Women in STEM

The Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE) and the Division of Systems Engineering (SE) sponsored seven students to represent the College of Engineering at this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration (September 26-October 3). The event aims to nurture the research and career paths of women finding inspiration in its annual commemoration of Grace Murray Hopper (1906 – 1992). Dr. Hopper was a pioneer in the field of computer programming and systems engineering, whose many achievements included inventing the first computer language compiler, which was later incorporated into COBOL.

Attending this year’s virtual event were Clara Lin (SE), Penny Kiourti (ECE), Rui Liu (SE),  Xiaoyu Li (SE), Prachi Shukla (CE), Qianqian Ma (ECE), and Samantha Puterman (CE). These women had the opportunity to network, increase visibility in their respective disciplines, engage in discourse with prominent professionals in diverse science, research and technology disciplines.

Clara Lin is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in Systems Engineering working with Professor Sean Andersson (ME, SE) in the BU Robotics Lab. Her research is focused on Single Particle Tracking.  At GHC, Lin presented a poster entitled, Simultaneous Localization and Parameter Estimation for Single Particle Tracking in Confined Environments.  “As a presenter, I benefitted from more people knowing about my research, and I got inspiration from them,” says Lin. “What impressed me most was the powerful connection GHC gave. It provided the means to directly talk with people working in a variety of universities, communities, and companies. I also learned a lot of from the personal lessons shared by senior women in technology.”

Penny Kiourti is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in the ECE department working with Professor Wenchao Li (ECE, SE) in the Dependable Computing Lab. Her research is primarily on the security aspect of Machine Learning systems. Says  Kiourti, “I was able to get productivity, career, and wellness advice, as well as interview preparation tips. I also had access to information about companies as they shared guidelines and information on how to apply and prepare for jobs. This event also supports and promotes all underrepresented groups in a positive way.”

Prachi Shukla is a 4th year Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering  working with Professor Ayse Coskun (ECE) in the Performance and Energy-Aware Computing (PEAC) Lab. The focus of her research is in energy-efficient computing, 3D architectures, thermal management, EDA development.  Of GHC, Shukla shares, “It was exciting to hear from women leaders from companies such as IBM or Intel talk about their leadership roles in building chips and supercomputers. GHC also offered some great workshops/sessions such as effective code review or open source, which helped me understand how I can efficiently collaborate, which is a very important skill. There were other sessions on diversity and equity, which I liked and found educational. The keynotes leave you feeling inspired and motivated to excel in your own field.”

Rui Liu, whose advisor is Professor Alex Olshevsky (ECE, SE), says, “I look forward to applying my research into industry and found the career sessions of GHC awesome.  They gave me an opportunity to communicate and build relationships with women in high-tech who have similar research and career interests with me. These connections are a tremendous help in starting and advancing my career in the future.”

Xiaoyu Li, whose advisor is Professor Francesco Orabona (ECE, CS), is a 3rd year Ph.D. student from the Division of System Engineering working in OPTIMAL Lab.  Her research is focused on understanding and designing optimization methods in machine learning, specifically, stochastic gradient descent and its variants, and adaptive gradient descent methods. About GHC, Li says, “It is great to learn from different women who share their experiences and power.  During the Amazon’s SDE session, I got several professional instructions on the resume and interview. In addition, I was told that there would be an extended virtual career fair in November, and I am looking forward to it!”

Qianqian Ma, whose advisor is Professor Alex Olshevsky (ECE, SE), is a 4th year Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research is focused on machine learning and distributed optimization.  “At GHC, some excellent women engineers and scientists shared their true experiences and thoughts about their careers as well as their lives.  I have learned a lot from this. There are also many great intern opportunities at the career fair.”

Samantha Puterman, whose advisor is Professor Ayse Coskun (ECE), is a a junior studying computer engineering in the Performance and Energy-Aware Computing (PEAC) Lab. The focus of her research is Advancing Automated Distributed Tracing in the Cloud. Puterman says, “GHC was very helpful for networking and learning about new technologies and personal development. There is a big community of women in STEM who are trying to promote and achieve great things. What impacted me the most was knowing that though women are underrepresented in STEM disciplines, there are lots of resources, students and professionals open and excited to help each other succeed in their own career paths.”

