ACMIndiaCelebrationofWomeninComputingAICWiC2020

AVirtualEvent-5thSeptember,2020-Report

ACMIndiacelebrationofwomenincomputing–avirtualeventwasorganizedbyACM-WIndia,ACMNagpurProfessionalChapter inassociationwithACMNagpur Student Chapter of Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering,Nagpur,Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management,Nagpur,PriyadarshiniCollegeofEngineering,NagpurandPersistentSystemsLtd.on5thSeptember,2020underthetheme“Covid19:InnovationinIT”.Dueto the current pandemic, the event was organized in virtual mode on theonlineplatformzoomwebinar.TheobjectiveofAICWiC2020wastoprovideanexplicitplatformforwomenintechnologytoshowcasetheirinnovationandideasandmotivateotherstotake up the challenge and help the nation in becoming Independenttechnologicallyduringthesetoughtimes.

The inaugural ceremony began with words by Dr. Mukta Paliwal TechnicalExpert of Persistent Systems. She introduced the ACMW India, describedrecent events held and how the organization has played a vital role inmotivating the women including professionals, researchers and students intechnology. She mentioned how the tech industry has collectivelydemonstrated remarkable leadership in responding to the challenges posedbytheCovid-19pandemicwhileexplainingthethemeoftheevent.She introduced the session chair for the keynote speech, Dr Heena Timani,ACM W India Council Chair, Data Scientist, Co-Founder, Director iAnanyaDatalytix Pvt. Ltd. Dr. Heena envisioned and highlighted the operations and

keybenefitsofACM-WmembershipandbriefedtheaudienceaboutpastandupcomingeventsunderthecanopyofACMIndia.ShehasalwaysbeenakeyinspirationtoallyoungtechnocratsandinsistedthewomenintheaudiencetograbseveralscholarshipstothecandidatesunderACM-WIndia.

Dr. Heena welcomed the keynote speaker Prof. Reyyan Ayfer, Vice-Chair,ACM-W & Professor, Bikent University, Turkey for. She contributed herexpertise to international committees,most notably as a councilmember ofACMEuropeandastheFoundingChairofACMWomeninComputingEuropeCommitteeaswellas leadingacommunityofstudentswhohaveformedthefirst internationalACM-WStudentChapter.SheisnowservingforwomenincomputingasthechairofRegionalActivitiesofACM-W.ShereceivedtheAnitaBorgChangeAgentAwardin2008afterservingastheACM-WAmbassadorofTurkeyfor8years.Dr. Reyyan delivered a keynote on "Changes,Challenges,Opportunities" andfocusedonhow lifehaschanged in thispandemicandalsobriefeduponthechallenges and opportunities before women in computing. She discussedsomeofthesuccesstipsandstrategiesforthebuddinginnovators.Prof. Devishree Naidu, session chair of second keynote introduced Dr. JayaSreevalsanNairfromIIITBangalore.Dr.NairleadstheGraphics-Visualization-ComputingLabandisoneofthecoreteammembersoftheE-HealthResearchCentre at IIITB.Her research interests lie in the fields of data visualization,scientific computing, computer graphics, and computational geometry. Shehasprojectedmanydatamodelingconcepts forvisualizationsand identifiedappropriatevisualizationsforcomplexdatasetsindatascienceworkflow.ThemostinterestingresearchthatincludessemanticclassificationofLiDARpoint

clouds, spatialandstatisticalanalysisofpopulationsurveys,automateddataextraction from chart images, community detection in biological and brainnetworks,andvirtualworldreconstructionof trafficscenes frommonocularimages.ShehasbeensupportedbygrantsfromSERB,DST,GoK,Intel,IBM,toname a few. She is anACMmember and IEEE Seniormember.Her keynotespecifically brought attention to "Data Dissemination during COVID-19: TheRise of Visualizations" in which she discussed the significance of datadissemination techniques discovered during the present COVID-19 scenarioandtoolsusedbycomputerscientiststomakealay-manunderstandcomplexfacts and figures. She elaborated about 5 V’s Velocity, Veracity, Volume,VarietyandValueofdata.ShealsomadeallawareaboutFlorenceNightingaleas a data science who was also a pioneer in data visualization withinfographicseffectivelyusedforgraphicalpresentationsofstatisticaldata.Dr.Jayadiscussed someof the research that tookplace atKarnataka region forshowing statistics of Covid-19 and explored about the toolswith additionalfuturisticwhichopenedaneyeforkeyresearchinthefieldofdatascience.

ApaneldiscussionwasorganizedduringAICWiC2020ontheme“InnovationOpportunitiesforNewNormalduringPandemic”.ApanelwasmoderatedbyDr.LipikaDey,PrincipalScientistattheTCSResearchandInnovationLabs. ,facultyattheDepartmentofMathematicsatIITDelhi.(till2007).Thepanelistwere Dr. Maya Ingle, Director, DDU-Kaushal Kendra at DAVV Indore, Mrs.Rachna Patrikar, Senior Manager-Enterprise application and emergingtechnologies,MahindraandMahindra),Dr.ManikGupta,AssistantProfessoratBITS PilaniMrs. Vandana Gupta, Director at Multivirt India Pvt Ltd& FNNMediaPvtLtd,28yearsofexperienceinITindustry.

The Panel discussion started with a poll as a quick activity. The poll wasconducted to know the experiences of the participants about Innovationsduring Covid-19 pandemic. After the poll chairperson of the panel Dr NitaThakarewelcomedallandbriefedabouttheobjectiveofpaneldiscussion.Shewelcomed and introducedmoderator of the panel Dr Lipika Dey. Dr LipikaDey introduced the panelmembers and panel discussionwas divided in tothree phases. In the first phase all panel members have shared theirexperiences about the current scenario of innovations and their thought ontheopportunities for IT innovationsduringCovidpandemic.TheydiscussedtheInnovationOpportunitiesforNewNormalduringPandemicinbrief.

