Category: Featured

Cynthia Shaw (BS/IT’15, Westchester) is part of Pace’s CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program. As a perk of the scholarship program, Cynthia had the opportunity to attend the Women in Cyber Security Conference (WiCyS) in Atlanta, Georgia recently. Cynthia reflects on her experience at the conference:

 “WiCyS was incredible — an event that all women in computing should be a part of! We had the privilege of hearing some amazing female leaders in the cybersecurity field speak, including Phyllis Schneck, a director for cybersecurity with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Jenn Lesser Henley who runs the security team for Facebook. In addition, the conference offered numerous career-boosting opportunities including a resume workshop, a job fair, as well as information about graduate studies. A variety of workshops were also part of the program, including packet sniffing, a look into digital forensics, network packet analysis, and my personal favorite, a capture the flag competition hosted by Facebook. The capture the flag workshop was the very first Facebook workshop run exclusively by women and presented to an all women audience — we made Facebook history that day!

WiCyS is only in its second year, though its attendance has nearly tripled since last year. As an information technology (IT) major, it is not hard to recognize that I am a minority in the field. I am often the only girl in my classes, and having attended a few Computer Society meetings, I can tell you that there are only a couple of girls at those meetings as well.  While I enjoy the challenge of being a minority and standing out, when I heard about a conference that gathered women in my field, I knew it was something I had to be a part of. 

While the days were long and the schedule was packed, I could not have asked for a better experience. The takeaway messages I would like to share with my fellow women colleagues are the following:

 1. Don’t limit yourself. Apply to anything and everything that interests you and don’t be afraid of rejection. For every 20 ‘No’s’ you get, there will be that one ‘Yes’ eventually.

2. Find an area you love and run with it. The saying goes that if you love what you do, you will not work a day in your life. I personally love computer forensics and I couldn’t be more excited to start working once I graduate.

3. Try to learn something new every day. The good thing about IT and cybersecurity is that it is evolving and changing at a rapid pace. Something new is always rolling out, so it is super easy to always be learning and growing.

4. And finally, go out of your way to help other women. The best thing we can do as women in a field where we are outnumbered is to motivate, encourage and empower each other.

 This conference was unique, inspiring, and one of the best experiences I have had in college. My hope is that more women get involved and attend next year so that the numbers continue to grow and we continue to have a major impact in the field of Information Technology and Cybesecurity. Women are awesome and we should be proud of that!”

Seidenberg is proud of its commitment to supporting women by offering a variety of clubs and events for women to participate in. Among these include some of our other pride-and-joys such as BlackGirlsCode, Lean-In Circle, and WriteSpeakCode. Also worth mentioning is Pleasantville’s initiative to launch a “Women in Technology” mentorship program this coming Fall!

Graduate Seidenberg student Virali Jhaveri (IS/’16) is a great indicator of how many opportunities are available for students during their time here and even afterward. As we all know, many of our graduate students come from a variety of experiences and fields — with Virali, we’ve seen a bit of what she’s been up to during her time here, so we wanted to know more about her days before Pace and her plans for afterward. So, we brought her around for a chat:

Before you came to earn your Masters at Pace, what kinds of things did you work on, and how has that lead you here?

I have 3 years of experience as a software developer from working on various technical platforms. I completed my undergraduate in Information Technology back in India, and I am also a diploma holder in Computer Technology. Keeping with my passion for IT and making a successful career in this field have always been a dream of mine. I’m eager to gain more exposure about global technology, which is why I chose to be a part of Pace’s Masters program.

We know you’ve been busy, so what kinds of things have you already worked on during your time here?

I received a Graduate Assistantship for both the semesters and the amazing opportunity to work with the Associate Dean Dr. Jonathan Hill. There aren’t words to describe how skillful Dr Hill is! I am also working as an instructor to more than 100 students, teaching various technical tools and coding platforms like Microsoft Excel, HTML 5 and CSS 3. The fun and the challenging part is that the students are from different majors (like actors, dancers,..) with minimum or no IT knowledge. This class is conducted once a week and helps me gain confidence and polishes my problem solving skills. I absolutely love my work as a graduate assistant!

You’ve been involved in all kinds of things like the middle school outreach with Time Warner, Lean-in-Circle, PDP, etc — could you tell us a little about your favorite out of these?

I believe Pace is the place to be — there is an ocean of opportunities that are easily accessible if you intend to learn and grow. I am greedy for technology and never satisfied with the knowledge I gain, so I like to utilize my time in learning new things. This crazy attitude towards learning got me involved in these couple of interesting projects and I proudly choose to be an active part of all of these opportunities. I like all my projects because they are diverse but still connected to technology in some way. Time Warner Cable’s initiative to help connect middle school students to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) helps the students to identify their area of interest, with a focus on the importance of technology and the innovative side of Sciences!