These students were selected to represent the College of Engineering based on an application process announced by CISE and SE on September 1st, 2020. To learn more about GHC, visit: https://ghc.anitab.org/

The Division of Materials Science & Engineering, the Division of Systems Engineering, and the Center for Information and Systems Engineering sponsored 5 division graduate students to attend the Scientista Symposium 2019 (SCISYMP19) March 29-31 in Boston. The Scientista Foundation is a national organization that empowers pre-professional women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through content, communities, and conferences. Currently the largest network of campus women across STEM disciplines, Scientista serves to connect all communities of women in STEM at campuses across the nation, giving such important organizations more visibility and resources, and building a strong, cohesive network of women in science that can act as one voice.

CISE and the Division of Systems Engineering (SE) sponsored the attendance of seven engineering students to the 2018 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing, held in Houston Texas, September 26 through September 28. Upon their return, the students presented at a CISE-SE event where they shared what they had learned about networking best practices and opportunities for women in STEM. Speakers included: Ruidi Chen (SE PhD ’19), Noushin Mehdipour (SE PhD ’20), Athar Roshandelpoor (SE PhD ’21), Rebecca Swaszek (SE PhD ’19), Tingting Xu (SE PhD ’20), Selin Yanikara (SE PhD ’20), and Yue Zhang (SE PhD ’19).

For the 3rd year, CISE and the Division of Systems Engineering (SE), supported four systems engineering female students, Yue Joyce Zhang, Xinmiao Sun, Tingting Xu, and Sepideh Pourazarm who attended the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing conference held on October 19-21, in Houston Texas.

Pourazarm (advisor: Christos Cassandras), has attended the conference two years in a row. She claims that she is inspired by the prominent women in technology who share their experiences, with stories about how they reached their high-powered position, and achieved their goals. Pourazarm stated, “For me, the most endearing moment was during the keynote speech when, Anna Patterson, Vice President of Engineering, Artificial Intelligence for Google, spoke of her great-grandmother who was among the first women to vote in the United States. It has been a long journey women had to follow to reach the point we are at now; although effort is still needed to fill the gap between men and women in technology.”

There were 4,500 attendees in 2013 and approximately 16,000 in 2016, with a 25% growth from the previous year, 2015. One thousand participants were men. Sun (advisor: Christos Cassandras) said she “was astonished when I first entered the Toyota Center and saw nearly 15,000 women. I was thoroughly inspired by the achievements of keynote speakers and eagerly absorbed all advice from these professional women through networking. As a result, I feel more confident.”

Zhang (advisor: Christos Cassandras) said, “It was definitely a magnificent adventure. There was a plethora of information from all types of women who were extremely intelligent resources.”

This conference brings together women from various technological fields to share ideas, network, and partake in professional development activities. GHC is notably the world’s largest conference for women in technology. Because diversity has been an issue, this year GHC focused on having at least 30% of speakers be females of color who hold prominent positions in technology.

Xu (advisor: Ioannis Paschalidis), whose focus is on Machine Learning, became acquainted with women in her field of study and learned about others in related fields. “From my discussion with various company representatives, I was enthusiastic to find out about how many companies are interconnected with big data analysis, which is exactly my research area. I am now more energetic and focused to continue in this challenging research.”

The Grace Hopper Celebration incorporates career sessions with technical sessions, including proposal presentations, mentoring workshops, papers, a PhD forum, panel discussions, and a Poster Session. Conference keynote speakers and presenters are leaders in their respective discipline from academia, government and industry such as Ginni Rometty, President and CEO of IBM, Latanya Sweeney, Harvard University Professor, Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce, and Megan Smith, U.S. Chief Technology Officer.

“We connect, inspire, and guide women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative.” http://anitaborg.org/awards-grants/abie-awards/

Theodora Brisimi (ECE), Elli Ntakou (ME, SE), and Yasaman Khazaeni (ECE, SE) attended the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing on October 14-16, 2015 in Houston Texas with the support of CISE and the Division of Systems Engineering.

Theodora Brisimi (ECE) and Elli Ntakou (ME, SE) presented posters. Brisimi (advisor: Ioannis Paschalidis) joined the conference to meet prominent females and expand her professional network by showcasing her work and conversing with women from organizations in her field of expertise. “GHC was inspirational and my participation has been a unique, scientific and social, experience. I was fortunate enough to be part of such a noteworthy event,” Brisimi said.

