As OCWiC celebrates its 20th Anniversary, we gather to honor the visionary leaders who have shaped our community and inspired countless women in technology. In a special Time Capsule Dedication Ceremony, former chairs will take a Walk of Honor to the stage, introducing items that represent their tenure and aspirations for the future. These cherished contributions will be sealed in a time capsule, to be opened during OCWiC’s 30th Anniversary, serving as a lasting testament to our shared journey and commitment to empowering women in tech for generations to come. Join us in celebrating our past, present, and the promising future ahead!

The presence of women in technology is not just about equality—it’s about innovation, creativity, and building a more inclusive future. Women bring diverse perspectives that drive better decision-making and foster solutions that address a broader range of societal needs. Despite progress, women remain underrepresented in technology fields, facing challenges such as gender biases, limited access to opportunities, and the struggle for equal recognition. 

This panel will explore why it is still crucial to have women in technology and why this conversation remains relevant today. From addressing the persistent gender gap to ensuring diverse representation in the creation of emerging technologies like AI and cybersecurity, the discussion will highlight the economic, social, and cultural benefits of gender inclusivity in tech. 

By amplifying the voices of women and examining actionable steps toward equity, this panel seeks to inspire change and pave the way for a tech ecosystem where everyone can thrive. 

Let’s take a look at how designers can support developers by providing well designed mockups using a design system. In this presentation, I’m going to explain how designers can get in alignment with developers before they begin designing their first mockup. I’ll discuss what design systems are and how they are crucial for designing digital products at scale. Additionally, I’ll provide some advice on how you can get started making your own design system whether it’s for a portfolio or to introduce to your team. This presentation will be given from the perspective of a UI/UX designer and will be ideal for anyone interested in UI/UX design or front end software development

Autonomous drones, or UAVs, are becoming valuable tools for studying wildlife and ecosystems because they can quickly and consistently collect data from remote areas. These drones can gather large amounts of information to help scientists better understand individual animals, groups of wildlife, and entire ecosystems. However, using drones for conservation and biodiversity research has challenges, including the need for guidance on optimizing autonomous missions to collect the most useful data.

Edge computing plays a key role in this process. Unlike traditional methods where data is sent to distant servers for analysis, edge computing processes data directly on the drone itself. This allows for faster decision-making, reducing the need for constant communication with external systems, which is particularly useful in remote areas.

In this talk, I will discuss techniques for autonomous drone navigation, how edge computing enhances drone efficiency, and share results from fieldwork in Ohio and Kenya, where these technologies were tested to gather ecological data.

Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (Agentic RAG) is redefining AI by integrating autonomous agents into LLM workflows, dramatically improving accuracy and minimizing hallucinations.
By dynamically refining retrieval strategies, adapting workflows, and leveraging multistep reasoning, these intelligent agents push beyond the limitations of traditional RAG systems.
This breakthrough enhances real-time contextual understanding, making AI more reliable and scalable across industries like healthcare, finance, and education.
Agentic RAG not only optimizes information retrieval but also ensures ethical decision-making and seamless integration into complex real-world applications.
As AI advances, autonomous agents will be at the forefront, transforming how LLMs reason, retrieve, and generate knowledge.

When most people hear the term “Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM)”, they immediate think of it as behaviors that make you a good entrepreneur. However, EM is so much more. EM is a way of thinking that encourages you to question assumptions, embrace adaptability, open up to new innovations, adopt novel approaches, proactively problem-solve, and drive positive change in not only academics, but your community and the wider world.

KEEN (Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network) defines EM as three key concepts: (1) curiosity, (2) connections, and (3) creating value [6]. Their platform, Engineering Unleash, provides a wealth of shared information (activities to teach EM, ways to use EM in your life, applications in various fields, etc.). In this professional talk, the author will talk about applying the 3’C specifically through the author’s computer science courses at Ohio Northern University [5].

This presentation will hopefully provide the audience with a mini-lesson on EM through interactive activities on various computer science concepts. Hopefully, the audience will walk away with an understanding of EM and how easily it is to include in their current work.

Internet of things (IoT) allows people and things to be connected anytime, anywhere with anything. The widespread deployment of IoT devices has resulted in an era of unprecedented connectivity. However, this presents significant challenges
in detecting unauthorized access. The severity of the threat cannot be understated, as vulnerabilities in these devices can expose entire networks to cyber threats. Internet of Things defense against malicious activities heavily depends on intrusion
detection system (IDS). But, unbalanced datasets and fast changing network conditions, prevalent in IoT applications, are common challenges for traditional IDS approaches. In this talk, I will present my research that aims at developing real-time
intrusion detection system for enhancing data accuracy and integrity in IoT. Moreover, I will discuss different real-life applications of IoT.

