Women in Computing Conference
02-20-2006
Purdue CS participated in the Indiana Women in Computing (InWIC) conference on February 3rd & 4th. The Purdue group of two faculty members, two staff members, 4 graduate students, and 5 undergraduates had a great time networking with other Indiana women in computing. And they took home a few wins as well. Purdue faculty and staff in attendance included Professors Cristina Nita-Rotaru, Professor Elisa Bertino, Renate Mallus, and Carol Paczolt. CS graduate students from Purdue included Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Rimma Nehme, Sael Lee, and Win Mar Htay. Purdue CS undergraduate students who attended were Catherine Brown, Lindsey Hardesty, Ashley Shively, Prisilia Paramita, and Maria Davis Heider.
The InWic conference is a low cost, regionally-tailored, small conference for women in computing who do not have funding to attend major conferences. The 2006 conference was the second of its kind and grew from 60 participants to 130 participants in 2006. It took place at the Canyon Inn at McCormick's State Park in Spencer, Indiana.
The InWIC conference allowed participants to share their research, discuss new projects, and network with each other and corporate sponsors. The celebration began on Friday with a poster session. Purdue CS graduate student, Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel presented her collaborative work with Professor Elisa Bertino and Anna Squicciarini. Her poster was titled Digital Identity Management and Trust Negotiation and discussed federated identity management.
InWic participants also shared ideas and research in Lightening Talks on Saturday morning. Lightening talks are short presentations covering topics such as current research, programming tips, how to create successful women in computing networks, and how to survive computing majors. The audience choose the winning presentation and Professor Cristina Nita-Rotaru moderated the event. Purdue CS undergraduate Catherine Brown received second place in the Lightning Talks with her presentation Cooperation Between School. Her talk was given jointly with Amanda Stephan (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) and discussed how computing majors from different schools can work together to get more women interested in computing. Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel of Purdue won third place in the Lightening Talks. Her talk was titled Digital Identity Protection, and discussed preventing identity theft in cyberspace.
Following the Lightning Talks, Purdue Professor Elisa Bertino gave a talk on academic and research careers. Professor Bertino's talk was well attended and generated much enthusiasm from InWic attendees. The discussion session after the talk was lively and Professor Bertino received many excellent questions.
For more information on InWic conference events visit: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/inwic/program.html.