ACM-W Ignite: Empowering Women in Tech
Date: 25 September 2024
The Department of Computer Science (UG), in collaboration with the ACM-W Student Chapter, hosted ACM-W Ignite: Empowering Women in Tech on 25th September 2024. This event was designed to inspire and encourage first-year female students from the BCA and B.Sc AI/ML & Data Science programs to explore careers in the technology sector. Coordinated by Dr. Revathy V R and Ms. Navya Francis, under the guidance of Prof. Sevuga Pandian Asirvatham, Head of the Department, and Dr. Sasikumar V R, Programme Coordinator, the event featured insightful presentations by Devika Chandran (M.Sc in Computer Science), Sophy Jose (M.Sc in Data Science), and Sona Sara Shibu (M.Sc in Data Science. The speakers highlighted key trends in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Data Science.

The event saw enthusiastic participation, with discussions focused on enhancing technical expertise, fostering leadership, and empowering women to build confidence in the tech field. The primary objectives were to motivate young women to pursue higher education and careers in technology, provide guidance on developing essential skills in areas like AI and Data Science, and create a supportive network for female students. The event concluded on a positive note, leaving attendees inspired to excel and contribute meaningfully to the rapidly evolving technology landscape.

The Department of Computer Science [UG], in collaboration with ACM student women chapter, hosted a technical session centered around "Exploring Research Fundamentals and Emerging Technologies: Power BI and Zero Knowledge proof ." The distinguished resource persons for this event were Sophy Jose, Nasreen Anjum and Devika Chandran,addressing all first year BCA girl students on March 26, 2024.

The session offered a clear idea on empowerment of women in technology through ACM Student women chapter and also delved into the comprehensive exploration of two pivotal components in modern research methodology. By equipping participants with the knowledge and skills to leverage Power BI for data analysis and visualization, alongside understanding the principles and applications of Zero Knowledge Proof, the session empowers researchers to embark on data-driven, secure, and privacy-preserving investigations in an increasingly interconnected world.

The Department of Computer Science, Kristu Jayanti College, Autonomous, Bengaluru has over the years taken various initiatives for empowering Women. One such initiative is ACM-Women Student Chapter that connects the students with a local community that can provide support for their academic and professional career. Students of II Year BCA,II Year B.Sc CS & III Year BCA & B.Sc CS students attended the orientation. ACM-W India seeks to take forward the task of the ACM community, but with a particular focus on the empowerment of women in computing in India. ACM-W supports, celebrates, and advocates internationally for the full engagement of women in all aspects of the computing field, providing a wide range of programs and services to ACM members and working in the larger community to advance the contributions of technical women. ACM-W Student Chapters are created to help recruit and retain students in computing programs. Professional Chapter-sponsored activities educate women about careers in computing and provide networking opportunities. ACM-W aims to provide social and professional support for women in computing, and its proposed activities include:

• Facilitate technical growth of women by organizing invited lectures, seminars, workshops and informal meetings
• Provide a platform for the sharing of information, resources, ideas and experiences
• Support women in their professional career growth and help them to face the challenges in their work environment
• Encourage them to participate in computer-related studies and research

Workshop on Hour of Code
An exclusive technical enablement session was organized by the Department of Computer Science of Kristu Jayanti College Bengaluru in association with ACM-W (Hour of Code) scheduled from April 5th – 13th from 03:00PM- 4:00PM in its endeavors to provide a basic knowledge and practical knowledge needed to achieve that, followed by explanation with respect to today’s booming IT world. We underlined how the New Normal is providing a wider platform for attaining the online learning, and how the keen learners can acquire knowledge and get expertise over it from anyone from any part of the world, irrespective of the location. Later, the session was presided over by ACM-W Student Coordinators who firstly commended all the participants for their high spirit and contributing efforts towards the success of the session.

The session began with each panelist introducing themselves with their professional and academic background. The resource persons all have completed degrees in engineering and other technical backgrounds. Ms.Tara O’Kane also spoke about their current roles in AWS and what it is exactly do as a cloud solutions and data analytics architect. It was inspiring to hear that Ms.Christina Rios did not know exactly what she wanted to do from the get go. Ms.Christina Rios explained that she tried her hand at multiple roles, ranging from hard core coding to consultancy. Ms.Rios said that she picked up parts of each job that interested her and then found suitable roles that combined all these parts. Ms.Crystal Chang also said that she did not know much about the cloud or Amazon services before starting their jobs but were willing to learn..Ms. Crystal Chang said the best way to be successful in the industry and to gain leverage was through networking. Using resources such as linkedIn to connect with industry experts can land you an internship or even a job. Using platforms like GitHub to connect with others and participate in hackathons can also be a great experience.

