2019 IEEE Women in Computing Summit – Speakers
Program Overview hahahaha Book your ticket
Jeewika Ranaweera – Principal HW Engineer at Oracle
Event Host- Welcome Speech
Jeewika is a member of the Oracle Semiconductor Engineering team that develops high-speed microprocessors. She holds several patents. She is an IEEE Senior Member, an ABET program evaluator for IEEE, a member of the IEEE Future Direction committee, and a Sustainability Champion at Oracle. Jeewika is a volunteer with the Oracle’s Emergency Response Team. As an ambassador for Oracle Diversity and Inclusion, she shared her experience and insight as an engineer at the “True Blue Inclusion Solutions Forum” to tackle head-on issues that so far have rebuffed the change essential to make engineering jobs rewarding for women. Jeewika authored an eBook about her engineering journey for IEEE Women in Engineering to inspire others to follow STEM careers and illustrated the 1st children’s book published by IEEE. She was a speaker at the IEEE Technology Time Machine in 2018, at Grace Hopper Conference in 2017, and at the IEEE Women in Computing Summit in 2017. As a judge for local and international science fairs, she gets to motivate and stimulate the interests of students in the fields of science and engineering. She received her BSc from ISPJAE in Havana, Cuba; and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from the University of Toronto, Canada.
Mary Ellen Kassotakis – Executive Director, Oracle Women’s Leadership
Keynote: Transitioning to Leadership – Mastering the Foundations
Mary Ellen works as Executive Director of Oracle’s Women’s Leadership initiative. She has extensive experience working in the global leadership development arena in Fortune 50 companies and is also a certified leadership coach. She is an active member of the International Leadership Association, the Immediate Past President of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), and she also serves as Adjunct Faculty Member for Drexel University’s College of Professional Studies.
Katalin K. Bartfai-Walcott – Sr. Principal Engineer, Ambient Science Architecture, Intel Corporation
Topic: Data Stewardship and Digital Twins
Katalin has over 30 years of industry experience, with datacenter architecture, multi-platform systems, including Power/RISC and Linux on Power, as well as cloud computing and executive level consulting. She published over 30 technical papers and Redbooks. She holds over 70 patents, and has received IBM’s Chairman’s Award for her work on building the Linux Services and Support strategy. Katalin is responsible for Software Defined Silicon Architecture and the Ambient Science pathfinding strategy and architecture team in Intel’s Data Center Software group. Her focus is on the development of self-forming, self-aware and responsive infrastructure as well as on-demand platform technologies. She was awarded the Top 50 Smarter Cities Global influencers for 2019.
Isaura S. Gaeta – Vice President, Security Research, General Manager, Intel Product Assurance & Security, Intel Corporation
Topic: Building the Trusted Foundation to our Data-centric World
Isaura S. Gaeta is leading an engineering team focused on hardware security research including penetration testing, physical attack mechanisms, and outreach to academia, start-ups and conferences as part of the newly formed Product Assurance & Security Group in Santa Clara, California. She was granted two patents and five Intel Achievement Awards, the company’s highest recognition for her work in the area of semiconductor processing technologies. She founded Intel’s Network of Executive Women for the Latin America region and was the chair of Intel’s Hispanic Leadership Council. Outside of Intel, she serves on the board of the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley The Hispanic IT Executive Council has recognized her five times on its annual list of the top 100 Hispanic professionals in the IT industry.
Mary Gendron – Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated
Topic: Bringing cultural/operational transformations to industries by leveraging technology knowledge, vision, strategy, and leadership
Mary Gendron leads Qualcomm’s global IT organization, driving operational excellence within the IT function and across the enterprise, as well as collaborating with the executive and business unit leadership teams to ensure Qualcomm continues to incorporate forward-looking technology solutions into the business, products, and strategies to achieve Company business goals. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Gendron served as senior vice president and chief information officer at Hospira, a leading global pharmaceutical and medical device company. Gendron brings more than 25 years of IT experience to the role, with expertise in developing and executing IT and talent-focused strategies, services and plans. She has led complex global organizations, driving proactive business strategies required to develop differentiation and has consistently generated customer, shareholder and employee value.
Hasini Jayatilaka – Cancer Researcher at Stanford University
Topic: Elucidating mechanism of recurrent disease in cancer by merging molecular biology techniques with scientific, computing
Hasini Jayatilaka is a post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University who studies mechanisms of relapse and metastasis in childhood cancers using mass cytometry (CyTOF) and Multiplexed IonBeam Imaging (MIBI) to conduct multiparameter protein analysis. Her work aims to uncover new insights that will help in the development of immunotherapies by providing future avenues for therapeutic design. Hasini pursued her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Johns Hopkins University, USA. She discovered a novel synergistic signaling pathway between interleukin 6 and 8 that is responsible for regulating metastasis. This work garnered attention from around the world which has given Hasini an opportunity to talk about her work on a larger scale such as through a TEDx talk and a feature in a short form series on a national television network. She is an active teacher, mentor, and advocate for the next generation of immigrants and women in STEM.
