08-090416

Lake George, NY

Promoting the Academic, Social, and Professional Growthof Technical Women in Upstate New York

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eFriday, April 811:00am-7:00pm Registration (Warrensburg Foyer)

12:00-4:00pm Workshops12–1pm, 2–3pm WS 1: Beyond the Imposter Syndrome (Lake George North) 12–1pm, 2–3pm WS 2: Git: An Essential Collaboration Tool in Software Engineering (Lake George South) 1–2pm, 3–4pm WS 3: “Let it Flow!” How to Use Agile Practices to Improve Project Throughput (Lake George North) 1–2pm, 3–4pm WS 4: How to Run a Hackathon (Lake George South)

2:00-4:00pm Resume Critique (Long Lake, Blue Mountain)

4:00-5:30pm Poster Session (Fort Edward, Albany)

5:30-6:30pm Dinner (Lake George North and South)

6:30-7:30pm Welcome and Keynote by Phyllis Frankl (Lake George North and South)

7:30-8:00pm Dessert Buffet with Posters (Warrensburg Foyer)

8:15-9:15pm Breakout Session 1Research talks (Lake George North) First timer talks (Long Lake & Blue Mountain) Panel: Diversifying Computing (Lake George South) Computing Research Showcase (Tupper)

9:30-11:30pm Movie Night (White Lion, main hotel building) “CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap”

Saturday, April 97:00-11:00am Registration (Warrensburg Foyer)

7:00-8:30am Breakfast Buffet (Lake George North and South)

8:30-9:30am Announcements and Keynote by Amanda Stent (Lake George North and South)

9:30-10:30am Museum Check Out Snack (Warrensburg Foyer)

10:30-11:30am Breakout Session 2 Panel: Graduate School (Lake George North) Panel: Life After Grad School (Lake George South) Panel: My Job Is So Cool (Long Lake)

11:45am-12:45pm Breakout Session 3 BoF 1: Launching a Sustainable Student Organization to Support Female Students in Computing BoF 2: Non-traditional Students BoF 3: Preparing for Technical Interviews BoF 4: Equality in CS: It’s Not Just a Women’s Issue

1:00-2:00pm Lunch Buffet (Lake George North and South) Closing & Awards2:00-3:30pm Career Fair (Fort Edward, Albany)

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Welcome to our Fourth New York Celebration of Women in Computing!

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Welcome! We are so excited to host the ACM-W New York Celebration of Women in Computing 2016. This is the first time we’ve held the conference on an annual basis, building on the overwhelming interest last year in Central New York. We will be moving the conference around the state each year and are thrilled to be in lovely Lake George!

This event is one of the many Celebrations of Women in Computing that is held under the auspices of ACM-W, the Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing. ACM-W’s mission is to support, celebrate, and advocate internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field. You are now part of this growing community of thousands of people worldwide who gather at these ACM-W events, from Canada to Cuba, from New Zealand to the Philippines and India, in the UK, Spain, Sweden, and all across the U.S.

Whether this is your first NYCWiC or your fourth, you’re in for a real treat. In addition to CRA-W Distinguished Lecture speakers Amanda Stent and Phyllis Frankl as our keynote speakers, student research talks, and first-timer talks, we have added pre-conference workshops and a new category of posters. We have panels on career options, planning for graduate school, leaving graduate school and diversity outreach programs as well as great birds of a feather sessions. We are extremely fortunate to have access to the Fort William Henry Museum and a showing of CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap. Finally, don’t forget the resume critique and career fair! This is a very full two days!

Fabulous organizing committee, program committee, career counselor committee, and advisory committee put this conference together. But we’ve taken it as far as we can. The rest is up to you and what you bring to this conference.

We are each responsible for bringing something to the conference—whether it be as a mentor to someone earlier on her path or as a presenter or as a learner. What will you bring to the conversation? How can you make a difference for someone else? What can you share that will have an impact on others and on our field?

At the same time, we are each responsible for taking something from the conference—whether it be an expanded network of colleagues or new ideas about important research areas or a tip about the next stages of our paths. What do you want to get out of this experience? Please, take every opportunity you can to meet new people, hear new ideas, share your ideas, and learn something.

Most importantly though, be open to the unexpected. You never know what you might learn and you never know what you might teach someone else. As Ada Lovelace said:

“Understand well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand.”

Enjoy the conference!

