This June, geeky girls over three generations gathered at the Atlassian office in Sydney city- all anticipating a night of great ideas about engineering and IT with delicious pasta, drinks and chocolate.
The first speaker, Peggy Kuo, a developer at Atlassian, shared with us various tips on how to make websites extra 'shiny'. By using HTML5 to give the site structure and content, then further polishing it with CSS3, websites become a lot more representative. She also recommended some other sites that may assist the audience to finding or making better website templates.
The second speaker, Deborah Martin, a retired software engineer, shared with us her joy in teaching seniors, especially elderly women over the age of 55, on how to use a computer. She discussed the reasons and benefits of why these women turn to her and her computer club in Parramatta for help in learning about technology. Her work also extends to educating the elderly about internet scams, security on the net and online banking. She has found that seniors are more eager to learn and in particular, her course on how to use Facebook is very popular with seniors, who hope to understand their children and grandchildren by keeping up with the internet trend.
The last speaker, Nabeelah Ali, a frontend developer at Atlassian, shared with us a slice of her life story from engaging in programming since she was young to finishing her mechatronics engineering degree and now to being a programmer. She also discussed findings from the Flow Theorem. In particular, she emphasized the importance of uninterrupted time - 'being within the zone' and how it has contributed to the success of others. Nabeelah also voiced her opinion that open plan office space may not work in helping individuals stay 'in the zone'.
In friendly but no less nerdy company, the evening ended with an open floor shout-out of job offerings, job seeking and the promotion of other events that other girl geeks are organizing, followed by much socializing, applause and laughter.
For those who missed out on this fantastic event, don't you worry! The next event will be around the corner and it's absolutely fine to have gents come along too!
The first speaker, Peggy Kuo, a developer at Atlassian, shared with us various tips on how to make websites extra 'shiny'. By using HTML5 to give the site structure and content, then further polishing it with CSS3, websites become a lot more representative. She also recommended some other sites that may assist the audience to finding or making better website templates.
The second speaker, Deborah Martin, a retired software engineer, shared with us her joy in teaching seniors, especially elderly women over the age of 55, on how to use a computer. She discussed the reasons and benefits of why these women turn to her and her computer club in Parramatta for help in learning about technology. Her work also extends to educating the elderly about internet scams, security on the net and online banking. She has found that seniors are more eager to learn and in particular, her course on how to use Facebook is very popular with seniors, who hope to understand their children and grandchildren by keeping up with the internet trend.
The last speaker, Nabeelah Ali, a frontend developer at Atlassian, shared with us a slice of her life story from engaging in programming since she was young to finishing her mechatronics engineering degree and now to being a programmer. She also discussed findings from the Flow Theorem. In particular, she emphasized the importance of uninterrupted time - 'being within the zone' and how it has contributed to the success of others. Nabeelah also voiced her opinion that open plan office space may not work in helping individuals stay 'in the zone'.
In friendly but no less nerdy company, the evening ended with an open floor shout-out of job offerings, job seeking and the promotion of other events that other girl geeks are organizing, followed by much socializing, applause and laughter.
For those who missed out on this fantastic event, don't you worry! The next event will be around the corner and it's absolutely fine to have gents come along too!
By Jenny Lui, Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical & Mechatronics), UTS
