Grace Hopper 2013 Proposals

This year I'm part of three panel proposals for GHC13.  GHC submission time always brings out the Women in Tech community, and this year was no different.  I joined the first proposal via a large email thread I got added to by a colleague and found it contained people from many great companies doing lots of interesting work!  For the second two proposals I put out requests on the Systers community, Twitter, and this blog for contributors and was overwhelmed with the response.

Here are the abstracts for our proposals.  Good luck to everyone else who submitted!

Native or Web, Which App Should I Build? A Mobile Developer’s Dilemma
Chaitrali Amrutkar, Georgia Institute of Technology
Tracy Chou, Pinterest
Sara Haider, Twitter
Kate Tsoukalas, Microsoft
Jane Wang, Etsy

The difference between the capabilities of web-based and native mobile apps is increasingly being blurred. While building an app for mobile users, developers need to make several considerations such as platform specificity, speed, user experience and commercial opportunities. This panel will discuss design principles, best practices, tools, security considerations and trade-offs in development of native and web apps on mobile devices. Our panel consists of experts from academia and industry.

Thinking Big about Careers in Test: Driving Your Career in Forward
Kery Laughter, Space Dynamics Laboratory
Kate Tsoukalas, Microsoft
Mirkeya Capellan, Sogeti USA / Pace University
Kavita Maheshwari, Trilixx.com
Iccha Sethi, Rackspace

Although the role of software testing in ensuring software quality is well established, the concept of a Test Engineer is relatively novel. There is an increased need for Engineers who can fill this role, but most institutions do not formally teach Test skills and many tech workers still do not clearly understand Testing. In this panel we explain technical specifics of Test skills, role, and directions for Test careers.

Thinking big about great mobile experiences: Smart development and test techniques drive us forward!
Rosario Robinson, Anita Borg Institute
Kate Tsoukalas, Microsoft
Leanne Waldal, OTIVO
Jennifer Wong, Wyley Interactive
Foghor Tashi, Nigerian Breweries Plc

As the number of mobile technology user is increasing, developers need to switch their thinking from designing applications for a desktop environment to cater to the specific needs, limits, and opportunities of mobile devices. However, many developers of mobile websites and applications repeat common mistakes that result in a poor user experience. This panel aims to raise awareness of these pitfalls and provide developers with strategies to overcome them.