Jennifer Goodall NYCWiC 2016 Co-General Chair

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KeynotesWhat’s that program doing with my database?Friday, 6:30-7:30pm (Lake George North and South) Phyllis Frankl, New York University

Multilingual named entity identification at scaleSaturday, 8:30-9:30am (Lake George North and South) Amanda Stent, Yahoo Labs

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Analyzing and testing software is challenging under any circumstances and programs that interact with databases pose additional challenges. This talk will provide an overview of several research projects aimed at analyzing application byte code to determine what database queries and updates the application performs, and at using that information to generate better tests for the application and to understand security and privacy vulnerabilities of the application.

Phyllis Frankl is a Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Her research, which has been supported by numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, focuses on software analysis and testing, including techniques targeted to database application programs and  security and privacy issues.  Prof Frankl received the BA degree in mathematics and physics and PhD in computer science.

The world around us is full of machine-readable texts (web pages, PDF documents, emails, comments); if computers can achieve even minimal levels of understanding of them, tremendous insights can be obtained and great new products created. An important roadblock has often been obtaining texts labeled with the information we want the computer to understand, so that we can train statistical models to perform the understanding. There is labeled data for English and some other European languages, but the amount of labeled data for other languages is minimal. In the past few years, advances in machine learning and statistical text processing have finally enabled multilingual text process at scale. In this talk, I will discuss one particular project we have been working on: identifying named entities (names of people, locations, organizations and things) in text. I will outline how we quickly scaled from one to three to ten or more languages, how we can use additional data (e.g. search queries and click logs) to improve our system, and how this kind of information can be used in several applications, and how you can use multilingual text processing.

Amanda Stent manages researchers at Yahoo Labs who work on analysis and summarization of web content. Previously, she was a Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Labs -- Research in NJ, and before that an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY. She holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Rochester. She has authored over 80 papers on natural language processing and holds several patents. She is president of the ACL/ISCA Special Interest Group on Discourse and Dialog and one of the rotating editors of the journal Dialogue & Discourse.

What’s that program doing with my database?

Multilingual named entity identification at scale

Friday, 6:30-7:30pm (Lake George North and South) Phyllis Frankl, New York University

Saturday, 8:30-9:30am (Lake George North and South) Amanda Stent, Yahoo Labs

Keynotes

WorkshopsWorkshop 1Beyond the Imposter Syndrome Friday, 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George North) Cathy Parker, Associate Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany Maria Hetz, Assistant Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany

Workshop 2 Git: An Essential Collaboration Tool in Software Engineering Friday, 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George South) Catherine Dumas, Graduate Student, University at Albany Luis Ibanez, Senior Software Engineer Google NYC Dima Kassab, Graduate Student, University at Albany Elliott Weintraub, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany

Workshop 3 “Let it Flow!” How to Use Agile Practices to Improve Project Throughput Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George North) Catherine Graichen, Sr. Staff Software Engineer, GE Research

Workshop 4How to Run a Hackathon Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George South) Shy Ruparel, Major League Hacking

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Workshops

Workshop 1 Friday, 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George North)

Beyond the Imposter Syndrome

Cathy Parker, Associate Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany Maria Hetz, Assistant Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany

Imposter syndrome, by definition, means consistent feelings of inadequacy despite adequate competence and success. This syndrome is a common feeling among those who are starting something new in their lives. Oftentimes, this feeling will persist long after sufficient experience has been developed, especially for women in the workplace. We all want to feel confident and as though we are enough, however, underneath it all there is a script that says we are not. We all experience this, but, our script as women are often different than a man’s. This workshop will discuss the common ways we women feel we are “not enough” and how we move through and past that feeling. We will also discuss the need to support each other as we begin to see that we belong and are more than enough.

Workshop 2* Friday 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George South)

Git: An Essential Collaboration Tool in Software Engineering

Catherine Dumas, Graduate Student, University at Albany Luis Ibanez, Senior Software Engineer Google NYC Dima Kassab, Graduate Student, University at Albany Elliott Weintraub, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany

This workshop will cover the basics of using Git, a free open source distributed version control system. Participants will work hands-on with Git. They will learn what version control is, and why we use it. They will learn: how to create a Git repository, record changes to a repository, track changes, and collaborate with others through Git. Attendees will interact with Github, the Git repository hosting site, and will practice using the Cloud9 virtual platform.

