by Jodi Kelber-Kaye

A post written by Women’s Center staff member, Yoo-Jin 

This past weekend was the national holiday called “Valentine’s Day.” At its best, I think it can be a time for people to spend time together in an intentional and meaningful way. It seems that in our society, we are constantly on the run and the first thing that goes to the bottom of our lists is making time to hang out with the people we love. However, when I started to really think about Valentine’s Day, I realized that it’s often focused on the narratives of heterosexual romantic couples.

Like many other holidays celebrated in our country, Valentine’s Day seems to also fall into the trap of Hallmark commercialism, and in this case, heteronormativity. You see this everywhere– in advertisements, media, and storefronts. The narrative is often focused on romantic relationships focused on men, who are often expected to get their significant other (usually a woman) gifts like flowers, chocolates, teddy bears — you know the deal.

The heteronormative nature of Valentine’s Day can be incredibly limiting and isolating for other couples who may not identify similarly. Of course, in terms of gifts buying things for your partner as a token of appreciation (or because you freakin’ love them!) is not a negative thing, and it doesn’t have to be labeled as being sucked into commercialism. If you like the flowers, chocolates, etc- go for it! While romantic relationships of all kinds are great- it would be awesome to have an alternative, for example, for the people who are not in romantic relationships!

This is where Galentine’s Day (a concept from the T.V show “Parks & Rec”) comes in. In the show, Galentine’s Day is celebrated February 13th and centers on female friendships. It’s a day where we get to spend time with our “gal”s and appreciate them for being in our lives! In the show, Leslie throws an annual Galentine’s Day party for her friends. In the episode, they all meet at a restaurant and Leslie “gives them all a gift bag with a bouquet of hand-crocheted flower pens, a mosaic portrait of each of them made from the crushed bottles of their favorite diet soda, and a personalized 5,000 word essay of why they’re all so awesome” (http://parksandrecreation.wikia.com/wiki/Galentine%27s_Day_%28event%29). That sounds awesome to me! I wouldn’t mind a 5,000 word essay from one of my best friends!

This BuzzFeed Article also covers the reasons why we must absolutely celebrate this year! (http://www.buzzfeed.com/kaylayandoli/you-absolutely-need-to-celebrate-galentineas-da-cqn5#.eo8Q8lYwZ)

Of course, while Galentine’s Day is a wonderful event to get away from some of the heteonormative, pressured-to-be-with-someone, and commercialist system- it has some limits too! We have friends and loved ones of all genders in our lives! Even pets who we love a lot! Maybe we could make February a month of appreciation and gratitude for all of the people in our lives who have supported us. Yes, there are days for certain people in our lives (mothers, fathers, even teachers) but it’d be awesome to take time to recognize the people who have often supported us from the very beginning.

Society of Women Engineer's E-board and active members went to the BEYA STEM Conference in Washington, DC this weekend!

Hosted by Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Council of HBCU Engineering Deans, US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine. Sponsored by Aerotek.

ACM Tech Talk

Studying Internet Latency via TCP Queries to DNS

Dr. Yannis Labrou
Principal Data Architect, Verisign

1:30-2:30pm Friday, 27 February 2015, ITE 456, UMBC

Every day Verisign processes upwards of 100 billion authoritative DNS requests for .COM and .NET from all corners of the earth. The vast majority of these requests are via the UDP protocol. Because UDP is connectionless, it is impossible to passively estimate the latency of the UDP-based requests. A very small percentage of these requests though, are over TCP, thus providing the means to estimate the latency of specific requests and paths for a subset of the hosts that interact with Verisign’s network infrastructure.

In this work, we combine this relatively small number of datapoints from TCP (on the order of a few hundred million per day) with the much larger dataset of all DNS requests. Our focus is the process of data analysis of real world, imperfect data at very large scale with the goals of understanding network latency at an unprecedented magnitude, identifying large volume, high latency clients and improving their latency. We discuss the techniques we used for data selection and analysis and we present the results of a variety of analyses, such as deriving regional and country patterns, estimations for query latency for different countries and network locations, and techniques for identifying high latency clients.

