Building with Accessibility in Mind at Codeland 2019: a Seidenberg student’s story

Luisa Morales, a Computer Science graduate student, has a lengthy list of achievements from her academic career at the Seidenberg School of CSIS. The former Seidenberg student assistant, undergraduate economics student, and Engineering Fellow at the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity curated a resume full of achievements that any student would be proud of.  This summer Luisa went above and beyond—she hosted a workshop at Codeland 2019 titled, Building with Accessibility in Mind.

Codeland, a conference created for new and growing developers, was held in New York City on July 22. Luisa joined a fantastic lineup of workshop mentors and speakers including Avi Flombaum, Co-founder and CIO of Flatiron School, and Jasmine Greenaway, Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. 

Luisa’s workshop called attendees to “come demystify web accessibility with me and get into the nitty-gritty of what it is, how you can test for accessibility on your own, and common best practices. We’ll build an accessible website in the process that you can boast about on GitHub. You’ll also gain practical experience you can utilize to make your current, and future, projects more accessible.”

She explains that her workshop took a very collaborative and hands-on approach with attendees working on demo sites. Everyone in attendance worked in pairs to learn a variety of skills: how to use a screen-reader and keyboard to test website accessibility as well as integrating common practices for improving the accessibility of their projects. 

Asked about specific techniques she teaches her students, Luisa says “this includes things like using semantic HTML, color contrast, font sizes, and ARIA, amongst other things.”

It’s a fair assessment to say that those who learned from Luisa’s workshop earned some crucial and exciting skills to utilize in the future. But where did the idea for the workshop come from?

“The inspiration behind the workshop is my belief in the importance of making the things we produce as developers accessible to as many people as possible and demystifying the idea that it’s too difficult to do or unnecessary,” she explains. “By making a website accessible, you make it better for everyone and increase your potential market share, so I’m not sure why some people think it’s not important. At the Mayor’s Office, it’s ingrained into the development process and a lot of what I’ve learned there is influencing this workshop. I hope that attendees [came] away feeling more comfortable building with accessibility in mind and that it informs their choices as developers, designers, [and] product managers going forward.”

Luisa would like to encourage students—whether they attended her workshop or not—to attend Codeland in the future. She explains that it’s a “very inclusive environment and it’s a great opportunity to meet other people on a similar career path and potentially even your future coworkers!”

Codeland offered an opportunity for Luisa to teach others what she’s passionate about. She had the chance to improve the skills of those in attendance and explains just what that felt like for her.

“I’m proud of how curious and empathetic the workshop attendees were. Building accessible experiences, and especially testing your work with a screen reader, can be overwhelming,” Luisa explained. “Everyone in the workshop was excited to learn how to improve the experiences they created for users online. They were also keen to experience the web as visually impaired users do” by using screen-readers or only keyboards.

While she is proud of her students, Luisa took the time to acknowledge the pride she takes in her own role at Codeland.

“I’m also really proud of myself for putting together the workshop and presenting it at the conference,” she states. “It was very scary to do, but definitely worth the effort and jitters. Would do it again!”

We’re very proud of Luisa here at Seidenberg as well. Students like her who go out of their way to assist other developers to improve their skills are fantastic examples of our community. 

To make things even better, Luisa made sure that her workshop is available online for free! Anyone can access the workshop on GitHub and go through it themselves. She also makes herself available on Twitter for anyone who has questions about her workshop or web accessibility.

Curious about web accessibility? Luisa included some helpful resources for students to check out to learn more. Take a look:

  1. “YES, your site can (and should) be accessible too. Lessons learned in building FT.com” – by Laura Carvajal (https://vimeo.com/215169705)
  2. Tech Done Right Podcast Ep: “Accessibility With Luisa Morales” (https://www.techdoneright.io/49)
  3. Web Fundamentals: Accessibility by Google (https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/accessibility)
  4. What & Why Of Usability by usability.gov (https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/index.html)

Follow us on social media for updates!

Upcoming Hackathons and Conferences to attend Summer and Fall of 2019

When you ask any technologist, scientist, or industry professional about how they kickstarted their career, they’ll almost always say this: networking. Creating a network of industry professionals, professors, and colleagues can give you better access to prestigious job/internship openings and much more. One easy (and fun) way to grow your network is through attending Hackathons and conferences!