Workshop 3 Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George North)

“Let it Flow!” How to Use Agile Practices to Improve Project Throughput

Catherine Graichen, Sr. Staff Software Engineer, GE Research

Agile is a project management methodology used in software development. We’ll discuss key Agile practices that help teams improve throughput and discuss common challenges teams face. The workshop will give a quick overview of Scrum and key project roles. We will also demonstrate how multi-tasking hurts productivity and share strategies to improve individual and team focus. We’ll survey many common Agile practices and discuss a few in depth. Expect discussions on source code management, continuous integration and testing, test-driven development, continuous deployment, pair programming and code reviews.

Workshop 4 Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George South)

How to Run a Hackathon

Shy Ruparel, Major League Hacking

We will run through all the logistical details you need to plan when organizing a hackathon. From deciding you want to host an event, 6 months out all the way to how to run a postmortem the week after your hackathon, this talk provides a comprehensive summary of all the items you’ll need to keep an eye on when planning your own developer focused events.

*In order to participate in this workshop, you need a laptop, with a modern web browser (Chrome preferably) and a Github account. No programming experience is required. Come join us for a fun and interactive session!

Workshop 1Beyond the Imposter Syndrome Friday, 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George North) Cathy Parker, Associate Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany Maria Hetz, Assistant Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany

Workshop 2 Git: An Essential Collaboration Tool in Software Engineering Friday, 12:00-1:00pm and 2:00-3:00pm (Lake George South) Catherine Dumas, Graduate Student, University at Albany Luis Ibanez, Senior Software Engineer Google NYC Dima Kassab, Graduate Student, University at Albany Elliott Weintraub, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany

Workshop 3 “Let it Flow!” How to Use Agile Practices to Improve Project Throughput Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George North) Catherine Graichen, Sr. Staff Software Engineer, GE Research

Workshop 4How to Run a Hackathon Friday, 1:00-2:00pm and 3:00-4:00pm (Lake George South) Shy Ruparel, Major League Hacking

SessionsBreakout

Breakout Session 1Friday, 8:15-9:15pm Research Talks (Lake George North) First-Timer Talks (Long Lake & Blue Mountain) Panel: Diversifying Computing (Lake George South) Computing Research Showcase (Tupper)

Breakout Session 2Saturday, 10:30-11:30am Panel: Graduate School (Lake George North) Panel: Life after Graduate School (Lake George South) Panel: My Job Is So Cool (Long Lake)

Breakout Session 3Saturday, 11:45am-12:45pm Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions BoF 1: Launching a Sustainable Student Organization to Support Female Students in Computing BoF 2: Non-traditional Students BoF 3: Preparing for Technical Interviews BoF 4: Equality in CS: It’s Not Just a Women’s Issue

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sBreakout Session 1 Friday, 8:15-9:15pm

Research Talks (Lake George North)Palms Open Project: A Case Study in International Service Learning

Carolyn C. Matheus, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Marist College

The Palms Open Project is a program in which Computer Science and Spanish undergraduate students collaborate to host a technology education summer camp for junior high students in the Dominican Republic. This service learning program demonstrates practical applications of inexpensive technologies to camp attendees, while simultaneously fostering intercultural awareness for college students entering a diverse global society. Results of this program indicate short term exposure to relevant technology and curriculum can have a significant and positive impact on perceptions about the usefulness of technology, and immersive study-abroad programs can have a significant positive impact on skills in intercultural competency.

The Usage of Voice Search: A Survey Study

Ning Sa, PhD Student, University at Albany Xiaojun Yuan, Assistant Professor of Information Studies, University at Albany

The improvement of automatic speech recognition technology has provided users with the option of speaking the queries when searching the internet. In this study, a survey is used to elicit information about the general usage of voice search and to find out the users perception about current voice search systems. Based on the 64 complete responses, it was found that voice searches were performed mainly on mobile devices and were mostly about simple facts, such as local business address and hours. The recognition error is the biggest problem of the current voice search system.

Read Receipts Feature in Mobile Platform: An Investigation Study Based on Social Tie Between the Sender and Receiver

Michael Yacci, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology Deborah LaBelle, Lecturer - BS WMC Program Coordinator, Rochester Institute of Technology Jim Leone, Professor at School of Informatics, Rochester Institute of Technology Lujayn Alhddad, Alumna, Rochester Institute of Technology

Read receipts is a built-in feature in all mobile instant messaging applications. This study investigated people’s desire of using the read receipts based on the nature of the relationship between the sender and receiver, where the relationships were classified as strong and weak ties. An online survey was conducted as well as applied the one sample z-test proportion that was used to test the hypotheses and determine the participants’ desire of using the feature. The researcher’s assumption of the influence of two factors, social tie and the role in the messaging loop, were proven in the results of the paper.

