Category Archives: Hopper – Anita Borg Institute

One of the benefits of Sun again being a Platinum Sponsor of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in
Computing (Keystone Resort, Colorado, October 1-4, 2008) is
that we get to put stuff into the bags given out at registration
to all conference participants. This year, we are distributing
OpenSolaris
Back to School Student Pack. The Back to School
Student Pack includes
two CDs – a Live bootable and installable OpenSolaris CD, plus a Resources DVD.
I think the Grace Hopper participants, particularly the majority who are
university students or faculty, will put these to good use.

Websites for Update Versions and More Information

• 
  OpenSolaris (an operating system that provides a rich, coherent platform
  for building and running applications)
• VirtualBox
  (a family of powerful x86 virtualization products)
• OpenOffice
  (the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more)
• NetBeans
  (A free, open-source Integrated Development Environment
  for software developers.)

Resources for Hopper 2008:

• Professors and academic institutions interested in OpenSolaris and
  Student Pack, please
  contact opensolaris-university@sun.com soon.
• 
  2.8 Gb Downloadable VirtualBox Guest Image
  (as found on the Resource DVD distributed at Hopper 2008)
• gzip Home Page for the gunzip.exe
  program for Windows users

I am again managing Sun’s participation in the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in
Computing conference, now just a few weeks away: Keystone Resort,
Colorado, October 1-4, 2008. On Thursday (2 Oct), Sun has staff in 8 panels
or talks, with 4 more on Friday (3 Oct). You can see my panel “Taking the
Long View – Many Careers in One Company” on Thursday, October 2nd, Session
Three, 2:45pm – 3:45pm. I am also participating in a BOF on the new
MAGIC mentoring program
called “Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls” on
Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm – 6:10pm.

Other panels or presentations including Sun staff have these titles:

• CTO Plenary Session
• Innovating with Chip Multi-Threading Technology
• Mid-Career Course Correction
• The Synergistic Evolution of Software & Hardware Technologies
• Build a Better Processor: Breaking through the Technology Challenges
• Letting the Cup Overflow: Expanding Your Experiences Outside Your Research Lab
• Project Fortress: A Multicore Language for Scientists and Engineers
• Women in the Brave New World of Free and Open Source Software
• Web 2.0 Session: Online Social Networks – Impact to Our Careers
• Experiences with Maternity Leave and Returning to Work

The many Sun staff attending are coordinating schedules (which
breakfast, lunch, or evening events to attend?, who will staff Sun’s
exhibit hall table when?, who can help set up or tear down?).
Hopper is an exhilerating experience and I am very much looking
forward to it.

Last year was the first time my daughter
Jessica attended Hopper.
This year, her own poster submission was accepted. I haven’t seen my
girl since she left for her second year at Carnegie Mellon University
in late August. It will be fun to room together again. Some photos
from Hopper 2007:

Jessica & Fran Allen

My “Girl Geeks” Panel, 2007

Friday Party 2007

Hopper 2007 Poster

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

The MAGIC mentoring program
for middle and high school girls is getting ready for its pilot
program at The Girls’ Middle School
(GMS) in Mountain View, CA. We on the
MAGIC core team have spent the summer identifying, interviewing, and checking
out senior technical women from Sun, Google, Intel, and other companies as potential
mentors. We have also written FAQs, guides, process flows, and other supporting
documents. See how to apply on
http://www.getmagic.org/mentor.html.

MAGICMentor Criteria

1. Must be a woman with a career (past or present) in technology.
2. Must pledge a time commitment of 6-9 months, 5-10 hours/month.
3. Must provide a professional profile, including the number of years
   of professional experience.
4. Must consent to participate in a comprehensive background check.
5. Must go through an application process, including a phone interview.
6. Must complete initial orientation/training.

MAGICMentee Criteria

1. Must be a middle or high school girl, interested in technology.
2. Must furnish written parental consent.
3. If accepted, parents must sign a waiver and release of liability form.

MAGIC will be presenting a birds of a feather (BOF) Friday session at
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in
Computing (Keystone Resort, Colorado: October 1-4, 2008).
You can read up on the history of MAGIC on my blog:

• 
  Women of Vision Videos 2005-2008 July 24, 2008
• MAGIC in Newsweek
  June 15, 2008
• 
  Sun at Hopper 2008 May 27, 2008
• 
  MAGIC at Girls’ Middle School May 21, 2008
• 
  Women of Vision Event May 09, 2008

Sun is a again a Platinum-level Sponsor of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (in Keystone Resort, Colorado:
October 1-4, 2008). Thanks for the comments on the earlier version of the conference
program advertisement. We revised the first sentence to sound better. Thanks also
to Margaret Nguyen and Alex Seibert of Sun Marketing for their support. See the
earlier version (and Sun’s 2007 Hopper conference ad) on:

July 24, 2008. Click on the image below to see a bigger version.

