On July 19th, Be Like Ada will host hundreds of high school girls for a full day coding bootcamp in Vancouver. The girls will spend a day learning the basics of coding and the elements of code fundamentals for any programming language.
Registration is still open and to promote this amazing opportunity I had a call with one of the “Real Life Superheroes” who will be at the event, Anna Stukas, Manager of Intellectual Property & Regulations of BiC and all-round champion of women in technology here in BC.
Anna Stukas is the Manager of Intellectual Property and Regulations at BiC (the company that makes all the pens, razors, and lighters, plus surfboards, sailboats and paddleboards). Anna is part of BIC’s advanced technology development team, currently focused on commercialization of hydrogen-powered micro fuel cell technology. Anna combines her degree in mechanical engineering with a love of problem solving and communicating to act as an interface between the research team and the rest of the world. She has travelled worldwide to work with other companies, organizations and even the United Nations to remove barriers to commercialization of new technologies.
Anna is an engineer by training and over the years she has been involve with numerous groups and organizations that promote and encourage more women to get into STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) fields. In 2009, she joined the board of the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (“SCWIST”) and became the president for two years. SCWIST recently received a grant from Status of Women Canada to create a mentoring network.
“Knowing how to code or knowing how to do math, appreciating science, and loving science, doesn’t make you a geek, it makes you employable.”
“That’s just incredible,” Anna told me over the phone. “Through [SCWIST] I’ve also gotten involved in a number of other really cool organizations and events that promote inclusivity and diversity as a sustainable and economical path forward for the industry in general.”
“There are studies left right and centre that say companies that hire more women outperform other companies. But at the end of the day if you just have a group of women talking about how to get more women in engineering, you’re only engaging 10% of the population. If you don’t have the rest of the population involved in that conversation, you’re not going to be able to move the dial.”
Anna has done a lot of work with Leadership Through Diversity at her alma mater, UVic as well. “[The group] really focuses on that whole diversity issue from an inclusivity perspective and then also with a conference called Creating Connections, which is going into its fourth edition next year at SFU.”
For Be Like Ada, Anna will be bringing her experience and know-how to the event while she attempts to break down some pre-conceived notions about what it means to be a girl who knows code.
“Growing up, both of my parents were engineers. I thought it was completely normal that my mom was the one who fixed the toaster and re-wired our house so that I could have a phone in my room, which when I was 12 was really high on the priority list.”
“My background is actually in mechanical engineering, to which a lot of people would say: ‘What does that have to do with coding? What does that have to computers? Don’t mechanical engineers design cars?’ I have never designed a car, I will never design a car. I have coded in numerous different positions throughout my career though.”
Anna has worked on everything from mechanical whale tails for underwater propulsion vehicles to figuring out how you would control the primary mirror for a 30 metre diameter telescope. Ten years after she worked on the latter, it is now being built in Hawaii.
Bridging the gap between technology and business, Anna believes that an engineering degree or a computer science degree opens many doors that you can transform into such varied careers. “I think a lot of people also have a pre-conceived notion that engineers sit in cubicles and plug away at their computers and they’re very unsocial and my job is anything but!” Having just returned from France, Anna will be jetting off to San Francisco after her participating in Be Like Ada.
About Be Like Ada
Miss604 is a proud sponsor of Be Like Ada
Named after Ada Lovelace, the founder of scientific computing, this event is for girls new to or somewhat versed in programming. They’ll learn how to think like a programmer and learn real code.
Where: Rocky Mountaineer Station @ 1755 Cottrell St, Vancouver When: Saturday, July 19, 2014 from 8:30am to 5:00pm Cost: Register online for $45 What You Will Need: Bring a laptop and power adapter, any laptop made after 2010 should work. Browsers supported include Chrome 13+ , IE 10+, Safari 5+ (Mac OS X 10.7 or better), FireFox 4+. Lunch will be included, some parking is available.
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by Rebecca BollwittDisclosure: Sponsored Post — This is a sponsored post in partnership with Westminster Savings Credit Union. Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
It’s good to celebrate the small wins in life and Westminster Savings Credit Union would love to hear what simple pleasures you have enjoyed recently. Whether it’s discovering a parking spot with a pre-loaded meter, sleeping in on the weekend, landing the perfect patch of sand on the beach for a picnic, finding couch change, or there being no lineup at your favourite food truck, when you share your #SmallWin, you could win big.
