Session 5: 4:20 PM – 5:20 PM
The Journey to a Teaching-Oriented Faculty Position
Location: Royal Palm 4, 5 & 6
Panel: Janet Davis (Grinell College), Ruth Anderson (University of Washington), Cheryl D. Seals (Auburn University), Megan Thomas (California State University, Stanislaus), Tammy VanDeGrift (University of Portland)
The objective of this career mentoring panel is to advise and inform graduate students in Computer Science and related fields who are interested in pursuing teaching-oriented faculty careers. Graduate students generally complete an advanced degree at research institutions. There are few opportunities for graduate students to learn about teaching positions at teaching-oriented colleges and universities. In this panel, we will present advice on topics such as acquiring teaching experience in graduate school, finding announcements of open positions, preparing application materials, and what to expect when interviewing at teachingoriented colleges and universities. The advice and expectations for a teaching-oriented career path were harvested from the panelists’ recent experiences in conducting teachingoriented job searches in computer science and from one panelist’s experience serving on search committees.
Managing Career Change for Researchers
Location: Sunrise Conference Room
Panel: Kathleen Fisher (AT&T Labs Research), Pei Cao (Stanford University), Tal Malkin (Columbia University), Lalita Jagadeesan (Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies)
Life as a researcher can be a little like being at sea: calm for a time, and then sudden change. The past 10 years have seemed especially turbulent for people pursuing research careers. The so-called “dot com boom” of the late 1990’s drew many industrial researchers and academicians into startup companies, only to be left to reconsider their career paths once again when the bubble burst a few years later. At the same time, several major industrial research labs underwent significant changes, with some labs closing, and others changing direction in response to market pressures. Change can be scary and inconvenient, but it also opens the doors to new opportunities. The objective of this panel is to bring together a small group of women who have recently made or contemplated career transitions and have them share their strategies for managing change successfully.
Anatomy of a Nationwide, Three-year, Multidisciplinary Study of Diversity on the Computing Disciplines
Location: Sunset Conference Room
Panel: Antonio M. Lopez, Jr. (Xavier University of Louisiana), J McGrath Cohoon (University of Virginia), Madonna Constantine (Teachers College Columbia University), Tracy Camp (Colorado School of Mines)
The objectives of this panel are twofold: (1) Provide information regarding a scientific research study on gender-based differences and ethnic and cultural models in the computing disciplines that is presently underway in the United States, and (2) Encourage others to undertake such studies so that results might be replicated and generalized across studies. The target audiences are those doing “women in computing research” as well as those interested in such research. The challenge is to move researchers from small samples at single institutions of higher education to large samples from multiple institutions of higher education across the United States. The four panelists are part of a nationwide, three-year study on gender-based differences and ethnic and cultural models in the computing disciplines. They each have different roles in this important research work and will provide the audience with their different perspectives.
The Role of User Research in the Product Development Process
Location: Golden West Conference Room
Panel: Jennifer Gove (Google), Sheryl Ehrlich (Adobe Systems), Kaaren Hanson (Intuit), Robin Jeffries (Google), Brenda Laurel (Sun Microsystems), Anna M. Wichansky (Oracle)
User-centered design involves conducting user research to inform product design. While many organizations claim to practice user-centered design, in reality it can be difficult to change traditional design and development processes. User research can be perceived as being costly in time and money, or, as imperative to ensuring that products meet users’ needs. The panel members, User Experience Design (UxD) managers and leads who work at large technology companies, will discuss the strategies they are developing to meet these challenges. The representation of women in the field of UxD will also be discussed.
This panel will be of interest to stakeholders of user research: anyone who is (or should be) asking questions about user experience, such as: what do we expect people to do with our products? How are people going to use our products? This includes engineers, architects, program and marketing managers, documentation specialists, managers and executives.
Maintaining Personal Power: A Diverse Perspective
Location: Royal Palm 1, 2 & 3
Moderator: Stephenie McLean (Renaissance Computing Institute)
Panel: Elva Jones, PhD (Chair of Computer Science, Winston-Salem State University), Nancy Amato (Texas A&M University), Ann Gates (University of Texas in El Paso)
This panel will focus on women at various stages of the career ladder and how they maintain personal power and high self esteem. The panel will consist of four women, one from industry, one from academia, one from a government lab, and one from a research lab. The goal of this panel is to address the following issues:
- Personal leadership that results in one motivating one’s self to be the best in a position despite the rewards or lack of rewards.
- Maintaining ethical leadership in a highly technical field.
- Providing a life balance to avoid burnout.
