Tag Archives: Huawei

September 6, 2012 · 10:57 pm

TechWomen 2012 Orientation

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Today was when the TechWomen 2012 mentors and mentees (“Emerging Leaders”) all met for the first time – at the orientation event hosted by Oracle in Redwood City, California. It was an exhilarating day – both catching up with returning 2011 mentors and meeting the three mentees who will be hosted by Huawei in Santa Clara this month. I have been working with the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program since 2010 and am so very pleased it is going well in its second year. As both a Professional Mentor and the manager of the TechWomen program overall for Huawei, I am looking forward to working with our mentees, one each from Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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August 23, 2012 · 11:14 am

IEEE Photographer

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Huawei is hosting the 3-day IEEE Hot Interconnects conference in Santa Clara, California, this week and I am pleased to be the official event photographer. Yesterday was the first day of this 20th anniversary conference. It has been fun to see so many colleagues and friends from the Sun Labs diaspora, including Radia Perlman (called “The Mother of the Internet”, first woman to be a Sun Microsystems Fellow, many-time mentor in my SEED program, holder of more than 200 granted US patents, now an Intel Fellow). She gave a fascinating talk called “Network Myths and Mysteries.”

I am taking pictures again today – and posting them on the new IEEE Hot Interconnects Pinterest page.

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Images Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved

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August 7, 2012 · 10:23 pm

TechWomen Mentor Training

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TechWomen mentor training was today, hosted by Walmart in San Bruno, California. About TechWomen:

Harnessing the power of business, technology and innovation, TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in technology sectors from the Middle East and North Africa together with their American counterparts for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading companies in the United States.

Pairing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy” with “21st Century Statecraft,” TechWomen works to empower women and girls through technology.  It connects and supports the next generation of women in technology sectors by providing them the access and opportunity needed to pursue careers in technology.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).  … partnering with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) to implement this initiative.

This is the second year for TechWomen, with Silicon Valley companies hosting women from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, and Yemen. I was the Process Architect for TechWomen from 2010-2011. Today, I gave a short talk on the Best and Worst Practices in Mentoring. I am proud to be a Professional Mentor myself this year. Each mentee has both a Professional and a Cultural mentor assigned to her. Huawei hosted three mentees last year in Santa Clara (two from Lebanon and one from Egypt) and will host three more this year (one each from Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco). We are very much looking forward to meeting them in September!

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 24, 2012 · 9:10 am

John’s Trip Home

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My husband John Plocher is flying home from his most recent two week trip to China, on business for Huawei. I have received an interesting series of text message emails as he worked his way through the weather and mess of a typhoon from ShenZhen to the Hong Kong airport. So far, his flight is about two hours late.

  • On way to airport – roads flooded, slow traffic, not worried – looking forward to seeing you SOON!!
  • Typhoon coming in to south of us in morning… More info as I find out,,,
  • Coming->came…
  • Only 1 route to hk open, ferry closed, shekou bridge closed, luohu closed, trees down across only road open.. Glad we have several hours b4 plane leaves
  • At hk airport
  • Flight delayed (no surprise).checked in ok
  • On board! Good seat

Later… John arrived home safely despite Typhoon Vicente, only two hours late.

Photo Copyright 2012 by John Plocher

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July 21, 2012 · 1:36 pm

Non-Travel Diary 4

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While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This has been a relatively quiet week. In addition to working full-time at Huawei:

  • There was a small amount of progress on our home construction projects. The painter spent a half day painting the wrong color stain on the baseboards.  When I pointed out the error, he spent about the same amount of time sanding that color off and re-staining. Nobody was happy.
  • Thursday, I joined the monthly Board meeting of the Santa Maria Urban Ministry. We said an appreciative goodbye to our summer intern.  The SMUM Tech Team (of which John and I are members) was assigned some new projects by the Board.
  • My newly-assigned 2012 TechWomen mentee from Lebanon and I made first contact. We exchanged introductory emails and are starting to make preparations for her visit to the Silicon Valley in September. Her background is impressive – I very much look forward to working with her in person.  TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
  • I communicated with the 2011 TechWomen mentees with whom I am presenting a panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2012 (Baltimore, MD).  I am the moderator of the panel called “Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations”. We have travel funding confirmed for three of the panelists and we are working on support for our fourth. The ladies are traveling from Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon for GHC12.  I am very eager to see them again!
  • Paul and I took our Wood Shop basic safety and equipment introduction at TechShop San Jose last night.  We enjoyed learning to use the miter saw, table saw, band saw, electric sander, and drill press.  The scroll saw is being repaired so we will learn how to use that later.  I made a heart for John and Paul started work on an infinity symbol using the band saw.  One of the other students laser-engraved the heart for me.  I want to take a TechShop laser class next!
  • This morning, we had a community yard sale. Despite being on Craigslist and putting signs up on nearby corners, it was very poorly attended. However, it was fun to hang out with the neighbors. Our neighborhood apparently has 7 boys and 1 girl aged between 6 and 12 years old – who spent the morning rocketing from sale to sale comparing stuff and giving updates.
  • John comes home Tuesday morning!

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 20, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Silicon Valley at Your Feet

My Godmother was Margot Patterson Doss who wrote about walking in San Francisco and the SF Bay Area. Her most famous book was called San Francisco at Your Feet: Best Walks in a Walkers City.

I was thinking of Aunt Margot on my way to lunch today in Santa Clara. Walking from my Huawei office to the Bamboo Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant is not far, but I pass by dozens of small Silicon Valley companies. They are nested together in the San Tomas Business Park, one of probably hundreds of such company parks throughout our high-tech valley.

Humanitarian organizations, medical research, telecom, technical research and support companies, and companies whose products are a mystery are all mixed in together.  Each is in an office space that is maybe twenty feet from the door of the next such space.  All that differentiates them is the sign on a series of identical glass doors.

This particular office park has been around long enough to boast large redwoods and other mature trees among its plantings (which make it a pleasant lunchtime walk). I wonder how many of the tightly packed companies have been around long enough to see those trees grow?

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Copyright Images 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 17, 2012 · 10:45 pm

Wedding Ceremony – Shaodong County, Hunan Province in China

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John and his boss Jim Hughes were in Shaodong County, Hunan Province in China for a wedding of friends this week. See the first part of this story for more.

The big day started at the bride’s family’s home (or hotel room in this case) where the groom was locked out and had to negotiate with her family and friends through the closed door while she sat on the bed – with good humor all around.  He eventually got in and picked her up without her shoes.  Then everyone drove to another hotel for the ceremony and reception.

The food was set out during the end of the ceremony so lunch started immediately after.  During the meal, the groom visited each table to drink a toast while the  bride and bridesmaid passed out two cigarettes to each guest.  There was singing and speeches and much joy.

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Images Copyright 2012 by John Plocher

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