Lean-In Circle was an initiative started by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, to support and help the women in technology to grow. At Pace, the Lean-In Circle group meets once a month to discuss the opportunities that will help us identify our goals and work towards the ways to achieve equality in the field. PDP is a product development project — it is the first of its kind based on human-trafficking crime-mapping that has been done at any university in the US! I am glad to be a part of this project that will help me identify and map the ever increasing human-trafficking issues occurring these days. This research demonstrates the concept of Design Thinking, where interdisciplinary students come together, plan, design and learn as a team. It’s a not-for-profit initiative to make this world a better place to live.

We hear you’re applying for the Grace Hopper Scholarship!  What exactly does it takes to be an applicant, and what will you do with it should you win it?

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. There is a 3-day conference held every year that provides a platform to connect, inspire, and guide women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. There are few application requirements, and I will consider myself lucky if I get this opportunity for two main reasons:

A) Networking: I believe networking is an opportunity to showcase your skills and talents to experts in your field. By attending this conference, I could end up working with the CEO of some startup or top companies!

B) Learning experience: It is important for an individual to be updated with the latest, as well as futuristic, aspects of technology — at least if one is passionate about being successful in IT — and this will be the golden platform to learn!

 What got you into the field of IS in the first place?

I am a combination of both left-brained and right-brained, which means I love innovation and the ability to achieve ease. Information systems is a study of analytical, design, and creative thinking. These skills bundled together makes a person fit for solving problems and making effective management decisions. The study of IS is a way to build and polish these useful skills.

What has been your favorite class or professor during your time, and why?

I have 2 favorites that stand out:

Information Systems and Project Management was my favorite subject at Pace in my first semester: At the end of the course I had a firm grasp of my IT project management concepts and the terminologies needed to be a successful IT project/program manager. Without a doub,t Dr. James Gabberty is one of the finest professors here. It was also the first time I ever saw a professor get doughnuts and coffee for the students! It was so cool — who wouldn’t love this?

Responsive Website Designing (IT614): I must say this is a really cool course if you want to explore your creative side. This is an online course with Dr. Narayan Murthy. If you work hard on the class’s notes and the assignments, then trust me, you can see yourself working at Google in the next 2 years. My dream is to work at Google and I am sure I share this dream with almost every Web/Code monkey on earth. In short, this course is interesting and helps you build logical designing skills.

We’re honored to have students like Virali in our program here at Seidenberg and we cannot wait to participate in her bright future in the world of technology!

Almost two-thirds of young Americans, according to the 2014 Raytheon-NCSA Millennial Survey, are unsure about what the “cybersecurity” profession actually is. However, the demand for cybersecurity-related occupations is booming. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that jobs as information security professionals are expected to grow by 53 percent in the next four years.

The Pace Cybersecurity Academic Partnership (PCAP), a program led by Dr. Li-Chiou Chen, Professor and Chair of the IT Department in Westchester, aims to increase the number of cybersecurity professionals through partnerships with area community colleges, utilizing support from the National Science Foundation. This year PCAP welcomes Orange County Community College as a new partner! As of Spring 2015, PCAP is proud to now include seven partner colleges!

PCAP supports numerous activities for both students and faculty from partner colleges, including an annual, student cybersecurity workshop. Twenty-two enthusiastic students from five area colleges attended the PCAP Student Cybersecurity Workshop held on Friday, March 27th at the Pace Graduate Center in White Plains. The full-day event was filled with presentations by Seidenberg faculty on topics ranging from mobile forensics to web security and biometrics. The students were also introduced to various academic and career opportunities, as well as to co-curricular activities that could contribute to expanding their knowledge, skills, abilities, and professional network. Among these activities is the PCAP Student Summer Research Program, which pairs students from partner colleges with faculty and students from Pace to work on mini-research projects in one of the following areas: computer forensics, web security or biometrics.

Many thanks to professors Li-Chiou Chen, Andreea Cotoranu, Darren Hayes, Charles Tappert, as well as Seidenberg students James Ossipov and Anthony Martini for all their contributions to the 2015 PCAP Student Cybersecurity Workshop.

• If you are interested in exploring cybersecurity as an education/career option, register for cybersecurity-related courses in Fall 2015!  A list of cybersecurity-related courses offered by the Seidenberg School is available here; please note that not all courses listed will be offered in Fall 2015

• If you are an undergraduate or graduate student interested in studying cybersecurity and working for the local, state or federal government, consider applying for the CyberCorps®: Scholarship for Service.