SessionsBreakout

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sFirst-Timer Talks (Long Lake & Blue Mountain)EXONEST: A Bayesian Algorithm for Exoplanet Characterization

Jennifer L. Carter, Graduate Student; Physics Department, University at Albany Faculty Mentors: Ben Placek, Center for Science and Technology, Schenectady County Community College Kevin H. Knuth, Department of Informatics, University at Albany

As part of the search for Earth-like exoplanets, our research group has developed a software package, called EXONEST, which can be used to detect and characterize exoplanets using photometric data from the Kepler Space Telescope. The software employs Bayesian data analysis techniques along with a novel sampling method also developed by our group. The model is capable of characterizing the periodic dimming of starlight due to exoplanetary transits as well as four other types of photometric variations: reflected light and thermal emissions from the planet, as well as boosted light and ellipsoidal variations of the host star.

Graph Based Departmental Spoken Dialogue System

Julia Issac, Undegraduate Student, Union College

Spoken dialogue systems are a way for people to receive important information. I have created a spoken dialogue system that people can use to learn about Union College’s Computer Science Department, which was built by populating an open source dialogue system using a graph-based dialogue manager. I will be improving upon an older dialogue system by making interactions more natural, increasing the flexibility and making the system more robust. A corpus was created using data produced by Wizard of Oz Experiments to help with these improvements. When the system was completed it was evaluated to ensure the system is usable.

Social Context Middleware - Efficient Patient Behavior Detection Incorporating IoTbased Mental Healthcare Systems

Nadiyah Johnson, Graduate Student, Marquette University

We present guidelines for developing a system to predict the psychological crisis event angry outbursts (rage) using physiological sensor data and context aware technology. These guidelines will cover a range of topics from methods for collecting system requirements for a subject group to the development of a social context middleware. In doing such, our goal is to present a system that can be constructed and used in an in lab and real world environment to further the research of predicting crisis events.

How We Assess Learning in Introductory Computer Science: An Interactive Textbook

Carrie Lindema, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Toby Dragon, Assistant Professor, Ithaca College

This research project focuses on an online introductory computer science intelligent tutoring system. The goal of this study is to design ways to improve the user experience and implement those solutions. Students and instructors track their learning process and are guided through the course based on data collected by

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sthe book and teachers are given insight into their students’ progress. The research includes creating models for topics in the course and connecting them to the textbook. Making structures to test and edit how the book measures a student’s understanding of the material will reveal areas of the book to improve.

Panel: Diversifying Computing (Lake George South)Understanding Women’s Path to STEM Fields with Focus on Computer Science

Stephanie A. Conklin, Lecturer, University at Albany

This presentation focuses on results from an on-going study that seeks to understand the path which women take to enter into STEM fields. This study presents evidence that there are unique paths taken by women pursuing different STEM majors, such as engineering, biology or computer science. The focus of this presentation will center on the experiences of women who were seniors in high school and are currently in college majoring in computer science. Furthermore, a description of a new theoretical model to analyze women’s experiences in STEM will also be presented.

A Grassroots Effort to Excite K-12 Students About STEM

Walt Silva, President, Schoharie Mohawk Initiative for Science and Technology (SMIST)

We are professionals with careers in engineering, technology and education, working to identify, develop, deliver and support STEM initiatives in rural areas where students have limited exposure due to lack of availability, funding, location, etc. As a contributor to the diversity panel, we will share our philosophy, a description of the programs we’ve implemented, our efforts to partner with community organizations, and the lessons learned along the way. We hope the discussion will inspire and empower the audience to develop, implement or participate in similar programs.

Teaching Programming to High School Girls in NYC

Luis Ibanez, Google and ScriptEd (https://scripted.org)

ScriptEd is a non-profit organization that promotes computer science education in high school by equipping “students in under-resourced schools with the fundamental coding skills and professional experiences that together create access to careers in technology”. We will share the experience of teaching programming to a group of high school students in an after-school program in NYC. This year-long class is one of the many that ScriptEd has organized by bringing together volunteers who work as software engineers, and organizations that will host some of the student as interns in order to give them a more realistic experience in software engineering jobs. We will discuss details about the curriculum, and the teaching methodologies used by ScriptEd, as well as anecdotes from our specific class.