This Birds-of-a-Feather session, “The Future of Leadership in Women in Tech Organizations,” aims to bring together current and aspiring leaders from student organizations that support gender minorities in technology. The session will provide a collaborative space to share experiences, discuss challenges, and brainstorm strategies for advocacy, recruitment, and retention of members.
Participants will engage in meaningful discussions on topics such as fostering inclusivity, building mentorship opportunities, and enhancing organizational impact on campus and beyond. By exchanging ideas and best practices, attendees will leave equipped with actionable insights to strengthen their organizations, empower their members, and advance gender diversity in technology. This session will contribute to the broader mission of OCWiC by fostering a more connected and resilient community of women and non-binary technologists across Ohio.

Active learning is a learner-centered, activity-driven teaching approach that fosters student engagement through critical thinking, discussion, exploration, and creativity. Several research studies indicate that active learning can substantially reduce achievement gaps, promote greater diversity and equity in higher education, and foster the development of key competencies such as communication, collaboration, self-motivation, and social skills (Ballen et al., 2017; Johnson, 2019; Theobald et al., 2020). Additionally, it significantly enhances students’ overall learning experiences (Beard & Wilson, 2006). Building on prior research (McKinney et al., 2023), this study implemented an active learning crowd polling exercise in an introductory one-credit-hour computer science course. The exercise was designed to teach students various topics, including algorithms, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the exercise’s design, grading methodology, outcomes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly gained attention in not only by those in the field but by the media as well. AI became a field in the 1950s but has come and gone in subsequent years. With the combination of high levels of computation power and multiple applications coming out what feels like daily – AI is at the forefront of everyone’s attention.

During this session, you will learn a variety of ways to introduce artificial intelligence to those will a wide range of backgrounds. This could include general college students, professionals, or even the K-12 student. Each highly interactive activity is about 15-20 minutes long. Within these activities, the audience is an active participant to learn what this mysterious “AI field” is all about.

In complex manufacturing ecosystems, tracking component defects and understanding supply chain interconnections is critically challenging. This project proposes traceability methods by developing a node-based tracking system using Neo4j graph database and Docker containerization technologies. By implementing/adopting an advanced visualization framework, we created a comprehensive tool that maps supply chain relationships across enabling precise identification and rapid diagnosis of defective components. Our implementation significantly enhances a manufacturer’s ability to trace product origins, isolate potential failure points, and streamline quality control processes. Our implemented solution demonstrates the potential for significant reductions in defect investigation time and offers unprecedented visibility into intricate supply chain networks, providing a scalable and adaptable methodology for comprehensive component tracking.

Girl Who Code (GWC) Club at Miami University started in 2016. Since then, club members have organized events to encourage girls in middle-high schools to study in computing fields. For the last two years, GWC has organized its program under the iSpace, which is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of area educators, business leaders, and individuals who volunteer their time and talents to further education in STEM over 20 years across the Greater Cincinnati area. GWC has designed a 10-week program to introduce girls in grades 6-9 to the exciting world of coding and computer science. Every Monday evening, the program offers participants an engaging learning experience where they develop foundational coding skills, work on creative projects, and explore how technology can solve real-world problems. Kati and Isha (club admin team) want to share their experiences with the conference participants in the short student talk session.

Insufficient K-12 computer science education remains a significant challenge in the United States, with only about half of high schools offering computer science courses and exposure to computing in K-6 severely lacking. This paper presents the groundwork for a systemic approach to K-6 computing education, leveraging partnerships between Allegheny College and Crawford Central School District. The “Code with Chompers” program aims to address gaps by providing consistent, hands-on computational learning experiences for elementary school students.

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific research has amplified the reliance on high-performance computing (HPC) systems to process large datasets, perform simulations, and train deep neural networks (DNNs). However, many researchers face challenges in effectively utilizing HPC resources, leading to inefficiencies such as underutilized CPUs, GPUs, and memory, as well as frequent out-of-memory (OOM) errors during model training. These issues often stem from a need for more understanding of requesting and allocating HPC resources tailored to specific AI workflows.
This short talk draws from my six years of research experience, including my work with the NSF-funded ICICLE project, where we developed resource provisioning software for AI-driven scientific computing. Through this work, I have gained extensive experience with major HPC centers such as the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). The talk provides actionable insights to help researchers optimize resource usage, including tailoring allocations for different phases of the AI lifecycle, leveraging HPC gateways like OnDemand, tuning resource configurations to meet workload requirements, and selecting suitable GPU types and memory allocations. Additionally, the talk highlights resources like the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAAIRR), which offers access to computing resources for running AI workloads. By enhancing understanding of HPC resource management and showcasing available tools and opportunities, this talk aims to reduce inefficiencies, minimize allocation wait times, and foster more effective scientific innovation while empowering researchers to maximize their use of HPC systems and resources.