#GHC22
Attending the 2022 Grace Hopper Celebration Virtually
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A Blog by Teresa Hempen
Hello!
My name is Teresa Hempen, and I am a sophomore studying Computer Science & Engineering at UC Irvine. This will be my second year as a member of the WICS (Women in Information and Computer Sciences) Community Outreach Committee. I have really enjoyed every minute of this opportunity to teach girls in elementary and high school about the education and career opportunities in computer science fields with a group of wonderful, intelligent, and motivated women. I also have the amazing and supportive WICS community more broadly, as well as OAI (the Office of Activity and Inclusion), to thank for enabling and encouraging me to attend GHC! I am particularly interested in learning more about opportunities in embedded software and backend development. In my free time, I love reading, running, thrifting, and spending time with my family!
Day -1
Monday, September 19: Drowning in a sea of tabs
I am attending GHC 2022 virtually, meaning that I will also be participating in Week 0 events on campus and going to my first few classes on Thursday and Friday while the conference is happening from Tuesday through Friday of this week. I do in fact feel very "virtual" right now - the kind of virtual where I have at least 6 tabs open in each of 3 separate windows that I am using just for Chrome as I try to pick through emails (we’re currently on "GHC Know Before You Show #7") that I should have read days ago along with lists of sponsors and events. I am attempting to create some semblance of a schedule for myself over the next four days, as I have too often let virtual events pass me by without engaging in the opportunities they provide over these past two years. Planning is more important than ever! I’m nervous and stressed about how busy the upcoming days will be with the conference and the first days of class coinciding, but my excitement fortunately outweighs those feelings.
Day 0
Tuesday, September 20: Starting with a bang
I am really feeling the conference's theme "Next is Now" with the time difference: the conference's in-person location, Orlando, Florida, is three hours ahead of Pacific Time. So while the conference is 9 am to 5 pm ET, it's 6 am to 2 pm for us here in California. It's amazing that there will be people attending from other continents, watching keynotes and networking in the middle of the night! For the first day of the conference, I only went to a social held on campus by WICS where I got to know other vGHC ("v" for virtual) attendees. My takeaway is that booking 1-on-1 meetings with recruiters is like buying pre-sale tickets for a BTS concert. Slots for some of the big-name companies were gone in seconds, and many of us struggled to book more than a few meetings. Meeting some of the other attendees was both fun and informative, and, even though we weren't on a flight to Orlando, Florida like the in-person attendees, we were able to head on over to see Dabin and Flo Milli perform at the Aldrich Park After Dark concert following the social. (Shoutout to OAI for the great catering from Mendocino Farms available at the social!)
** It was actually a fairly laid-back day with the conference really kicking off tomorrow, so "Starting with a Bang" may not be the most accurate title, but I was determined to make a pun about the "Lightning Talks," which I talk about more in the next section.
Day 1
Wednesday, September 21: Over in a flash
I got to Starbucks at about 6:15, where I prepared for my upcoming company 1-on-1s and organized my schedule for the coming days a bit more. At 7 am with coffee in hand, I watched the opening plenary, which began with a keynote from AnitaB.org President and CEO Brenda Darden Wilkerson. The stage's bright blue and purple lighting looked great even on camera, and the crowd's energy came through the screen as they shouted "Next is Now" together. While Ms. Wilkerson's remarks succeeded in creating a typically energizing and inspiring opening, I found the following talk to be particularly engaging and impactful. Abie Award Technical Winner Daphne Koller gave a talk entitled "Transforming Drug Discovery using Digital Biology," in which she explained how her company Insitro is using machine learning to improve patients' lives in the face of exponentially decreasing success in medical R&D.
The remainder of my first full day at GHC was occupied with "Lightning Talks," 15 minute technical and professional presentations at the beginning of each hour from 10 am to 1 pm. One of the talks that I personally found most interesting was about how one company was digitizing factories to reduce food waste, once again demonstrating, as I would see many times throughout the conference, how tech is being used to have a positive impact on people's lives and the world around us. Overall, the Lightning Talks produced an odd but not unwelcome rhythm for my day, and, in between these talks, I was able to prepare for the 1-on-1 meetings and classes that I have tomorrow and Friday.
Days 2 & 3
Thursday, September 22 - Friday, September 23: Coffee, Conversations, and Class
Coffee, conversations, and class (along with a few Week 0 club meetings) describes just about the entirety of how I have spent my final two days of GHC. Starting out each day with black Pike Place coffee, I took my morning meetings in the Student Center, which was definitely a bit quieter and more private than Starbucks. I then went to study rooms in the Science Library in the late morning and early afternoon between classes.
A combination of group meetings, 1-on-1s, and class didn't allow me to attend too many more Lightning Talks, but hearing directly from company recruiters, managers, and engineers was incredibly insightful. Each conversation had its own focus and personality. Several felt like friendly coffee chats, a few were more strictly informational, and others were practically interviews. The two that I found the most insightful were the Dropbox group session and the Garmin International 1-on-1. At the Dropbox session, I heard from two young female software engineers about their experience working for a fully remote company, one of whom was actually working on a new project called Dropbox Marketplace. At the Garmin 1-on-1, I spoke with an embedded software engineer who began as an intern at the company and has now been working in their fitness department for six years. I particularly enjoyed hearing about her work, as embedded software engineering is something that I am interested in potentially pursuing as a career.
All the Days After
Remind Me Again, Is "C" for Conference or Celebration?
As the many emails from AnitaB.org before, during, and since the event have reminded me, the "C" in GHC stands for "Celebration." And GHC certainly has been a week-long celebration of the amazing work being done not just be activists and technologists, but women in all fields and walks of life. I would like to once again thank WICS and OAI for this incredible opportunity to learn about the wide variety of ways in which tech is making a positive impact both in local communities and world wide, and how I can be a part of making "Next" happen "Now."