Layla Revis – Vice President, Global Social Media Oracle
Topic: Social Media in the Age of AI
Layla Revis has helped clients craft digital and social media strategy ranging from Donna Karan and Lincoln (Ford) Motor Company to DeBeers Diamond Jewelers and Visa. She currently serves as Vice President, Global Social Media at Oracle. Previously, she was Senior Vice President, Global Social Strategy Director at Leo Burnett where she led social strategy for Samsung’s Global Marketing Center and Senior Vice President, Western Region Social Media Strategy Lead at FleishmanHillard. In addition to counseling clients that have included BeatsbyDre, The State Department, J.P. Morgan, and Johnson & Johnson, she writes about innovation and digital trends for The Huffington Post and has served as a speaker on social media for the United Nations , Digital Innovation and Augmented Reality for IBM Smarter Commerce, Hispanics in Social Media at The School of Visual Arts, and Social Advertising & the 2nd Screen for the Association of Advertising Agencies. She is a Gold and Silver Sabre Award winner for her social media work with the country of Mexico and LG Consumer Electronics, in addition to winning AdAge’s Best B2B Campaign for Avaya Networks.
Lorri Brady Jackson – Senior Manager, Oracle Global Talent Advisory
Panel Moderator: Leading in the digital age
As a global senior manager Lorri currently is responsible for leading a global team and building out the new “Advantage YOU” internal recruiting channel for Oracle. She has also had responsibility in the areas of HR, Talent Development & Recruiting around full cycle recruiting & leading teams that focus on developing pipeline for Diversity & Veteran recruiting initiatives. Lorri has a passion for developing women’s talent, serving as an Oracle Women’s Leadership Community Leader for over 8 years, with a solid reputation as coach, trusted adviser, and a thought leader in women’s development. Lorri was awarded the PBWC Industry Leader for Oracle in 2016 changing the game. Lorri joined Oracle in 1996. Most of her professional career has been dedicated to Recruiting, HR, women’s development initiative and management.
Liliane Peters – Director R&D Operations, Ericsson Inc
Panelist: Leading in the digital age
Liliane is Director, R&D Operations in the business unit Digital Services at Ericsson. She is leading various business transformation programs within her organization. She has been working at Ericsson for 19 years globally in Germany and the United States. Prior to Ericsson, she worked as Research Director Artificial Intelligence & Principal Research Scientist at the German National Research Center for Computer Science. Liliane is a Senior IEEE Member, and a member of the IEEE SCV WIE Executive Committee. She was the host of 2017 WIC.
Win Chang – Cloud Customer Experience Director, Oracle Corporation
Panelist: Leading in the digital age
Win Chang began her career as a software engineer, developing financial application solutions at Texas Eastern Corporation. Later on she joined LogicalApps as the Customer Experience Vice President. In 2008, Oracle acquired LogicalApps. Over the last few years she has held a number of roles at Oracle including Key Account Director, Support Account Director, Cloud Accelerator Director and currently Cloud Customer Experience Director. Ms. Chang was the recipient of the Oracle CEO’s Cup Award for account management excellence in 2011, 2013 and 2014. In 2015 she was honored with the PBWC Industry Leader award for her leadership and involvement with Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL). Win was the recipient of the 2016 Powerful Women of the Bay Area Award. For the last 9 years, she has served as the community leader for OWL Headquarter community. In 2016, she founded the Oracle Professional Asian Leadership (OPAL) Employee Resource Group, She also is a member of the Asian Hall of Fame National Advisory Board which is part of the Robert Chinn Foundation
Alka Jarvis – Sr. Director/Distinguished Quality Engineer at Cis
co Systems, Inc.
Panelist: Leading in the digital age
Alka Jarvis has 30 years of experience in software engineering. She is Cisco’s first and only Distinguished Quality Engineer – Senior Director, and a Fellow of American Society of Quality (ASQ). A frequently invited speaker on quality assurance topics at international and domestic events, she is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University, an instructor in software engineering at U.C. Berkeley and Santa Cruz extensions for the past 22 years. Her subject matter expertise is reflected in the ten books that she has authored in the fields of software engineering, quality management standards, customer experience and telemetry. She won Silicon Valley’s “Corporate Woman Advocate of The Year” award for her accomplishments in the software quality field. ASQ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recognized Alka by publishing her accomplishments in their “Who is who is Quality” article. For the past 19 years Alka has represented United States in the development of the International Quality Management Standards. She has served on several University Boards as well as non-profit organizations
Anna Luo – VP Innovation & Marketing at Jivox
Panelist: Leading in the digital age
Anna Luo is passionate about introducing cutting-edge technologies to enterprise customers – putting them on the path of increased competitiveness and accelerated growth. In her current role at Jivox, a data-driven personalized digital marketing technology company, she has spearheaded a Customer
Innovation program that analyzes customers’ digital marketing campaign performance, telling their
stories with data, metrics, and technology’s impacts on ROI. She is a key contributor for putting Jivox on
the map, by earning Jivox a leadership position in The Forrester WaveTM: Creative Advertising
Technologies, Q4 2018. Anna is also an official member of Forbes Communications Council, where she focuses on exploring technology’s applications and its impact on marketing, business, and society–especially on the topics of artificial intelligence (AI) as it is touching many aspects of our lives. Anna serves on the Advisory Board of Tangent.ai, an Alchemist Accelerator Startup where she provides
guidance on product vision and artificial intelligence technology applications in current and future
markets.
