and to begin to develop a maker community. Several of these
workshops were dedicated to working with an initiative called Project e-NABLE. Project
e-NABLE’s mission is to connect people in need of prosthetic hands with people who
can create and 3d print those hands. This presentation will focus on our experience
making the hands and embedding the project into (in)3 as well as the Informatics
curriculum.
P L AT I N U M L E V E L S P O N S O R S
GOLD LEVEL SPONSORS
S I LV E R L E V E L S P O N S O R
BRONZE LEVEL SPONSOR
COPPER LEVEL SPONSOR
FactSet
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Career Fair Companies
Cisco Systems
COINS (Construction Industry Solutions)
Envisage Information Systems
FactSet Research Systems
GE Research and Development
GE
Harris Corporation
INFICON
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL) operated by Bechtel
Siena College
SRC, Inc. – Syracuse Research Corporation
Syracuse University
The CBORD Group, Inc.
University at Albany
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Program Committee
Dianne Bills Associate Professor, RIT (Retired)
Bouchra Bouqata General Electric Research
Kayci Caldwell Student, University at Albany
MaryAnne Egan Professor, Siena College
Julia Isaac Student, Union College
Jessica Sanford Student, Union College
Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan Assistant Professor, University at Albany
Special Thanks
Organizing Committee
Jennifer Goodall University at Albany
Valerie Barr Union College
Kristina Striegnitz Union College
Nick Webb Union College
Mary Anne Egan Siena College
Sharon Mason Rochester Institute of Technology
Julie Walas Syracuse University
Website
Jerry Tylutki Hamilton College
Program
Assante Design Syracuse, New York
Conference Bags
Ann Bailey BAE Systems
Career Counselors
Jill Jablonski RIT
Cathy Parker University at Albany
Sarah Weber Syracuse University
Aspirations in Computing
Kathleen M. Joyce Syracuse University
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Notes
Crowne Plaza Syracuse
701 E Genesee Street
Syracuse, New York 13210
Tel: 315-479-7000 | Fax: 315-472-2700