2007 Conference Information: Award Winners
2007 Anita Borg Social Impact Award - sponsored by Microsoft
Paula Goldman
Paula Goldman is the founder and director of the Imaging Ourselves project with the International Museum of Women. An anthropologist and social entrepreneur, she melds a professional background in public policy with impressive academic skills in order to understand – and improve—the lives of young women across the globe. Whether working on reconciliation projects in Bosnia, or initiating educational opportunities in India that forge professional paths for rural high school graduates, she finds satisfaction by instigating opportunities that result in increased opportunity for underserved populations. She has lived and worked in more than ten countries on four continents.
2007 Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award - sponsored by Cisco
Mary Jane Irwin
Mary Jane (Janie) Irwin is an Evan Pugh Professor and holder of the A. Robert Noll Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University. She has been on the faculty at Penn State since completing her Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1977. Her research and teaching interests include computer architecture, embedded and mobile computing systems design, power and reliability aware design, and emerging technologies in computing systems. She has published over 300 technical papers and has graduated more than twenty-five PhD students.
2007 Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award - sponsored by Microsoft
Rachel Pottinger
Rachel Pottinger is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia where she is affilated with the Data Management and Mining group. She finished her PhD in the database group in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. Her research centers on (1) how data can be managed in situations where there are multiple databases and (2) how to manage data that is currently not well supported by databases. To that end, she is currently exploring a number of topics, including managing data used in disaster response coordination, managing data in peer-to-peer networks, helping people who are building buildings to better manage their data, schema evolution, and managing metadata (i.e., data about data).
2007 Change Agent Award Winners
This year’s Change Agent Award winners have been selected: Wafa AlMansoori (Bahrain), Zeinab Safar (Egypt), and Irina Khomeriki (Georgia). These women have all been chosen because of their work in expanding and influencing the careers of girls and women in technology outside of the United States.
The 2007 Change Agent Awards are underwritten by Google.
Wafa Abdul Rahman AlMansoori
Dr. Wafa Abdul Rahman AlMansoori is an Assistant Professor at the University of Bahrain, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. She received her B.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Bahrain in June 1996, her masters degree in Microelectronic Systems and Communications from the University of Liverpool, UK in October 1997, and her Ph.D. in electronics from Tufts University, USA in February 1996. Her research interest is within the areas of Applied Electronics, Modeling of Electronic Circuits and Devices, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Application of ICT in Society Development.
Zeinab Safar
Dr. Zeinab Safar was born in Cairo in 1948; she obtained her B.S. from Cairo University in 1968, and her M.S. and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1969 and 1973 respectively. Dr. Safar is a Professor and the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Cairo University. Dr. Safar has been a member of the Consultative Council (Upper House) since 1995. Dr. Safar has worked in many universities including the University of Pittsburgh, Cairo University, Florida Atlantic University and American University in Cairo. She has also joined research projects at the University of California Berkeley, and Aachen University in Germany. Dr. Safar is currently the technical advisor to the Secretary General of the National Council for Women (NCW). Dr. Safar assisted in the establishment of the Management Information Center of the National Council for Women and in the design of the ICT training program of the staff also she established the GIS unit in the Council. She also assisted in the establishment of the Women Business Development Center (WBDC) of the National Council for Women. WBDC was established to serve the needs of women entrepreneurs and fresh graduates throughout Egypt and enhance their skills to join the labor market. One of Dr. Safar’s main interests is to encourage women to utilize the power of ICT to enhance their lives. Dr. Safar established a website to serve SME’s all over Egypt (www.afkargadida.com) to provide information to SME’s for the use of entrepreneurs. Also Dr. Safar established a website to provide assistance to women entrepreneurs to market their products (www.cleostore.com). Dr. Safar has published more than 70 papers in the areas of lubrication, energy, combustion and environment and sustainable development in international journals and conferences.
Irina Khomeriki
Irina Khomeriki has served as the head of Georgian Branch Office of the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) since its establishment in June 2001. In parallel she headed the International Projects`Coordination Center at Georgian Technical University (GTU), where she is a Full Professor. She was a member of the Degree Awarding Scientific Council in the above-mentioned university in the field of Computers, Complexes, Systems and Networks and is member of Editorial-Publishing Council of GTU. Her job experience includes research and educational work. Her was awarded State Premium of Georgia in the sphere of science and technology; the only woman awarded in 2004 in this field. In Moscow, Russian Federation she served as the manager of Public Relations for the Eastern European at the Corporation “ICN Pharmaceuticals”. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the International Center of Biocybernetics of Polish Academy of Science; the Scientific Research Society “SigmaXi-Georgia”; the Board of the Georgian Association of German Alumni (Georgia); and the “International Women In Science and Engineering (IWISE)-Georgia”. She headed the Moscow Department of the International Association “Georgian Women for Peace and Life” and was member of International Women’s Club (Russia).