Tag Archives: technical women

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 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 · 11:10 pm

Your Mother is Here to Make Robots

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I love this sign over the kitchen sink at TechShop San Jose:

TechShop Members: Your Mother may be a member here at TechShop, but she’s here to make Robots, not wash your dishes.  Please clean up any messes that you make.  Thank you.

Image Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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May 12, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Women of Vision 2012

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The annual ABI Women of Vision event was last week – inspiring and interesting, as always. Huawei sponsored my attending the “Top Company for Technical Women” workshop in addition to the evening banquet and awards ceremony. Winners this year:

Leadership Award:
Jennifer Chayes, Distinguished Scientist and Managing Director, Microsoft Research New England
Innovation Award:
Sarita Adve, Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Social Impact Award:
Sarah Revi Sterling, Faculty Director, ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder
Anita Borg Top Company For Technical Women Award:
American Express

It was particularly enjoyable to spend social time with women who participated in the 2011 TechWomen program – and who have applied to be mentors again in 2012.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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May 9, 2012 · 9:25 pm

Anita Borg Institute Advisory Board Meeting

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Today was the annual in-person meeting of the Advisory Board of the Anita Borg Institute. As usual, we met at the HP Labs building in Palo Alto, California, which hosts the ABI offices. Amazing technical leaders from all of the great Silicon Valley and US technology companies, plus some universities and government groups were there.  We discussed plans for the future and presented some of our accomplishments for the year, including the publication of my committee’s Famous Women in Computer Science web resource.  We took home posters for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, to be held 3-6 October 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Most of the Advisory Board members and ABI staff will get together again tomorrow night at the Women of Vision event in Santa Clara. Huawei is sending a group to this  inspiring annual gathering – I am very much looking forward to it!

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Images by Katy Dickinson 2012 Copyright

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March 12, 2012 · 11:05 pm

Published: “Famous Women in Computer Science”

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“Advancing Your Career Through Awards” panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2010, including (L to R): Lucy Sanders, Fran Allen, Bob Walker, Katy Dickinson, Marcy Alstott, and Manuela Veloso.

In November 2009, I first published my first “Famous Women in Computer Science” blog entry. I am delighted to report that in honor of International Women’s Day 2012, the Anita Borg Institute has published an updated and expanded version of that material as a new web resource:

The Anita Borg Institute is proud to introduce – Famous Women in Computer Science. This list was compiled by our Advisory Board Awards Committee: Katy Dickinson (Director, Huawei Technologies), Fran Allen (IBM Emerita and 2006 Turing Award Winner), Dr. Chandra Krintz, (Professor, Computer Science Department, University of California at Santa Barbara) and Dr. Robert Walker (Professor and Chair, Computer Science Department, Kent State University). The women on this list are leaders in Computer Science and recognized by their peers and the technology industry through major awards and other public acknowledgements of excellence.

The ultimate goal of this list is to encourage our readers to:

  • Navigate the ABI awards web sites
  • Identify women with award-winning potential
  • Encourage those who want to understand their own potential for promotion, honors, and awards
  • Organize and inform a nomination or promotion

Awards and other honors often go begging for lack of good nominations. A great woman is often overlooked because no one mentioned her name or took the time to build her case. Increased focus is needed on awards going to great technical women at every stage in their careers.

The new “Famous Women in Computer Science” web resource is attracting attention: we have already had many requests to add more names. Our committee is reviewing and researching suggestions as we get them. The list is incomplete and growing. After reviewing what is already published, if you have a suggestion for this list please send a message to information@anitaborg.org. Here is the 8 March 2012 press release.

“Famous Women in Computer Science” is a companion resource to the “Award-Winning Career Timelines In Computer Science and Engineering”  material my amazing ABI Advisory Board committee published in 2010.

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“The Value of Awards and How to Get Them” at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2009, including (L to R): Katy Dickinson, Chandra Krintz, Bob Walker.

Images by Katy Dickinson 2009-2010

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March 5, 2012 · 12:20 am

Drafting Proposals for the Hopper Conference (GHC12)

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I am working with two teams on panel proposals for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing, to be held 3-4 October 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. Submissions are due 16 March. I have been going to the Hopper Conference for many years and have presented regularly. I am particularly excited about GHC12 because all of this year’s TechWomen mentees will be attending. My daughter Jessica usually attend GHC together.

Here is what we have so far for the two proposals:

Panel Proposal #1

“Silicon Valley Inside Out: Surviving the Distance” presents a panel of very senior technical women who work in R&D in the Silicon Valley, for companies based outside of the USA. Topics to be discussed include: culture and language, effective communication, distance collaboration and management, localization, norms and taboos, conflict resolution, issues and risk-mitigation.

Panel Proposal #2

“Mentoring Between Cultures: TechWomen” is a panel on mentoring between technical women, using the successful TechWomen program as an example. The panel members are senior women who work for Silicon Valley technical companies and served as mentors to one or more women from the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) during the first TechWomen term in 2011. Topics to be discussed include: best practices and tips for mentors and mentees, mentoring program design, effective mentoring across cultures and time zones, the benefits of women mentoring women and technical mentorships, the career advantages of mentoring for both mentees and mentors, how mentoring drives transformation, etc.

GHC presentation proposals are accepted based on evaluation by several judges. Competition is ferocious. I hope we are accepted.  Wish us luck!

Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2011

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