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Challenges and Efforts of Establishing a Women in Computing Club in a Four-Year College

Ilknur Aydin, Assistant Professor, Computer Systems Department, Farmingdale State College Sheryl Schoenacher, Associate Professor, Computer Systems Department, Farmingdale State College Margo Romero, Undergraduate Student and President of Women in Computing Club, Computer Systems Department, Farmingdale State College Namita Dandu, Undergraduate Student and Treasurer of Women in Computing Club, Computer Systems Department, Farmingdale State College

Women are statistically missing from the STEM professions. The Computer Systems Department at Farmingdale State College is representative of this fact. As of the fall 2010 semester the department had around 300 students. There were only 4.5% female students. From fall 2007 to fall 2010, the percent of female students in our department fell from 12.9% to 4.5%. With the help of a campus grant, we established a Women in Computing (WiC) Association and organized a series of year-long activities and events. The purpose of WiC Association was to enhance the academic success of all students, but primarily female students, increase retention of women students, and most importantly motivate and encourage students to form a Women in Computing student club at the College to sustain and support future activities. In this presentation, we will discuss the efforts we made that finally led to the establishment of the WiC student club and the challenges we faced.

Computing Research Showcase (Tupper)Women in HPC in New York

Elsa Gonsiorowski, Computer Scientist, Center for Computational Innovations, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

High-performance computing, or HPC, is a growing field of computer science based around supercomputers with thousands of processing cores. To take advantage of these massively-parallel systems, researchers must utilize an array of software tools and understand the capabilities of the hardware. HPC resources are necessary to solve complex, large-scale problems from curing cancer to understanding global warming. Additionally, this talk will discuss the resources available to students in New York State as well as the effort to increase diversity, lead by the Women in HPC group based at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.

Internet Of Things: The Promise, the Trends, and the Challenges from Industrial Lenses

Bouchra Bouqata, Senior Analytics Program Manager, Digital Strategy, GE Renewable Energy

The constantly evolving Internet, the changing landscape of technology, and the proliferation of millions of devices that are inter-connected with on-board sensors have led to a new paradigm: The Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is much more than just connecting assets to assets, it is about how much this connectivity is leveraged to allow for insights on assets; then use this information to drive a different behavior/outcome around it. The speaker will present examples and discuss emerging Br

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trends, existing opportunities and challenges in this space ranging from large scale automated analytics to cloud computing, big data, connectivity and cybersecurity.

Breakout Session 2 Saturday, 10:30-11:30am

Panel: Graduate School (Lake George North)Panelists:

Phyllis Frankl, Professor, New York University Amanda Stent, Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo Elsa Gonsiorowski, Recent PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Catherine Dumas, PhD Candidate, Informatics, University at Albany

What is grad school like? Why should I go to grad school? How do I get into grad school? When should I go to grad school? Where should I go to grad school? This panel is going to try to answer any questions that undergraduate students might have about graduate school.

Panel: Life After Graduate School (Lake George South)Panelists:

Kim Gero, Assistant Professor, The College of Saint Rose Natalie Helbig, Deputy Director, Division of Information and Statistics, Office of Quality and Patient Safety, New York State Department of Health Kelly Fitzpatrick, Technical Writer, Apprenda

This panel explores career options after graduate school. Women working in academia, industry and government will talk about their own choices that have led them from graduate school to their current positions. Current graduate students are invited to reflect on their visions for their own future and on what steps they might take to make them become reality.

Panel: My Job Is So Cool (Long Lake)Panelists:

Phoebe Chui, Lead Artist, 1st Playable Productions Erica Gierke Welch, Business Developement Executive, Hewlett Packard Abigail McCarthy, Technical Writer, Apprenda Christy Viccaro, Software Engineer, Xerox

Women working in different computing related roles will explain why their jobs are so cool and talk about the career paths that led them to their current positions. Come to this panel to get a glimpse of the variety of computing careers and career paths.

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Breakout Session 3 Saturday, 11:45am-12:45pm

Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions

BoF 1: Launching a Sustainable Student Organization to Support Female Students in ComputingModerators:

Richard Marcoux, Associate Professor, Computer Information Technologies Department, Morrisville State College Roberta Sloan, Associate Professor, Computer Information Technologies Department, Morrisville State College

Only 10% of the students in the Computer Information Technologies Department at Morrisville State College are female; so it was suggested that an organization be formed to support this small group. In this discussion, we will explore the issues surrounding the launch of a sustainable student-centered organization to support female students in computing and other technology-oriented programs. Areas of specific discussion will include: determining the focus of the organization, determining organization membership, encouraging participation in and leadership of the organization, creating a sustainable model for ongoing student participation, and selecting and funding appropriate and interesting activities and events.

