Abstract: Gender disparity in tech can make the transition from university to industry daunting for women in computing. In this talk we explore some concerns women may have when considering this transition: Does being a woman make it harder to succeed in the tech industry? Can women achieve a sense of belonging in tech culture? What kind of career progression should women expect if they are doing the right things?
Drawing from her experience in the industry, Christine describes why these concerns are important to address early in your career and the answers may convince you that technology could, in fact, be one of the best fields for women.

Bio: Christine Moor leads Capacity Management where she and her team helped YouTube scale through a 10X growth in content and 60% annual growth in consumption. Her team determined how to expand YouTube’s machine and network footprint to keep up with rapid growth and an unpredictable environment, all while maintaining high efficiency.
Christine also leads project management for YouTube’s Video Infrastructure, driving initiatives to ensure that any video or live stream uploaded to YouTube can be served to any user, on any screen, anywhere in the world.
Despite all this, Christine spends much of her weekend prying her children off YouTube to spend more family time outdoors in sunny California.
Christine has been at Google since 2006 and holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics with a computer science emphasis from the Claremont Colleges.

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss what I consider to be the perks of being in Academia for a STEM woman, and I will present what I perceive to be the advantages and disadvantages that we have, as women, in that sector. Specifically, I will explain how I view that the differences in focus and attitude often brought on the table by women can be both advantageous and disadvantageous; I will comment on the positive effect that certain societal forces have brought us; but I will also discuss the devastating effects that certain enduring norms and attitudes can have on our careers and personal lives, and how to minimize their effects.

Bio: Nathalie Japkowicz is a Professor and Chair in the Computer Science at American University. She was previously with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa where she led the Laboratory for Research on Machine Learning for Defense and Security. Over the years, she has supervised over thirty graduate students, received funding from Canadian and US Federal and Provincial institutions, worked with private companies and published over 100 articles, papers and books including Evaluating Learning Algorithms: A Classification Perspective, with Mohak Shah (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Big Data Analysis: New Algorithms for a New Society, with Jerzy Stefanowski (Springer, 2016).