Share a photo or brief description of your recent #SmallWin on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram by using the #SmallWin tag and #WSCU. Once you have shared your #SmallWin, you’ll be entered to win a Google Nexus & FHD by ASUS 32GB 7″ Android 4.3 Tablet with Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro – Black (approximate retail value of $300).
This four week contest wraps up Friday, July 18, 2014 and the winner will be announced through all three social media accounts — so be sure to follow/like Westminster Savings to see if your small win makes you a big winner.
Win Soccer Tickets
To help spread the word about Westminster Savings Credit Union’s #SmallWin contest they have picked up FOUR soccer tickets for me to give away to one lucky reader. The tickets are for the Vancouver vs Portland match August 30th in Vancouver. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a general comment on this post (1 entry)
Add Miss604 to your #SmallWin contest entry on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
(1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
Share your #SmallWin with @WSCU + RT to enter to win soccer tix from @Miss604 http://ow.ly/zf7zq
Stanley Park is our favourite place to go for a walk, explore trail networks, and unwind. John and I have been fortunate enough to not only experience Stanley Park from the ground level, but to also get a glimpse at the forest, lake, gardens, and attractions from the air when we fly in on a floatplane from one of our adventures.
During those few moments when we pass over Ferguson Point, Malkin Bowl, Beaver Lake, and Brockton Point, we get discover a whole new appreciation for this gem. As such, I have found some historic aerial photos, thanks to the City of Vancouver Archives, featuring our beloved Stanley Park.
Stanley Park From Above
1926: Archives# Van Sc P66. Royal Canadian Air Force official photograph.
1942-1945: Archives# VLP 186.1. Royal Canadian Air Force official photograph.
1953: Archives# CVA 392-34.2.
1930s: Archives# Air P104. Royal Canadian Air Force official photograph.
Jason Mraz is celebrating the release of his hugely anticipated new album, “YES” by embarking on a new tour that will stop in Vancouver on Thursday, October 23, 2014.
Photo courtesy of Live Nation
“YES” is highlighted by the first single, “Love Someone,” the album – which finds Mraz teaming up with his longtime friends, Raining Jane – is streaming now in its entirety via iHeartRadio.
The multi-GRAMMY® winning singer / songwriter has also announced the North American leg of his upcoming “YES!” world tour, slated to visit an array of legendary venues around the planet through 2014 and beyond. The dates – which feature backing from “YES!” collaborators, Raining Jane – get underway with a three night stand at his hometown’s historic San Diego Civic Theater, set for August 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Mraz then continues the tour, choosing to perform in small venues and theaters with several multi-day residencies through November (see attached itinerary). Mraz will also find time to visit Europe, where he is set to appear in such historic theatres and concert halls as London’s Royal Albert Hall, Paris’ Casino de Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Theatre Carré, Frankfurt’s Alter Oper, and Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle. Asian and Australian tours are also scheduled for later this year, with South America slated for 2015.
Mraz will play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on October 23rd at 8:00pm. Tickets are available starting Friday, July 18, 2014 through Live Nation, charge by phone, 1-855-985-5000, or at Ticketmaster outlets. Tickets (including GST) are $25.00, $49.50, $75.00 (plus FMF & service charges) and this is a reserved seating/all ages show.
Win Tickets to Jason Mraz in Vancouver
Jason Mraz is also dedicated to various causes and when I saw him at We Day in 2009 he made a very good point: “There’s something about music. When you put a message with a melody it seems to travel so much further.”
If you would like to see him live in concert, I have a pair of tickets for the show to give away thanks to Live Nation. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment naming your favourite Jason Mraz song (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win tickets to see @jason_mraz in concert from @LiveNationWest + @Miss604 http://ow.ly/zcv5E
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Follow Live Nation on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest Vancouver concert event information.
HBO Canada is premiering a new half-hour series, Sensitive Skin, on Sunday, July 20, 2014 starring Kim Cattrall (Golden Globe® Award winner and Emmy® Award nominee) as Davina, and Don McKellar (Tony Award® winner) as her husband Al.
