STEM Diversity Podcast: Recent Episodes
Victor Wu
Interviews with STEM and tech professionals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. From Facebook, Braintree, IBM, Toyota, Stanford, UIUC, Johns Hopkins, the Gates Institute, and more.
Amanda started Happii, a startup studio that helps non-technical entrepreneurs create apps and scale them into companies, including product and technology development, marketing, and project management. Amanada acts as a co-founder of these companies as part of the arrangements. Two of these companies are Afridate and Tipoff. Afridate is a dating app that connects black singles. It allows you to search by nationality or ethnicity. Tipoff is a word guessing game customized to African-American vernacular.
Amanda started her career in entertainment PR. But she wasn’t fulfilled by it. Later on she started hackathons aimed at the Black community, and also started Tiphub, a tech accelerator in Africa. Amanda went to Florida State University and Georgetown University.
Amanda says that as an African-American, she is a subject matter expert and her work has often veered in that direction and it is intentional. However, she says it makes good business sense overall to fo [...]
Jeffrey Smith is Manager of Production Operations at Centro, a media services company that helps brands and ad agencies execute their digital advertising strategies. These companies have broad advertising campaigns, and they come to Centro to get help with the digital parts. Centro provides web-based tools with standardized workflows in an industry which has in the past been very disorganized and analog. Centro also has a demand side platform (DSP), allowing advertisers to bid on digital ads in real time auctions. Centro’s main business is in placement of ads on digital properties, based on the user viewing the site. Centro is planning to ramp up in the social media advertising space too.
Production Operations (ProdOps) ensures that production environments are up and running, that they are patched appropriately, that security rollouts are maintained and updated. ProdOps at Centro (and in the industry as a whole), is starting to move beyond just supporting customer-faci [...]
Brian Gerrard is Co-Founder at California Modular, an Oakland-based real estate development company, that addresses the rising housing costs in many US urban communities. He is also Co-Founder of Bae, a dating app for Black millennial singles. Brian is based out of Oakland.
Brian says that in the Bay Area, the supply for affordable housing has stayed constant, but the demand has grown exponentially. Consequently, the cost of housing has risen by 75% in the past 5 years in Oakland. Family salaries have not risen by this rate, so there is a tremendous need to be solved. The demand is spilling over from San Francisco, where big tech companies are attracting folks moving in who are able to pay much higher rent, and thus displacing the original locals. He says that the people living in these areas are not getting access to the education in order to be able to get these jobs offered in their cities. This is the real problem that needs to be addressed.
With California Modula [...]
Bernard started Analyse Asia podcast about three years ago, as a way to do long-form storytelling, in order to cover business and technology in Asia. The podcast is focused on companies who have at least received a Series B round of funding, and the movers and shakers in that world. Guests include executives of US companies based in Asia, executives of Asian companies, and industry watchers and journalists. Bernard is planning to grow the podcast into a broader media platform.
Bernard is Head of Post Office Network and Digital Services at Singapore Post (at the time of recording). Singapore Post is a publicly listed company. It’s the largest global logistics provider across Asia Pacific for ecommerce logistics. As part of the executive leadership team, Bernard helped bring Alibaba into investing $282 million into SingPost. Bernard is responsible for the digital strategy across the entire company (except for the ecommerce team, which is run like an independent startup). [...]
Shareef Jackson is the founder of the math and physics tutoring service Math Looks Good and a co-host on the Spawn on Me podcast. He is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Shareef started the Math Looks Good tutoring service while working at a corporate job. He’s since left the corporate world and done this full time. He works with high school students. For some students, he has developed a custom curriculum for them. Shareef uses plain English and modern examples. He says he used a Black Panther movie trailer to illustrate the laws of motion. He helps students see that math and science are not abstract concepts, but that they are already interacting with day to day.
In 2011, Shareef was doing a lot of work with NASA, and started a blog called Science Looks Good, which focuses on space exploration and diversity within science. He says we often overlook the contributions that people of color have made to science, throughout history. He says a lot of students don’ [...]
Kathy explains her role as Director of Security at the startup, GitLab. She’s responsible for securing the company, which involves setting guidelines on how to store customer data and other sensitive data within the company infrastructure. She works with other teams in the organization to ensure that the product that is rolled out is as secure as possible. Kathy says that security teams at companies often do security research while discovering vulnerabilities.
