Gather Room 5

Professor Mary (Missy) Cummings received her BS in Mathematics from the US Naval Academy in 1988, MS in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004. A naval pilot from 1988-1999, she was one of the U.S. Navy's first female fighter pilots. She is a Professor in the George Mason University College of Engineering and Computing, and directs the Mason Responsible AI program as well as the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center. She is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Her research interests include artificial intelligence in safety-critical systems, assured autonomy, human-systems engineering, and the ethical and social impact of technology.

Gather Room 2

Featuring: Brinleigh Murphy-Reute (Founder of Science to People), Brianna Doe (Founder of Verbatim), and Anna Yuan (Co-founder & CEO of ScaleGrowth AI)

Whether you're just starting to think about your own startup or looking for ways to scale your existing venture, join this panel featuring the founders of three innovative startups. These inspiring entrepreneurs will share their journeys from idea to launch, discussing the challenges, successes, and lessons learned along the way. Our panelists will offer insights on everything from building a strong vision and securing funding, to scaling a business and navigating industry-specific hurdles.

Gather Room 1

Featuring: Xue Hua (Software Engineer at Microsoft)

Join us for a hands-on career workshop with Xue Hua! Xue is a software engineer that works in Microsoft on the UX team. She is passionate about connecting and supporting students of all backgrounds.

Gather Room 3

Read Sarah’s self-bio:

“I love working alongside a team at Southwest Airlines that builds strategies to inspire individuals to pursue careers in aviation.

Previously, my role was to develop an ecosystem of resources and experiences for kindergarten - 12th grade students, parents, and educators. This included school partnerships, internships, job shadowing, high-impact events, and more.

Now, I spend my time working on this as a Consultant for our Pipelines and Sourcing teams within Talent Acquisition at Southwest. I support our work around partnerships and inclusion, and it's a dream job!

Outside of work, you'll likely catch me engaged in the community, hiking at a national park (with Southwest flight benefits!), reading a book, or chatting with friends over coffee. I've also written a book with actionable steps for neighbors called the Dallas Good Neighbor Guide, which you can learn more about at goodneighborguide.org.“

Gather Room 4

Passionate about the intersection of technology with art, creativity, and film? Join us for an amazing session with Lucasfilm!

Gather Room 5

Christine Lee has worked in product management at a variety of software companies in the SF Bay Area, including GoDaddy, Twitter, Hired, Intuit, and two companies acquired by Oracle. She earned her BA from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a cofounder and board director for Women In Product, a non-profit organization that equips women to advance their careers. She is currently a Senior Director at GoDaddy, where she has led product teams across domains, websites, and online commerce. Christine and her husband spend most weekends at volleyball tournaments to cheer for their daughter and her team.

Product Manager @ Rightway

Gather Room 1

In a world driven by technology, it’s easy to forget the human side of innovation. In this talk, we’ll explore how tech, especially in healthcare, can be designed with empathy, making a real difference in people’s lives. I’ll share my unconventional journey into the industry and how being a product manager allows me to bridge the gap between technology and human needs. Through real-world examples and an interactive workshop, you’ll learn how to approach tech with a human-first mindset, because the best products don’t just serve users, they serve people.

Gather Room 2

Featuring: Pratima Nambiar (Principal Architect at Salesforce), Lola Roberts (Senior SWE at Mastercard), and Jessica Walton (Software Engineer II at Microsoft)

This panel brings together leading software engineers to provide valuable insights, practical advice, and inspiration to help you thrive in the ever-changing tech landscape.

Gather Room 3

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Danielle Feinberg, Visual Effects Supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios. From her start as a render wrangler on A Bug’s Life to directing the lighting on award-winning films like WALL- E, Brave, and Coco, Danielle has merged her passion for computer science and art to bring some of Pixar’s most iconic stories to life. She’ll share insights on her creative process, discuss her trailblazing role in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and reveal how she balances leading cutting-edge animations with encouraging the next generation, especially young women, to pursue STEM and creative careers.

Gather Room 4

Join us for a conversation with Amy Yin, Venture Partner at defy VC, a seed+ fund based in Woodside, CA. Her connection to defy runs deep-defy backed as the solo founder of OfficeTogther, which was successfully acquired in 2022 by Envoy, a billion-dollar workspace management company. Her technical journey spans a decade, with engineering roles at Facebook’s Internet.org and at Coinbase, where she served as an Engineering Manager for Coinbase.com during the company’s hypergrowth.

Amy holds a BA from Harvard and is passionate about supporting female in tech entrepreneurs, having co-founded the Harvard Women in Computer Science Organization and instructing multiple Girls Who Code classes.

Gather Room 5

Maria Artunduaga is a physician-scientist and inventor with 60+ prizes including becoming the first woman to lead a US-Latam company to win MedTech Innovator, the world's most competitive accelerator for medical technologies surpassing over 1300 global companies. A top 1% student in Colombia, her country of birth, she relocated to the US to pursue plastic surgery training but abandoned it to dedicate herself to solve the problem that killed her grandmother, a lack of home technologies that can detect COPD exacerbations early. Maria has raised $5.2M, almost 60% in non-dilutive capital from NSF and NIH, to build Sylvee, an AI wearable sensor that can provide COPD patients with continuous data on pulmonary function similar to what continuous glucose monitoring sensors do for diabetic patients. Her invention has been featured by and 100+ media outlets including Forbes, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, FierceHealthcare and more. Before Samay, Maria completed postdoctoral studies in Human Genetics at Harvard Medical School, started a plastic surgery residency at The University of Chicago, and completed two master's degrees, one in Global Public Health at the University of Washington and another in Translational Medicine at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco. She lives in Mountain View, CA, with her husband, two-year-old daughter, and four pets. In her free time, she enjoys flamenco dancing, bolero singing, traveling the world, and fostering diversity in and outside the workplace by mentoring underrepresented scientists and entrepreneurs.

Gather Room 2

Featuring:Jaiden Price (Digital Strategy Analyst at Adobe), Zanele Mureverwi (Service Design Analyst at PepsiCo), Huma Hamid (PM at Cisco), and Toluwalope Bashua (SWE at Geico Tech)

This panel will explore the critical steps to launch a successful career in tech, focusing on the unique challenges and opportunities that recent graduates may face in today’s competitive job market. Panelists will share insights on how to stand out during the job search, navigate internship opportunities, and transition from school to industry. The panelists will share practical advice on how attendees can launch their careers in tech.