NYU WinC Group Visit to IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne - 30 March 2007

NYU Women in Computing Group Visit to IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne on 30 March 2007:
30 NYU students visited IBM including 9 PhD, 16 MS, and 12 BS students from Courant and Stern.

At the end of the sessions, we proposed the following:
- making the NYU visit to IBM an annual activity
- running a workshop on technical topics in the fall at NYU

Here is the agenda for the visit
- 11:00-11:50 Cathy Lasser (VP, Industry Solutions and Emerging Business) Research Overview
- 11:50-12:10 Susan Puglia (VP, Quality and Process Transformation Executive for Technical Career Paths Development and Technical Support)
- 12:10-12:35 Brenda Dietrich (Director, Mathematical Sciences) Mathematics at IBM
- 12:35-13:00 Anshu Kak (Executive IT Architect) Services-Oriented Architecture
- 13:00-14:00 Lunch with NYU Alumni, speakers, Charles Lickel (VP, Software),
- 14:00-14:45 Fran Allen (IBM Fellow Emerita, ACM Turing Award Recipient)Compiling a Career
- 14:45-15:15 Mahesh Viswanathan (Lead Architect, Information on Demand)Web 2.0: Challenging the Status Quo in Information Technology

Here are some comments from the students about the visit:

• Lectures were interesting and engaging! It would be great to have similar speakers on campus.
  
• Interesting and fun. Learned a lot.
  
• It was great!
  
• Inspiring and fun!
  
• Very informative and fun!
  
• It was very nice to hear from people who are experienced in the field I am interested in.
  
• Great to learn about IBM and how they fit into technological innovation. Exceptionally inspiring.
  
• Very interesting, would have liked to have seen the facility more.
  
• Very useful and practical advice. Also, fun. Great.
  
• Useful for my future -> Very diverse topics and great speakers!!
  
• Amazing set of speakers. Exciting topics. Very well-organized. I learnt a lot! Thanks a lot!
  One idea: have a 5-10 min break in between talks such that students can interact with the speaker informally - and rest-room break.
  
• I appreciate the support and encouragement from IBM's employees.
  
• Great, informative, educational day. Wonderful opportunity to listen to exemplary figure like Fran Allen and other amazing speakers from different departments of IBM.
  Suggestion: A little more detail regarding internship opportunities in different departments would have been useful and made a difference.
  Reply: Here is some information on the IBM Research internship program.
  
• Thanks a lot for the great trip!
  Suggestions: More technical content and more detailed description of ongoing research would be of interest, e.g., examples of specific research problems and approaches etc).
  
• Please provide the speakers contact information if possible.
  Reply: Can contact me initially if information not available above.
  
• Would like to have a trip inside the IBM Building
  
• It is great.
  
• Very informational, Gave me lots of insight to the company.