This conference brings together women from various technological fields to share ideas, network, and partake in professional development activities with over 700 speakers this year. GHC is notably the world’s largest conference for women in technology. It is a unique opportunity for women to assemble and connect with each other, although the conference is open to men who attend to support women in the field.

According to Ntakou (advisor: Michael Caramanis), “the conference had a different feel than the technical conferences that I have attended in the past, in the sense that people put much more effort to relate to you.”

In fact, this year, participants expanded to an overwhelming 12,000 attendees from academia and professionals from different countries and organizations. As a result, to accommodate the influx of participants, the program included ‘clusters’ which were comprised of multiple tracks.

Khazaeni (advisor: Christos Cassandras) primarily related to the track “on Robotics as a Part of Society. This was an example on how things that were fantasy will become reality sooner than we think.” These technology conferences open the road to women who eventually become leaders in their field. “I hope we can carry the message we got from this conference and be part of the movement to help more women join STEM fields.”

In 1994, Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney co-founded this conference with the vision of bringing women technologists together to celebrate achievements, discuss career interests, and present research. The Grace Hopper Celebration incorporates career sessions with technical sessions, including proposal presentations, mentoring workshops, papers, a PhD forum, panel discussions, and a Poster Session. Conference keynote speakers and presenters are leaders in their respective discipline from academia, government and industry such as Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, Manuela M. Veloso, Herbert A. Simon University Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook & Founder of Leanin.

Yasaman Khazaeni, Theodora Brisimi, and Sepideh Pourazarm represented the Division of Systems Engineering (SE) and Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE) at the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Of Women In Computing Conference on October 8-10, 2014, in Phoenix, AZ. These women had the opportunity to network, increased visibility in their respective disciplines, engaged in discourse with other professionals, and more importantly, learned and were inspired by prominent women who transform the course of technology. SE and CISE encourage talented individuals by organizing events and workshops to support their research and by sponsoring their participation in conferences such as GHC.

Theodora Brisimi, an Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student, whose advisor is Professor Ioannis Paschalidis, presented a poster, “Modeling and Prediction of Heart-Related Hospitalization Using Electronic Health Records” at the conference this year. “I want to better the world by improving the incorporation of data analytics in city and societal general projects”, said Theodora, which is indicative of where her interests lie in the development and application of new techniques in machine learning, optimization, and decision theory. “CISE has been a great source of information and an excellent opportunity to meet with other researchers. CISE seminars, along with the Women’s Networking Forum and CISE Student Presentation Practice Sessions, have helped me develop my presentation and professional development skills”.

Yasaman Khazaeni, an SE PhD student working with Professor Christos Cassandras, attended the GHC because she anticipated meeting “the women who have made it to the top tier of engineering and computer science field which has been historically dominated by men. I believe I can learn a lot from their experience and achievements”. Yasaman’s work focuses on the development of algorithms and optimization problems that can be utilized in many real world problems such as disaster evacuation, and resource allocation.

Sepideh Pourazarm, an SE PhD student who also works under the guidance of Professor Cassandras, is currently working in the CODES lab developing an optimal control approach to solve the routing problem in sensor networks and electric vehicles with energy constraints. She believes that CISE has contributed to her education especially with “the weekly seminars, which explore different areas of engineering from diverse majors and schools as well as with the BU Scholars Day.” She attended this conference primarily to network and meet the professional women who have contributed to the advancement of technology.

In 1994, Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney co-founded this conference with the vision of bringing women technologists together to celebrate achievements, discuss career interests, and present research. Two decades later, attendees exceed 4,500 participants from 53 countries, 1,900 students from 400 academic institutions, and 2,850 industry professionals. GHC is notably the world’s largest conference for women in technology.

The Grace Hopper Celebration incorporates career sessions with technical sessions, including proposal presentations, mentoring workshops, papers, a PhD forum, panel discussions, and a Poster Session. Conference keynote speakers and presenters were leaders in their respective discipline from academia, government and industry such as DARPA and Microsoft.

This year’s presenters included:

• Shafi Goldwasser – keynote speaker – (RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, winner of the 2012 ACM Turing Award),
• Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College)
• Satya Nadella (CEO Microsoft),
• Dr. Arati Prabhakar (Director of DARPA).