WECode 2025
Tentative Schedule for
In-Person Attendees
Welcome to WECode 2025’s schedule of events.
This schedule is subject to change, and we will be periodically announcing speakers for each event. Not all events are currently listed, so be on the lookout for updates on our social media platforms.
Saturday - February 22, 2025
8:00 - 9:30 AM
Breakfast & Registration
9:30 - 10:45 AM
Opening Remarks & Welcome
Presented by the WECode Board
Description: Join us in commencing WECode’s 11th annual conference!
Keynote: Esther Wojcicki
11:00 - 12:00 PM
Startups Panel
Featuring: To be announced
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Eirini Schlosser | CEO & Founder @ Dyania Health
Description: Eirini Schlosser, MSc is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in NLP applications. She is the Founder and CEO of Dyania Health, a fast-growing healthcare AI company focused on training their medically specialized Large Language Model to automatically and accurately read, understand, and deduce clinical conclusions from electronic medical records for use in clinical research, quality, and reporting. Eirini's mission has been to replace manual bottlenecks in healthcare and life sciences with an automated solution through Dyania's medically specialized Synapsis AI. With largely self-taught expertise in natural language processing and entrepreneurship, Eirini seized the opportunity in 2019 to establish Dyania Health, her 3rd start-up focused on applying natural language processing technologies.
Solo Talk with Xue Hua | Software Engineer @ Microsoft
Description: Coming Soon
Project Management Panel
Featuring: To be announced
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Margaret Chiosi
Description: Over Margaret's 40-year career as an industry leader in data networking, she spearheaded the virtualization platform for hardware network functions and Software Defined Networks across rigid network and cellular infrastructures as a distinguished network architect at AT&T.
Her expertise spans a vast array of data services - IP/VPNs and Ethernet to Frame Relay/ATM and Optical services - allowing her to lead teams of over 150 professionals in the development and deployment of groundbreaking network technologies and strategic directions for data services and products as well as generating multi-billion-dollar global revenues. Margaret also has a solid technical foundation in developing data products on both real-time operating systems and UNIX-based systems.
As a respected voice in the industry, Margaret was a founding member and President of the Open Platform for Network Function Virtualization (OPNFV) under the Linux Foundation, as well as a founding member of the European standards forum, ETSI ISG, for Network Function Virtualization and a former board member of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). She has been a frequent keynote speaker and lead presenter at global conferences, discussing various facets of networking, including architecture, operations, and services.
Later in her career she became Vice President of Open Ecosystem at Futurewei, tasked with developing open source and standards into the fixed network product line.
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Lunch
Description: Meal descriptions coming soon. Gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options will be available.
1:00 - 2:00 PM
Mentorship Circles
Description: Attendees will have the opportunity to get to know mentors from our sponsors, the Harvard community, and additional STEM companies in small-group conversations. There will be two rounds of mentorship circles, each lasting around 30 minutes. This is an amazing opportunity to get to know inspiring leaders in the spaces that you are interested in, while getting to know fellow attendees.
Code Jam Sessions
Description: Coming Soon
Tech Demos & Project Exhibition
Description: Interested in showcasing a project or research that you have been working on? Apply by February 4th for the opportunity to showcase your work. More information coming soon…
Documentary Screening
Description: Coming Soon
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Tech for Social Good Panel
Featuring: To be announced!
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Tina Roth Eisenberg
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Jill Szuchmacher
Event Description: Coming Soon
SWE Panel
Event Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Saba Rawjani | Product Manager @ Rightway
Description: With a unique blend of expertise in healthcare, business, and the arts, Saba is a dynamic leader passionate about driving innovation in the health tech space. Saba holds dual degrees—an MPH and an MBA—from Columbia Business School, complemented by vocal arts training from Juilliard, underscoring a lifelong commitment to both analytical and creative excellence.
Over the course of her career, Saba has worked with well-established healthcare organizations, including NewYork-Presbyterian, Cleveland Clinic, and Stanford Healthcare, where she honed her skills in operations, management, and strategy. This foundation provided the perfect springboard to transition into the health tech industry, where she continues to make an impact.
Currently, as a Product Manager at Rightway, Saba supports the development and design for the pharmacy benefits member app and has spearheaded the development of a new product for clients from the ground up, delivering innovative solutions to meet client needs.
Guided by a passion for improving healthcare accessibility and outcomes through technology, Saba brings a distinctive perspective to every challenge she tackles.
3:15 - 4:15 PM
Intern/New Grad Job Search Panel
Featuring: To be announced!
