Tufts student group hosts Women in Tech Conference

Tufts' Women in Computer Science (WiCS) undergraduate student group hosted its seventh annual Women in Tech (WiT) Conference on September 23, 2023. A group of dedicated student volunteers fully organized and ran the event which had over 300 people in attendance. There were over 30 speakers, 30 sponsors, and 50 events, including a career fair. Many prominent speakers from different companies were present, including the keynote speaker Annie Bourne, the Chief Commercial and Compliance Counsel for Nasuni Corporation, and Tufts alum Keisha Mukasa A21, of the Department of Computer Science, who currently works as a software engineer at SurveyMonkey. Some of the sponsors included Nasuni, Ab Initio, Aspentech, Blink, and Boston Dynamics. 

Tufts students and alumni were not the only attendees present at the conference. Students from Northeastern University, Dartmouth College, and local high school students also participated in the events of the day. The career fair, which has historically been one of the most popular events of the conference, offered a great opportunity for students to engage with recruiters and build connections. Round table discussions fostered a community-driven atmosphere and allowed attendees to meet in a more intimate setting with the speakers for questions, leading to a successful event on all fronts.

This year the co-chairs of the WiT executive committee were undergraduate computer science majors Dilanur Bayraktar, E26, and Anika Kapoor, A25. Bayraktar recalled that the prep work for the conference started as early as Spring 2023, noting that “seven months of effort all coming together was extremely rewarding to see.” When asked what the best part of the conference was, Kapoor shared that “it was exciting to meet all the people I had been speaking with over LinkedIn for months face to face in a full circle moment.” Both Kapoor and Bayraktar plan to leverage the unique experience of running a conference as undergraduate students in their future career applications and are excited to pass on the reins to the next group of capable students. 

Learn more about the event: www.tuftswit2023.com. 

Interested in becoming a sponsor or volunteering for next year? Please contact the WiT committee through the website or follow the Instagram account @wicstufts for more info about the Fall 2024 conference.