CIPScene May 2005

Program Update May 2005

Our Women in Technology (WIT) 2005 event was held on International Women’s Day - March 8. This year the event was held at Nortel on Moodie Drive with close to 150 grade 9 high school girls from Ottawa area high schools taking part in this annual event. The event is aimed at providing an educational program that focuses on the benefits of a career in Technology (not just IT, but sciences too) for women, thereby increasing the number of high school female students enrolling in math, science and computer science. See related article for all the fun details!

On March 17, our final technical evening seminar of the year focused on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in action. The seminar, presented by Stuart Pothan and Andrew Ly, I.S.P., of Allstream, explored the technology aspects of RFID including: How it works, Technology Standards, Technology Architectures and Infrastructure to support a deployment, and the Challenges with Interference. The topic and presentation was very well received by all that attended.

Our IT Professionalism Roundtable, held on April 21, raised some very interesting questions around the need (or not) for a professional designation in the IT industry. Our own I.S.P. designation faced some sharp criticism; it was questioned if indeed all IT workers needed to have such a designation or if indeed the levels of Director down would most benefit, rather than the likes of Directors up to, and including, CIOs. In the end, the group of distinguished speakers agreed that further discussion around the topic of professionalism in IT is very warranted.

The final event of the year is our 8th Annual Charity Golf Tournament – this year being held at the Marshes Golf Club on June 7th. Please see the related article in this issue of CIPScene for all the details. I hope we’ll see you there.

As this is my last year as Program Chair I would like to take this time to say thank you to all our Patrons, Sponsors, Speakers, and especially the Program Committee volunteers who make our events happen. Thank you to you all and best wishes!

Regards,

Michele Lajeunesse
Vice-President and Program Chair
CIPS Ottawa