BoF 2: Non-traditional StudentsModerator:

Christa Agans, Undergraduate Student, Schenectady County Community College

The average age of incoming college students is on the rise.  Many bring a rich panoply of strengths and challenges. Some never envisioned themselves as college students; others thought the opportunity had passed them by and it was too late for college; still others saw their college plans put on hold when life “got in the way” but always dreamed of a second chance. If you are a first-time or returning adult student, please come and share your joys, fears, hopes, and frustrations with like-minded others. Join us for a lively discussion about our common and unique experiences.

BoF 3: Preparing for Technical InterviewsModerator:

Luis Ibanez, Google

Restoring the demographic gender gap in the technology field requires that we make improvement in all the stages of  bringing qualified women into professional job positions. One of these critical stages is the preparation for technical interviews. Join us in this BoF session to discuss how technical interviews differ from traditional job interviews, and how we can better prepare for them. Topics of discussion include how college classes could help students develop the skills that are evaluated in technical interviews and that later will make a difference on their job performance. For example: ability to share their thought process and to participate in brainstorming sessions, level of comfort failing, not knowing, sharing confusion and lack of Br

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sunderstanding; capacity to navigate areas without previous experience. We will also discuss how regular workshops and training sessions, as well as study groups, could be propitious ground for developing the skills that help candidates succeed in a technical interview.

BoF 4: Equality in CS: It’s Not Just a Women’s IssueModerators:

Elliott Weintraub, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany Eliezer Marte, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany Cathy Parker, Associate Director, Office of Career and Professional Development, University at Albany

Do you need to be a woman to promote the equal representation of women in computing? We believe that the answer is no, that the important aspect is the equal treatment and encouragement of all students and all employees, no matter the gender of the person at the front of the room or in the manager’s chair. That said, over the past 10 years of involvement in promoting the role of women in computing, we have noticed that by far the majority of people working in this area are women.It is our belief that this is an issue that impacts us all, and requires male advocacy as much as women’s advocacy. This BoF is to promote a discussion about the role everyone, including men, can play in establishing equality in the classroom and in the workplace..

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Computing Research

Diversifying ComputingFriday, 4:00-5:30pm and 7:30-8:00pm (Fort Edward, Albany)

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Poster Session Friday, 4:00-5:30pm and 7:30-8:00pm (Fort Edward, Albany)

Computing ResearchCoding Collage Abstracted from Observed Art

Samantha Braver, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Delaney Jones, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Nianyi Wang, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Jingxian Wu, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Faculty Mentor: Elodie Fourquet, Colgate University

This semester four students are transforming fine art pieces owned by Colgate University to Processing code. Our final results will be in an art exhibit showcasing how our art collection is used at Colgate. With only colored paper and scissors, each art work is transformed into an abstract image with simple shapes and a limited color palette. The physical collages are a template for the code in Processing, a visual programming language. We are exploring this exercise as a potential method to teach computer science in the liberal arts. We believe this creative and interdisciplinary process will appeal to a wide range of students.

Department Store Database

Rosemary Bulgarelli, Undergraduate Student, Marist College

This project represents the design of database for a department store. A store could have many products that can be supplied by multiple suppliers. All product and supplier information is included within the database to ensure quick inventory update and quick restock times for products. The database is a way to organize inventory of the store, manage employees and store customer information for a rewards program. Through this system, employees should be able to review customers’ orders and quickly review reward accounts at checkout. This project is a way to use database technology for a practical business problem.

Smartness at the Word Level: Graph Statistics on Smart Cities Descriptions

Felipe Xavier Costa, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany Felippe Cronemberger, Graduate Student, University at Albany

Despite of abundant conceptualization efforts, there is little consensus about what being a smart city really means. This project will use Bayesian statistics to analyze how Wikipedia articles describe the top 50 smart cities according to the IESE Cities in Motion Index ranking. We looked into text features – lexical choices, syntactical structure and semantics – to create our Bayesian prior and empirically learn from the description of other cities that are not part of the Index. Our goal is to develop a technique that allows us to make inferences about one city’s “smartness” relative to our benchmark.

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onLinguistic Self-Expression on Dating Websites

Kelly Sadwin, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College

An undergraduate research project that seeks to identify idiosyncratic features of language on the dating website OkCupid. Over 1500 user profiles have been scraped and tagged with gender, sexual orientation, location, and age as reported by the user on the website. The full text of profiles and their tags were stored in a SQLite database. Ongoing analysis includes measuring linguistic features using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and using K means clustering on the corpus of profiles. The most concise and engaging results appear when the profiles are visualized using word clouds grouped by the tags.