Sun Copyright 2008, Reprinted with permission

On
9 May 2008, I wrote about the amazing

Women of Vision event held in downtown San Jose, California. Sun Labs’

Susan Landau, Distinguished Engineer, won the
Anita Borg Institute
2008 WOV Award in the Social Impact category. Sun’s CTO

Greg Papadopoulos gave the welcome address at the Imperial Ballroom of the
Fairmont Hotel.

The videos of the three 2008 winners’ acceptance speeches have now been posted on
YouTube. We who are building the new
MAGIC program for mentoring middle school girls are planning how
to use these videos for inspiration. Here are all of the 2005-2008
WOV links on YouTube:

• 
  Woman of Vision Radia Perlman Video 2005 WOV Winner for Innovation
  
  (Radia Perlman is Sun’s first woman Fellow!)
  
• 
  Woman of Vision Janie Tsao 2005 WOV Winner for Leadership
• 
  Woman of Vision Pamela Samuelson Video 2005 WOV Winner for Social Impact
• 
  Deborah Estrin, Women of Vision 2007 WOV Winner for Innovation
  
  
  Deborah Estrin, Acceptance Speech
  
• 
  Duy-Loan Le, Women of Vision for Leadership 2007
  
  
  Duy-Loan Le, Acceptance Speech, part 1
  
  
  Duy-Loan Le, Acceptance Speech, part 2
  
• 
  Leah Jamieson, Women of Vision for Social Impact 2007
  
  
  Leah Jamieson, Acceptance Speech
  
• 
  Susan Landau Women of Vision Award Speech part 1 2008 Social Impact Winner
  
  
  Susan Landau Women of Vision Speech part 2
  
  
  Susan Landau, Women of Vision Winner Social Impact slides
• 
  Helen Greiner Women of Vision Award Speech 2008 Innovation Winner
  
  
  Helen Greiner, Women of Vision Award Winner Innovation slides
• 
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech pt 1
  2008 Leadership Winner
  
  
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech Part 2
  
  
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Speech Part 3
  
  
  Justine Cassell Women of Vision Award Winner Leadership slides

Sun is a again a Platinum level Sponsor of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (in Keystone Resort, Colorado:
October 1-4, 2008). We worked with Margaret Nguyen (Advertising Program
Specialist in Sun Marketing) to create Sun’s 2008 program ad for Hopper (which
we received today). Click on the images to see a bigger version.

Sun Copyright 2008, Reprinted with permission

For comparison, here is the advertisement Sun used last year (for Hopper 2007):

Sun Copyright 2007, Reprinted with permission

Sun is a long-term supporter of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.

About Hopper

The Grace Hopper
Celebration of Women in Computing is an annual conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industrial, academic and government communities. Leading researchers present their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering. International participation is encouraged.

This year’s Hopper 2008 conference theme is “We Build a Better World”.
Hopper 2008 will be held October 1-4, 2008 in Keystone, Colorado.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is presented by the
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
and the Association for Computing Machinery.

Why go to Hopper?

1. Professional education, celebration, and excitement
2. Networking and Visibility
3. Recruiting (University and Professional)

Here is one example of what happens at Hopper:

In 2007, a group of senior women
Engineers and Executives got together and created
MAGIC, a new mentoring program for middle school and high school girls.
MAGIC was kicked off as a BOF (birds of a feather session) at Hopper 2007, and a
group of interested potential mentors signed up. MAGIC is now partnering with
Girls’ Middle School on its pilot program with
volunteer mentors from Sun Microsystems, Google, NASA, and other organizations. An
update BOF is scheduled for Hopper 2008.

Sun’s Participation

Congratulations to Sun staff who are on panels or BOFs accepted by the Grace Hopper
Celebration of Women in Computing 2008! This is a starting list – there are always
changes and additions as panel rosters are developed.

Sun Submissions Accepted for Hopper 2008

1. BOF – Best Practices for Latina Grad Students
2. BOF – Experiences with Maternity Leave and Returning to Work
3. BOF – Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls
4. Panel – CTO Panel
5. Panel – Letting the Cup Overflow; expanding your experiences outside your research lab
6. Panel – Mid-Career Course Correction
7. Panel – Online Social Networks – Impact to our careers
8. Panel – Women in the Brave New World of Free and Open Source Software
9. Panel – Project Fortress: A Multicore Language for Scientists and Engineers
10. Panel – Synergistic Evolution of Software & Hardware Technologies
11. Panel – Taking the Long View – Many Careers in One Company
12. Presentation – Innovating with Chip Multi-Threading Technology