SEPA Board ready to work at Jan. meeting
Planning for the NSTA Conference and outreach ideas for members.
Special Guest Speaker at Board Meeting in November
Megan Smith—Chief Technology Officer for President
In September 2014, President Obama named Megan Smith the United States Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, she serves as an Assistant to the President. As U.S. CTO, Smith focuses on how technology policy, data and innovation can advance the future of our nation.
Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. She most recently served as a Vice President at Google, first leading New Business Development -- where she managed early-stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing across Google’s global engineering and product teams for nine years -- and later serving as a VP in the leadership team at Google[x] -- where she co-created the company’s “SolveForX” innovation community project as well as its “WomenTechmakers” tech-diversity initiative and worked on a range of other projects.
Megan joined us during our board meeting to speak about a variety of topics relevant to education in today’s world. She spoke about the need to build capacity in technology and innovation for our country. Harnessing the power of innovation and technology is vitally important to our future. It is important for everyone to have a basic knowledge of the world around us. Technology levels this playing field. She spoke about the need to look at the deepest areas of poverty and how we can break the barriers. Technology is a tool that can help with breaking these barriers. This is relevant to the STEM White House programs.
Coding in the 21st century is vitally important. It is important not only on a personal level but also, locally, nationally, globally and on interplanetary frontiers. Megan share the websites: whitehouse.gov/techhire. The TechHire initiative announced in March of 2015, focused on expanding local tech sectors by building tech talent pipelines in communities across the country. That announcement included three main components: (1) More than 20 communities with over 300 employer partners signed on to pilot accelerated training strategies; (2) large private-sector companies and national organizations committed to providing tools to support these TechHire communities; and (3) the President pledged $100 million in federal grant funding.
Megan talked about the importance of Active STEM in schools throughout the Nation. Teaching students the value of teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and the design process is a critical component of education today.
For example, there is a school system in Arizona where students have the opportunity to be a Chief Science Officer. On campus, CSOs serve as the “STEM voice” for their student body, identifying opportunities for their school such as programs, speakers, workshops, field trips, science nights, and clubs and ensure such experiences reflect interests of their peers. They serve as the school’s external point of contact and streamline the ability for the STEM-based organizations to meaningfully connect with their school.
Off campus, CSOs serve as an ambassador helping to communicate STEM happenings with the community, building partnerships and advocating future opportunities with local business and industry and participating in important state level workforce conversations related to STEM and education. In addition, they team with their CSO peers as part of a state-level cabinet. The website for this program is: http://chiefscienceofficers.org/
Megan also pointed out the Untold History of Women and their influence on technology. Women have always played a vital role in technology however you seldom hear about their accomplishments. Examples Megan shared include the following: Grace Hopper, known as the Queen of Coding, was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. In 1944, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. Katherine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright, worked closely with her brothers in the aviation field.
Megan introduced the idea of throwing ideas in buckets. It is a way of organizing what is working, what is promising and what isn’t working. It is a good strategy to keep ideas organized and workable.
Megan left us with a memorable quote, “If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Megan’s talk was delightful and informative. She brought many thought provoking ideas forward to our group.
Megan Smith—Chief Technology Officer for President
In September 2014, President Obama named Megan Smith the United States Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, she serves as an Assistant to the President. As U.S. CTO, Smith focuses on how technology policy, data and innovation can advance the future of our nation.
Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. She most recently served as a Vice President at Google, first leading New Business Development -- where she managed early-stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing across Google’s global engineering and product teams for nine years -- and later serving as a VP in the leadership team at Google[x] -- where she co-created the company’s “SolveForX” innovation community project as well as its “WomenTechmakers” tech-diversity initiative and worked on a range of other projects.
Megan joined us during our board meeting to speak about a variety of topics relevant to education in today’s world. She spoke about the need to build capacity in technology and innovation for our country. Harnessing the power of innovation and technology is vitally important to our future. It is important for everyone to have a basic knowledge of the world around us. Technology levels this playing field. She spoke about the need to look at the deepest areas of poverty and how we can break the barriers. Technology is a tool that can help with breaking these barriers. This is relevant to the STEM White House programs.
Coding in the 21st century is vitally important. It is important not only on a personal level but also, locally, nationally, globally and on interplanetary frontiers. Megan share the websites: whitehouse.gov/techhire. The TechHire initiative announced in March of 2015, focused on expanding local tech sectors by building tech talent pipelines in communities across the country. That announcement included three main components: (1) More than 20 communities with over 300 employer partners signed on to pilot accelerated training strategies; (2) large private-sector companies and national organizations committed to providing tools to support these TechHire communities; and (3) the President pledged $100 million in federal grant funding.
Megan talked about the importance of Active STEM in schools throughout the Nation. Teaching students the value of teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and the design process is a critical component of education today.
For example, there is a school system in Arizona where students have the opportunity to be a Chief Science Officer. On campus, CSOs serve as the “STEM voice” for their student body, identifying opportunities for their school such as programs, speakers, workshops, field trips, science nights, and clubs and ensure such experiences reflect interests of their peers. They serve as the school’s external point of contact and streamline the ability for the STEM-based organizations to meaningfully connect with their school.
Off campus, CSOs serve as an ambassador helping to communicate STEM happenings with the community, building partnerships and advocating future opportunities with local business and industry and participating in important state level workforce conversations related to STEM and education. In addition, they team with their CSO peers as part of a state-level cabinet. The website for this program is: http://chiefscienceofficers.org/
Megan also pointed out the Untold History of Women and their influence on technology. Women have always played a vital role in technology however you seldom hear about their accomplishments. Examples Megan shared include the following: Grace Hopper, known as the Queen of Coding, was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. In 1944, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. Katherine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright, worked closely with her brothers in the aviation field.
Megan introduced the idea of throwing ideas in buckets. It is a way of organizing what is working, what is promising and what isn’t working. It is a good strategy to keep ideas organized and workable.
Megan left us with a memorable quote, “If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
Megan’s talk was delightful and informative. She brought many thought provoking ideas forward to our group.