Manuela Veloso and Clara Shih to Speak at GHC 2015

Palo Alto, Calif., August 10, 2015: AnitaB.org, a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computing, announces two distinguished technical women, Manuela Veloso and Clara Shih, as speakers at this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC).

“We’re delighted to have Manuela and Clara speak at this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration. They are both examples of brilliant technical women who deserve more visibility, and they epitomize this year’s GHC theme of ‘Our Time to Lead’,” said Telle Whitney, President and CEO of AnitaB.org. “Manuela and Clara have both demonstrated incredible leadership skills in their respective careers and we are exceptionally fortunate to hear from them at GHC.”

Manuela M. Veloso, who will deliver Friday’s keynote, is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Her field of research covers Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and she founded and directs the CORAL research laboratory, which studies autonomous agents that Collaborate, Observe, Reason, Act and Learn. She was the past president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and a founding trustee and former president of the RoboCup Federation. Manuela’s work in robotics, including collaborative robots and soccer-playing robots, has been featured on CBS Saturday Morning and PBS Kids.

“I am thrilled to be a keynote speaker at this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration, and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss the importance of recruiting, retaining and advancing more prominent women in technology,” said Manuela Velosa. “I am excited to encourage all these talented women technologists to pursue their career goals and become leaders in technical fields.”

Clara Shih, who will speak during Wednesday afternoon’s plenary session, is CEO and founder of Hearsay Social, a Silicon Valley startup whose predictive analytics technology helps salespeople reach out to clients at the right time with the right message. Clara previously served in a variety of technical, product and marketing roles at Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. She graduated #1 in Computer Science at Stanford University, where she also received an MS in Computer Science – User Experience and Design. Clara also holds an MS in Internet Studies from Oxford University, where she studied as a U.S. Marshall Scholar. She has been named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Fast Company’s Most Influential People in Technology and Businessweek’s Top Young Entrepreneurs.

« A decade after attending my first Grace Hopper Celebration as an Anita Borg Scholar, I am honored to be returning to speak at this year’s event, » said Clara Shih. « I’m tremendously grateful to the community of women who have supported me along the way and proud of the many women engineers we have at Hearsay Social. I look forward to sharing my story with the next generation of technical women leaders and working together to change the numbers. »

About the Grace Hopper Celebration

The 2015 Grace Hopper celebration, the largest gathering of women in computing in the world, expects 12,000 attendees this year, a 50 percent increase from the previous year. The conference, held in Houston, Texas, takes place October 14 – 16 2015. This year’s conference features leading technical speakers, career development sessions, awards, a poster session, a hackathon and the industry’s largest career fair for women in computing.

2015 Grace Hopper Celebration Sponsors

Diamond sponsors include: Apple, Capital One, Cisco, Google and Microsoft.

Platinum sponsors include: Accenture, Airbnb, Amazon, Avanade, Bank of America, CA Technologies, Dell, Dropbox, eBay, EMC, Ericsson, Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, LinkedIn, Lockheed Martin, MasterCard, Nationwide, NetApp, PayPal, Qualcomm, Rackspace, Thomson Reuters, ThoughtWorks, Two Sigma, Visa and Yahoo!.

Gold Academic sponsors include: Berkeley MFE, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech College of Computing, Harvey Mudd College, Montana State University, New York University, Purdue University, Rice University, Stanford University Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M University Department of Computer Science, University of California – Los Angeles, University of California – San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Houston Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and USC.

Gold Labs and Nonprofits sponsors include: ACM, Dignity Health, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and NCWIT.

About AnitaB.org

AnitaB.org for Women and Technology (ABI) connects, inspires and guides women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. Founded in 1997 by computer scientist Anita Borg, our reach extends to more than 65 countries. We believe technology innovation powers the global economy, and that women are crucial to building technology the world needs. AnitaB.org is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. For more information, visit anitab.org