Invited Technical Talk: VINI: Virtual Network Infrastructure

Location: Camellia and Dogwood

Presenter: Jennifer Rexford

Today’s Internet, based on the “narrow waist” of the Internet Protocol (IP), has been an immense success, leading to significant innovation in new applications and services at the network edge. However, evolving the underlying network architecture is remarkably difficult, leading to a fairly brittle infrastructure that is insecure, difficult to manage, and at times unreliable. This talk argues that virtualization offers a way to build flexible, evolvable networks for the future. First, network virtualization allows us to build experimental facilities, such as the proposed GENI (Global Environment for Network Innovations) initiative, that would allow many researchers to evaluate prototypes of new network architectures in parallel. Second, network virtualization may be a viable long-term platform for supporting multiple network architectures, each customized to particular applications or users.

In this talk, we will describe the design and implementation of our VINI testbed, and the deployment in the National Lambda Rail and Abilene Internet2 backbones. We will also discuss how network virtualization enables an economic refactoring of the Internet into infrastructure providers (who manage the physical infrastructure and “lease” virtual nodes and links) and service providers (who construct virtual networks to offer end-to-end services).

Retaining Women CS Majors Using Research-Based Initiatives

Location: Narcissus and Orange Blossom

Presenters: Maureen Biggers (Georgia Institute of Technology), Joanne McGrath Cohoon (University of Virginia and NCWIT)

Hear a presentation of powerful strategies for retaining college students and conditions that specifically retain women in computer science. Participants will assess the extent to which their department aligns with these strategies and will then develop an action plan to implement back home. Working groups will be sounding boards to brainstorm ways to overcome predicted obstacles. Participants will be offered opportunities for ongoing community/support to implement strategies back home.

Managing your career 2-5 years out of school

Location: South Ballroom

Presenters: Carole Dulong (Google), Gaby Aguilera (Google), Hillery Hunter (IBM), Neha Narula (Google), Shalaka Bhuskute (Intel), Sukyoung Ryu (Sun Microsystems), Yanting Li (Cisco Systems)

This panel will feature 6 panelists from Cisco, Google, IBM, Intel, and Sun who will discuss how to manage the early stages of the career of an engineer. The panel will first discuss how to make a successful transition from school to work. Panelists will then talk about their experience in managing their career during the first few years in their jobs.

Technological Solutions for Environmental and Societal Issues

Location: Salon III

Presenter: Priya Govindarajan (Intel Corporation)

Whether it is designing new computer algorithms or advances in wi-fi or sensor technology, technology can be adapted in innovative ways to contribute to the 3P (Profits, People, Planet) paradigm. At the end of the workshop, the participants gain a deeper understanding of how their work can directly or indirectly contribute to solving social and environmental issues.

Using technology to empower women in the developing world

Location: Salon VI and VII

Presenters: Karen Mayer (Intel Corporation), Nancy J Hafkin PhD (Knowledge Working), Kate Roberts (Cisco Systems), Sonia N. Jorge (Independent Consultant), Sindhu Cauveriappa (Intel Corporation)

There is little disagreement that technology plays a vital role in helping women overcome the challenges and barriers to life existence around the world. But over and over again we see, when women are given opportunity, there is no limit to the benefits they are able to reap for their families and communities. This panel will explore examples of women who have made a difference when given access to ICT.

20 Years of Empowering Women in Computing: Systers Past, Present, and Future

Location: Salon I and II

Presenters: Mary Shaw (Carnegie-Mellon University), Robin Jeffries (Google), Carla Ellis (Duke University), Laurian Vega (Virginia Institute of Technology), Dale Wolff (Emerging Health Information Technology)

In October 1987, about a dozen women were attending SOSP, an operating systems conference. They all got together for breakfast, and discovered they had similar feelings of not fitting into their environments. Anita Borg, one of those original women, offered to host a mailing list for the group — called systers, a play on systems and sisters. As word spread about the nature and the quality of the discussions on this list, many other women in computing joined them, and systers now is home to 2800 women in computing.

The panel, which will include some original systers and some current systers, will start with a short history of the community. Panelists will talk about memorable events over the years, the impact systers has had and continues to have on its members and the computing field, and how systers can be even more impactful in the future.

We Invent the Future of Interdisciplinary Research

Location: Salon VIII

Presenters: Kate Lockwood (Northwestern University), Brooke Foucault (Northwestern University), Andrea Tartaro (Northwestern University), Xiaonan Zhao (Northwestern University)

Many women currently in graduate programs in computer science are drawn to sub-disciplines such as Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Modeling, and Information Systems where interdisciplinary research is the norm. While these women are doing exciting, important research, their contributions are often dismissed as not “computer science-y” enough. We propose a workshop that will bring together women doing interdisciplinary computer science research to discuss the pros, cons, and future of such research.