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Jenifer Shafer | Associate Director of Technology @ ARPA-E
Description: Dr. Jenifer Shafer is the the Associate Director of Technology and as a Program Director at the Advanced Research Program Agency – Energy, as well as a Professor at Colorado School of Mines. As the Associate Director of Technology, she oversaw the program development process for >$550M of R&D funding relevant to U.S. energy leadership. As a Program Director, she had direct oversight of a >$130M research portfolio supporting low-emission iron and steel, nuclear energy, and nuclear recycling. Of this portfolio, the nearly $50M CURIE program focused on improving the economics and the materials accountancy of nuclear fuel recycling. Dr. Shafer currently has ~80 technical manuscripts in the areas of nuclear recycling, non-proliferation, and forensics. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.
Solo Talk with Karin Ebbinghaus | CEO @ Elonroad
Event Description: Karin Ebbinghaus, CEO of Elonroad, leads a pioneering deep-tech e-mobility company. With a background in law and investing, her journey from the prominent law firm Vinge to Elonroad unveiled her passion for technology's potential in combating the climate crisis. Elonroad's groundbreaking charging infrastructure is at the forefront of the electrification revolution, driven by Karin's resolute belief in innovative solutions. Her diverse experience at Vinge, Linklaters, Vestas, and Almi Invest equips her with a unique blend of legal, industry, and investment expertise, positioning her as a visionary leader in the deep tech e-mobility sector.
Solo Talk with Dr. Lauren Goodwin | Mission Ops
Event Description: Dr. Lauren Goodwin, has held various C-Level roles including Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Information Officer for NASA’s Johnson Space Center. With over 20 years of experience leading technology, data, and cybersecurity organizations in space and energy, she was named a 2023 Top 100 Technology Executive. She has modernized Operations Technology and Information Technology infrastructure for multi-billion Programs on a global scale. She was accountable for standing up the SpaceX Cybersecurity Assurance Program at SpaceX with a critical project for certifying the Crew Dragon Space Vehicle to send humans back into space from U.S. soil. She streamlined a $3.4 Trillion organization’s 60,000 engineers to improve their product delivery on time and on budget from 48 weeks to 2 weeks. She is certified in Lean Six Sigma where she streamlined operations for $130 Billion of global energy assets.
She is a professor at Columbia University where she teaches Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence courses. She performed groundbreaking research leveraging artificial intelligence to map the neural patterns of the brain’s learning process to improve access to education in STEM fields. She founded Mission Ops to be able to serve her country best by offering objective, expert based technology modernization and differentiation to the U.S. Federal Government with the same speed, agility, adaptability, and cost-effective models she has deployed in industry. She is mission-driven in all she does, which led to the launch of her company, Mission Ops which delivers data, technology and cybersecurity solutions in the space, healthcare, and intelligence sectors. She is a non-profit board member of CanCare, which provides emotional support for those affected by cancer.
Solo Talk with Ariana Soto | Co-Founder and CEO @ Coding it Forward
Description: Ariana Soto (she/her) is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Coding it Forward (CIF), a 501(c)3 nonprofit empowering the next generation of mission-driven technologists by creating new pathways into public interest technology. In her previous capacity as Deputy Director of CIF, she oversaw the strategy and operations of CIF’s Fellowship program. Ariana led CIF’s expansion into state and local government in 2021. To date, nearly 700 early-career Fellows have made an impact as technologists working at all levels of government in over 80 local, state, and federal offices across the country.
Prior to Coding it Forward, Ariana worked with the Los Angeles Mayor’s Data Team and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics. She also has experience in public safety consulting through her prior position as a Research Assistant at Justice & Security Strategies, Inc., a nationally recognized leader in public safety research. Ariana holds a BA in Government and Computer Science, with a certificate in Technology Science from Harvard University.
4:30 - 5:30 PM
Keynote: Claire Williams
Description: Claire Williams is the modernizing former leader of the Williams Formula One racing team. She is the youngest ever DTP in motorsports, one of the most prominent and successful women in Formula 1 history, and was awarded an OBE for services to F1 in 2017. A strategic visionary, inspirational leader and motivational expert, her development of a high-performance team culture galvanized an underperforming race team that had been struggling on and off the grid to its best finishing positions in years.
5:30 - 6:00 PM
Closing Remarks
Presented by the WECode Board
Location: Coming Soon
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Company Social Events
Coming Soon
Sunday - February 23, 2025
8:00 - 9:30 AM
Breakfast & Mentorship Circles
Location: Coming Soon
9:30 - 10:30 AM
Keynote: Ellen Pao
CEO @ Project Include
Description: Ellen K. Pao is an investor and advocate. She is cofounder and CEO of the award-winning diversity and inclusion nonprofit Project Include. At reddit, she was the first tech CEO to ban revenge porn, unauthorized nude photos, and online harassment. She has also worked in venture capital, tech companies, and in law. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Time, and The Hollywood Reporter. She earned an electrical engineering degree from Princeton, and law and business degrees from Harvard. Her efforts to call attention to discrimination issues have led to the term the “Pao effect.”
