News From ACM-W Celebrations

 The inaugural ACM-W Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing (CAN-CWiC) conference took place on January 22/23rd in the Nation’s Capital, Ottawa, Ontario.   The event attracted over 500 attendees from across Canada with attendees from nine different provinces, the US, and India.

The event began with a banquet and opening remarks from Dr. Sheila Anand, the chair of ACM-W India.  The evening keynote was presented by Krista Shibata, the newly appointed Leader of the IBM Canada Women in Technology initiative.

Saturday was jam-packed with 3 parallel tracks including a technical track, skills development, and an outreach track.  The day began with a keynote by Jennifer Stott from RBC and concluded with a “Day in the Life” panel featuring four outstanding women with varied career paths.  The graduate forum and poster session allowed students a chance to share their work and to obtain valuable feedback from the many in attendance.   The career fair was a huge success with 25 exhibitors seeking new talent and showcasing their companies.

The CAN-CWiC Programming challenge, sponsored by IBM and TD Bank, offered students from across Canada a chance to develop and pitch novels ideas in the domain of Lifestyle Banking.  Participants used IBM’s Bluemix platform to develop a prototype.   The five top teams from the first round competition were invited to CAN-CWiC to compete in the final competition.  The teams were mentored by senior technical women from IBM and TD Bank to prepare for the final competition.  The top team was awarded a $1000 cash prize.

A pre-conference meeting brought together more than 40 female Computer Science faculty from across Canada to discuss issues relating to women in academia.   This group plans to continue their discussions and work on an action plan over the coming year to tackle some of the more pressing issues.

Thanks to our tireless Celebrations organizers, we have four upcoming events in February and March: 

  • TRIWiC – Tri-State Women in Computing, February 19/20, 2016 in Cincinnati, OH
  • CWiC – Carolinas Women in Computing, February 19/20, 2016 in Myrtle Beach, SC
  • CAPWIC – Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing, March 4/5, 2016 at Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia
  • PHIWiC – Phillipines Women in Computing Conference, March 16, 2016
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