Becoming a student at Tartu University is one of the best things that happened in my life. In the beginning of October, I got the opportunity to visit Orlando, Florida, United States to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration 2017 conference using the scholarship from AnitaB.org. It could happen thanks to my lecturer’s recommendation, Dr. Benson Muite from the Institute of Computer Science.
I was able to attend the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. This conference is created by AnitaB.org and presented in partnership with ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). In this conference more than 18.000 women from all over the world had gathered. There are several things that I want to highlight why this conference was an amazing experience for a STEM student to attend:
Keynotes
There were big names in technology industry attending and gave really interesting keynotes. One of the keynote speakers is Melinda Gates, Co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She gave the opening keynotes where she shared her experience as a woman in technology during her career in early day Microsoft and what is her hope for the next generation of women in technology.
Talk Sessions & Workshops
The sessions and workshops are divided into several tracks. In career track, students can get useful information about how to prepare for their job search or advance their career. There are also specialized topic in technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Systems Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, and Security where students can listen to in-depth talks and participate in workshops.
Career Expo
More than a hundred companies are there and they do onsite interview and sometimes hiring. As a student who is looking for job or want to change career. This is a nice spot to hang out to talk with the companies. Companies here are also provided tons of nice swag.
ACM Student Poster Competition
I think this is one of my most favorite parts of the conference. Seeing posters with interesting ideas and findings from students all across the world. It offers genuine ideas like how to monitor information polarization in social media, measure UV effect across the year, and many more. This poster competition is open for every student, male and female and has a nice prize.
Afterwards, it was a fantastic experience and I hope there will be more students from Tartu in the coming years!
Written By:
Radita Liem (Indonesia)
MSc in Engineering (Computer Science)
Photos From:
https://ghc.anitab.org/galleries/gallery-2017/
