February 2023 Newsletter

Event Highlights:

Volunteers Wanted: Technovation Girls Waterloo

Technovation Girls is a free, 12-week program that exposes girls and young women+ (including transgender, gender non-binary, and gender fluid) to computing and entrepreneurship.   

  • Mentor a team: Mentors help to guide a team through the program. You don’t need to be an expert on technical subjects. You primarily need to be willing to support your team and keep them on track. Co-mentor with a colleague or friend! Expected time commitment is ~1-2 hours a week from January to April. (Most suitable for students on co-op, who don’t have exams in April.) 

  • Coach or Ad-Hoc Mentor at an In-Person Workshop: Answer questions and provide feedback to Technovation Girls teams at our monthly workshops. Coaches act as a consultant in many areas, including: technical code/app development, business and entrepreneurship, AI, presentations and pitches, and videography. Expected time commitment is 2-4 hours a month. (Most suitable for students who are in KW in Winter’23.) 

  • Logistics Support at an In-Person Workshop: February 4th, February 25th, March 25th, and April 15th (all 10am-1pm).  

Visit https://technovationchallenge.org/ and https://uwaterloo.ca/women-in-computer-science/outreach/technovation-girls-waterloo for more details.  

If you are interested in any of the above roles, register your interest here: https://forms.gle/hQ8CwMzwJV6HU3qw5 

AMA: Upper Year Panel 

Date: Thursday, February 2nd at 6:00PM (EST) 

Looking for advice from upper year students who were once in the same position as you? Come out to our AMA: Upper Year Panel on Thursday, February 2nd at 6 PM in MC Comfy where third- and fourth-year WiCS students will be speaking about their experiences at Waterloo! Feel free to come prepared with your own questions about academics, co-op, full-time job recruiting, and student life.

Sign up here [https://tinyurl.com/wics-upperyearpanel], spots will be limited to first come first serve. 

Bubble Tea Social 

Date: Thursday, February 16th at 5:00PM (EST) 

Do you like playing board games and drinking bubble tea? If so, come out to the WiCS bubble tea party for a fun night of relaxation and socialization! It’ll be taking place on Thursday February 16th at 5pm (location TBD). Can’t wait to see you there! 

Sign-up here: https://tinyurl.com/4c9nv37y 

Hack the North 

Join the team organizing Canada’s biggest hackathon, with positions in backend and frontend development, as well as sponsorship, finance, logistics, and more! This 1,000+ student event makes a great addition to any resume and provides a unique teamwork experience. 

Link to apply: https://hackthenorth.com/join 

Deadline to apply: Feb 10th by 11:59PM EST 

Women’s Datathon 

Correlation One is excited to announce that, this upcoming February, they are partnering with Citadel to host the first-ever Women’s Datathon, a data science competition that will bring the top quantitative women students in North America together. Participating students will be eligible for exclusive recruiting opportunities with Citadel, along with prizes of $15,000 USD! 

The event is invite-only but is completely free to attend for those invited. The competition will be taking place in-person in Miami, Florida, and invited students will be flown out on an all-expense-paid trip. More information about their launch and the competition can be found here. 

Location: Miami, Florida 

First event: February 6th (virtual) 

Sign-Up Here: https://www.citadel.com/careers/the-data-open/apply/?apply_to=womens-datathon 

WiCS Study Room

The WiCS Study room is reopening this February with a new system of access! The purpose of the room is to be a meeting place where WiCS students know they can meet and study with other WiCS students, making it easier for them to find like-minded peers and role models. As a secondary benefit, the room also serves as a space where WiCS students can take a short break from being in the minority. 

An open house will be held on February 10th, in the afternoon! Red velvet and carrot cakes cupcakes are provided - Watch for more announcements next week on our Instagram! 

To get the fob to the study room, you must fill out a request form for the access fob. The WiCS Event Coordinator will send you an email once it is ready for you to pick up! 

Click here for request form 

Learn more about the WiCS Study Room on our website (https://uwaterloo.ca/women-in-computer-science/wics-study-room) 

WiCS Innovation Fund

The WiCS Innovation Fund supports student-initiated activities such as hackathons, workshops, conferences, and much more, that support women and non-binary students in computing. WiCS will give out two awards worth $500 this fall, and another two in the winter! 

If you’re interested, send an email to wics@uwaterloo.ca with an explanation of the use (e.g., organizing an event, attending a conference or hackathon) and what you will get out of attending. The Fund will sponsor future events only (not past events). 

WiCHacks - RIT’s Gender Diversity and Inclusion Hackathon 

WiCHacks ‘23 registration is open! WiCHacks is an all-women and gender minorities hackathon hosted by RIT's Women in Computing for students 18+. This will be a hybrid hackathon held from March 4-5 at RIT’s Magic Spell Studios and virtually on discord.  

Head over to wichacks.io to apply today! 

Busing Information: Busing information can be found in the application to WiCHacks. We will be providing two buses. One will travel from University of Toronto making a couple of stops on the way to Rochester. The 2nd will start at the University of Albany to Rochester and will also stop at additional colleges on the way.