KatysBlog

Today is the first day of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (aka GHC 2008)
in Keystone, Colorado. I have lived most of my life at sea level in
the San Francisco Bay Area, so the dry thin air here in the Rocky
Mountains (at 9,300 feet) takes some getting used to. The hotel
is very pleasant but only offers heat – no cooling in the rooms.
Our room has a lovely mountain view but it heats up fast when the
sun hits the windows. We have the humidifier going full and the
balcony door open for cooling – not the most efficient combination.

This morning,
Tanya Jankot and I unpacked the Sun Microsystems shipment boxes and set
up our company table in the exhibit hall. We have already given away
several boxes of the Java 10 year commemorative book (with signed
card by James Gosling), Sun
pens, and Women@Sun sticky note cubes. We will be giving away Sun Women
in Engineering tshirts (in six languages!) starting this afternoon.

My daughter

Jessica flew in this morning from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her
suitcase has not yet arrived. However, Jessica carried her four
foot square
Hopper poster in her arms most of the way so it is in good shape
for the opening session tonight. We put it up in the poster hall a
little while ago – it looks interesting and very well done. I am so
proud of her!

Jessica’s poster topic is “How to Combat Plagiarism in Academia
(and How Not To)”. It presents her research on how major universities
(including CMU, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, Indian Institute of Information Technology – Allahabad), address the potential
for plagiarism through technical and non-technical solutions (such
as honor codes). Some of Jessica’s conclusions:

“Companies which sell technical solutions to academic plagiarism argue that students cheat and that the only way to stop them is to use a commercial technical solution. In this poster I have shown

1. Three of five top [Computer Science] schools in the world choose to rely on non-technical approaches to plagiarism—Honor Codes.
2. I have found no data suggesting that schools which employ a technical solution have more honest academic cultures.”

Jessica started thinking deeply about this topic (both plagiarism
and treating students as “guilty until proven innocent”) when she served
on the Harker Judicial Committee
during her Senior year in High School. (She is now a Sophomore at CMU.)
I hope she will continue this interesting research.

I have arrived in Keystone, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains
near Denver, for the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (aka GHC 2008).
It was an uneventful trip. On the flight from San Francisco, I sat next
to a pleasant woman who wore a silver leather jacket and more
sparkley jewelery and clothes than I have ever seen on one person.
Everything, even her glasses and shoes, had sparkles.

Flying over the mountains, there were big patches of yellow rust color
that the pilot said were aspens wearing their autumn leaves.
It was dark when we arrived but I am looking forward to seeing
the mountains in the sun tomorrow.

Tanya Jankot and I were on the same flight. We had dinner at the
Denver airport, then took the
shuttle to Keystone. There were so many women headed for Hopper
that they had to call for a second van. Our driver said it was his
4th trip of the day. I teased him that some men would be happy
to be on a two hour van trip with eleven women but he said he had
four older sisters so he expected to be picked on.

Tanya and I will be setting up the Sun table in the exhibit hall
tomorrow after lunch. I hope that all of our stuff has arrived
in good shape. My daughter

Jessica arrives tomorrow morning.

More than thirty-five Sun staff will be at the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in
Computing this week in Keystone, Colorado. Many of us were able to
check in with each other by conference call this afternoon. I am flying into
Denver tomorrow afternoon. Today, I am printing everything I think I may need
while I am traveling and at the conference:

• Airline boarding pass
• Denver-Keystone-Denver airport shuttle tickets
• My travel itinerary (California-Colorado-California) and my
  
  daughter’s travel itinerary (Pennsylvania-Colorado-Pennsylvania)
• Hotel reservation confirmation
• Phone numbers and names of people I plan to contact
• Information about Sun staff attending Hopper 2008
• Information on my panel “Taking the Long View – Many Careers in One Company” – Thursday, October 2nd, Session Three, 2:45pm – 3:45pm
• Information on the MAGIC BOF in which
  I am a participant – “Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls” on
  Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm – 6:10pm
• Sun job and program and MAGIC program information, in case anyone asks me

I am also carrying Sun business cards and MAGIC business cards, pencils printed
with “www.getmagic.org MAGIC girls” for distribution at the BOF, books, clothes,
etc. Sun’s Hopper t-shirts and other giveaways were already shipped, as were
our posters and quick screens. I updated my laptop software this afternoon but
John is messing with it now (in case he, as our family sysadmin, can think of
more stuff I might need).

I talked with Jessica and she is ready to print her poster for Hopper’s
Technical Poster Session (Wednesday, 1 Oct, 7 – 9 pm). I am looking
forward to seeing it (and my girl!).

Keystone temperatures are expected to range between 65 degrees F and 25
degrees F, at 8930 feet above sea level, with thunderstorm potential, so
I am packing for cold and maybe wet weather. Almost ready to go… I
am very much looking forward to this. Hopper conferences are well worth
the effort.

There is a solid feeling of accomplishment in having business cards
printed up the first time for a new venture. The
MAGIC core team now has its
cards to take to the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing next week in Colorado.
Here is mine:

The MAGIC mentoring program
for middle and high school girls will be featured at a BOF
called
“Setting Up An Effective Organization To Support Girls”, on
Friday, Oct 3rd, 5:10pm – 6:10pm. If you attend Hopper, please come
by and talk with us!

Image Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson