WiE-UC November Newsletter

ISSUE

18

November 2021

WIE - UC NEWSLETTER IEEE Student Branch of the UC Women in Engineering Affinity Group

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Interview with Margarida Silva - P. 1

Biography of Ana Roqué de Duprey - P. 3

Achievement of Cynthia Rudin - P.4

Recipes with WiE Curiosity - P.6 P.4

ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021

IEE WiE Interviews - Margarida Silva Born in 1989, a typical “millennial”, Margarida is a Project Manager geek. She studied Business Management at ISEG (Lisbon School of Economics and Management), and started her career as a Project Manager trainee in SONAE. She began with the fundamentals of Lean and Kaizen, moving then to learning more about Innovation Management and Design Thinking, through a GIMI (Global Innovation Management Institute) certification.

She joined business consulting in 2016, where she performed Banking and IT projects for several clients, national and internationally. She specialized in waterfall tools and methods and then in Agile frameworks, got the Scrum Master certification and more recently was trained to become an Agile Coach.

Margarida is currently working as a Program Delivery Manager at the biggest IT company in Portugal, NOVABASE – Celfocus, in a Telco tier1 client ecosystem running in SAFe (Scaled Agile framework) responsible for a team of 45+ people. She is also the Analytics Delivery Office lead, coaching other project leaders to improve the ways of working and have successful and happy projects.

1. To begin this interview, would you tell us a little bit about your childhood, and if there were any defining moments which led you to choosing your career path?

I grew up wanting to be a flightattendant. I love to fly and everything around aviation looked glamorous and adventurous for me. Later on I thought maybe I would like to be a pilot. But as I studied Economics during high school, I thought the best/broader option for me was a Business Management degree.

Turns out a Project Management internship appeared and as it never gets boring because it touches so many knowledge areas within the management spectrum that I ended up loving this career path.

2. You have quite a lot of experience as a project manager. What do you consider to be vital aspects for any project to run smoothly?

Having a fit-for-purpose team, with a collaborative culture, roles/responsibilities and a Governance well defined. Focus always on improving, even when things already look pretty good, we can always do better.

To “Be Agile” we must understand the Agile values. It is a question of mindset and not a question of following a method or a framework or a set of rules. It means nothing to work in sprints an perform dailys if we do not remove the right impediments, streamline the delivery flow and incrementally deliver value to our end users.

3. A lot of companies describe themselves as “Agile” nowadays. To you, what does it mean to be Agile?

4. What made you decide to join the PWIT Mentorship Program?

I wanted to help future female leaders to PAGE 1

ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021

enhance their potential and also train my coaching skills. Also create awareness to the gender gap that is gradually becoming less expressive.

5. How would you describe your journey as a mentor in the PWIT Mentorship Program?

I was very lucky with my mentee because we think alike in many topics and she was easy to coach because she is highly driven and successful! I appreciated the group dynamics also, with other mentors and mentees and I believe we created a great network, even for future support.

PWIT does an excellent and very important job, kudos to them!

6. Considering your role as a manager, have you ever felt any resistance towards you on behalf of your male colleagues?

Yes. 7. Would you walk us through a typical workday, including any morning or nightly routines you may have to destress?

As I am working with different geographies and timezones, my days start very early. But before work, I enjoy walking the dog and take that time to organize my thoughts and messages for the day. Then I have an average of 9 meetings per day, with a range of topics from budget, staffing, risks screening to 1:1’s, presentation dry runs or features refinements. There is never a boring day and each one is different from the others. . .

At the end of the day I have some (too many) activities “off work” but sometimes I de-stress by just doing simple things such as listening to podcasts or reading some books, while enjoying a nice drink.

8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

This one is a cliché! I will just say I want to continue learning and sharing, so that others can also leverage on my knowledge, hopefully in many cool projects to come. That would make me happy.

9. What advice would you give to anyone who wishes to take on a role in management?

Management roles take a perfect balance between hard and soft skills. And a lot of responsibility, so the key point is to have reasonability and integrity when making decisions. Be a great communicator but never forget to be an active listener.

Always value your team and focus on the end goal, results will come.

Finally, as a bit of humor ….

10. Imagine you’ve been transported into the universe of the last book you read. What do you think would happen?

The last book I read was “The Ministry of Common Sense” by Martin Lindstrom, which is quite similar to the reality of our common days so actually it just helps us to laugh by paying attention at the “common sense” (or lack of it) in the little details of corporate processes or daily-life tasks…and how to tackle them!

Sarah Holm PAGE 2

ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021

Biography ANA ROQUÉ DE DUPREY Ana Roqué de Duprey was born in 1853, in Puerto Rico. She had an impressive mind and by the age of three had already learned how to write. At seven years old, she enrolled in a regular school, which she graduated from only two years later.

She then continued her education through homeschooling, becoming a teacher’s assistant by the age of 11. At only 13 years old she founded a school at home, and became a licensed teacher.

In 1872, she got married to Luis Duprey, who was a slave owner. As part of her agreement to the marriage, she was able to educate the slaves.

She was the first woman to be permitted in the Puerto Rican Athenaeum and to become a member of the San Juan public library.

In 1884, she became a teacher in Arecibo and studied philosophy and science in the Provincial Institute, earning a bachelor’s degree. In 1899, Ana Roqué became the director of the Normal School of San Juan.

She wrote several articles and books, fictional and non-fictional. One of her most acclaimed works is “Puerto Rican Flora”, a book about botany.

