why consider software engineering as a career

WHY CONSIDER

SOFTWARE AS A CAREER?

https://about.me/bernadettehyland

Bernadette Hyland, CEO & tech startup founder

~ St Peters Lutheran College ~

9 November 2017

At its core, software engineering is concerned with designing, writing, testing, implementing and maintaining software …

Software is in everything we touch … our TVs, music, mobile devices, to services that impact us … healthcare, banks, transportation, home & school

From the moment we wake up, until we sleep, we are using software in our daily lives.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPACT

COLLABORATION & TEAMS

CREATIVITY & PERSONAL GROWTH

DEMAND FOR SKILLED SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

LOTS OF GROWTH IN BRISBANE & BEYOND!

CONTRIBUTE TO REAL WORLD ISSUES …

Benefits of a career in software … working with other bright, creative people. Opportunities worldwide. Great pay & benefits.

STATS ON WOMEN IN SOFTWARE

➤ 1985 - about 37% of U.S. computer science degrees (BS, BA) conferred to women

➤ By mid-1990’s, U.S. women studying computer science fell below 30%

➤ By 2010, women made up only 17% of CS undergraduates, though women represent 47% of the workforce as compared to 38% in the 1970s.

The Current State of Women in Computer Science, U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics

https://about.me/bernadettehyland

“Computer guys” marketed PCs to guys just like them…

SO WHAT HAPPENED?!!

Occasionally the marketing department branched out…

Creating even more alienating marketing campaigns…

https://about.me/bernadettehyland

slide credit: https://image.slidesharecdn.com/girlgeekdinner12-141216210832-conversion-gate01/95/a-brief-history-of-programming-18-638.jpg

Dr. Euphemia Lofton Haynes, mathematician & activist for desegregation

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, U.S. Navy

ENIAC computer programmer, created a language compiler, Mark I programmer

Katherine Johnson, NASA

calculated trajectory for the first American in space to inaugural Space Shuttle flight. The movie Hidden Figures featured her.

Annie Easley, NASA, worked on technologies that led to hybrid vehicles & software for spaceflight exploration. Margaret Hamilton, NASA lead software engineer,

MIT professor who later coined the term “software engineering”

In software engineering, we do a lot of “firsts”

First African American woman to earn her PhD at MIT (2001)

Professor Latanya Arvette Sweeney, Harvard, privacy technology expert

Meg Smith, U.S. Federal CTO

“Many young women & men today are unaware of the variety of jobs that use software engineering and IT expertise — including UI/UX design, requirements analysis, product management, space exploration, systems engineering, AI & robotics. My goal is to change that.

-Bernadette Hyland

CREDITSCSIRAC, the first computer in Australia (1949-1964), https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/articles/1337

Define diversity in the workplace, smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-workplace-4926.html

Female Math Pioneers who changed our world, http://www.dreambox.com/blog/female-math-pioneers-infographic

Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, see https://www.adcq.qld.gov.au/resources

Rocket Women - NASA’s Female Pioneers, see http://rocket-women.com/2016/03/nasas-female-pioneers-women-from-history-you-should-know/

She Can Code blog “How Diversity Made My Team More Successful, see https://shecancode.io/blog/whydiversityimprovesteamwork

The Current State of Women in Computer Science, see http://www.computerscience.org/resources/women-in-computer-science/