Please read below for our list of 2019 election cycle candidates.

Voting in the election will close at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, July 6th. If you have any questions on how to vote, contact Jessica at jbell@dcacm.org.

Anita Hall – Candidate for Chair

Professional Experience
My career in the technology field began 6 years ago at Clearly Innovative Inc. I began small doing UX/XI and requirement documents and eventually began an apprenticeship working directly under the CEO Aaron Saunders a developer of 30 years. Throughout my apprenticeship I worked on several small-scale projects before moving up and got the opportunity to work on a few large-scale projects including the mobile application for the National African American Museum of History and Culture. While at Clearly Innovative I also helped bootstrap a tech education company Luma-Lab which focused its efforts on underserved communities. I did the logistics for the events and the class schedules. Additionally, I taught HTML/CSS and JavaScript classes to Middle and High School students and eventually began teaching adult workshops. I also volunteer as a mentorship lead for Women Who Code DC. I work now as a Developer on the Native Applications team at The Washington Post.

Position Statement
I would like to help diversify membership and attendance to DC ACM events. I have strong ties to the tech community in DC as well as connections to organizations who I believe could benefit from partnerships with DC ACM. I also have a close connection to the minority tech groups and tech education programs in the DC area. I would like to help strengthen DC ACM’s connection to the community with new perspectives and initiatives. I want to help keep DC ACM inclusive and a safe learning space for all, specifically women and underrepresented groups. I’d also like to help provide advocacy and career mentorship to those who need it.

Chris Nguyen – Candidate for Co-Chair

Professional Experience
Chris is a senior software engineer with over 15 years of experience in software development at various tech companies and for the government. Throughout his career, he’s been called a “webmaster”, “programmer”, “developer”, “engineer”, “sys admin”, “tech lead”, “scrum master”, and “project manager”, but his love for technology stems from the creativity and problem aspects of computing that supersede any job title. He’s a polyglot by nature, both in programming and in communication. He studied computer science and linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park and completed his graduate studies at the George Washington University.

Position Statement
Technology has always been a gateway to personal expression for me. The intersection of art and technology has the power to empower individuals to learn more about computer science and the industry applications of academia. For example, Magenta is an open source project that enables generative art using machine learning. Video games are an especially popular and powerful intersection of art, storytelling, music, and code. With this role, I would like to make DC ACM and computing research more accessible to individuals interested in technology, especially those in underrepresented communities. I would also like to explore partnerships with other groups, such as Papers We Love or Hack && Tell to strengthen connections with the local communities that thrive on the same joy of computing.

Kelly Miller – Candidate for Treasurer

Professional Experience
I am an entrepreneurial communications strategist with experience helping clients (from Fortune 100 to startups) showcase value with vivid, data-rich storytelling and targeted media wins. Before joining Banner Public Affairs as a Director, I was a Public Affairs Manager at CTIA – The Wireless Association with my hands in telecommunications policy, B2G marketing, social media strategy and nonprofit advocacy (through the Wireless Foundation branch). I joined Women Who Code DC as Communications Lead in early 2018 and have begun implementing a refreshed series of workshops and panels in order to help women promote themselves and their work. I am also involved with DCFemTech and do as much mentoring and pro-bono communications consulting for nonprofits as I can..

Position Statement
I want to continue the outstanding work of predecessors in order to increase and diversify attendance to DC ACM events. This year, I have been helping grow and elevate DC women-focused technology groups (Women Who Code, DCFemTech) by adding my perspective as a communications-minded professional. I would love to help DC ACM expand its reach into younger demographics and continue its diversity-minded initiatives. In line with my constant tracking of emerging trends, I will help DC ACM stay on top of the new skills and technology that members should have on their radar and in their toolbox. As a leader in the DC ACM community, I also hope to help other professionals with communications backgrounds increase their technical knowledge.

Please read below for our list of 2017 election cycle candidates.

Voting in the election will close at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 25. Members will be sent a link to vote via email by end of day Wednesday, June 21. Voting will be open from 12 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 25. If you do not receive an email with information on how to vote, contact Valerie at vwoolard@dcacm.org.

Jessica Bell – Candidate for Chair

Professional Experience
I am currently a web developer for The Washington Post and have been working full time in technology since 2014. Before taking a web development bootcamp at General Assembly, I was working for The American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as their Digital and Communications coordinator. After teaching myself web development I got a job with a local tech agency and fell in love with programming. I now also teach at General Assembly, am an active member of Women Who Code and Lesbians Who Tech, and help organize two local groups: DCFemTech and DC Tech Meetup. I am also in the process of producing a podcast called DC Tech Stories in which I interview local technologists and tech groups.