The pair play a couple that has been married for 30 years and who recently moved from their comfortable family home in a wealthy suburb into a modern condo in bustling downtown Toronto. There they make a conscious effort to keep relevant, and begin again.
Davina soon finds that all their efforts do nothing to address the emptiness she feels inside while Al happily embraces the change; he has always followed Davina’s lead. Her questionable choices lead her to a better understanding of who she is at this point in her life, but at the cost of the one thing that was keeping her sane: her marriage.
HBO Canada subscribers get to watch all six episodes consecutively when the “binge watch” worthy series premieres on Sunday. I had the chance to catch up with Kim and Don in Vancouver this week to find out a bit more about this passion project:
Sensitive SKin on HBO Canada
Sensitive Skin is based on a British series of the same name and Kim first met BBC 2’s head of comedy, Jon Plowman (Absolutely Fabulous, The Office) while she was doing a play (David Mamet’s The Cryptogram) in London’s West End. The initial meeting was to discuss doing a series and he then put her in touch with Hugo Blick, who produced Sensitive Skin in the UK.
“I watched all six episodes, it was my first binge experience and I loved it,” Kim told me while we all sat around a table in MARKET by Jean-Georges at the Shangri-La on Alberni Street. She shopped the series around, got it in development at HBO in America, but it wasn’t until she met Don McKellar, who also directs all six episodes, that the series began to take shape in Canada.
“I felt so instinctually from the very beginning that [Don] and I would work well together.” ~ Kim Cattrall
“We met and a friend suggested we take it to Rhombus where Don has worked exclusively. We talked about how Don would be fantastic as Al, to play my husband, and I also thought they he would really make a great director.” The pair then brought on Bob Martin as a collaborator who adapted all of the scripts, and also has a role in the series. “We were like the three Musketeers working together,” said Kim as Don added, “And that was it, we were off!”
The series began shooting in Toronto last fall and as it wasn’t shot in sequence, it gave cast and crew the feeling of working on a feature film, which to Kim makes this Sunday feel like their opening weekend.
As for HBO Canada releasing all of the episodes at once Don said it will be a very different television experience. “Normally when you do a TV series and you start airing it, it takes a long time to get any response from people. We’re going to have people who have seen them all and who will talk about the ending by Monday.”
Both enjoyed working on the series and described the passion of all involved, especially since they were working with a shoestring budget. “It was great because we had control, and people wanted to do it, and people had their input,” said Don.
“It’s very funny, and it’s very clever, and I think the writing and the adapting is brilliantly done. Don took from the original show and just opened it up.”
~ Kim Cattrall
Although the show is set and filmed in Toronto, the same geographical issues can be applied to anywhere, especially Vancouver, and the underlying theme of making changes in life and growing older are universal. Whatever the audience’s takeaways might be, Kim said that first and foremost she wants you to be entertained.
“What I found as an actor to be really gratifying is to find aspects of myself and what I’m dealing with and really incorporate them in a very personal, in some ways – I didn’t realize this at the time but – profound ways for me. Those scenes where she’s examining herself are very personal moments, private moments. It was great to exercise those through my work in that way.”
Don agreed, “That’s when you know that your work – for me at least – that’s when you know your work has some meaning. When you feel invested personally or exposed, even when people don’t know how much of course or they’re not aware of it.”
Follow Sensitive Skin and HBO Canada on Twitter for the latest updates and to share your thoughts when you hunker down for a marathon screening session this weekend. Tune into HBO Canada or you can also watch via TMN GO, Shaw Go Movie Central app, Bell TV app, Telus Optik on the go, and on demand platforms.
Anna Stukas is the Manager of Intellectual Property and Regulations at BiC (the company that makes all the pens, razors, and lighters, plus surfboards, sailboats and paddleboards). Anna is part of BIC’s advanced technology development team, currently focused on commercialization of hydrogen-powered micro fuel cell technology. Anna combines her degree in mechanical engineering with a love of problem solving and communicating to act as an interface between the research team and the rest of the world. She has travelled worldwide to work with other companies, organizations and even the United Nations to remove barriers to commercialization of new technologies.
