Sadness.. It's my last session at my first GHC!
The presenter founded a company called Rubicon in 1999. It's a
high-tech consulting firm that has big-name clients such as Logitech.
Innovation is critical! She said that we should consider ourselves as
innovators, which is interesting to think about. I had never thought
of myself as an innovator before. I suppose I could look at our work
with WiCS as innovation!
The speaker brought up an interesting story about the CEO of FedEx,
Fred Smith. He wrote an undergrad paper about his applied idea from
telecommunications and banking industries to transportation He got a
C on it! His classmates and professor did not like his idea at all.
This is so inspiring to me since I have received less-than-stellar
grades on essays in my undergraduate study, and that can be so
discouraging. It's nice to realize that even some of the most
successful people in industry have not always done as well as they
would like!
She told us another story about the inventor of Post-It notes, Art
Fry. As a college student, I can attest that Post-It notes are pretty
much the best invention ever. :)
One of Apple's inventions, the first mouse for a Macintosh, was a
"reinvented" invention that was originally debuted in 1968. Twenty
years later, it became a successful Apple product.
Some innovation lessons:
-Build on existing concepts.
-Do more elegant solutions.
-Serve the new demand.
-Serve exising customers with more.
Five part framework for innovation:
-Map it -> compare to competitors and benchmarks
-Listen and knit -> research methodology
-Seek out new minds -> find other good thinkers, be curious, and ask questions
-Seek the wand -> ask powerful questions, find solutions for problems
-Plot out options -> develop alternative scenarios, work on scenarios
with industry leaders
This was a very interesting, thought-provoking session. What a great
way to conclude GHC!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Pictures from GHC
Make sure to check out my GHC photos! Click the link on the right-hand side of the page! :)
Welcome Session - Saturday
I'm pretty sad that today is the last day of GHC! :( Like I said in my last post, it has been a wonderful experience for me, and I can't wait to take a wealth of information back to my university. Hopefully I will be able to attend GHC next year (October 1-4 in Keystone, Colorado!) and look back at our WiCS group and be proud of all of the changes we've made. It remains to be seen!
It seems that there will be an additional focus on electrical engineering next year! That's exciting for the students and professionals who are involved in that area of study.
Today I am attending one session - "Innovation Strategies: Finding the Big Idea." This morning, there was a panel of the leaders of the workshops. They were discussing their sessions and why each might be interesting to the attendees of GHC.
I'm looking forward to attending the first panel today, but I am bummed that I have to pack up and go back to my grandma's house before we fly back to Indianapolis on Sunday morning.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
It seems that there will be an additional focus on electrical engineering next year! That's exciting for the students and professionals who are involved in that area of study.
Today I am attending one session - "Innovation Strategies: Finding the Big Idea." This morning, there was a panel of the leaders of the workshops. They were discussing their sessions and why each might be interesting to the attendees of GHC.
I'm looking forward to attending the first panel today, but I am bummed that I have to pack up and go back to my grandma's house before we fly back to Indianapolis on Sunday morning.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
I <3 GHC
I honestly cannot describe how wonderful this GHC experience has been for me. I always imagined that it would be a lot of fun, but I never could've expected the impact it would have on my life. I feel I have changed so much in three days!
When I arrived at Grace Hopper, I was a college junior who was extremely unsure of her future. I often questioned myself: is CS the right major for me? Although I love it and consider it my passion, could I really succeed with it? I've become a believer. I've met so many inspiring women who have showed me all of the opportunities that await me as my career as a computer scientist progresses. I've pretty much decided that I want to attend graduate school because I want to do research that might change the world. I want to be one of those women who is on stage at Grace Hopper in 30 or 40 years because she's made a significant impact. I want to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers who have paved the way for me to succeed.
I really hope to make attending GHC an annual event because it was so refreshing and rejuvenating. It makes me want to go back to DePauw and work harder than I've ever worked in my life, because I finally have faith in myself. I cannot describe in words how wonderful it feels to have people tell you personally that you will succeed, that you should shoot for the stars, and that they believe in you.
I would just like to thank everyone who made this experience possible for me and everyone who believes in me and other students like me. It's people like you who make a huge difference!
Now, for a little less sappiness (is that word?)...
Tonight was the Platinum Sponsors Night at Universal Studios CityWalk! What a fun event! I met some new friends on the bus, and we ran all over that place like madwomen, trying to get all of the cool goodies provided by the platinum sponsors. I got some AWESOME stuff. I really love my Google and Sun Microsystems shirts, along with my Sun and Juniper backpacks. I also have more pens than I could ever imagine! Here are some pictures from the evening:
My final blogging sessions are tomorrow!
