Women in Engineering

On Thursday, September 3, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., Aliya Amershi, Tech Coach & Startup Founder at Codefree App Launch will present “How to Start an App Idea Today that Gets Customers!”. Day & Time: Thursday, September 3, 2020 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Organizer: IEEE Toronto WIE Location: Virtual – Zoom Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Program Outline: My “5-Step System” to get to app launch without all the guesswork, inspired by proven Silicon Valley tech startup methods. The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs make without even knowing and why building the “perfect” app can fail. How to startup without depending on investors, finding co-founders, or paying for developers. What I did to go viral and start experiencing exponential growth! The latest tools on the block to make your app from scratch without having to write a single line of code. Entrepreneur mindset hacks to help break through your internal barriers so that you can get started today. Why getting customers for just your app idea before you even build your app is important and how to start making some real progress. Register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/118328619085/ Biography: Aliya Amershi, Tech Coach & Startup Founder @ Codefree App Launch Aliya is on a mission to help ambitious women entrepreneurs break into tech and build an app idea that gets customers fast without all of the unnecessary barriers to entry. Aliya’s unique online accelerator is focused on empowering women to quickly get their app idea out to market and start making a positive impact without having to pitch investors, learn code, or find developers. Aliya is a former engineer turned entrepreneur with over 20 years of technology experience and 5 years of startup experience. She has helped build multiple popular apps and tech products, including the Emmy Award-winning Nick App. She has held senior tech and leadership roles at Fortune 500 Enterprises, built two bootstrapped Startups, and served as a local director for a Silicon Valley-based Incubator. In addition, Aliya is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council and regularly contributes to Forbes and Inc. for her expert advice on technology and entrepreneurship. One of her favorite quotes she goes by is: “If you decide not to quit, the only option is to win!”.

On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 11:00 a.m., Sherry Qin will present “API Economy: Managing Security and Compliance Risks at Academia”. Day & Time: Thursday, September 10, 2020 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Sherry Qin Organizer: IEEE Toronto WIE, York University WiCSE Contact: Hina Tabassum, Ayda Naserialiabadi Abstract: Application Programing Interfaces (APIs) have transformed our digital world by connecting data, processes, and people. There are thousands of Open APIs publicly available for creating innovative applications dealing with Public Services, Health Sciences, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and many others contributing to the Digital Economy. Researchers and students in academia are increasingly using Open APIs for various research/training related digital services and other academic purposes. Open APIs offer great benefits, but they come with security and legal risks. Unfortunately, not everyone (especially students) are aware of the underlying security and compliance challenges. Furthermore, there are no easily accessible repositories that provide security/legal assessments on these publicly available APIs. Existing repositories such as ProgrammableWeb, API.io, RapidAPI.com, APIs.guru and others are best at providing API endpoints, categories, and other information, which are not sufficient to address the security and legal concerns. In this presentation, speaker will discuss about the state of Open APIs from design and security perspectives that have been assessed by analyzing thousands of Open APIs from hundreds of vendors. Speaker will also talk about legal risks that should be avoided while using Open APIs. Overall, audience will learn about how to: (1) take advantage of the myriad of Open APIs; (2) accelerate research and product development; (3) meet compliance regulations; (4) reduce security/legal/privacy risks to make data-driven applications more INNOVATIVE (through Open APIs) yet SECURE (from cyber-attacks) and COMPLIANT (with Canadian privacy laws, GDPR, EU-US Privacy Shield, and other regulations). Register: Please visit here for more information and to register. Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3263892360 Biography: Name: Sherry Qin Education: University of British Columbia Master of Business Analytics Current role: Business and Market Associate at TeejLab Current work: Expanding community and increasing public awareness of API Security by holding industry and academic reaching-out events. Have successfully organized several online Fireside Chats.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., IEEE Toronto WIE will host the webinar “Career Night Series: Which Direction Should I Take with My Career?”. Day & Time: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, Ryerson Computer Science Location: Virtual – Webinar Contact: Wincy Li Description: Not sure whether to pursue a PhD or Postdoc? Unclear about your career options? In this webinar, you will learn how to research the labour market so that you will be empowered with the tools and resources you need for career decision making and planning. If you require any accessibility needs, please contact Wincy at wincyli@ryerson.ca as soon as possible. Register: Click here to visit the registration page.