Megs Radio: Designing and Developing a Local Music Discovery iOS Application

Mariah Flaim, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College David Dorsey, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Matt Kercher, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Jon Burger, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Dan Kustin, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Chris Perez, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Adam Linden, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Shane Moore, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Luke Waldner, Undergraduate Student, Ithaca College Faculty Advisor: Doug Turnbull, Ithaca College

Megs Radio is a Pandora-like application that puts local artist in your playlists while also recommending local events based off of your music preferences. Currently the team has a working iOS Application which they are facilitating user testing for. The team is using two phases of user testing before moving to their Alpha Version of the App. These phases have helped the team understand design challenges as well as the way users expect or want the application to work.

Motor Flex V5

Andrea Guzman, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany Kristie McClenin, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany

This project started in fall 2015 when we were approached by a man who lost function in his hand from a motorcycle accident. We have been working on this project for two semesters and are making extreme progress. We have designed a device that is battery powered and connects to a motor with a pulley system that pulls the fingers closed. This has been a very tricky project, but we continue to work every week to make improvements. We hope to get the development simplified to mass produce the Motor Flex V5 in order to change other people’s lives.

Social Context Middleware - Efficient Patient Behavior Detection Incorporating IoTbased Mental Healthcare Systems

Nadiyah Johnson, Graduate Student, Marquette University

We present guidelines for developing a system to predict the psychological crisis event angry outbursts (rage) using physiological sensor data and context aware

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technology. These guidelines will cover a range of topics from methods for collecting system requirements for a subject group to the development of a social context middleware. In doing such, our goal is to present a system that can be constructed and used in an in lab and real world environment to further the research of predicting crisis events.

A Web Tool for Transfer Students

Kelly Maud, Undergraduate Student, Marist College Mary Miller, Undergraduate Student, Marist College Faculty Mentor: Carolyn Matheus, Marist College

A Web Tool for Transfer Students is a platform that allows prospective students to input their current transcript information, choose a major they would like to pursue at Marist, and automatically generate a credit evaluation for their major of choice. A prototype, developed as part of a senior capping project, will be demonstrated.

Scrolling Through Code

Alyson Rackson, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Sophie Pennoyer, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Nianyi Wang, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Danielle Zegelstein, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Jingxian Wu, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Zoila Rodriguez, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Katie Kelleher, Undergraduate Student, Colgate University Faculty Mentor: Elodie Fourquet, Colgate University

In CS2, our mid-semester project was to design and implement a scrolling game expressing creative themes; transforming the provided code into individualized projects. This was our first opportunity as introductory students to code to our own creative impulses. From the basic starting files, each student built upon the code given to get started and freely construct a game with its own rules, theme, and logistics. This assignment not only helped improve our coding in Java, but also launched our imaginations in programming beyond the scope of precise guidelines.

Limbo Lost & Found Application

Veronica deRito, Undergraduate Student, Marist College Faculty Mentor: Carolyn Matheus, Marist College

The Limbo Lost and Found application was developed for a Software Development course. Students were tasked with creating a web application using PHP and MySQL that could be available for students at Marist College to report lost and found items. Additional requirements for the application included the development of an aesthetically pleasing and user friendly graphical user interface (GUI), a secure login for administrators, and additional administrative tools such as password reset and general maintenance. Developing and designing the Limbo application was a positive learning experience and provided the opportunity to work with a complex system and multiple programming languages.

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onTask Allocation in Distributed Robotics

Maria Shoaib, Graduate Student, Rochester Institute of Technology

Multiagent task allocation is a challenging problem in the robotics domain and has many different applications such as surveillance, search, and rescue, hazardous waste cleanup, exploration, simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) etc. This study analyzes different proposed methods in the previous years to tackle this problem in terms of efficiency, scalability, ability to deal with dynamic environments and form teams, and suggests future research directions.

Diversifying Computing Establishing an ACM-W Student Chapter

Kayci Caldwell, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany Nikki Gupta, Undergraduate Student, University at Albany

The University at Albany (UAlbany) ACM-W student chapter was established in October of 2015. It started with approximately 16 members and we have been steadily increasing over the past few months. It is our goal to help support and retain women in computing fields by hosting workshops and events at our university and in the community. This poster presentation will give young women in computing ideas on how to start their own chapter, the process we went through, and successes and challenges we faced.