Attending these events can be the best way for students, faculty, and staff of all ages to create a network in the technology industry. Listed below are some upcoming conferences and hackathons that could be the ticket to jumpstarting your own professional career in the world of tech.

 

HACKATHONS:

The Environmental Hackathon by AngelHack is from July 12 through July 13, located in Brooklyn, NY. You can purchase your $10 ticket on Eventbrite in order to compete in the event’s challenge for a grand prize total of $5,000. What do you have to do? Students who enter must “develop a visual machine learning model that deliver accurate alerts for a range of environmental conditions,” according to the ticket listing.

The ConsenSys NYC Hackathon by ConsenSys is a free Hackathon from July 20 through July 21. The event, which is held in Brooklyn, NY, gives the grand prize winner of the challenge $1,500 and allows them to be fast-tracked into consideration for project funding. The challenge criteria subjects are listed on their site: infrastructure L1 and L2, education and technical knowledge, social impact, security, and usability of dev tooling. Snag your free ticket here.

The Voicehacks Hackathon in Newark, NJ, is a free one-day Hackathon on July 22. The challenge is as follows: “this will be a one-day sprint-style hackathon intended to allow developers, designers, product managers, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts up to innovate development in a fast-paced and fun atmosphere where attendees can bring their own ideas to life.” You can get your ticket here.

The Mount Sinai Health Hackathon is held on October 11 through October 13 in New York, NY. According to the site, “it will be an exciting 48-hour trans-disciplinary competition focused on creating novel technology solutions for problems in healthcare. This year’s theme is Artificial Intelligence – Expanding the Limits of Human Performance.” You can check out the event details here.

 

CONFERENCES:

The ICSD 2019 conference is totally free! Join in on the perfect networking opportunity from September 24 to September 25. According to the website, “the aim of the conference is to identify and share practical, evidence-based solutions that can support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” You can get your free ticket for the conference on Eventbrite.

The Silicon Harlem Next-Gen Conference has a much higher price at $75 per ticket, but the Harlem-based event sounds like a blast. On October 17,  “the 6th Annual Silicon Harlem Conference will dive into the rapidly coming new infrastructure driven by 5G technology,” according to their site details.

 

If you attend any of these conferences or hackathons, be sure to let us know how they went! We’d love to hear about your experience and possibly share your story.

Follow us on social media for updates!

Garima spent her summer working in the heart of Manhattan at MetLife

Garima Kulkarni
Garima shows off her view of the NYE Ball!

1) Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am currently interning at MetLife Insurances, NY as an IT Internal Audit Intern. MetLife is one of the global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries. MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States also serves 90 of the largest Fortune 500 companies.

2) Can you tell us a little about what you are doing?

I work for the GTOA (Global Technology and Operational Audit) department, Team RAD Americas under Nancy Hom (AVP). The profile has the following responsibilities:

1) Ensure compliance to MetLife Policy & Procedures, leading practices, procedural efficiency, risk management and accuracy;

2) Ensure IT compliance to regulatory standards and best practice; and

3) Ensure IT compliance to IT Risk and Security standards and practices, where applicable to audits.

3) Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship?

So many, Professors at Pace have been really helpful and friendly especially being an international student. I took Overview Of Information Technology (IT 603) under Prof Narayan Murthy, then Project Management (IS 637) under Prof James Gabberty. These subjects

really helped gain the knowledge areas required for the field in which I am interning. Also, special thanks to Svetlana and the Career Services office for keeping me motivated from time to time be it with my resume approval or help with getting CPT application procedures in on time. Also, to Dean Amar Gupta who has helped me get motivated and supported me with his guidance.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work?

So many perks of working right in the middle of Times Square. The area is flooded with different cuisines restaurants and Bars. To pick one would be difficult, but I mostly pick my lunch from Kobeyaki – it’s a Japanese cuisine restaurant. Bryant Park is also one of my favorite places to hangout with colleague interns.

Garima Kulkarni is a student at Seidenberg working towards her degree in Information Systems.

