Your address will show here +12 34 56 78
Blog, Community

Best TED Talks by Women in STEM

By on

April 11, 2017

- Blog, Community

The women doing groundbreaking work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are articulate and fascinating speakers. One of the best ways to listen to their ideas is through the TED Talk series.

Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, thinks we’re raising girls to be perfect and boys to be brave. Her goal is to teach girls to take risks and to learn to program. Her TED Talk is Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection.

Natalie Jeremijenko of NYU’s Environmental Health Clinic believes new technology is an opportunity for social transformation. Her TED Talk, the Art of the Eco Mindshift, talks about using a combination of engineering and public art to address environmental and human health.

Rachel Armstrong is a materials engineer and innovator who believes a new method of sustainable building construction can both repair itself and sequester carbon. She describes her work in her TED Talk Architecture that Repairs Itself.

Sarah Cairns-Smith is a biochemist who works in global development. Her TED Talk, Tech Solutions to Economic Development, describes mobile app development and use in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Does our tech keep us from dreaming? Shilo Shiv Suleman describes her new Khoya app in her TED Talk, Using Tech to Enable Dreaming. She wants to use tech to keep the magic in the world.

Mellody Hobson, in her TED Talk Color Blind or Color Brave, describes the need to discuss race openly and bravely in order to deal with diversity and inclusion.

In her TED Talk Hackers: the Internet’s Immune System, cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari says that hackers help cybersecurity by exposing vulnerabilities in the system.

Cynthia Breaeal spoke about socializing robots to interact with humans in her TED Talk The Rise of Personal Robots.Save
0
Blog, Inspiration

RAD Remedy and MyTransHealth: Startups to Improve Trans Healthcare

By on

March 9, 2017

- Blog, Inspiration

Transgender people have always been excluded from access to quality, caring, and nonjudgmental healthcare, and still are excluded today.

Healthcare challenges for trans people are significant, and include at the most basic level finding skilled and knowledgeable primary health care and access to medical specialists: endocrinologists, psychotherapists, speech therapists, and surgeons. Two new startups are meeting the needs of this population by developing databases of healthcare providers.

RAD Remedy is designed for trans, non-conforming gender, intersex, and queer folk to find safe, respectful, and comprehensive health care. They have two programs. The original RAD uses a model called a Referral Aggregate Database (RAD).The database includes crowdsourced information, shared experiences and referrals. People seeking information can find provider referrals based on specialty and geographic area. Their new program, RAD Remedy on Demand, is a consulting service for health care providers. Providers can ask for subject matter expert review of their practice forms, systems, and work practices to make sure the care they provide is the best quality possible. This new program has been funded by a capacity building grant from CFW LBTQ Giving Council and the Polk Brothers Fund. RAD Remedy has recently received their 501(c)3 designation.

MyTransHealth, based in Miami, is a guided referral system that uses a detailed screening process for healthcare professionals and specialty clinics to be included in their database. Providers are screened for clinical training, and clinics for nondiscrimination policy, gender-neutral bathrooms, and gender-affirming intake paperwork. Both providers and clinics are re-screened every 12 months. MyTransHealth also contains insurance information by geographic area, so people can find the therapeutics that are included in their insurance coverage. They currently have developed networks of specialists and primary care practitioners in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, NYC, San Francisco, and Seattle, and are working on expanding their database of screened referrals.Save
0
Blog, Women In Tech

Stephanie Lampkin and Blendoor: Reducing Bias in Tech Hiring

By on

February 27, 2017

- Blog, Women In Tech

Stephanie Lampkin, founder and CEO of Blendoor, has been awarded the Kevin J Mossier Next Generation Award by StartOut, the LBGTQ Entrepreneur Organization.
Blendoor is a merit-based matching and recruiting app that reduces unconscious bias in the hiring process by hiding applicants’ names, pictures, and dates. Using data-driven metrics, Blendoor helps companies make better hiring decisions. Candidates also have a window into company diversity and inclusion. Stephanie has an engineering degree from Stanford and an MBA from MIT. So when she found herself having difficulty finding a software engineering job in Silicon Valley, she had to wonder if being young made a difference? Or being a woman? Or being African-American? Or all three? She began researching diversity in tech hiring. What she found were quantifiable variables in the perception of race, gender, and age, and tech company hiring decisions that reflected these variables.

