Blog Spot October18
What I learnt the IEEE Women in Services Computing Workshop
The IEEE Services conference was founded in 2003 by the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Services Computing (TCSVC). The mission of this group is to advance and coordinate work in the field of Services Computing carried out throughout the IEEE in scientific, engineering, standard, literary and educational areas. One of the workshops held under the IEEE 2018 World Congress on Services (link http://conferences.computer.org/services/2018/) is the IEEE Women in Services Computing workshop. This year, our officer Shubhi Asthana got the opportunity to speak and attend the 2nd IEEE Women in Services Computing Workshop (link: http://conferences.computer.org/services/2018/wisc/). The following is her account of this workshop, and what she learnt there.
The Women in Service Computing workshop just started last year, and is headed by Bhavani Thuraisingham, University of Texas Dallas and Jia Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University. I was ecstatic to get the opportunity to speak at this one day workshop, which was held in the sunny city of San Francisco. This workshop provided an international forum for women who are passionate about gender equality in the field of services computing. It explored the barriers and issues on underrepresentation, and models for increasing the pipeline. The purpose was to build a lasting community on Women in Services Computing. I was blown away by the representation of women from different backgrounds, industries, and experience levels at this workshop.
The day started with a great opening keynote by Bhavani discussing how to have a great career in Services Computing, drawing from her own experiences in academia and industry. She gave us good insights on how to shape our career and foray in the tech industry. This was followed by TED-style talks on a variety of topics like IoT, Big Data, AI, Data Privacy etc. where distinguished speakers across industry and academia spoke about how they perform research and engineering in their work. I spoke on the capabilities of predictive analytics as well as applying it effectively in IT Services. The critical feedback I received reinforced my enthusiasm and my dedication towards my work.
Next, there was a panel talk by an incredible group of women followed by focused group discussions. We divided into small groups and discussed on topics like Research collaboration network, Female in Services Computing and Experiences in Sharing and Mentoring. At the end, each group moderator shared some of the key points of their discussions with the rest of the groups.
The closing note by Bhavani concluded the day’s workshop and we headed for lunch. I had a good time networking with fellow researchers and we held a healthy discussion over gorgeous, yummy food on how we are leveraging the latest technologies to solve challenging and interesting problems from healthcare to the oil industry, from statistics modeling to utilizing data Science in Service Science engineering.
Speaking and participating in this workshop was exhilarating, and revitalizing in so many ways. I was inspired by the ideas on unexplored areas of Service Science where I can utilize my potential as well as connect with potential mentors, collaborators, and others in the field. It’s very crucial for women to support and inspire each other in their work. Together, I believe we can build a great future.