Entrepreneur Panel: Live your Ideas, Making an Impact as an Entrepreneur

Location: Salon I and II

Presenters: Lucy Sanders (CEO, NCWIT), Joyce Park (founder, Renkoo), Dileep George (co-founder, Numenta), Anu Shulka (CEO, MyOfferPal), Indu Navar (CEO, Serus)

Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations in response to identified opportunities. Entrepreneurship is often both a difficult undertaking and a creative, energizing experience. Our invited panelists come from breakthrough companies Renkoo (providing better Internet people to people communications), Numenta (building a new type of computer memory system modeled after the human neocortex) and MyOffer Pal (a Web 2.0 consumer acquisition service). Many are serial entrepreneurs. Come hear how these successful and dynamic people have translated their ideas into reality.

Promising Practices in CS1

Location: Camellia and Dogwood

Presenters: Lynn Lambert (Christopher Newport University), Barbara Ericson (Georgia Institute of Technology), Deepak Kumar (Bryn Mawr College), Wanda Dann (Carnegie Mellon University)

Computer science enrollment is plummeting, and the percentage of women is declining faster than the population as a whole. Although there are multiple reasons for the decline, instruction in the beginning programming courses may be contributing. Thus, many departments are trying new approaches to attract and retain students in CS1. This panel will discuss some innovative CS1 courses that we believe are effective, inclusive, and compelling, especially for women.

The Road to Executive Leadership

Location: Salon VI and VII

Presenters: Ana Pinczuk (Cisco Systems), Susan Monaghan (Cisco Systems), Nayla Rizk (Spencer Stuart), Roz Ho (Microsoft), Kathy Jenks (Sun Microsystems)

This moderated panel will include female executives from a cross section of technology companies and will include an executive recruiter. The panelists will discuss their career progression to executive positions and share their views on what companies look for in executives. The panel will require at least an hour to allow for panelist conversation and Q&A.

Shop and Talk: Supporting Women’s Nurturing and Providing Roles through Mobile Technology

Location: Salon VIII

Presenters: Karen E Fisher (The Information School, University of Washington), Tammara Combs Turner (The Information School, University of Washington)

Women do 80% of household shopping, spending $4-7 trillion annually. Findings from interviews and observation of 14 women show that shopping is pervasively about social interaction, which changes with life stage. We share recommendations (information, communication, physical) for a mobile device for facilitating women's role as family shopper for non-grocery items. Aimed at assisting cognitive, social, and affective needs, the device can support the integration of myriad daily roles while promoting women in technology design and use.

An Introduction to Intrusion Detection

Location: Narcissus and Orange Blossom

Presenters: Carol Taylor (University of Idaho), Carrie Gates (Computer Associates)

As security continues to be a concern under a continuing onslaught of security breaches, IDS tools are becoming increasingly necessary. They typically work in conjunction with other information security tools, such as firewalls. We are proposing a workshop on intrusion detection where we will cover important concepts, current state of the practice and future directions. Both authors have considerable background and research experience with intrusion detection systems.

So You Want to be A CTO

Location: South Ballroom

Presenters: Moderator: Bill Unger (Mayfield); Panel: Justin Rattner (Intel), Mark Bregman (Symantec), Rebecca Parsons (Thoughtworks)

The position of the chief technical officer (chief technology officer), or CTO, is believed to have evolved in the 1980’s. The position became popularized during the 1990’s with the dot-com boom. Although there are many official and unofficial descriptions and styles for a successful CTO, no commonly shared definition of the position or responsibilities exists. Some CTO’s manage the technical staff and R&D portfolio while others articulate the strategic vision for their company. CTO’s in small start-up’s roll up their sleeves for hands on duties while those in multi-national companies deal at the highest levels of industry and government.

Whatever the definition, many agree a CTO’s primary responsibility is to think about and act on the technology of the future and lead the technology vision for their organization. This panel will discuss the unique role and evolution as well as the diversity of approaches to the CTO role. This panel will discuss, what makes for great technical leadership, how to prepare for becoming a CTO, and why so few women become CTO’s and technical leaders.

Now You’re an Associate Professor - What’s Next?

Location: Salon III

Presenters: Tracy Camp (Colorado School of Mines), Joan Francioni (Winona State University), Mary Lou Soffa (University of Virginia)

The goal of this session is to illuminate the process of being promoted to full professor, in order to help enable promotion of female associate professors. The panelists will discuss several expectations of promotion to full professor and strategies for achieving these expectations. The session will cover different types of academic institutions, from research-focused universities to teaching colleges. Example topics include planning your activities toward promotion, strategies for achieving leadership, as well as challenges one might face and how to overcome these challenges. The session will include time for interactions with attendees.