When she developed Blendoor the unconscious barriers and variables that impact hiring decisions were moved out of the way. Several companies with strong diversity and inclusion programs, such as Intel and Google, signed up to use her app before it was launched. Since that time, she has had a number of high profile companies, such as Facebook and Apple, come on board. Hiding photos and names on resumes allows applicants a safe zone where accomplishments can shine. For traditionally excluded populations, Blendoor can be the first step toward a seat at the table.

There are several other tools tech companies are using to deal with diversity, inclusion, and hiring bias. Psychologists believe that it is difficult to impossible to remove unconscious bias. What they propose are solutions that will mitigate the effects of unconscious bias in the workplace. GapJumpers is a new startup that looks at job skills and performs blind auditions, rather than looking at resumes. For jobs and skills that can be self-taught, like coding, applicants without college or experience have a way to shine. Applicants are given a skills test, or a hands-on task to complete. The audition is based on the results of the work. Textio was developed by looking at unconscious gender bias in the language of job descriptions. They use analytics and a predictive model to assess the language used in job searches and descriptions. Phrases are highlighted and areas of concern addressed, with suggestions for improvement. Companies using the method are meeting their hiring goals of more qualified and diverse candidates.

The National Center for Women and Information Technology has published some “Promising Practices” to help HR departments and hiring managers make decisions that reduce the impact of unconscious bias.SaveSave
0
Blog, Tech History

Carol Shaw: Atari’s first woman video game developer

By on

December 30, 2016

- Blog, Tech History

In the male dominated world of video game development, Carol Shaw stands out not only as a woman in technology role model, but as an innovative designer. She began her career with Atari in 1978, but according to PC Magazine she may be the first female video game developer, ever.

Throughout her life, Shaw was often the only female perusing her chosen interest. Her parents encouraged her to excel in math and computer science. In college, at UC Berkley, Shaw studied engineering. As she finished her coursework for a Masters in Computer Science, Shaw interviewed with Atari. She was in a work-study program at the time, but Atari hired her because of her programing knowledge. Author Chris Suellentrop of the New York Times states that the first commercially released video game designed by a woman was Carol Shaw’s Tic-Tac-Toe. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, one person created the entire game. Shaw not only did the programming but also created the sound and graphics.  

In 2011 Benj Edwards of Vintage Computing and Gaming conducted a very interesting interview with Shaw. She noted that since she was used to being the only woman in math and science, she was comfortable working with men only. In general, Shaw didn’t care what people thought of her interests or her career. She credits the heightened awareness of feminism in the 1970s, which helped her to understand that she could do what she wanted.

Shaw worked for Atari for two years then the industry took a dip. She was an assembly language programmer at Tandem for 16 months and then Activision recruited her. The first game she created for that company was the popular River Raid, for the Atari 2600. In the early 1980s, “shooting” games took place on one screen but Shaw developed a scrolling format. River Raid won several awards including Infoworld’s best action game and best Atari 8-bit game of the year.

In 1984 the video game industry reached another low and Shaw returned to Tandem. Because of her success in the industry and her careful investments she retired early, in 1990. Unfortunately, there are still few women in the video game industry. A 2014 International Game Developers Association (IGDA) study noted that only 22 percent of developers are women. We need more women in all fields of technology, so contact us to learn how to make that happen.Save
0
Blog, Community

Makerspace: Community, Collaboration, and Coworking

By on

November 27, 2016

- Blog, Community

Maker Spaces are a twig on the incubator branch of the tree that is education and support for small business startups. This twig may be the very best incubator space for many entrepreneurs.

