After finishing my undergrad, I came to know about the GHC scholarship offered be Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) in collaboration with Arab Women in Computing (ArabWIC). I applied and luckily got selected with other 6 inspiring ladies, whom I will never forget.
My trip there was a unique one, where I met a new scholar of GHC at every flight stop from Qatar to Arizona. Starting from Doha Airport, I met Fatima Alabdrabalnabi, the Founder of Google Developer Group of Saudi Arabia. And the video of “Geeks under Niqab” maker, which got the recognition of Megan Smith (former VP of Google[x]), who sent her personal invitation to Google I/O. At my second stop at Chicago Airport, I met Samah Kareem, head of ICT at the Palestinian Standard Institution. Other than our duty free shopping at the airport, the three of us bonded so closely.
The best part of the conference was seeing an endless numbers of technical bright ladies, a crowd of 8 thousand participants; some occupies top leading positions in the technical industry and academia. I met the Chief Technology Officer of USA – Megan Smith, the senior data scientist at Twitter – Ayse Naz, the Research Scientist at IBM – Dr. Kaotar El Maghraoui, the Clinical Professor of Computer Science at NYU and founder of Arab Women in Computing – Professor Sana Odeh, and so many more. Seeing all those people at one place was so thrilling.
The conference included a wide variety of lectures, panels, and workshops that find its to benefit you. Starting with a keynote at every morning of the conference was the motivation that kept me energetic till the end of day. Particularly listening to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and how valuable to know views on women in technical career. One the most interesting panels I attended was “Real World Data Science at Scale”, a very mind opening to me after I spent at least a year in the Natural Language Processing research. The quality of workshops at the conference were so practical, starring “Winning the game of politics” workshop, which attained so much popularity that the huge hall ran out of space.
Another giant benefit I got from the conference was the career fair. I never have been to a recruiting event where most of the recruiters and engineers were women! Furthermore, I got introduced personally to people from top tech companies, such as: GE, Google and PayPal. Had the chance to ask so many questions about the work nature with such amazing and inspiring professionals. Also I was lucky to get admission fees discounts from some university programs!
To conclude, I forward my gratitude to all who made this experience possible; the optimistic leadership of ArabWIC, the generosity of QCRI funding, the perseverance of Anita Borg Institute of their support to women in tech. If it wasn’t for the great leadership and support I got from ArabWIC, I would not have had that level of enthusiasm and confidence at the conference.
Lastly, this is a call for all ladies in tech to make sure attending GHC, and if you happen to be an Arab, do not miss out and join ArabWIC community!
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| ArabWIC starts! The founder Dr. Sana Odeh in middle, wearing blue dress 🙂 |
Hanan Alshikh 