Excited to be heading off to She++ at Stanford today!  The conference is hosted by an amazing group of young femgineers.  These young ladies have already recognized a dearth of femgineers in the Silicon Valley, and are taking steps towards inspiring their generation of women to get interested in engineering and the tech industry.  Their approach, pretty simple and courageous:

• Find women leader in the tech industry and showcase them as role models
• Luncheon to given the speakers and the young ladies a chance for mentorship
• Educate a day in the life of a woman in tech by highlighting various careers

Honored to be a part of this conferences and will do my part to  help you young ladies out out!

Last night they hosted a dinner for the speakers and I was amazed at the thoughtfulness of the group.  They were systematically thinking about ways to decrease attrition rates from computer science classes, and motivating their peers to try out a computer science course.  Not sure who is mentoring whom

What was also fascinating to me was each of them sharing stories of how they got interested in engineering and technology.  The vast majority spoke about an early childhood experience with either a parent or adult figure who spent time with them and showed them how to build something.  It empowered them and arouse their curiosity.  That just might be the secret to she++.

I was initially a management major, but my college required one computer science class during our first semester. It was in that class, amidst loops and pointers, that I fell in love with programming. Soon, I switched my major to computer science. Now, I’m about to graduate as a software engineer, and I love what I do. I feel alive when I solve problems and create new things that improve people’s lives. I especially love the endorphin rush I experience once I get a pesky bug fixed!

During my junior year, I went on a software development internship where I was often the only woman, the youngest, or the only Asian in the room. During those six months, I realized that the trailblazers of technology, or at least the ones we know of, were all powered by testosterone.

And it made me wonder — why don’t we have a Martia Zuckerberg or even a Steph Jobs?  I look around me, and I notice that there are simply not enough women running tech companies or founding the next Apple. Actually, there are not enough women on the top, period. In a TED speech, Facebook COO and Harvard Business School alum Sheryl Sandberg commented that only fifteen to sixteen percent of executives in the corporate world are women.  In fact, companies such as Facebook and Zynga do not have a single woman in their boards. Those dismal numbers have to change, and I want to be part of the solution.

That is why I want an MBA. I want to leverage technology and business to change that ratio. I want to equip myself with the skills that I will need to run a tech company with that mission someday. Maybe, I’ll be gutsier and even start one myself.

Some people are brave, though. They found companies right away, but at the young age of twenty, I feel scared that I won’t know anything or that people won’t take me seriously, especially since I do not have an American undergrad degree. Perhaps that’s the imposter syndrome talking, but I do feel that an MBA will better prepare me for the career path that I see for myself. I will get to be intimate with every nook and cranny of a company’s structure, finances, etc., before I have to do it in real life. I guess that’s just my style – I want to have a broader view before I have to make tough business decisions, whether for my own venture or for the next Twitter.

But whether I do go for an MBA or not, one thing is for sure: I will stay in the tech industry because I believe in its capacity to ignite social change. In fact, what I love most about tech is that it is a great “democratizer.”  Imagine, a poor student from the streets of India who does not have the means to hire private tutors can still learn through organizations like the Khan Academy. Students who are not privileged to attend prestigious schools can still have access to the same caliber of information through ventures like MIT Open Courseware and Harvard’s courses in iTunes U.

Growing up as the daughter of an immigrant in a small, Midwestern town, technology is what empowered me to be what I am today. It was the backbone of my education, the very reason I was able to have a job in a top ten software company. I want to use that unique quality of tech, coupled with solid business acumen, to empower the underdogs of the world, the children of underprivileged immigrants, all young women. I want them to be able to look up to strong women like what I aspire to be, and realize that yes, they can code, they can be scientists, they can be CEOs. I want them have the opportunity to be leaders, not just followers. I want to be part of the transformation of our society into an America where women creating tech startups and running big corporations is part of the norm, rather than the exception.

Frances is about to graduate with a degree in Computer Science with specialization in Software Engineering. Previously, she interned for six months for Accenture Software and will be joining them as a Software Engineer in June.  She also contributes to The Levo League, Women 2.0, and STEMinist.  A proud geek girl, she’s sure she is the only one who can’t play video games. Follow her random musings at @FranAdvincula.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow femgineer, Kate McKinley, a security consultant at iSec Partners.  As I was waiting in line for my daily latte at Dana Street, Kate came up to me and complimented me on my new pair of leather heels from Greece.  We struck up a conversation, and I was instantly curious to learn from this tall brunette about security, and what had inspired her to become a femgineer.  So I took Kate out to lunch, and we gabbed about life, our passion for technology, and how we work.

Kate started playing with mainframe computers in high school.  When she started college at the University of Minnesota she didn’t think of majoring in Computer Science, but naturally gravitated toward it.  Perhaps it had been her early exposure to computers, or her desire to solve problems.  Although she was interested in getting a degree, Kate decided to leave and start her career as a system administrator at American Express.

Years later a friend of hers who worked at iSec Partners contacted her, and asked if she was interested in applying for a position.  iSec Partners was primarily interested in her programming and development skills.  Kate joined after visiting, and falling in love with, San Francisco, and being impressed by the company’s social conscience.  During her career at iSec, Kate learned much more about security. She enjoys her job at iSec, because it fosters an environment in which she can learn things she probably wouldn’t have pursued on her own; languages such as C#.  They also give her the freedom to do research.  She recently wrote the white paper Cleaning Up After Cookies and presented it at a conference.

Kate’s M.O. is to spend a lot of time looking at code, but she will context switch to keep her mind active. Her belief is that the mind can only be productive for 6-8 hours a day. Switching to play with a site, or looking at other modules helps keep it active, and eventually she will come back to her prior task. Unlike me (my entire career has been in-house development on one code base) Kate has had the unique opportunity of seeing and reading a lot of different and large code bases.  She performs penetration testing, both black box, and looking at the code base to spot vulnerabilities.  But she doesn’t read through the entire code base.  Instead, she starts with some of the key entry points and works from there.  She does go back to the code base after black box testing or to dig a little deeper.  Most of her consulting stints last about two weeks, and after which point she will write up a list of vulnerabilities, areas for improvements, or her overall findings.  Then its up to the companies to make the necessary fixes, and call her back for a follow-up consultation.

Being a consultant, she works on other company sites, and from a wide variety of settings: home, office, and coffee shops.  She doesn’t like open floor plans because they can be distracting.

Her philosophy on coding boils down to doing things the right way even if it means pissing off superiors.  She is committed to getting projects done on time, but will put forth the extra effort needed to make sure she delivers quality code, and fixes obvious issues that others may overlook in the interest of saving time or prioritizing tasks.

Over the years I’ve heard a lot about how people view Microsoft and other software giants approach to security.  While most of it has been negative, Kate had a refreshing opinion.  She thinks Microsoft is actually doing consumers a lot of good by releasing patches.  They are cleaning up after themselves, unlike the open source community which hopes that people will eventually fix bugs just by keeping the code base open.  I guess accountability is good for business.

As far as career growth goes, Kate keeps up with technology trends via bulletin boards and email lists.  She doesn’t enjoy management, but prefers coding and working on tough engineering problems.  Although, she can see herself doing a complete 180; transitioning from being a software consultant to going back to school to get a higher degree in cultural anthropology.

I enjoyed learning more about security, and her approach to it.  Mostly, I was impressed by Kate for being so personable for a talented and knowledgeable engineer, and having strong convictions as a coder.