It is important to note that latency results we will report are based on passive measurements from, essentially, the entire Internet. For this experiment we do not have control over the client side — where they are, which software, their configuration, their network congestion. This is significantly different from latency studied in any active measurement infrastructure such as Planet Lab, RIPE Atlas, Thousand Eyes, Catchpoint, etc.

Dr. Yannis Labrou is Principal Data Architect at Verisign Labs where he leads efforts to create value from the wealth of data that Verisign’s operations generate every day. He brings to Verisign 20 years of experience in conceiving, creating and bringing to fruition innovations; combining thinking big with laboring through the pains of materializing ideas. He has done so in an academic environment, at a startup company, while conducting government and DoD/DARPA sponsored research and for a global Fortune 200 company.

Before joining Verisign, Dr. Labrou was a Senior Researcher at Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Director of Technology and member of the executive staff of PowerMarket, an enterprise application software start-up company and a Research Assistant Professor at UMBC. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMBC, where his research focused on software agents, and a Diploma in Physics from the University of Athens, Greece. He has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, with almost 4000 citations and he has been awarded 14 patents from the USPTO. His current research focus is data through the entire lifecycle from generation to monetization.

— more information and directions: http://bit.ly/UMBCtalks —

A post written by Women’s Center staff member, Daniel

This year’s Critical Social Justice Week’s theme is Brave Spaces and as the week quickly approaches, I’ve been thinking more and more about not only what a Brave Space is but what it means to be a Brave Space. The center has been implementing what we call Brave Space Guidelines as a way of creating a space that fosters learning, connecting, and understanding. There are some components of the Guidelines that are particularly salient to me as I start to consider my body and the relationship that I, and others, have to it– with the added challenge of navigating mental illness.

I have, and have always had, a complicated relationship with my body. Growing up as a fat girl and eventually coming out as trans has a way of messing with the way you see yourself and the way you regard your body. Add experiences with depersonalization and derealization to that and the simple task of being a body at all becomes nearly impossible. Becoming a safe place for myself has been a life-long challenge that I continue to struggle with. Feeling safe and secure in my own skin is a rare and wonderful feeling that I think a lot of us– mentally ill or not– have a hard time with. With all the images we see and all the expectations we have for how we’re supposed to look and move and be, being comfortable with one’s body is not easy. As I meet people with similar experiences to mine and I begin to exist in spaces that are purposeful in their missions, I find myself being encouraged to become not only a safe place but a Brave Space.

Recognize that your experiences, values, and perspectives are unique to you. Strive to learn about experiences other than your own, and seek permission to ask questions about other people’s experiences

Intent is important, but it does not trump impact. Recognize and own the impact of your words and actions. Also, practice forgiveness and generosity: remember that this is a space where we are all learning and growing.

Recognize and respect the range of emotions that you and others may experience...be thoughtful about how your emotions and behavior may impact others based on their experiences.

Recognizing the uniqueness and value of individual experiences has helped me see others as complex individuals who have stories and experiences that I can learn from. It helps me remember that trauma and mental illness looks different for everyone and allows me to be more open to these differences.

Intent over impact is incredibly important. While mental illness can be an explanation for behavior, it is never an excuse. The effects my actions have on others or the effects the actions of others have on me are valid and important and shouldn’t be dismissed because of mental illness.

Practicing forgiveness and generosity– for others and especially for myself– is the most difficult and most important lesson I am still struggling with. I am still learning and I will make mistakes. This does not make me a bad person nor does it decrease my value. Others will make mistakes and I need to acknowledge when they have made personal growth and change. People are inherently good and all people are capable of positive change.

Emotions can be difficult to deal with, especially when you’re constantly told that you’re overreacting or “just crazy.” The way I feel about something is true to me and important even if it is different from how someone else or even most people feel about it.

I can’t even begin to express how much these three guidelines have shaped the person I am now and the person I am still trying to be. Being a Brave Space for myself and for the people around me requires conscious effort and it’s not always easy, but it’s helped me be kinder to myself and others feel safer in my presence. I can trust my body to sustain and support me and it can trust me to be gentle and work towards positive change in return.