She was made an honorary member of the Paris Society of Astronomers.

Ana Roqué was always passionate about education, having founded a teacher’s academy, girls-only schools and the college of Mayagüez, which became the Mayagüez campus at the University of Puerto Rico. She also contributed to the foundation of this same university.

Besides all her work on education, Ana Roqué was also a feminist and suffragist, who fought for women’s rights, namely .

SOURCE: FINDAGRAVE.COM

voting rights. Unfortunately, she passed away in 1933 in Río Piedras, two years before women would earn the right to vote in 1935.

Recently, in 2020, she was posthumously named an honoree of the National Women’s History Alliance. Her story is impressive and she was one of many women who contributed in the fight for equality.

Filipa Moreira

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ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021

Achievement CYNTHIA RUDIN

Cynthia Rudin, a professor of computer science and engineering at Duke, has been named the second recipient of the $1 million Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

She believes that interpretable and transparent AI systems are vital for real-world applications – especially when they’re making decisions that deeply affect people’s lives. Now, after 15 years of advocating for and developing interpretable machine learning algorithms, Rudin’s contributions to the field of interpretable AI have earned her this award.

SOURCE: MLSE2020.COM

Rudin has contributed to numerous projects, such as a simple point-based system at Massachusetts General Hospital that can predict which patients are most at risk of having destructive seizures after a stroke or other brain injury. Another example can be found at the Cambridge Police Department, where she developed a model that helps discover commonalities between crimes to determine whether they might be part of a series committed by the same criminals.

Sarah Holm

Recipes with WiE: CHILLI This is my go-to recipe for get togethers with friends. It might not be an “authentic” Mexican chilli, but it’s cheap, simple, and super easy to scale up. Now that we can finally meet each other in larger groups, open a bag of nachos and give this chilli recipe a try at your next party!

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INGREDIENTS 400g minced beef

Pork lard or vegetable oil

780g of crushed tomatoes

Cumin to taste

830g of cooked beans (Red beans are

Coriander powder to taste

best, but you can use any kind – or

Oregano to taste

mix different kinds together!)

Thyme to taste

1 large onion, finely chopped

Garlic powder to taste

2 bell peppers: one red, one yellow

1 bay leaf

(both finely chopped)

Chili powder

1 cup tomato purée

Smoked paprika

2 tablespoons of pickled jalapeños

1/2 cube beef bouillon

(optional – keep the seeds if you

1 bunch cilantro/coriander

want it to be spicy!)

Salt and black pepper

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Sugar and/or balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons of red bell pepper

(trust me, it’s to control the

paste

acidity of the dish!)

INSTRUCTIONS 1. Season your meat well, with salt and black pepper. Heat up some lard or vegetable oil in a large pan or wok. Once it's smoking hot, throw the minced beef inside, and do your best to get a nice sear. Once it’s cooked through, set the meat aside in a separate container.

2. In the same pan, render some fat. Then throw in the onions, which should cook in low heat until translucent. After that, turn up the heat and mix in the finely chopped bell peppers, garlic, and jalapeño peppers. Stir it around and let it cook for a bit, until the garlic shows a nice golden colour.

3. Increase the heat slightly. Throw in a few tablespoons of the tomato purée and stir everything around to bring it all together. Yeet the ½ beef bullion into the pan and let it dissolve. When the tomato puree starts taking a slight (SLIGHT) brownish colour, it’s time to add the can of crushed tomatoes. Stir well and add the can of beans.

4. Let it simmer for a little bit, mixing often. It is now time to do most of the seasoning in this recipe. I don’t really use measures for seasoning, so you’ll have to follow your heart a bit here. But here’s a few tips: there should be way more paprika and garlic powder than any other spice in this recipe. And be careful with the cumin, thyme, and oregano! Also, be sure to taste test the dish in between spices (with a clean spoon, as chilli is not exactly an anti-covid meal).

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ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021

INSTRUCTIONS 5. After seasoning, throw in the red bell pepper paste (if it needs more salt) and the rest of the tomato purée. Allow it to simmer as you adjust the taste.

6. Now's the time to adjust salt and acidity. It should be quite tangy at this point. If it isn't, add some balsamic vinegar or some other sort of acidic condiment. If it's too sour, throw in a little sugar. Half a tablespoon goes a long way.

7. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Trust me, it really does get better with time! After a while, do another taste test to adjust salt, pepper, and texture: If it's too thick, add some more liquid. If it's too thin, add some more tomato purée and let it simmer for a while longer.

8. When it's done, chop up a bunch of fresh coriander/cilantro and mix it in. Serve hot with corn tortillas and optional grated cheese & sour cream.

Leticia Simon

Curiosity of the month...

SOURCE: INFOESCOLA.COM E IMDB.COM

It is certain that we've all heard of Marie Curie, a polish physicist and chemist who, living in France with her husband, conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity. Marie Curie is also known for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win in two distinct areas: the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.

However, there is something that may not be so widely known: her daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, a french physicist and chemist, also won a Nobel Prize! In this case it was the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935, which she earned alongside her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, for the discovery of new radioactive elements, created artificially.

Therefore, to this day, the Curie family has become the most awarded with Nobel Prizes in the world! Something that will hardly be achieved again!

Margarida Gomes PAGE 6

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SEE YOU NEXT MONTH!

ISSUE NO. 18 | NOVEMBER 2021