10:45 - 11:45 AM
Artificial Intelligence Panel
Featuring: To be announced!
Description: Coming Soon
Innovation Panel
Featuring: To be announced!
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Gina Hope | Senior Director of Engineering @ Riot Games
Description: Gina is the Senior Director of Engineering on Teamfight Tactics (TFT) at Riot Games. She leads the engineering team, focusing on core architecture, gameplay development, and feature implementation for TFT. In her role, Gina is responsible for driving technical innovation in areas such as AI to build new capabilities that ensure the game’s long-term growth and scalability.
Gina is active in the local community. She advocates for programs and opportunities in the special education community—particularly access to computer science, assistive technology, and scholarships. She has served as the Special Education District Advisory Committee chair for SMMUSD and founded the VIP soccer program for AYSO Region 20, now in its 8th year.
Prior to Riot Games, Gina worked as a Senior Director of Engineering on the Sports Platform team at Electronic Arts (EA), where she led engineering efforts to build the EA Sports app, a socially-driven sports app blending real and virtual sports content. In addition, she served as the global co-chair for the ABLE employee resource group to support families with disabilities. Gina was also Vice President of Consumer Technology at Activision, where she partnered with game studios, business leads, and marketing teams to develop experiences for franchises like Call of Duty across web, mobile, console, and voice platforms, leveraging data and AI. Gina has also worked at FoxSports and MySpace, building everything from Fantasy Football to personalized news aggregation for 100 million active users. She holds a Master’s in Computer Science from California State University.
Solo Talk with Fatima Taj | Senior Software Engineer @ Yelp
Description: Fatima is a Senior Software Engineer at Yelp with a deep passion for mentoring early-career tech professionals. She has successfully guided many individuals through their first steps in the tech industry, helping them overcome challenges and achieve their career goals. In addition to her mentorship, Fatima is a prominent voice in the tech community, with a substantial following on LinkedIn, where she shares actionable insights on career development and growth.
An experienced speaker, Fatima has presented at leading conferences including Developer Week 2024, the Southern California Linux Expo (Scale) 2023 and 2024, NDC Copenhagen Developer Festival 2023, Women of Silicon Roundabout 2022, cdCon+GitOpsCon 2023 (as a keynote speaker), Momentum 2024, and the Black is Tech Conference in 2022 and 2023. She has also spoken at over 80 hackathons across North America. Her sessions are renowned for their practical, hands-on advice, making her a sought-after speaker on topics related to career progression and professional growth in the tech industry.
Fatima holds a master's degree in Data Science from HEC Montreal and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Solo Talk with Nancy Lynch | Professor @ MIT
Description: Nancy Lynch has been a Professor in the EECS Department at MIT since 1982. She heads the Theory of Distributed Systems research group in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
Lynch received her B.S. from Brooklyn College in 1968 and her PhD from MIT in 1972, both in Math. Prior to joining MIT, she served on the Math faculties at Tufts and the University of Southern California, and on the CS faculty at Georgia Tech.
Lynch has written and co-written hundreds of research articles about distributed algorithms and impossibility results, and about formal modeling and verification of distributed systems. Her best-known contribution is the 1982 ``FLP'' impossibility result for distributed consensus in the presence of process failures, with Fischer and Paterson, followed by a paper with Dwork and Stockmeyer on algorithms for reaching consensus under restricted failure assumptions. Other contributions include the I/O automata system modeling frameworks, as well as recent results on wireless network algorithms and biological distributed algorithms.
Lynch is the author of the textbook ``Distributed Algorithms'' and co-author of ``Atomic Transactions'' and ``The Theory of Timed I/O Automata''. She is an ACM Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of both the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. She has been awarded many prestigious prizes for her research contributions. She has supervised over 100 graduate students and postdocs, many of whom have themselves become leading researchers.
11:45 - 12:45 PM
Lunch
Location: Coming Soon
12:45 - 1:45 PM
Mentorship Circles
Description: Attendees will have the opportunity to get to know mentors from our sponsors, the Harvard community, and additional STEM companies in small-group conversations. There will be two rounds of mentorship circles, each lasting around 30 minutes. This is an amazing opportunity to get to know inspiring leaders in the spaces that you are interested in, while getting to know fellow attendees.