The resources persons spoke about certification course – said “it isn’t mandatory but proves to potential employers that you are willing to learn”. They had each completed multiple certifications after joining their current roles

Being women’s day, they signed off by encouraging women to confidently enter the male dominated tech industry. Ms.Tara O’Kane said that if we let our fear hold us back, the industry will continue to be male dominated. It will not change for the next generation.

A webinar on "Emerging Technologies" was hosted by the Department of Computer Science in collaboration with the ACM-W branch. Ms. Latha Raj, Business Consultant and Global Technical Eminence Leader, IBM India Software Labs, was the day's speaker. The speaker began the seminar by providing a brief overview of the topic. The major theme of the webinar was 5 trends for 2022 and beyond, which was broken down into the following subtopics: Digital transformation has become a way of life, Human Capital is precious and scarce, Sustainability and transparency are urgent priorities, Tech Adoption should reshape business operations and Trust and security underpin sustained innovation.

The speaker then gave us an overview of emerging occupations recognized by NSC, which was followed by an explanation about human oriented skills. The webinar was very informative, and it was concluded by a Q & A session in which the students were able to clarify their doubts, making it more engaging.

The websites are not only for business, but they are also a source of information from different people around the world. A website can be viewed from many different perspectives. The session was started by a welcome speech given by Ms. Jovanna Mathew to welcome Prof. A Sevuga Pandian, Dr. Kalaiselvi, Prof. Devakumari, the Resource person and all the participants gathered in the session. The speaker of the session Mr. Mohammed Samsuddin started the session with a small introduction to web designing. Speaker discussed the basic concepts used which are essential for the understanding of technology. Mr. Samsuddin also discussed in detail on how a website can be designed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript and had a hands-on practical session where the participants were taught to design a calculator. He gave in-depth concepts about how to create a web page, getting a domain name, hosting it and making the web page live. Applying the knowledge received from the workshop, students were able to design and host their own websites as well as showcase their newly learned skill. The speaker also projected a clear understanding in the subject and inspired the audience by lively interacting on topics relating to the subject and sharing his his experiences as a full stack developer working in the industry. Also the Q/A round were conducted about the session where all the participants could ask their queries and doubts to the speaker, to improve the sessions and have an enhanced knowledge. The session ended with the vote of thanks presented by Ms. Arun Preethi.

Classes Attended & Number of beneficiaries: BCA , B.Sc , MCA and M.Sc - (580 Students)
Resource Person: Shri Sabyasachi Mukhopadh , Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning, Kolkata

The webinar was started by welcome speech given by Ms Bhavana to welcome Rev.Fr.Lijo P Thomas, Prof Sevuga Pandiyan, Dr Kumar, resource person and all faculty members joined in this session. The inaugural address is given by Rev Fr Lijo P Thomas. Shri Sabyasachi Mukhopadh, Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning, Kolkata had discussed about deep learning platforms and google co labs. He gave brief knowledge about deep learning and discussed about the basic python code used in the deep learning architecture. The notebook file of python code is shared to the students and it helps the students to understand the applications of deep learnings in real world environment. The Knowledge sharing is done through Q& A session in the webinar. The resource person had given adequate knowledge about application of python code in the field of deep learning. The thanksgiving for this session is given by Ms Sherley Garcia. The participants were allowed to ask questions to ask questions and to clear their doubts and misconceptions. Overall, the Q & A session was very engaging.

Title: Women Who Code
Date: 03-03-2021
Time: 10.00 AM -1.00 PM
Number of beneficiaries: 12 Teams of 2 each (24 participants) from 8 colleges.
Chief Guest: Ms. Binu Midhun, Data scientist and developer Advocate, IBM hybrid cloud build team, Bangalore.

The inaugural session was handled by the chief guest Ms.Binu Midhun, Data scientist and developer Advocate, IBM hybrid cloud build team, Bangalore. The chief guest gave an overview of auto AI and also shared knowledge of building and deploying machine learning model using Watson. The coding and debugging event had two rounds; first round was a screening round. Around 12 teams from 10 different colleges enthusiastically participated in the event. The first round was an aptitude test; conducted virtually which had questions from C programming language, to screen the teams for coding event. After first round 8 teams were shortlisted based on average marks of both participants in the team. A briefing about the platform, Hackerearth was given to the participants to familiarize with the environment in which they would be carrying out coding and debugging. HackerEarth is an online proctored platform which was used to conduct the event in efficient manner, if the participants switch tabs more than thrice the session would be automatically terminated. Two teams were finalized after second round based on the average performance of the team.