Position Statement
I am a self taught techie, and a person who was never interested in tech until I realized how creative, powerful, and amazing it is. I want to help other people be empowered by learning, understanding, and using technology in their careers, side hustles, and lives. As we bring more people into being technical workers, it is important for us to have a diverse range of backgrounds, opinions, and identities to make our field strong and innovative. With this role, I hope to help support the groups on the ground teaching, training, and creating community for the next generation of technologists. Part of that is connecting the wide range of resources and experts already a part of the ACM, with these efforts and groups.

Anita Hall– Candidate for Vice Chair

Professional Experience
My career in the technology field began 6 years ago at Clearly Innovative Inc. I began small doing UX/XI and requirement documents and eventually began an apprenticeship working directly under the CEO Aaron Saunders a developer of 30 years. Throughout my apprenticeship I worked on several small-scale projects before moving up and got the opportunity to work on a few large-scale projects including the mobile application for the National African American Museum of History and Culture. While at Clearly Innovative I also helped bootstrap a tech education company Luma-Lab which focused its efforts on underserved communities. I did the logistics for the events and the class schedules. Additionally, I taught HTML/CSS and JavaScript classes to Middle and High School students and eventually began teaching adult workshops. I also volunteer as a mentorship lead for Women Who Code DC. I work now as a Developer on the Native Applications team at The Washington Post.

Position Statement
I would like to help diversify membership and attendance to DC ACM events. I have strong ties to the tech community in DC as well as connections to organizations who I believe could benefit from partnerships with DC ACM. I also have a close connection to the minority tech groups and tech education programs in the DC area. I would like to help strengthen DC ACM’s connection to the community with new perspectives and initiatives. I want to help keep DC ACM inclusive and a safe learning space for all, specifically women and underrepresented groups. I’d also like to help provide advocacy and career mentorship to those who need it.

Misty Melton – Candidate for Treasurer

Shana Glenzer – Candidate for DCFemTech Program Chair

Professional Experience

• Valerie Woolard, Chair
• Victoria Battista, Vice Chair
• Anthony Clark, Treasurer
• Sean T. McBeth, VR Program Chair

Valerie, Victoria, Anthony and Sean will be the DC ACM’s event organizers. Learn about future DC ACM events by following us on twitter @dcacm or joining our DC ACM meetup.com group.

The new board assumes responsibility on July 1, 2016, per the DC ACM bylaws. Officer elections were held (due to schedule issues) on Sunday July 3rd 2016.

The three paths included, organizing tech talks, performing K-12 STEM outreach, and sponsoring other non-profits. As a group of volunteers and busy working adults with families and other responsibilities, the board came together and planned on pulling off at least 6 events from July 2015 – June 2016. As this team’s term comes to an end, the board is happy to report that we have exceeded our initial plans!

Here is a timeline of everything this board has accomplished in the past year:

Tech Talks:

• September 17, 2015 – Big Data in Big Gov. with Victoria Battista and Sean Gonzales
• October 15, 2015 – Scaling your remote Engineering Team with Ubuntu’s VP Rick Spencer
• January 21, 2016 – The Tech Industry and the Rapid Rise of the Bootcamp Graduate
• March 7, 2016 <Webinar> – Hybrid Cloud Pathways Blending Games, Immersive Micro-Simulations and the IoT
• March 9, 2016 – Cross Section and Deep Dive into TensorFlow
• March 30, 2016 – Building Enterprise Search with Open Source Components
• April 4, 2016 <Webinar> – Mathematical Theory of Computer Instructions and Statements
• May 2, 2016 <Webinar> – Parallel Computer Architecture and Interconnection Networks
• June 6, 2016 <Webinar> – Designing More Flexible Multithreaded Control Software
• June 22, 2016 – Technical Play: building systems for sports leagues
• June 27, 2016 <Webinar> – Automated Intrusion Detection for Oil/Gas Pipeline Infrastructure Protection

Performing K-12 STEM Outreach:

• December 9 – 11, 2015 – Volunteering at the Computer Science Education Week at DeVry University
• March 13, 2016 – Volunteer Judges at the Fairfax County Regional Science Engineering Fair 2016

Sponsorships:

• August 2015 – Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu – Annual Cyberjutsu Awards
• February 24, 2016 – DCFemTech INSPIRE Event – first of its kind – celebrating the success of women in the DC tech community
• April 30 – May 1, 2016 – Women who Code DC’s first ever all-female Hackathon
• June 15, 2016 – All Women in Tech & Latino Tech Community – Inclusion DC

GREAT BIG SPECIAL THANKS to:

• All of our Presenters/Panelists
• Our onsite host locations such as
  • @covedc @livingsocial
• Victoria Battista
• Anthony Clark
• Andrew Conklin
• And all DC ACM-ers!

**************

Shahnaz, Katherine, Mike and Amar wish the new board members great luck and of course will support the new team in any way they need!

