First I would like to profile the speakers of this session and then discuss the interactive portions.
Mary Czerwinski Microsoft Research
Mary, HCI for the future of computing, etc. Been at microsoft for 15-16yrs and she pulled it together from scratch. Got undergrad masters and phd in psychology. Got into studying the brain and was advised by this great group of people. She took the industry route and never looked back.
Soha Hassoun Tufts University
Soha, MIT “well why not”. Took a break from masters for a few years and worked for a company called digital, the micro processor design group. Most amazing experience. Became part of the EECS department they split and they were 5 people only and shes been building. Tufts CS is #35 now in the ranking after only 7 years. She now builds predictive models for livers. Her daughter synchronize skates. She is no longer married, and happy for it.
Both of these speakers were so wonderful. Because of the interactive portions of this session I got to meet several wonderful people. During the introduction portion I met Pascale Houabche and Kathy from Harris, what a coincidence since we are both from Melbourne Florida! What a wonderful activity.
During the elevator pitch section. I did my elevator speech with Anshu Agrawal. It took us a few tries but we are now all the better for it.