Katy Dickinson

Caboose Marker Lights

We have been hunting for caboose marker lights for WP668, our 1916 backyard caboose. Marker lights were portable status lights which fit into permanent brackets on the side of the end of a caboose. We found and bought two matching lights last week on eBay! They need to have modern bulbs and wiring installed but are otherwise complete. The lights were listed in the eBay category "Collectibles > Transportation > Railroadiana, Trains > Hardware > Lanterns, Lamps".

I have been at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing here in Orlando, Florida, since Wednesday. However, the lights arrived in the mail yesterday so John sent me these pictures:

Images Copyright 2007 by John Plocher

Posted at 09:05PM Oct 19, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

GHC Panel: Workplace Mentoring

I attended the "Workplace Mentoring" panel this last afternoon of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. On the panel were representatives from HP, Clarke University, Intel, MentorNet, and Google. Mostly, they told war stories and gave best practices advice. Resources recommended were:

• http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw, CRA Committee on the Status of Women in Computing research (CRA-W), look for mentoring workshop information
• In Action: Creating Mentoring and Coaching Programs by Linda Stromei, 2001 (ISBN-10: 1562862847 and ISBN-13: 978-1562862848)
• http://www.ncwit.org/practices.box.mentoring.html "Mentoring-in-a-Box: Technical Women at Work"
• Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton, 2001 (ISBN-10: 0743201140 and ISBN-13: 978-0743201148
• http://research.sun.com/SEED/ Engineering Mentoring: SEED Sun Engineering Enrichment & Development program, data and flowcharts

There were a variety of experiences and programs described at many levels of maturity and success. Other program representatives were identified in the audience. Some of the topics discussed in detail were the difference between mentoring and patronage, the three-way complex relationship between mentors, mentees, and the mentee's manager, cultural influences and differing expectations of mentoring, and how "mentoring" was translated.

Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

Posted at 08:18PM Oct 19, 2007 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

GHC Panel: Invited Change Agents

The "Invited Change Agents" panel at this second day of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing features the three women who won this year's 2007 Anita Borg Change Agent Awards:

• Wafa Abdul Rahman AlMansoori (Bahrain)
• Zeinab Safar (Egypt)
• Irina Khomeriki (Georgia)

This award was created by Turing Award and inaugural Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award winner, Fran Allen (IBM Fellow, retired). Fran was in today's audience. Change agents work in their community to attract and support women in technology. Recipients are recognized for their technical leadership and advocacy work. The Hopper Conference is remarkable for the geographic diversity of its participants (and for its lack of gender diversity, being almost all women); so, these three are not the only women here from their areas of the world. However, they are remarkable for their accomplishments and vision.

Dr. Safar talked about some of the barriers she faces in Egypt:

• 30% women illiterate, 20% men illiterate
• Language, social, and cultural barriers for girls and women
• Lack of access to computers for girls (boys have more access if there are computers available)
• Encouragement and permission is needed for girls to become educated (fathers need to make opportunity for women to be trained). However, once girls are in the school system, they can continue and succeed. IT is popular and women succeed in the field professionally and represent 30% of the IT sector.

Dr. Khomeriki and Dr. AlMansoori said that their countries shared many of these same problems. They each added that there was a generation difference, with the younger people being more computer capable. Dr. AlMansoori said that Bahrain literacy is 98% in the under-50 age group. She said that men needed to be mentors for women so that women could learn to do more than keep the home and take care of children.

Dr. Safar said that she hoped women would do something for women, to help women in Egypt to learn more about Information Technology. She looks to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and private donors (like industry and the Anita Borg Institute) for support. Dr. Khomeriki talked about internet use in Georgia (3.75 users per 100 people, often by way of a smokey cyber cafe) and how important it was to have quick information access. Dr. AlMansoori said it was hard to get program funding in Bahrain because everyone knows her country is rich. Also, Bahrain is a small country and only boys can work out of the country, so women have fewer job opportunities.

The moderator asked a question from one of last year's Change Agent Award winners: what had the three learned by attending Hopper 2007, and what would they do differently?

• Dr. Safar said that she should have brought a student, and also since the Hopper Conference includes about half students, that she should get more students to participate in her conferences in Egypt.
• Dr. Khomeriki said she had a new point of view.
• Dr. AlMansoori said she would have looked for a mentor to enrich her experience. She plans to establish a mentoring program in Bahrain for students, Engineers, and fresh graduates to bring out their best. A mentoring program will encourage people to seek help from others who know how to do things better. She wants them to know that seeking improvement is not admitting inability. She is looking for help to set up this new mentoring program.

I gave Dr. AlMansoori the 2006 "Mentoring for Employee Development" 2-page handout from the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), a reference to Sun's http://research.sun.com/SEED/ web site about the SEED Engineering mentoring program which I manage, and my card. I hope she will follow up with me! It would be very interesting to follow up on today's discussion.

Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

Posted at 01:50PM Oct 19, 2007 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  | 

GHC Speaker: Maria Klawe (Harvey Mudd College)

I am up early this morning after dancing late at last night's banquet for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing because Maria Klawe is speaking. Maria Klawe is amazing - she is now President, Harvey Mudd College, after serving as Dean of Engineering at Princeton.

Maria's wants Engineers to do great technical work but also have a full life and make a difference in the world too. Having seen Maria dancing last night, I know she lives what she recommends.

The paradox which Maria highlighted in today's keynote talk is that there are increasing percentages of women in Computer Science Faculty, grad students, and leadership positions in industry and academia; however, undergraduate CS women student numbers continue to decrease. Right now, 20% of Computer Science PhD students in the USA and Canada are women, while only 14% of CS undergrads are women. Yet, the worldwide demand for workers with CS degrees is higher now than ever before (she believes that trend will probably continue for the next 10 years).

Maria encouraged outreach to schools, parents, and teachers to help. She said if each of the 1,400 women at Hopper 2007 could convince 3 girls to go into CS, the problem would start to reverse. She advises finding opportunities to talk to any organization (about leadership or whatever) and then insert truths about CS as an aside. To talk with girls, go where they are: to art classes or camp rather than to High School CS classes. Craft messages for High School math, bio, chem, art and other classes. Maria asked the audience to raise their hands if they would commit to talk with at least one (preferably 20!) High School girls. Most of us did!

Maria Klawe's advice on how to attract female college students to Computer Science:

• Fabulous CS intro (and later) classes
• Get some CS required, have Dean advise all students to take CS classes
• Bring frosh to Hopper
• Post-frosh summer research experiences
• Make it easy to switch into CS (and offer CS in the summer)
• Provide CS double major option and flexibility
• Make a digital pre-med program

Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

Posted at 07:31AM Oct 19, 2007 by katysblog in Hopper - Anita Borg Institute  |