Incubators provide small business startups with business resources, mentoring, support and education. Many provide coworking space and access to investors. Maker spaces are a type of incubator, but they begin with a peer-to-peer model. Imagine you are Luke Skywalker and you have a new startup in your mind. Do you take it to Yoda, or do you take your idea into Han Solo’s garage and work it out with Leia, Chewwy, and the gang? Yoda is the incubator. Han’s garage is the maker space.

Maker spaces are mostly regional, and many are designed to share the cost and space of industrial equipment and supplies. So they tend to be industry based, as well. Most have a coworking component and education, support, and networking.

There are several maker spaces that are online platforms. Maker’s Row is a design/production maker space that focuses on helping designers find American manufacturing partners. They have a vigorous boot camp of workshops and courses to help designers get their business skills where they need to be. The online platform allows manufacturers and independent designers to interact and work together first online, and then in person.

Mi Kitchen es Su Kitchen is a commercial kitchen incubator that works as a maker space for entrepeneurs with food startups. Food businesses are popular for their low start up costs and ready markets. For many entrepreneurs, a food business is the gateway into entrepreneurship. Access to a commercial kitchen, shared space and equipment, and business education, support, and mentoring make Mi Kitchen a popular and successful maker space.

IE is the Portland Incubator Experiment, a beloved regional coworking space and idea incubator. The collaborative focuses on support and encouragement, as well as creative sharing. The organization is evolving with the needs of the startup community. Their newest project is an open-source book of resources for other incubator startups called, of course, the Pie Cookbook.

TechTown Detroit is an established tech startup incubator. Their maker space is divided into laboratory space, for tech startups, and place space, for entrepreneurs working with underserved neighborhoods and communities. The local movement in Detroit is changing this city into a model for regional entrepreneurship.

The Staten Island Maker Space is a collaborative project of two artists who brought together the large equipment and space for artists, metal workers, fabricators, and community tinkerers. They have digital fabrication equipment, a metal shop, woodshop, computer lab, and sewing room, as well as shared workspace and studio space. They have a number of education programs for business startups, and a workshop-based kid’s education program.

WESST is a mature business development incubator that offers startups mentoring, education, investment funding opportunities, and business loans, as well as coworking space. Like the Detroit maker space, WESST was begun to meet the regional economic challenges in New Mexico. Their new incubator is located in Albuquerque. The majority of their startups are women-owned businesses, and they have developed education and support materials specific for women. They also have a veteran-specific coworking space for no cost for active duty military and veterans.Save
0
Blog, Tech History

Margaret Hamilton: How One Woman Made Apollo 11 Possible

By on

September 15, 2016

- Blog, Tech History

Margaret Hamilton. You may not recognize the name, but, if not for her legendary programming skills, Neil Armstrong’s famous ‘One Small Step’ speech not only may have been delivered by someone else — but quite probably in Russian.

Hamilton and her team of programmers at MIT wrote one of the most important pieces of software ever written, and in doing so changed the world for all mankind, men and women alike. The Apollo 11 mission that first put man on the moon on July 10, 1969 was made possible by guidance software written by Hamilton’s team. They wrote the code that allowed the Apollo Guidance Computer units in the mission’s command module and lunar landing module to successfully navigate to the moon, land, and return to earth.

Under Hamilton’s leadership, the team not only wrote code that worked, but code that save the mission from almost certain failure. NASA was aware of problems between the Apollo Guidance Computer and the on-board radar on the lander. The radar, which was largely useless during the landing sequence, would nonetheless flood the guidance computer with an overwhelming storm of unnecessary data that could easily overwhelm and shut down guidance during the most crucial part of the landing sequence.

The coding team was aware of this, and wrote the guidance program in such a way that the guidance computer could be quickly restarted and the code reloaded mid-landing sequence. Their foresight made the Apollo 11 landing possible when, as expected, the guidance computer faulted and had to be restarted during the landing. NASA recognized Hamilton for her contributions to the Apollo program by awarding her the Exceptional Space Act Award in 2003.