Kayla Lee – Quantum Consultant at IBM
Topic: Quantum Computing Fundamentals
Dr. Kayla Lee joined the IBM Q Industry Consulting team as a Cross Industry Consultant in August 2018, where she has been exploring potential quantum use cases to connect IBM Research with business applications. Her primary job focuses on integrating research, technology, and innovation through both quantum computing and enterprise applications of AI. Previously in IBM Research, she worked on applying machine learning and advanced analytics techniques to develop cancer prediction signatures. She is excited to collaborate across disciplines with research and clients to address technical challenges with new computing technologies. Kayla has a BS in Molecular Biology from Hampton University and a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University.
Heather VanCura – Group Director Standard Strategy & Architecture, Oracle
Heather is the Chairperson and Director of the JCP Program, leading the Java technology platform standardization efforts, and is a Community Leader of the global Java developer community, in particular the engagement of the Java User Group (JUG) community driven adoption focused programs. She drives the efforts to transform the community in broadening not only participation and collaboration, but also diversity and inclusion within the community. She is passionate about Java, women in technology and developer communities, serving as an International speaker and community organizer of developer conferences and hack days around the world, taking her to over fifty countries and six continents to date. Heather serves on the board of Playing at Learning and Dress for Success Silicon Valley, and is an active mentor for developer and girls coding organizations. She enjoys speaking at conferences, such as Oracle Code One, Wonder Women Tech, OSCON, FOSDEM, Devoxx, Java Zone, and the JavaOne Conferences.
Selvam Raju – Advanced Lead Engineer at Knightscope
Panel Moderator: Entrepreneurship Panel – Launching your Tech Startup and Challenge in Making it a Success
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Jocelyn Tan – CEO and Co-Founder at SISU
Panelist: Launching your Tech Startup and Challenge in Making it a Success
Jocelyn is an ecstatic entrepreneur and Co-Founder of SISU, a venture focused on empowering women in STEM who have undergone #MeToo situations. She is also the Co-Chair of IEEE Young Professionals of Santa Clara Valley, a sponsor of WIE’s Women in Computing Summit. In her spare time, she loves to sing, kick-box, laugh with friends, and play Candy Crush!
Yaping Cheng – Innovation Manager, GE Appliances
Panelist: Launching your Tech Startup and Challenge in Making it a Success
Dhivya Sashidhar – Founder & CEO at WattsKitchen
Panelist: Launching your Tech Startup and Challenge in Making it a Success
Dhivya is a technology enthusiast, currently working on automating cooking – WattsKitchen, mentored by a YCombinator founder (YC SUS’18). Previously Dhivya worked in the oil industry where she was an inventor of a game-changing drilling technology aimed to solve 50% of the efficiency issues in traditional drilling methods (patented by Shell, 2011-2014). Dhivya also runs a 120+ employee staffing company, back in India, where software engineers work at various client locations. Dhivya has a B.Tech in Electronics & Communication Engg from the National Institute of Technology, India and an M.Phil in Micro- and Nanotechnology from the University of Cambridge, UK.”
Susan Delafuente – 2019 Chair IEEE SCV-WIE, Event Host, Closing Remarks
In her early career, Susan has been a Satellite Engineer, Systems Engineer and Software Engineer in top Silicon Valley computer, networking and telecommunications companies. Today, she is a senior program manager working on Fixstream, Inc.’s AI platform for IT Ops (AIOps) which quickly detects data center assets and predicts application issues in real time using advanced end-to-end correlation and visualization, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Susan is deeply involved with the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) community serving in many posts-including 2019 Chair. She received the IEEE SCV Section award for Outstanding Leadership of the WIE Affinity Group and authored the IEEE ebook, The Making of an Engineer. She has been very active in the annual IEEE WIE ILC in the Bay Area, an event attended by several thousand mid- and senior-level women. Susan earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Engineering-Aeronautics/Systems Engineering from San Jose State University and the University of Denver, respectively. She is most proud of her husband George and their three daughters: a teenage honor roll athlete; a teenage humanitarian and cheerleader; and a recent graduate in engineering at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California.