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
When I arrived at Grace Hopper, I was a college junior who was extremely unsure of her future. I often questioned myself: is CS the right major for me? Although I love it and consider it my passion, could I really succeed with it? I've become a believer. I've met so many inspiring women who have showed me all of the opportunities that await me as my career as a computer scientist progresses. I've pretty much decided that I want to attend graduate school because I want to do research that might change the world. I want to be one of those women who is on stage at Grace Hopper in 30 or 40 years because she's made a significant impact. I want to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers who have paved the way for me to succeed.
I really hope to make attending GHC an annual event because it was so refreshing and rejuvenating. It makes me want to go back to DePauw and work harder than I've ever worked in my life, because I finally have faith in myself. I cannot describe in words how wonderful it feels to have people tell you personally that you will succeed, that you should shoot for the stars, and that they believe in you.
I would just like to thank everyone who made this experience possible for me and everyone who believes in me and other students like me. It's people like you who make a huge difference!
Now, for a little less sappiness (is that word?)...
Tonight was the Platinum Sponsors Night at Universal Studios CityWalk! What a fun event! I met some new friends on the bus, and we ran all over that place like madwomen, trying to get all of the cool goodies provided by the platinum sponsors. I got some AWESOME stuff. I really love my Google and Sun Microsystems shirts, along with my Sun and Juniper backpacks. I also have more pens than I could ever imagine! Here are some pictures from the evening:
My final blogging sessions are tomorrow!
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Storytelling as Role Modeling: Collecting Oral Histories
One of the projects the CS department at DePauw is working on is collecting oral histories of women in CS who have graduated from our university, in an attempt to inspire the women currently attending DPU.
According to one of the presenters, this is a participatory workshop! Hmm... :)
Here's a new bit of information for me: SIGSCE is an ACM special interest group about computer science education! I was not aware of this before, but it's good to know!
CEOHP (Computer Educators Oral Histories Project) - the vision of this group is to become part of the historical record and be a resource for the future. People have the chance to be mentored by someone right above them in the scheme of things; for me, it would be a graduate student! CEOHP (see-ope) has conducted 20 (more or less) interviews, with 14 of them being available to the public at ceohp.org.
According to the presenter, no one is too young or too old to be a mentor. I'm hoping I might be able to be a mentor to a freshman or sophomore at DePauw!
We got some materials about oral histories that I hope to be able to use at DePauw. I think it will be a very interesting project for us to complete.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
According to one of the presenters, this is a participatory workshop! Hmm... :)
Here's a new bit of information for me: SIGSCE is an ACM special interest group about computer science education! I was not aware of this before, but it's good to know!
CEOHP (Computer Educators Oral Histories Project) - the vision of this group is to become part of the historical record and be a resource for the future. People have the chance to be mentored by someone right above them in the scheme of things; for me, it would be a graduate student! CEOHP (see-ope) has conducted 20 (more or less) interviews, with 14 of them being available to the public at ceohp.org.
According to the presenter, no one is too young or too old to be a mentor. I'm hoping I might be able to be a mentor to a freshman or sophomore at DePauw!
We got some materials about oral histories that I hope to be able to use at DePauw. I think it will be a very interesting project for us to complete.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
The 2007 Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership Winner: Mary Jane Irwin
I am here listening to a talk by Mary Jane Irwin, the 2007 Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award winner. She is from Penn State and is discussing "The Multicore Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities." I believe this will be a very good learning experience.
In 1965, Gordon Moore (of Intel) predicted that the number of transistors that can be integrated on a single chip would double about every two years. I had never heard of this law before, but I find it to be very fascinating. She discussed the technology scaling road map by ITRS and 45 nanometer transistors. Thirty million of them can fit on the head of a pin! She also mentioned that processor clock rates have been doubling about every two years. This accounts for the improvements of computers ever few years - this is why we are always buying new ones!
Between 2000 and 2005, chip power has increased 1.6 times. This means new ways have to be discovered to cool chips because the heat flux increases two times. I must admit that a lot of this information is waaaaaaaaay over my head, but I'm still very interested. I've never really learned much about hardware and statistics such as the ones I've mentioned.
A lot of work is going to have be put into this area of research. Product cost pressures demands that chips fit into a limited power budget (around 100 watts/centimeter squared, I believe). Battery life for mobile devices is also impacted. Everyone has to deal with that problem! The cost of powering and cooling servers is also majorly affected. Since it seems everything in the world revolves around money and cost, this is a BIG issue. Google created a solution, however - they have a cold river and cheap power! Intel's shipment of a dual-core processor is a step into the multicore future.