Date: 27-11-2020
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Classes Attended & Number of beneficiaries: I BCA and B.Sc. [only registered students] -85 Students
Name and details of the Resource Person: Mr. Ibrahim Khan Alumni, Kristu Jayanti College Free lancer
Objective: To guide students in creating and hosting effective web pages and also securing knowledge on basics of HTML and CSS.

The session was started by a welcome speech given by Ms. Harshitha D R to welcome Fr. Lijo P Thomas, Prof. A Sevuga Pandian, Dr. Ranjitha M, Prof. Devakumari, Resource person and all the participants gathered in the session. Ms. Anushree Baburaj, III B.Sc started the session with “Introduction to HTML”. She discussed HTML tags and attributes used to design HTM documents.

Later the session was handled by Ms. Harshitha D R, V BCA, with “Introduction to Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)”. She discussed the basic concepts of CSS. Finally, the session was handed to Mr. Ibrahim Khan, He started the session with the Introduction to Web Hosting using Bootstrap. He gave brief knowledge about web hosting using bootstrap. He gave in-depth concepts about how to create a web page, getting a domain name, hosting it and making the web page live both for desktop as well as mobile devices. It was a practical session; participants could create a web page using HTML tags, design it using CSS and finally learnt to host using bootstrap. The Q & A session gave the participants the opportunity to find out more about the session. The participants were allowed to ask questions to ask questions and to clear their doubts and misconceptions. Overall, the Q&A session was very engaging.

Tech conclave organized by ACM-W
Date: 29-09-2020
Classes Attended & Number of beneficiaries: III B.Sc. and ACM Members -116 Students
Name and details of the Resource Person: Dr. Syed Mustafa Professor and Head, Dept. of Information Science and Engineering, HKBK College of Engineering
Objective: To enable students build technical skills in Python Programming.

The Department of Computer Science in association with ACM-W Student Chapter organized a virtual webinar on “Introduction to Advanced Features of Python and its Application” for III Sem. B.Sc. students and ACM-W members. The Speaker of the Session Dr. Syed Mustafa started the session with “Introduction to Python”. He discussed the basic concepts used in the technology relating with the best suitable real life examples which are essential for the understanding of the technology. Professor also discussed about analyzing structured and unstructured data using different tools and techniques, developing an understanding of different types of loops, basic arithmetic operations, arrays, list methods and functions, strings, and many more. The resource person projected a clear understanding of the importance of functions, dictionaries and future problems in the real world. He inspired the audience by his lively interaction on topics such as new trends in applying Python-code, approaches for tuples and list arguments, inbuilt functions, and Features of Python.

Date: 22.06.2020 to 25.06.2020
ACM-W Student chapter, Department of Computer Science (UG), organized an online webinar series exclusively for girls. Dr.Meenakshi, Associate Professor and NPTEL instructor, IIIT Bangalore explained on the testing aspects, testing methodologies and testing of web applications. She demonstrated on various examples on client side constraint rule, security violation rules, test value selection and various available tools for testing web applications. Dr.Ebin Deni Raj, Academics in charge, Data Science Group, IIIT Kottayam focused on What, When, Why, Who, Where( 5 W’s) of data science. He pointed out the Gartner hype cycle, top women coders, data science pipeline, Drew Conway’s Venn diagram on data science and 5 P’s of data science. The participants were highlighted on the various funding projects undertaken and how they can contribute to the nation through various projects.

Date: 03.08.2019
Number of Beneficiaries: 26 ACM Members
Trainers: Ms.Sherley Gracia- V SEM BCA C
: Ms. Karunya V SEM B.Sc CSMS
: Mr. Ibrahim V SEM B.Sc CSMS
Objective: The goal of the Workshop was to introduce the participants to the need of web development in HTML, CSS and Web Hosting.

ACM-W Student chapter, Department of Computer Science (UG), organized a workshop on HTML and CSS, “PARIKALPANA-2” on 3rd July 2019 exclusively for ACM members.

The workshop was conducted by the student coordinators of ACM Women’s student Chapter and an HTML expert, Mr.Ibrahim from this field. In this workshop students were imparted with the knowledge of working with HTML, CSS and Hosting web page. Trainers also elaborated on the basic features of CSS User Interface , CSS Background, fonts and Border Levels that gives a dynamic aspect to the Web Pages. At the end of the session, Quiz was also conducted to test the understanding of students.

Title: MACHINE LEARNING WORKSHOP SERIES
Date: 17th August, 2019
Resource Person: Ms. ADITI TIWARI, Data Scientist, Wizely
Objective: To Provide hands on experience in Machine Learning for the women students.