Today, at 80, Margaret Hamilton is still playing an active role in technology in her role as CEO of Hamilton Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, MA. Founded in 1986, HTI has build upon lessons learned during the Apollo program to develop a revolutionary programming language known as Universal Systems Language (USL), which HTI claims has unequaled reliability for use in high-demand computing tasks.Save
0
Blog, Inspiration

How Apps Can Change the World: Women Edition 2016

By on

August 16, 2016

- Blog, Inspiration

Yep. Still 2016. I still wake up on some days worried about redundancy in app development. I mean, fuck, how many Pomodoro apps do I have to check out before making an informed decision? Pretty sure I tried nine in September of 2015, and that number has more than doubled today.

Also: still weathering a sinking feeling, or a pit maybe, at the center of me, hardening as app developers look more and more like 27 year old white dudes overly interested in profit margins. I mean, I dig profits. And as profits are the fastest route to power in this world we’ve got, I firmly believe women and persons of color need, need, need to seek power shamelessly; I am not here to warn against profits. And yet here I am asking three minutes of your time, in order to introduce you to three apps that are not about profit margins.

These are apps that are world changers, meant to make the world a better, fairer, safer more effective place for women and thereby for everyone. You with me? 

My three favorite, totally ethical and women-focused apps + designers that/who are making qualitative differences in our world while also maintaining my faith in app development.

Ready? Go.

1. Maven: Want women’s health consultations that are efficient and affordable? There’s an app for that. Former reporter for the Economist Katherine Richardson was focused on accessibility when she designed this app, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of space for users to share experiences as well as advice. Think of this as a women’s health clinic for your pocket. And I started my list with health on purpose. Because we aren’t fully chingona (ie badass) when we’re under the weather.

2. W’sHR: And now we also get pocket sized access to the international legal instruments adopted by the UN, those that are relevant to women in particular. Yeah, really. The name is an acronym for Women’s Human Rights, and the app is developed by SCHR/ICGS and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The goal: swifter negotiation for women and for what is right―around the world.

3. Wrike: Okay, okay, this one isn’t really women-focused. This one is for everyone; but for you women heads in search of new management tools, I include this for you. Because with more and more of us at the summit each new day, we really ought to keep updating our camalots along with the rest of our gear. Wrike brings project management to the project manager. Let’s say you manage employees who work at different paces, and while you want to be flexible, you want, too, to be effective. This app allows you to track group performance. Further, it allows you to put Word, Google Drive, Excel, and email in the same place, the assumption being: once integrated, you will become even more efficient.

Collaboration, discussion, document building―it’s all here. Simplifying life for those of you in charge.

*I didn’t include Evernote on this list because everybody and her mom has already written about Evernote as a must download. But know that if you are thinking across multiple projects each day and looking to stay organized, Evernote really is a must. Once again, this is regardless of your gender identity/identities.
*This article was originally posted on KaliWilliams.com
SaveSave
0
Blog, Community

Taking the Pledge: The White House Takes on Tech Diversity

By on

July 20, 2016

- Blog, Community

Inclusive entrepreneurship is one of the White House’s goals to make technology and tech start ups more diverse, inclusive, and transparent. With an eye toward hiring practices that reflect the American population, thirty companies signed the White House Tech Inclusion Pledge to increase and track diversity and inclusion in their workforces.

The pledge called for companies to set workforce diversity goals and then track and publish the results, as well as to invest in partnerships that will allow diverse talent to be recognized and supported. Innovation and entrepreneurship can be used as tools to create a more equitable, secure, and globally connected world.

A report sponsored by Intel and Dahlberg Global Development Advisors estimates that  $470 to $570 billion in new value for the US technology sector could be generated if the tech industry embraced American gender and ethnic diversity. The United State of Women is another summit sponsored by the White House designed to address issues that impact women’s ability to succeed. Their entrepreneurship and innovation goals address the need for equity in access to capital and market share, and methods include training programs, increased access to credit and federal contracting for women-owned business, and participation in global entrepreneurship initiatives.

