After many years of having the conference canceled due to the pandemic and the weather, I’m so glad that I was able to finally participate in Villanova’s Women in Tech Conference in person today! This year’s topics are broad and diverse, ranging from smart cities, visualizing change, monitoring fairness, and reducing carbon footprint, to emerging ventures. Below are some highlights of the event in my opinion:
- Keynote speaker Amanda Buenz Makulec, Data Visualization Designer, Executive Direct of Data Visualization Society, a mom. She talked about balancing data and story, which can be done by being mindful of your goals and your audience. Additionally, having a human-centric approach can help you humanize your graphs have been more empathetic1
- Sources to explore: Josh Phong(?) @ Vox Media who physically interacts with data visualizations; Hans Rosling’s “The Best Stat You’ve Ever Seen”.
- The Blue Blanket Project by Villanova Nursing student. Their project aims to make phototherapy, a treatment for newborn jaundice with a special type of light, accessible in households via a blanket. This blanket has washable and soft materials that are safe for newborns too.
- Nurses are also scientists, innovators, and researchers
- The stories of 6 ENIAC women, who worked as “computers,” a clerical job that involved solving complex equations that would be used to build firing tables for guns.
Trang "Tee" Nguyen 