Watch the Washington DC chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s last webinar presentation of the Spring/Summer 2016 Web Series! The DC ACM webinars were created for members, who for many reasons can’t make our face-to-face events, but would still love to participate in our organization. Another reason for the remote meetings is for distinguished speakers who we would love to hear from but are based outside of Washington DC. One such speaker who presented on June 27th 2016 was Dr. Vijayan Asari.

Dr. Vijayan Asari:

Dr. Vijayan Asari is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Ohio Research Scholars Endowed Chair in Wide Area Surveillance at the University of Dayton. He is also the director of the Center of Excellence for Computer Vision and Wide Area Surveillance Research at UD.

Dr. Asari received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. Prior to joining University of Dayton, Dr Asari worked as Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Old Dominion University in  Norfolk, Virginia for 10 years.

Dr. Asari holds three patents and has published more than 500 research papers, including an edited book in wide area surveillance and 85 peer-reviewed journal papers in the areas of image processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and high performance embedded systems. Dr Asari has supervised 22 PhD dissertations and 35 MS theses, and currently several graduate students are working with him in different sponsored research projects.  He has received several teaching, research, advising and technical leadership awards.

Dr. Asari is actively participating in several federal and private funded research projects and he has so far managed around $15M in research funding. Dr Asari’s research activities also include development of novel algorithms for 3D scene creation, and visualization from 2D video streams, automatic visibility improvement of images captured in various weather conditions, human identification, human action and activity recognition, and brain signal analysis for emotion recognition and brain machine interface.

Our esteemed speaker gave a very interactive and informative presentation on his research “Automated Intrusion Detection for Oil/Gas Pipeline Infrastructure Protection”.

This presentation is not to be missed! Please enjoy the webinar in its entirety below. If you like it make sure to subscribe to our channel and like and leave comments on our video.

Join our Meetup group at http://www.meetup.com/ACM-DC/ for more!

-Dr. Shahnaz Kamberi, Chair

Please read below for our list of 2016 election cycle candidates.

We’ll be voting in the new board on Sunday (July 3rd) at 9:30 PM ET in this meeting room: http://connect.stratford.edu/dcacm/.

*Anyone can attend this election but only members can vote!

Do you have an interest in creating some local Computer Science community activity by joining our board or our organizer team? Contact Andrew Conklin, aconklin@dcacm.org, for details.

Valerie Woolard – Candidate for Chair

Education

• M.S., Computer Science, The University of Chicago
• B.A., Cognitive Science, University of California, Berkeley
• B.A., French, University of California, Berkeley

Professional Experience

I have worked in the technology industry since 2011. I spent two years as an associate at Google before returning to school to obtain a master’s degree in computer science. I graduated in 2014, and I have worked as a software engineer since then. Additionally, I have taught programming classes through Girl Develop It, and I lead the Women Who Code DC algorithms meetup.

Position Statement

I want to bring diverse voices into the technology industry. I hope to provide resources for people of all ages and backgrounds to pursue interests and careers in technology. I believe it’s important not only to encourage young people to study computer science, but also to support and develop the careers of people who are already in the field through mentorship, networking, and learning opportunities.

Victoria Battista – Candidate for Vice Chair

Education

• Masters of Arts in Applied Economics      Johns Hopkins University 2008-2012
• Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics              Indiana University 2000-2006
• Bachelors of Arts in Economics                  Indiana University 2000-2006
• Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting             Indiana University 2000-2006

Professional Experience

Victoria Battista is a senior research economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Current Employment Statistics, whose monthly release of establishment data is one of the seven Principle Federal Economic Indicators. Victoria has played an instrumental role in leading the CES benchmarking process that realigns the estimated employment, hours, and earnings data from the survey with universe data gleaned from unemployment insurance tax records of businesses. In addition to benchmarking the CES estimates, Victoria has designed, conducted, and presented original research about modeling business openings and closings that are not included in the initial sample frame for the Current Employment Statistics survey. In these roles, Victoria has become an expert in manipulating datasets in SAS and SAS/Intrnet, and proficient in both HTML and javascript. Her experience in understanding and presenting data to others using these tools afforded her the opportunity for a four month detail as the Assistant Press Officer of the BLS, a role in which she had direct interaction with the media and other organizations including DC ACM in an effort to explain and disseminate BLS statistics to a wider audience. Her interests include the intersection of art and science, economic policy and jobs, and better ways to present statistics in order to reach those who are not mathematically inclined.

Position Statement

I’ve come to DC ACM with less of a back ground in coding and more of a wide breath of knowledge and interests that have the potential to show how computing and data have reach tendrils into all aspects of our world and culture. I have strong ties to the biological and space sciences, economic and political organizations, music and artist communities, and other social groups in DC that I hope to harness for Meetups and events that spark the creativity of the coding colossuses and catch the interest of the not yet initiated coders-to-be. I would like to play a role in making DC ACM a community of people who are good at a lot, great at a little, and constantly interested in learning more.

