Reaction to Guest Speakers

Today, our two guest speakers were women in IT careers involved in both teaching and researching. It was interesting to learn that both Dr. Maitland and Dr. Kvasny did not initially choose an IT career but worked in another science field (such as engineering) and eventually gravitated towards the freedom and "newness" of IT. Dr. Kvasny is involved in a very interesting application of IT: she studies HIV cases in Philadelphia and looks to understand how different victims of this disease view HIV (especially African Americans and Latinos) by searching on blogs and also how other people view such people suffering from the virus. Dr. Maitland also has chosen an interesting field of study regarding developing countries and how people in such countries use PDAs to control individuals into seeking healthcare in return for food. It was surprising to learn the array of options one has within the field of IT and how very diverse it is in its applications.