I would like to take an aside and say how amazingly smart this speaker is! I don't think I could ever imagine myself being able to stand in front of a large audience and explain such in-depth, complicated matter. Well, at least it seems very complicated to me! I am in awe of these women who are so deeply rooted in engineering!
Back to the details.. Apparently Intel has a prototype of an 80-core chip which was presented in 2006. Eighty cores? Wow! It's amazing to see how much technology has changed in the last 60-70 years. I can only imagine how much it will change in my lifetime!
I would definitely encourage anyone who is fascinated by this area of study to visit the GHC Wiki and see if the presenter posted her notes. I'm not sure if she did or not, but it's worth finding out!
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
In 1965, Gordon Moore (of Intel) predicted that the number of transistors that can be integrated on a single chip would double about every two years. I had never heard of this law before, but I find it to be very fascinating. She discussed the technology scaling road map by ITRS and 45 nanometer transistors. Thirty million of them can fit on the head of a pin! She also mentioned that processor clock rates have been doubling about every two years. This accounts for the improvements of computers ever few years - this is why we are always buying new ones!
Between 2000 and 2005, chip power has increased 1.6 times. This means new ways have to be discovered to cool chips because the heat flux increases two times. I must admit that a lot of this information is waaaaaaaaay over my head, but I'm still very interested. I've never really learned much about hardware and statistics such as the ones I've mentioned.
A lot of work is going to have be put into this area of research. Product cost pressures demands that chips fit into a limited power budget (around 100 watts/centimeter squared, I believe). Battery life for mobile devices is also impacted. Everyone has to deal with that problem! The cost of powering and cooling servers is also majorly affected. Since it seems everything in the world revolves around money and cost, this is a BIG issue. Google created a solution, however - they have a cold river and cheap power! Intel's shipment of a dual-core processor is a step into the multicore future.
I would like to take an aside and say how amazingly smart this speaker is! I don't think I could ever imagine myself being able to stand in front of a large audience and explain such in-depth, complicated matter. Well, at least it seems very complicated to me! I am in awe of these women who are so deeply rooted in engineering!
Back to the details.. Apparently Intel has a prototype of an 80-core chip which was presented in 2006. Eighty cores? Wow! It's amazing to see how much technology has changed in the last 60-70 years. I can only imagine how much it will change in my lifetime!
I would definitely encourage anyone who is fascinated by this area of study to visit the GHC Wiki and see if the presenter posted her notes. I'm not sure if she did or not, but it's worth finding out!
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
"Learning by Doing": Using Internships to Discover Where You Belong
I had the opportunity to do my first internship this summer. It was a good experience because I figured out something very important about myself - I do NOT want to work in a cubicle! Not that there is anything wrong with that: it is just not the career for me. During these last two days, I think I've discovered what I really want to do: be a researcher and work in academia. We'll see where life takes me!
So, here I am, at Friday's Session 3, which is a presentation about internships. I think this is a great resource for any student!
The presenters introduced themselves and spoke about their internship histories. A few of the panelists had the same kind of internship experiences as me: they discovered what they did not want to do for the rest of their lives. I think it's really great to figure that out, and I'm glad I did.
Wendy Carmody, the program manager of HP University Relations, gave a lot of good advice about internships, including:
-It is important to arrive ready to work hard because the summer is short!
-Don't always expect to do an big, innovative, creative project.
-Try to get a lot out of the opportunity.
-Don't be afraid to speak up if you have a problem.
-Demonstrate leadership qualities.
The panelists took questions from the audience. One really intrigued me: imposter syndrome. I totally experienced that when I started at my internship; I was always thinking I wasn't good enough to do the internship. I still experience this feelings from time to time when something good happens. It's nice to see that others experience these feelings as well.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
So, here I am, at Friday's Session 3, which is a presentation about internships. I think this is a great resource for any student!
The presenters introduced themselves and spoke about their internship histories. A few of the panelists had the same kind of internship experiences as me: they discovered what they did not want to do for the rest of their lives. I think it's really great to figure that out, and I'm glad I did.
Wendy Carmody, the program manager of HP University Relations, gave a lot of good advice about internships, including:
-It is important to arrive ready to work hard because the summer is short!
-Don't always expect to do an big, innovative, creative project.
-Try to get a lot out of the opportunity.
-Don't be afraid to speak up if you have a problem.
-Demonstrate leadership qualities.
The panelists took questions from the audience. One really intrigued me: imposter syndrome. I totally experienced that when I started at my internship; I was always thinking I wasn't good enough to do the internship. I still experience this feelings from time to time when something good happens. It's nice to see that others experience these feelings as well.
Brit McCullar
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at britghc2007.blogspot.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
