Erin and I weren’t able to get much done this week due to attending the Grace Hopper conference and midterms.  Some thoughts on GH:

• What I found most inspiring was Elizabeth Churchill’s talk.  She’s currently the head of User Experience at Google.  Her talk was mostly about her career trajectory and some of her favorite projects that she’s worked on.  Something that struck me about her talk was that she said that designers were advocates for the users, who oftentimes are disadvantaged compared to the creators of the product.  Disadvantaged could mean low literacy, inexperience with technology, or a disability.  I had never thought of designers as advocates before.  I think my previous conception of designers is someone who tries to understand a user and help to create a product that’s useful, usable, and functional.  That definition could be extrapolated to that of an advocate, but I think Elizabeth Churchill’s diction is stronger and more impactful that my definition.
• I’ve had an incredible experience at Grace Hopper.  I feel especially humbled by the vast amount of fascinating, smart, and meaningful work that women across the world are developing.  I went to the poster presentation for undergraduates on Wednesday and the research that young women in computing are doing is unbelievable.  It has motivated me to work harder to learn more and to create more.

The CREU lunch was great as well!  I met a professor from Youngstown State University and we had a great conversation about CS curriculum.

What I plan on doing this week:

• Erin and I will code more
• resubmit IRB