The Hello Barbie Teardown Sessions at Union College

Amanda Ervin, Makerspace Coordinator, Union College

Hello Barbie is an IoT toy designed to talk to children. The Hello Barbie Teardown Sessions are a series of events encouraging critical and technical analysis of this toy, interviewing the population it affects, and discussing methods of rebuilding it. These sessions will be presented through the MakerWeb Consortium at Union College. The goals of this project include encouraging female engagement in STEM and understanding the role gender studies, art, and other disciplines play in the design of this toy. Through reverse engineering we will deconstruct this toy, demonstrating how the technologies work, testing security measures, and looking at ways to alter this technology. I will present outcomes of this project. These outcomes will include information on who was engaged and how. Flaws will be presented, as well as proposed changes to these flaws.

It Girls Alumnae: Make an App for That!

Fatma NGom, Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University Bianca Concepcion, Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University Kyla Brown, Undergraduate Student, Syracuse University

‘Make an App for That’ is a program designed for Middle School girls to help them understand how they can utilize technology to make impactful changes in their community. This program provided students with the opportunity to conceptually design an app given a specific issue encompassing challenges we face and witness on a daily basis: from poverty to climate change, females in sports to studying support. These were not simply designs, they were innovative roadmaps that could

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revolutionize the ways in which we tackle societal issues and engage with the public to spread awareness and solve national and global challenges.

Union College ACM-W Google IgniteCS

Jessica Sanford, Undergraduate Student, Union College Julia Isaac, Undergraduate Student, Union College

Union College’s ACM-W Chapter created an intensive eight-week long after school program where students used LEGO NXT Mindstorm robots to learn Computer Science fundamentals through the lens of social robotics. The goal of this program was to encourage middle school students, especially girls, to learn how to program, and to encourage Union students to become mentors to younger students. In addition to inspiring interest in Computer Science at a young age, the program also acquainted students with a higher education environment. In doing this, we hope to encourage the program participants to aspire towards a college education, especially in a computing field.

A Grassroots Effort to Excite K-12 Students About STEM

Walt Silva, President, Schoharie Mohawk Initiative for Science and Technology (SMIST) Kim Lohret, Director of Communication, Schoharie Mohawk Initiative for Science and Technology (SMIST)

We are professionals with careers in engineering, technology and education, working to identify, develop, deliver and support STEM initiatives in rural areas where students have limited exposure due to lack of availability, funding, location, etc. Our poster presentation would include information about the platforms we’ve used in our programs, volunteer/mentoring opportunities and our vision for the future. One of the platforms (Lego Mindstorms robotics platform) will be on display and available for demonstration.

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G O L D L E V E L S P O N S O R S

S I LV E R L E V E L S P O N S O R S

B R O N Z E L E V E L S P O N S O R S

C O P P E R L E V E L S P O N S O R S

P L AT I N U M L E V E L S P O N S O R S

K E Y N O T E S P O N S O R S

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Career Fair CompaniesApprenda

Auto/Mate

CDPHP

CommerceHub

Exago

GE Corporate

GE Global Research

Microsoft

Troy Web Consulting

Two Sigma

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Xerox

Career Fair UniversitiesBard College

Colgate University

Syracuse University College of

Engineering & Computer Science

Union College

University at Albany College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Utica College

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Program CommitteeGrace Begany, SUNY Cobleskill

Bouchra Bouqata, GE Global ResearchMaryAnne Egan, Siena College

Elodie Fourquet, Colgate UniversityMarjorie McShane, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Mei Si, Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteKristina Striegnitz, Union CollegeChristine Wania, SUNY Brockport

Xiaojun Jenny Yuan, University at Albany

Special ThanksOrganizing Committee

Caroline Buinicky, Emma Willard SchoolErica Gierke Welch, Hewlett-Packard

Jennifer Goodall, University at AlbanyKathleen Joyce, Syracuse University

Deborah LaBelle, Rochester Institute of TechnologyCarolyn Matheus, Marist College

Bob McGrail, Bard CollegeKristina Striegnitz, Union College

Nick Webb, Union College

Advisory CommitteeValerie Barr, Union College

MaryAnne Egan, Siena CollegeSharon Mason, Rochester Institute of Technology

WebsiteKimberly Gero, College of Saint Rose

Jonathan Muckell, University at Albany

ProgramAssante Design, Syracuse, New York

Career CounselorsRochelle Caruso, Union College

Jill Jablonski, Rochester Institute of TechnologyCathy Parker, University at Albany

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