The workshop series on Machine learning was taken by Ms.AditiTiwari, Data Scientist, Wizely who is a member of ACM, Bangalore chapter. The main objective of this session is to provide a learning experience to the women students to apply artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it learn for themselves. The overview about Machine learning and the basics of statistics and probabilities, random variable were the topic of discussions for the session.
Outcome: To relate statistical concepts into Machine Learning and to develop computer programs that can access and use data by themselves.

ACM-W Student chapter, Department of Computer Science(UG), organized a one day workshop on Photoshop, “PIXEL-Digitally Creative” on 22 November 2017. The Event was inaugurated by Fr.Lijo P Thomas, Financial Administrator and HOD, Department of Computer Science(UG) along with Prof.Sevuga Pandian, Staff Coordinator and Dr.Ranjitha M, Faculty Sponsor, ACM-W Student Chapter.

Fr.Lijo P Thomas addressed the students and congratulated the ACM members for organizing this workshop. The Resource Persons for the day were Mr.Ajith, Mr.Thomas from IV Semester BCA and Mr.Jonah Filmore, Mr.Jacob David from VI Semester BCA.

The Workshop was divided into two sessions. The morning session was handled by Mr.Ajith and Mr.Thomas where they covered the basics of Photoshop like creating the form, changing the background colour of the form, to create layers, free transform forms, to open an image as background etc. Afternoon session was handled by Mr.Jonah and Mr.David where they concentrated on how to design brochures/Posters with various tools. The Participants created a Christmas brochure and also a Certificate using the various tools. There were 23 participants from various semesters of the department.

Instauration was an exhibition of handcrafted iconic dolls where the dolls symbolises the social issues in the world especially in India with the tagline “LETS LOOK AROUND”. The exhibition was inaugurated by Rev Fr.Josekutty PD Principal, Fr.Augustine George Vice Principal, Fr.Lijo P Thomas Financial Administrator and HOD Computer Science Department, along with Sr.Francoise Bosteels, Chief Guest of the Day. Prof.Sevuga Pandian, Staff Coordinator Computer Science(UG), Dr.Ranjitha, Faculty Sponsor of ACM-W, Dr.Vinothina ACM Member was also present along with Faculty and students of Computer Science Department.

Department of Computer Science in association with ACM-W of Kristu Jayanti College organised the exhibition on December 5, 2017 in Mini Audi 1 from 10:00am-4:00pm. The main intention/aim of this exhibition was to create awareness about the social issues in India and enlighten people with some knowledge about these issues. Students and faculties from various departments visited the exhibition. The dolls were related to issues like Child marriage, Child Labour, child abuse, Drug addiction, Corruption, alcoholism, female abuse, relationship between a teacher and a student, Unemployment, Deforestation etc. There were about 32 dolls in the exhibition. The students of ACM-W chapter explained to the audience the meaning and story behind each doll. The poems and stories related to each doll were hanged up in the bulletin boards. Sr.Francoise also explained the people of her experience in India, How she started making these dolls, what were the materials used to make them etc.

Exhibition was a major eye opener among students because these dolls actually depicted the everyday life in all its glory and simplicity.

ACM-W Student Chapter, Department of Computer Science (UG), Kristu Jayanti College joined the global movement of Computer Science Education Week by hosting an 'Hour of Code' on December 9th 2017 at our campus. Computer Science Education Week is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).

The Program started with one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and broaden participation in the field of computer science.

The session was initiated by Mr.Shriharsha, Web Developer at Accenture Solutions Pvt Ltd. He interacted with the students and demonstrated a Session on “Introduction to Python”. This was followed by the Hour of Code Activity where student developed a project on “Flappy Bike”. Students were very enthusiastic and actively participated in the session. At the end of the activity, students were awarded with an Hour of code certificate to encourage their learning. The students volunteers of ACM-W guided the participants with lot of passion.

ACM-W Student’s chapter in association with ICT academy organized the POWER SEMINAR with the title Digital Natives-The Millennial Generation.
It was a half- day seminar, featuring highly technical issues and the fundamentals of a specific application in the contemporary technological evolution.

Ms. Bhanu Das Gupta, Country Head, Oracle Academy spoke about how the Millennial Generation is not isolated and connected. The title of her talk was “What you are not, what you are and what you can be” and she briefed about the generations in workplace and will enlighten the students on the 21st century technological challenges and how they can strengthen their skills to be part of it.

Mr. Prakash, Sr.Advisor, DELL-EMC discussed about the gap between Analog and Digital world. He also briefed about technologies like Cyber security, Analytics, IOT and AI.

The seminar was indeed a motivation for the young audience about the Millennial Generation and how they can transform their ideas to enrich and strengthen the society.