Laura Weidman Powers, co-founder of CODE2040, a company founded to address the diversity gap in the tech industry, is currently a senior policy advisor to US Chief Technology officer Megan Smith. CODE2040 is implementing a number of hiring support programs for minorities, such as sponsoring internships and their new Entrepreneur in Residence program. CODE2040’s goal is to provide leadership and opportunity for underrepresented minorities in the innovation economy.

At the first White House sponsored South by South Lawn: A Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action, Stewart Butterfield, cofounder of Slack, proposed that companies start a vigorous diversity and inclusion hiring plan when they are small, so they can work through problems and develop systems. While the bottom line may be impacted by diverse hiring practices, Butterfield says,  “that’s not why we do it.  Tech lives inside a society with systemic racism.”Save
0
Blog, Tech History

Radia Perlman, “The Mother of the Internet”

By on

July 7, 2016

- Blog, Tech History

A graduate of MIT, Radia Perlman’s first major contribution to tech was to create a toddler-oriented version of the LOGO programming language, which she called TORTIS. After graduating with a Ph.D in Computer Science in 1988, she moved on to work for Digital Equipment Corporation, then one of the world’s largest computer hardware vendors. It was during her time there that she would write an algorithm that modern networks still lean on: Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). STP is one of the cornerstones of Ethernet networks and is critical in bridging operations.

While it’s stretching a bit far to say that she invented the Internet, it’s also true that the modern Internet (not to mention local area networks) would not exist as we know it without her work. STP prevents networks from creating bridging loops, which can eventually create a “broadcast storm” that can bring the entire network to a halt in seconds. While Radia will likely never be a household name with the general public, the legacy of her work is found in every device that uses the Ethernet protocol.

Members of the tech community who know their history recognize her contributions, however, with a number of them dubbing her “The Mother of the Internet.” She humbly rejects that title, telling The Atlantic in a 2014 interview that no one person should lay claim to having invented the Internet. Radia continues to work in the field, most recently as a fellow for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

She also continues to speak out about the need for greater diversity in the tech industry, and the stereotypes that women are still struggling to overcome to consistently gain stature and recognition equal to that of their male peers.

Is there a female tech pioneer or prominent woman in the modern industry you’d like to see featured?Save
0
Blog, Hackathon Info

The History of Hackathons: A Celebration of Code

By on

June 30, 2016

- Blog, Hackathon Info

The term “hackathon” has most likely been in informal use since the word “hacking” was coined. But in terms of official events with the “hackathon” label, the first on record was the OpenBSD Hackathon of 1999.

This gathering didn’t have much of a formal structure, as it was really more about a group of American developers side-stepping export regulations. The event must have been fun (or at least very productive), however, since it spawned an annual invitation-only series that switched focus to freeform OpenBSD coding. Sun also used the term for an event at the JavaOne conference that same year shortly after the OpenBSD event took place.

While there’s still no formal structure to (or even specific dictionary definition of) a hackathon, their increasing popularity over the past decade has led to at least something of a standardized format. They’re usually organized around a central theme — game development for a particular platform, work on an open-source project, developing apps, or even a particular intersection of science and tech such as bioinformatics. Things kick off with some presentations, maybe some workshops. Then the participants are turned loose to code amongst themselves, often organized into groups by their areas of expertise.

A few interesting branches of the hackathon have been emerging in the last few years. One is the socially-focused or charitable hackathon, such as the annual NHS Hackaday and Random Hacks of Kindness. Another is the company-sponsored hackathon, held internally for employees by major tech players like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix. And some are demographically inclusive, like the hackathons hosted by the Meera Kaul Foundation that focus on increased representation of women in the STEM fields. Whatever the form it’s packaged in, the hackathon is ultimately a celebration of code, and an excuse for techies to get together and geek out in an environment resembling a cross between a college LAN party and a sleepover while still creating something productive (or at least interesting.) Beginners who are interested in the idea but aren’t sure where to start might want to check out CodeDay, a regular event held in cities throughout the United States that welcomes newcomers in all different fields. SaveSave
0
PREVIOUS POSTSPage 4 of 5NEXT POSTS