 

Helena has been spending her summer interning at Infor

Helena Santiago

1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I work with Infor, a cloud software company that provides software solutions to other businesses. The apps they create are not the same as your regular mobile apps. Their software products perform on a much bigger scale since they streamline the system of different businesses.

2.Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

Infor typically works with other businesses, but my project is more internal. Another intern from Pace, Preston Rollins, and I are working on an application for the Education Alliance Program. The Education Alliance Program is a department at Infor that works with various institutions to help students with internships and schools with software solutions. Pace University is one of the member institutions. For our application, we use a software called Mongoose, which is a software framework similar to Visual Studio. The special thing about Mongoose is that it is terrific at handling relational databases. What we do is plan out the structure of the database, design the user interface, and further enhance the look and functionality with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I am also pretty excited for our official presentation to demo our app to the CEO by the end of August.

 infor logo3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Aside from self-learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through CodeAcademy, I have received additional training in these languages through Professor Julia Khan-Nomee’s class, Web Authoring and Digital Media.

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!) 

Not really, but during my first month, my manager brought our team to this place called Tre Dici Steak. Their appetizers were delicious and their steak was succulent. Also, Madison Square Park is located just a few blocks away from the office. It is the perfect spot for lunch breaks, plus there is a Shake Shack in the park!

 Helena Santiago is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree in Information Systems.

Chinmay talks about his summer internship at Argus

chinmay1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I worked with Argus Information & Advisory Services LLC this summer. Argus is a leading provider of analytics, information and solutions to consumer banks and their regulators. They help their clients maximize the value of data and analytics to allocate and align resources to strategic objectives, manage and mitigate risk (default, fraud, funding and compliance), and optimize financial objectives.

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

I was tasked with developing and deploying Tableau Reports for use by the ETL Production and Client teams within Argus. I developed two separate Tableau Reports covering system-wide metrics for SQL loading and server status, and an inbound file tracker. This involved developing the reports themselves within Tableau, as well as the necessary SQL Server tables and stored procedures to obtain the data. Once developed, these reports were deployed to a Tableau Server and  Argus’ main server.

Alongside the internship project, I worked with the production ETL processes including in-house file and SQL Server loading automation, SAS file conversions, WinSCP FTP troubleshooting, and data ticketing platforms.   Argus

Outside of my professional responsibilities, I served as a team captain for the company’s annual summer soccer tournament.

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

All the database related classes that I took in my Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 semesters helped me to a great extent during my tenure there. They involved Database Management Systems (Prof. Namchul Shin), Data Warehousing, Mining & Visualization (Prof. Chienting Lin), and Database Design & Dev of Web (Prof. Hsui-Lin L. Winkler).

4. Does your new office have a favorite restaurant/hangout they go to after work? (No! we’re not going to show up like proud parents!)

Almost everyone in the office goes for lunch together at the mall right outside Argus, called ‘The Galleria at White Plains.’ And for after work drinks there is one huge strip on Mamaroneck Avenue flooded with restaurants and bars, “The Brazen Fox” and “Black Bear Sports Bar” being everyone’s favorites.

Chinmay Juneja is working towards his MS in IS and also works as a student assistant in the Seidenberg offices. Another Seidenberg student, Nachiket Pingle, also spent his summer working at Argus with Chinmay!

Brandon Weaver is spending his summer working for Tudor Investment

tudor-investment-corporation-squarelogo1. Who are you working with this summer? (…and what do they do?)

I am working with IT Client Services at Tudor Investment. We handle all front-end and a decent amount of back-end technical issues in the firm

2. Can you tell us a little about what you are doing? (We might not understand the technicalities, but we’d love details!)

We image machines for offices, set up conferences, troubleshoot issues with users, provision phones, etc. Essentially we cover everything technical in the firm.

3. Is there a particular class or professor at Seidenberg that has helped you prepare specifically for your current internship? (Clearly, we’re all about shout outs this summer!)

Professor Courtney provided me the opportunity and coding background for this internship. Professor Frank’s Networking class provided a majority of the knowledge that I use on a regular basis.

Brandon Weaver is a student at our Pleasantville campus, and alongside of classes works as a CS/CIS tutor and supervisor for Educational Media. 


Skip to toolbar