Kathy advises companies who make security products. Having spent much of her career evaluating security products, she is able to advise them on what are good products, and what is good business strategy. She says many security products are already commoditized today, such as firewalls, antivirus software, and VPN software. So these wouldn’t be good businesses today, and doesn’t move the industry forward.
Ranjitha talks about a data-driven approach to digital design. She explains the research work her group does at the University of Illinois in the Department of Computer Science. The applications are very board, including mining user interactions in mobile apps and even the fashion vertical. Ranjitha talks about growing up in the Bay Area. Her parents encouraged her to have a broad education, influencing her to now have an interdisciplinary approach to her current work. Ranjitha previously co-founded Apropose, based off her graduate school work in Stanford, before becoming faculty at University of Illinois.
ranjitha@illinois.edu
linkedin.com/in/ranjitha-kumar-005a293/
Mark talks about Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, a business policy think tank in the business school of UNC Chapel Hill, where he serves as Executive Director. He shares how the institute, through its portfolio of centers, partners with businesses and local governments to work on projects benefting local communities in economic need.
Mark also talks about Black Communities: A Conference for Collaboration. It is an upcoming conference connecting academic researchers an black communities across North America.
Mark traces his broad career path in earth sciences, research and academia, government and policy, as well as business engagement.
linkedin.com/in/mark-little-a5b99a37/
Angela, Partner at Version One Ventures, explains venture capital. She explains the business of unicorns and how it is a high risk high reward type of investment.
Angela talks about growing up in Toronto in an immigrant family. She did biomedical engineering in undergrad, and applied those engineering skills to finance in her PhD.
Angela co-founded Insight Data Science, a program that equips PhD graduates with real-world data science skills, and places them in top tech companies.
linkedin.com/in/angela-tran-kingyens-38262131/
twitter.com/ATKingyens
Edmond talks about developing financial models using stochastic processes, similar to those used in physics. Does a lot of research and software implementation day to day.
Edmond talks about growing up with math as a hobby, with a mathematician father. Following sports stats in baseball and basketball. Playing chess and card games like black jack and poker. Edmond always enjoyed applications of math, and chose a career in math finance.
Edmond says it’s important for Asians to break free of the stereotype of just being good at math or analytics fields, and also have leadership and management roles.
linkedin.com/in/edmond-choi-61779920/
Erin talks about how speaking at Comic-Con and Dragon Con led her to create a YouTube series explaining science in science fiction. She explains the science behind the Heisenberg compensator in Star Trek. She talks about her career as a science consultant for the entertainment industry.
Erin explains gravitational waves and the recently announced discoveries as well as some of the related postdoctoral research work she did in the area.
Erin says representation matters, and she makes a conscious effort to mentor young kids. Diversity is not great in astrophysics. She says growing up, she had to rely on fictional characters like Dana Scully and Captain Janeway as mentors.
linkedin.com/in/erin-macdonald-phd-b9a05313 [...]
Sara talks about sea turtles in the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. She explains her research work in the sea turtles and the promotion work of protecting natural resources on the island through the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network (SKSTMN).
Sara recalls having a lot of opportunities connecting with nature while growing up, and advocates for all people to do the same, to truly understand how our day-to-day human decisions impact the greater ecological system.
linkedin.com/in/sara-ramirez-12421485/
twitter.com/saradramirez
Frankie talks about how his software skills, hardware skills, and project management knowledge come together in his role as Design Release Engineer. He shares about his time at the University of Michigan, where there were very few African American students, and even less in the engineering program. He talks about how it’s important for organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) to help build and maintain the pipeline of underrepresented folks in learning engineering at a young age, going through college, and transitioning to industry.
linkedin.com/in/frankie-reed-16838794/
fbreed@umich.edu
Gabriel explains how basic design principles carry over in different modes of human computer interaction, even in the new field of VR design, and how thinking in 3D is important for VR.
Gabriel talks growing up in Cuba and Costa Rica, and how his persistence led him through different roles in his career, bringing him to VR design now. Gabriel organized the design-focused Vectors Conference earlier this year, where the attendees learned about how your identity and personal experiences affects your work.
twitter.com/gabrielvaldivia
linkedin.com/in/gabrielvaldivia/
gabrielvaldivia.com/
Immersive technology
Oculus
VR R [...]
Billimarie talks about being a front end developer at Message Agency, a B Corp based in Philadelphia, serving nonprofits locally and nationally.
