News From ACM-W Celebrations
The Southern California Celebration of Women in Computing occurred April 9-10th at the Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach Hotel. This biennial event was the third such celebration of its kind. An estimated 206 attendees registered from the event with approximately 180 of those being undergraduate students from Southern California schools (with the largest cohorts coming from UC Irvine and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo).
The conference program ran for a full day on Saturday and a half day on Sunday and included, two keynotes, student talks, workshops, panel presentations, a job fair and poster session and a social activity. Some of the sessions that garnered very positive audience participation included the panel on `Outreach Activities and Opportunities’, the panel on `Careers in Industry’, the job fair, the social activity (focused on creating drawable circuits and card houses), the workshop on `Supporting and Growing a Student-Run Club for Women in Computing’ and the panel on `Work-Life Balance’. The overall feedback about the conference was very positive with many students thanking the organizers for the opportunity to learn more about jobs or research areas in computing. Student presenters expressed gratitude for a ‘friendly’ venue in which to present work and participants expressed thanks for a friendly atmosphere in which to ask questions of industry representatives about quality of life, balance, and opportunities. Overall, the conference was a warm and celebratory event. Student participants from Cal Poly provided great assistance with the webpage, t-shirt design, social event, and many of the conference tasks, and we recommend that high student engagement is a plus for future organizers.
Celebration registration for 2016/2017 is now underway. If you are planning an event that will take place between August 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017 please register your event before July 31, 2016. Events registered after this date are not guaranteed ACM-W funding. If you would like more information, please contact Wendy Powley (wendy@cs.queensu.ca). We can help you get started!