Anthony Clark – Candidate for Treasurer

Education

• B.A. International Studies, American University (2012-2015)
• M.S. Analytics, American University (2015-Present)

Professional Experience

I have a passion for technology and its applications in government and international security. I have worked with a number of federal agencies as a student intern – helping them modernize technology and better use data analytics to track performance and engage in outreach; as a new graduate I am always looking for new opportunities to meet other professionals driven by a passion for technology and a drive to make their communities, local and global, a better place through technology and data. In addition to my role with the DC chapter of ACM, I also help organize Data Visualization DC, a non-profit, dedicated to promoting data science and data visualization in the DC area.

Position Statement

As treasurer of DC ACM, I am dedicated to creating a diverse array of partnerships with likeminded groups, maker spaces, and tech enthusiast, who want to make the Washington D.C. metropolitan area a technology and innovation hot spot, with support at the local and national level, my goals as treasurer are to build bonds, innovate new professional outreach efforts, and build a new and sustainable framework for ACM in Washington D.C. – getting new ideas, new members, and new partners – while keeping the same high standards of excellence the ACM brand has stood for over the last fifty years.

Sean T. McBeth – our VR Program Chair

Education

Over 70 people came together to discuss inclusion in the tech industry. The event had over 10 community partners and there were global representation of participants from Latin America to the US to Africa.

The group discussed a series of questions on diversity and tech:

• Question 1: Why do you think diversity is important in tech/STEM?
• Question 2: Where have you seen diversity and inclusion in tech/STEM? Do you have any specific examples?
• Question 3: Where have you seen a lack of diversity and inclusion in tech/STEM?
• Question 4: Why does diversity and inclusion matter in the DMV area?
• Question 5: How can we encourage more people, of all ages and cultural backgrounds, to get involved in technology and STEM? Have you seen anything that has been successful so far?
• Question 6: How do you think we can keep diverse groups engaged and working well together?  What types of incentives should be provided?

and you can view high level comments from attendees here.

DC ACM is proud to be part of this movement and we hope to bring more diversity to the tech industry. Here are some pictures from the event for your enjoyment. We hope to see you in the next discussion!

Watch the Washington DC chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s latest webinar presentation! The DC ACM webinars were created for members, who for many reasons can’t make our face-to-face events, but would still love to participate in our organization. Another reason for the remote meetings is for distinguished speakers who we would love to hear from but are based outside of Washington DC. One such speaker who presented on June 6th 2016 was Dr. Bo Sanden.

Dr. Bo Sanden:

Dr. Bo Sandén received a master of science in Engineering Physics from Lund Institute of Technology in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1978. From 1971 until 1986 he held positions as a software developer with UNIVAC and Philips Electronics in Sweden, maintaining and designing multithreaded software. From 1986-87 he was a Visiting Associate Professor in the pioneering software-engineering program at the Wang Institute. As an Associate Professor at George Mason University, he helped create a master’s program in software systems engineering. Since 1996 he is a Professor of Computer Science at Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs, where he has taught at all levels and now teaches a doctoral course on concurrent and distributed systems based on his book “Design of multithreaded software: The entity-life modeling approach.” He also directs student research in the Doctor of Computer Science program. Dr. Sandén is the inventor of entity-life modeling, and he is a senior member of ACM and a member of the IEEE Computer Society.

Our esteemed speaker gave a very interactive and informative presentation on his research “Designing More Flexible Multithreaded Control Software”.

This presentation is not to be missed! Please enjoy the webinar in its entirety below. If you like it make sure to subscribe to our channel and like and leave comments on our video.

We have one more presentation coming up in our summer web series, to register for it, please make sure to join our Meetup group at http://www.meetup.com/ACM-DC/.

-Dr. Shahnaz Kamberi, Chair

Professor Douglass received his Aeronautical Engineering bachelor’s degree from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in New York. He received his MBA from the University of Texas in Austin. He began his career as an Engineer in the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. After several years in the industry, Dr. Douglass returned to school to get a Ph.D in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. His degree covered digital electronics, computer architecture, and control systems theory. Dr. Douglass was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Texas A&M University, and later was a self-employed researcher developing patents. He is currently a member of the faculty and faculty chair at DeVry University in the College of Engineering and Information Sciences.

Please enjoy the webinar in its entirety below! If you like it, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like and leave comments.

Our April Presentation was on “Mathematical Theory of Computer Instructions and Statements” and it was presented by Dr. Douglas Maurer.

Professor Maurer received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his MA and Ph.D in Mathematics from Berkeley. He was for over 30 years on the George Washington University faculty. He has written six books and has almost 200 published papers, mainly in the mathematical theory of computer science.

Please enjoy the webinar in its entirety below! If you like it, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and like and leave comments.