Code Jam Sessions
Description: Coming Soon
Tech Demos & Project Exhibition
Description: Interested in showcasing a project or research that you have been working on? Apply by February 4th for the opportunity to showcase your work. More information coming soon…
Documentary Screening
Description: Coming Soon
1:45 - 2:45 PM
Fireside Chat with Jen Felch and Beth Beninato
Description: Coming Soon
Solo Talk with Suzanne Plummer | Fellow and CVP of Technical Diversity and Development @ AMD
Description: Suzanne Plummer is a Fellow and Corporate Vice President of Technical Diversity and Development at AMD. In this role, she is responsible for improving the technical talent pipeline for females within AMD.
Prior to this role, she spent 33-years as a technical individual contributor and engineering leader. She worked for Motorola and a start-up called Alchemy Semiconductor before joining AMD. After joining AMD in 2002, she led design teams behind AMD’s most innovative technologies, including the low power x86 microprocessor used in the world's first APU and the x86 microprocessor powering all of AMD’s game console wins. Suzanne also directed the teams that designed the Zen architecture – which power AMD’s new microprocessors and drove the company’s re-entry into the high-performance x86 market. She then transferred to the semi-custom group, driving all game console products for Microsoft. Her last four years on technical work were in the Radeon Technologies Group, leading all SOC programs for discrete and data center graphics.
Solo Talk with Lily Gassner | VP, Transformation @ Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Description: Lily Gassner is the Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice President and GM of HPE’s Aruba Networking. Lily leads Aruba’s Transformation and Program Office, driving large-scale operational transformation to accelerate business growth. Lily leads Aruba’s Data & Systems Office, acquisition integrations, business continuity and enterprise risk management, sustainability PMO, and other shorter-term transformational initiatives.
Lily joined Hewlett Packard (now HPE) in 2005 and held variety of roles spanning across business analytics, strategy, operations, and customer experience. In 2012, Lily shifted her career into Human Resources, where she spent nearly 10 years, leading HR for global business units and functions. Before joining HPE Aruba Networking, Lily was the Head of HR for HPE’s Communications Technology Group.
Solo Talk with Charlene Ren | Non-Profit Founder & Board Member @ MyH2O Water Information Network
Description: Charlene Ren is a social entrepreneur and long-time environmental advocate. She’s currently working as a business strategy consultant in an international company, mainly serving consumer industries and NGOs. She graduated from MIT with dual masters in Environmental Engineering and Technology & Policy.
In 2015, she founded MyH2O, a nonprofit organization that connects resources for clean water solutions for rural areas in need. MyH2O has mobilized thousands of youths to raise water and sanitation awareness across rural China, and delivered clean water facilitaties and solutions to hundreds of villages so far. Her work earned her the 2020 UN Young Champion of the Earth award. She was also an Echoing Green Fellow in 2016, Homeward Bound Antarctica Female leadership journey member, and was named one of Forbes "30 Under 30" Social Entrepreneurs in 2019.
Solo Talk with Jenn Chang | Chief of Staff and White House Liaison @ National Endowment for the Arts
Description: Jenn Chang (she/her) joined the Biden Administration in January 2021, serving as the White House Liaison and Senior Advisor to the Chair, and subsequently Chief of Staff, at the National Endowment for the Arts. At the NEA, she helped advance equity and inclusion, health and well-being, social cohesion, and civic engagement through the arts. She was instrumental in designing the NEA’s American Rescue Plan grant program, which distributed $135 million to organizations nationwide; she recruited and onboarded 11 new members of the National Council on the Arts; she laid the groundwork for ArtsHERE, the NEA’s first equity-focused grant program; and she served as the primary partner to the White House from the NEA, including advising the Domestic Policy Council on all-of-government arts and culture integration.
A graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Social Studies, Jenn joined the NEA after working on the appointments team with the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to that, she worked as an associated consultant at WolfBrown with a portfolio of arts and education clients. She spent over a decade at Google, where she worked in Strategy and Operations across Google Fiber, AdWords, and Grow With Google. At Google, her roles included designing Fiber’s expansion strategy and approach to working at scale with municipalities, oversight of a Learning and Development program, building consensus and buy-in for standard operating procedures across 12 offices, and serving on Google Fiber’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force. In 2016, she took a sabbatical to serve as the Expansion States Operations Director at Hillary for America. Jenn received her Master's degree in viola performance from The Juilliard School while working part-time at Google. Venue highlights include the MoMA sculpture garden, Dizzy’s Jazz Club and Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Cafe Revolution in San Francisco.
3:00 - 3:30 PM
Closing Remarks
Presented by the WECode Board
Location: Coming Soon
3:30 - 5:30 PM
Career Fair
Location: Coming Soon