She talks about how her early passion in art (she majored in creative writing and film in college) allowed her to explore digital tools, eventually becoming a professional web developer, and how that background still gives her a unique perspective in tech today.
Billimarie is a teacher and board member at Coded by Kids, serving inner-city kids.
twitter.com/typewritepoetry
work@billimarie.com
Message Agency
B Lab
Marie talks about working on many of the pioneering technologies in the digital food ordering and delivery business, especially interfacing with restaurants before they were equipped with modern technologies.
Marie talks about bringing her product skills to Willow Chicago, and how to motivate and mobilize volunteers in nonprofit organizations.
linkedin.com/in/mariesarmiento/
Grubhub
Willow Chicago
Chicago Product Management Association Meetup
WomenHack
WiSTEM
STEM Diversity Podcast
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | < [...]
Amy provides a broad overview of the field of population science and reproductive health. She talks about her role and work as professor at Johns Hopkins, as former Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute, and as President of the Population Association of America.
She talks about projects impacting families all over the world, including places like Sub-Saharan Africa where there is still a great need for reproductive education and resources.
She says that STEM by itself is not adequate. There is space around for people too that are going to be important to the whole enterprise.
linkedin.com/in/amy-tsui-4492bb9/
atsui@jhsph.edu
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
Brittany tells us about the complexities of consumer payment processing, and how her product management work at Braintree helps companies simplify that.
Braintree is improving hiring by using Textio to create more inclusive job reqs (postings) and calling out the Imposter Syndrome.
Brittany shares the difficulties she’s faced in the past, and tells us that the fight is hard. She says self-care is important. Don’t get burnt out.
linkedin.com/in/brittanycanty/
Braintree Payments
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Textio
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome - Braintree Blog Post
Debra shares her life as a grant-writing postdoc and her current path toward a research-focused faculty position. She explains how her cognitive neuroscience and bioengineering backgrounds prepared her for the autism research she does now at Stanford University.
She tells us it’s important to be visible as a black female neuroscientist, why diversity is not enough, and that we need inclusion as well. She seamlessly blends her professional work with her life as a social justice advocate.
twitter.com/drdebah
linkedin.com/in/deb-karhson-93a67754/
Stanford University School of Medicine
California Academy of Sciences NightLife
Taste of Science
Autism< [...]
Matthew cuts through the confusion, explaining what nanotech really is. He talks about NNCI, an NSF-funded nanotech research infrastructure, with Virginia Tech being one of the 16 sites. He shares a 2017 NSF report, saying that we’re doing poorly in science and engineering with regard to diversity. And he tells us what he’s doing to tackle that problem with diversity initiatives at Virginia Tech NanoEarth.
twitter.com/thewchan
linkedin.com/in/matthew-chan-ph-d-53b1041a
Virginia Tech Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Virginia Tech Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (VTSuN)
Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth)
< [...]
Heidi talks building enterprise software for Enova, shaping roadmaps and strategic planning, product management practice, mentorship, Chicago Women in Technology Conference, and not being taken seriously when she was the youngest and only female at the table early in her tech career.
linkedin.com/in/heidi-williams-9a67331
Enova
Chicago Women in Technology Conference
STEM Diversity Podcast
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Google Play Music | Stitcher | < [...]
Joy talks about working in the Microelectronics Research Lab at IBM, how IBM Watson is disrupting healthcare, growing up Taiwanese American, how she got into materials engineering, and how Disney is never going to tell young girls that they can be engineers.
linkedin.com/in/joy-chao-33a1b23b
IBM Reserch
Society of Women Engineers
STEM Diversity Podcast
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Google Play Music | Stitcher |
Sarrah Vesselov is UX Lead at GitLab, an online git repository manager that allows people and businesses to manage projects as they change over time. GitLab is a way for developers, managers, developers, and designers to manage work together.
Sarrah explains that UI (user interface) is the tangible thing you see. It is about the structure, such as wireframes. Her focus within that UI is the UX (user experience). It is her job to evaluate that and ensure that it is the best experience possible. A wireframe is very base level blocking out, such as the structure of a house. A poor user experience is walking into a house and running into a couch, or not being able to reach a window.
As UX Lead, Sarrah’s main focus is keeping an overview view of everything. What are most important initiatives and the research being done to back up the decision making. She works with product managers to understand what users need. She does get into the design, and also even jumps into [...]