ModeratorofpanelDrLipikaintroducedpanelistandcoordinatingwithpanelmembers.DrMaya Ingle talkedabout theroleof IT ineducationsector.Shealsodiscussedaboutthereasonsforchangeineducationmethodologiesandthe opportunities for the educationalist and researchers during COVID 19pandemic. Also she shared some examples on how practices changed fromOffline classes to Online Classes. Mrs Rachana Patrikar, discussed aboutcurrentsituationofCovid19pandemicanditseffectonlifestyleofpeoplealsoshe talked on increase in usage of onlinemarket and online transaction.DrManikGupta talkedabout latest technologiesbeingused in innovations.Shealsodiscussed,howonlineplatformsarehelpfulinpandemicandhowblesseditistoshareourknowledgewiththecommunitythroughvirtualconference.DrVandanaGuptapresentedvariousproductsdevelopedbyhercompanytocaterthepandemicsituation.

She also discussed about innovations opportunities during Pandemic andmotivated theparticipants to implement innovative ideas.Duringquestion -answer session, the Moderator Dr Lipika asked questions on behalf of theparticipantstopanelmembers.Theparticipantsbenefitedbytheanswersofexperts. The session ended with the concluding remark by Dr. DeveshreeNaidu.PosterPresentationCompetitionwaspartofVirtualEvent forcelebrationofWomeninComputingbyACMIndia.ThecompetitionwasspeciallyorganizedforUG/PGgirl studentsofCS/CEand ITbranches toboost innovative ideas.Therewere total three round in poser presentation competition. Education,Health care, Environment / Ecosystem / Waste Management, Age ofSustainableDevelopment(SustainableCitiesandCommunities)themesweredecided forposterpresentationcompetition.WereceivedmaximumpostersinHealthCaredomain.WegotgoodresponsefromvariousreputedinstitutesofIndia,total105teamsregisteredforposterpresentationcompetition.

Thesegroupsweredividedinto6Teamsofjudgesforevaluationandselectionpurpose.Fromthis24teamswereselectedforsecondSkypeinterviewround.Total6posterswereselectedforpresentationinthefinalroundduringevent.

Dr. Gauri Dhopavkar, Head, Department of Computer Technology,YeshwantraoChavanCollegeofEngineering,Nagpurhostedthe finaleroundofposterpresentationcompetitionon5thSeptember2020.Dr.HeenaTimani,Chairperson, ACM-W, India, Dr. Rituparna Chaki, Professor, A K ChoudhurySchool of IT, University of Calcutta, Dr. Tejaswini Apte,ACM-W PuneProfessional Chapter Chair and ACM-W India council member, Mr. DarshanKansara,SeniorConsultantwithAnblicks,Ahmedabad,werethejudgesforthefinale.

Duringfinaleround,eachfinalists’postersandvideosexplainingthedetailedconcept was presented to all audience. This round was followed byquestion/answer session to the poster presenters by judges. Out of 105

groups registered for this competition, 6 groups were shortlisted for finaleround.CashprizesweresponsoredbyTataConsultancyServices.

1. 1stPrize:Rs.16,0002. 2ndPrize:Rs.12,0003. 3rdPrize:Rs.8,000

AresultofthevirtualposterpresentationwasdeclaredbyDr.HeenaTimani.Belowisthelistofposterpresentationwinners

Rank NameofStudent ProjectTitle InstituteName

1 SoundaryaKrishnan

NetworkCommunityAnalysisbasedenhancementofOnline

DiscussionforumsBITSPilani,GoaCampus

2 SonaS Technovid2020 ThiagarajarCollegeofEngineering,Madurai

3 ShradhaSehgal SabJeevika:Enablingjobsearchforthedeprivedsector

InternationalInstituteofInformationTechnology.

HyderabadIn concluding remarks Dr.Heena Timnai thanked organizing team Dr.DevishreeRohitNaidu,Asst.Prof.,ShriRamdeobabaCollegeofEngineeringandManagement,Dr.GauriDhopavkar ,HoD, YeshwantraoChavhan, Collegeof Engineering, Nagpur,Dr.MuktaPaliwal ,Technical Expert -Data Science,Persistent SystemsNagpur,Dr. Nita Thakare, Associate Prof. andHead, DCT,

Priyadarshini College of Engineering,Nagpur,Dr. SwatiHira, Asst. Prof., ShriRamdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur,Mr. VinitKapoor ,Chief Architect, Persistent Systems Nagpur and Dr. Rutvi ShahAssistant Porf at Chimanbhai Patel Institute of Computer Applictions.She also thanked the poster prizes sponsors Tata Consultancy Services andPlatinum partners of ACM Google, Persistent, Icertis.Mr. ChandrashekharSahasrabudhe,COO,ACMIndiacongratulatedteamfortheirsuccessfulsmoothcompletionofvirtualeventusingZoomWebinar.Dr.MuktaPaliwalthankedtoKeynotespeakers,Panelists,ACMIndia,ACMWIndia and ACM International office bearers Various sponsors, PartnerIndustries,Partneringinstitutes,Participatinginstitutes,Committeemembers,Evaluators/Judges, Students who took part in poster competition, Finalists,theOrganizingteam&allthosewhoaredirectlyorindirectlyinvolvedintheorganization of this event. Everyone agrees with the promise of stayingconnected to each other through these events, as a supportive and strongwomencommunity in the fieldofcomputerscienceeducation,research,andindustry.