Grace Hopper Celebrations (GHC) is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing organized by Anita Borg Institute. It is a unique opportunity for women in technology to showcase their talents, put out new ideas and interact with women from a wide range of fields
who have contributed massively in the spheres of modern-day tech and management. GHCI is the Indian counterpart to the international conference which takes place every year.
GHCI this year was held in Bangalore in BIEC from 6th to 8th November. ACM NITK Members Meghna Kashyap and Shruti Masand attended the conference and they share their experiences in this blog post.
Meghna Kashyap:
GHCI was an excellent opportunity to meet and get inspired by women who have made a foothold for themselves in the tech world. ACM India sponsors 2 to 3 girls from each chapter to attend GHCI held in Bangalore. Shruti and I were overjoyed when we received our selection
emails. At GHCI, as a student scholar, we were granted entry to all areas of the conference for all 3 days of the event. The first day comprised of keynote speakers Padmasree Warrior and Debanji Ghosh who talked about goals in life and how women function in tech. It was a very informative and eye-opening session and explained a lot on where women stand in the tech universe. On the second day, I attended a couple of sessions and workshops. A workshop I absolutely loved was on exploring the field of dark data. It talked about how unstructured data can contain crucial information and how it can help technology in the future. The networking was great! We met various people working in different companies and a large number of students who had similar mindsets. We met mentors from various companies like
American Express, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo who gave us a clearer picture of the corporate world and the various opportunities it offers.
The Tech Expo showcased some of the latest gadgets developed by various startups and organizations. Companies had tech on display which weren’t even out in the market. The career fair helped us meet professionals and top recruiters from various multinational companies which
were offering various internships and full-time job opportunities. Apart from simple tech knowledge, the career fair was a lot of fun! I won a LOT of goodies and played a lot of games and tech quizzes to win them. The third day, we revisited the Tech Expo (it was that amazing) and attended the closing ceremony.
Overall, GHCI was an amazing experience. Not only did it open my eyes to the various sectors of tech but also helped me make new connections. It was simply not just a conference, but a place to meet inspirational women who faced all odds to get to where they are. I hope to visit it next year, excited to learn and explore more.
Shruti Masand:
Getting the opportunity to attend GHCI and then becoming the “ GHCI’19 “ scholar was indeed
an overwhelming experience! There were a plethora of events in this 2 and a half-day conference – so many of them that it was a difficult task to rule out the ones we didn’t want to go for due to the limitation of time! There were keynote sessions, workshops, the career fair, the tech expo and tech talks by eminent speakers organised by established companies like Google, Qualcomm, Amazon,
American Express, BNY Mellon etc. On the first day, we attended the keynote sessions by two very successful ladies – Debjani
Ghosh and Padmashree Warrier who inspired us to work harder for our goals and not let the existing gender gap in the field of technology affect our progress.
On the second day, I attended a very informative Tech Talk on IoT conducted by speakers from companies like Dell, HP etc. They started with the basics and escalated the talk to the present day problems which IoT is facing – the biggest one being privacy issues and the frequency of operation. Later, I attended an inspiring talk by a doctor working in AIMS Delhi, about how technology can ease out or in fact advance medical science. We winded up our day by visiting the career fair.
We started the third day by visiting the career fair and the tech expo again as they were the best
part of the conference!! Later, we visited the speed mentoring session where we were able to discuss our career-related doubts and problems with successful mentors from various established and well-known institutions and companies. Next, we attended a hands-on
“Wearables” workshop where we made gloves with a tilt sensor and electronic earrings. The conference ended with an entertaining cultural programme.
The tech expo made us open the doors of our imagination by seeing stupendous gadgets work.
The career fair was not just fun ( as we won a lot of goodies and got to play amazing games and
had the time of our life ! ) but at the same time, very informative as it gave a glimpse of how the
corporate world works.
I also got an internship offer from XILINX in the area of deep learning but being a second year, I had to refuse to it as it was a 6-month long internship. We also came across many final year students who got decent full-time offers from really big companies like EY and American
Express through tests and interviews conducted at the career fair itself and even after the conference ended.
We got to network with so many people, not only from our own age group but also with the people working in different companies. We also met some of our college alumni over there which gave us an amazing opportunity to interact and increase our contacts.
From good food ( I swear it tasted even better after tolerating the mess food in college) to an amazingly comfortable and cosy stay at “The Holiday Inn Express” and from learning some really cool stuff to getting exposure to the corporate world and networking with so many people, we not only had a lovely experience, but it was like a nourishment to our personality building
process!
I can still go on and on telling about so many things that I got to do at the conference, but for now, I would wind up by saying, that if you get a chance to attend the GHCI conference, don’t miss it, as it will be one of the best experiences you will ever have!
-Meghna Kashyap and Shruti Masand