NWrWIC 2014

Women Pioneering Innovation

Date: April 12, 2014
Location: DoubleTree, Portland, OR
1000 NE Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon, 97232, USA
Time: 8:00 am – 6:30 pm

Schedule

Registration: 8:00-9:00

Welcome Breakfast: 8:30-9:30

A hearty breakfast is included!

Morning Keynote: Opportunities 9:30 – 10:20

Abstract: Opportunities are always out there, and as young women looking forward towards the future of the tech industry, there are more opportunities than ever to diversify, expand and innovate this constantly growing industry. Join Kim Swift, a video game industry veteran as she discusses her start and career path creating and working on games such as Portal, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and Quantum Conundrum. After the brief speech, stick around to ask as many questions as you can think of on how the video game industry works, how to get started, what pitfalls are out there, and how to succeed.

Kim Swift, Senior Designer, Amazon

Speed Networking: 10:20 – 10:40

Break: 10:40 – 10:50

Collaborative Problem Solving Breakout Session: 10:50 – 12:20

Lunch: 12:20 – 1:50

Lunch Panel: Building Your Personal Brand: 12:50 – 1:50

Moderator: Ivo Lukas of 24Notion

Speakers:
Irina Frumkin, Principal Development Lead Bing of Microsoft
Claire Francis, founder clairety.co
Ania Osińska-Bulloff, Employment Brand specialist of Tripwire
Kate Niedermeyer, Strategic Business Development of Intel NBI group

What makes you unique? If you’re just starting your career, how do you communicate your personal story to the world? Learn successful strategies for creating and communicating a personal brand from a panel of experts. Achieving your personal and career goals is much easier when you’re sending a clear, consistent message to the world about who you are and what you have to offer!

Discussion topics will include:

What is a personal brand and why is it important?
How do you differentiate yourself from the crowd?
The dos and don’ts of creating a successful brand
Different multi-media channels for communicating your brand to the world
What can you do right now to get started?

Break: 1:50 – 200

Tech Talk: The Age Wave Meets The Technology Wave: 2:00 – 2:45

Jennifer Davidson, PhD Candidate in Computer Science (Human Computer Interaction), Oregon State University:

The population of people over 65 in the US will double in the next 15 years. In addition, the demand for people with technical skills continues to increase. Free/open source software (FOSS) communities are also in need of a more diverse developer base. Jennifer’s ultimate research goal is to change the current FOSS demographic by finding ways to involve older adults. Her research lies at the intersection of computer science, psychology, and aging sciences. In this talk, you will learn about results from her dissertation research on older FOSS contributors, and guidelines for involving older adults in FOSS outreach.

Afternoon Keynote: Impact and Innovation 2:45 – 3:35

Reena Agarwal – Principal Development Manager, Microsoft

With computing technology getting more pervasive in our everyday lives, the dream of innovating and making an impact is in every computer scientists reach. Yet, in abstract, the thought of innovating is daunting, seeming almost unsurmountable and fraught with risks. What could you achieve if you didn’t hold back? Come discuss with Reena, a software engineer and Big Data innovator what has worked for her and her observations along her journey.

Speed Networking: 3:35 – 3:55

Tech Talk: They Know What You Did Last Summer: How Advertisers and Social Media Sites Track You As You Browse the Web 3:55 – 4:40

Franziska Roesner – PhD Candidate in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington

When you visit a website, your browser doesn’t just load content from that website, but also “third-party” content from other sources, including advertisements, website analytics engines, and social media widgets like the Facebook “Like” button and the Twitter “tweet” button. These third parties are able to observe your visits to the websites that embed them, and over time can link an individual’s visits to many different sites. In this talk, I’ll provide an overview of how web tracking works and why some consider it to be a privacy concern. I’ll describe a measurement study that we carried out to better understand the tracking ecosystem, from which we learned that popular trackers can capture a large fraction of users’ browsing history. I’ll also discuss several defenses for privacy-sensitive users, including one that we developed for social media widgets, called ShareMeNot.

Career Fair, Resume Reviews, Mock Interviews: 4:40 – 6:30

As well as the amazing companies listed in the Career Fair Guide, we will have resume reviews and mock interviews done by experienced industry professionals. Don’t miss this opportunity to get great feedback to impress your next potential employer! Sign up during registration and stop by registration to confirm your time slot.