Coding & Programming – A Career of Opportunities

Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Salesforce, Adobe, Zoom, Snapchat, TikTok, and Fiveable started with product ideas and developed their products through writing program code. These companies are just a few examples. Websites and Apps you use on a regular basis are made possible by people writing code. In fact, well known companies in the region such as Uline, SC Johnson, CNH, Jockey, Johnson Controls, Rockwell, Twin Disc, Butter Buds, Northwestern Mutual, and Harley Davidson rely on software that is developed and implemented by program coders to conduct business.

This panel will explore the field of coding (i.e., programming/software development). The panel will provide an overview of coding, give insight into the structure of code, highlight coding applications in business, identify careers, and describe paths for entering those careers. The panel will also identify ways for you to get started.  The virtual panel consists of local educators and industry professionals. You have an opportunity to listen and ask questions on Saturday, December 4, 2021 from 10-11: AM.

Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/856462291698761

Live Event Link (will only be active when the event starts)
https://www.facebook.com/techprizeracine/live

Some topics that will be covered include:

The panel will provide an overview of coding
Give insight into the structure of code
Highlight coding applications in business
Identify careers, and describe paths for entering those careers
Identify ways for you to get started.
Q&A

The following individuals will take part in the panel discussion.

Dirk Baldwin (moderator) – Retired Dean of the College of Business, Economics, and Computing at UW-Parkside. Dr. Baldwin has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems with a minor in Computer Science. He has extensive consulting experience and chaired the Information Technology Practice Center in SE Wisconsin.

Vijayalakshmi Ramasamy – is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. She brings to bear an extensive academic and research experience of over 25 years. Before joining UW-Parkside, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and an Associate Professor at PSG College of Technology, Anna University, India. She also held an adjunct position at the University of South Australia (UniSA), received a research grant from Cognitive NeuroEngineering Lab at UniSA, established a Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at Anna University, India, and worked on an NSF research grant in collaboration with Florida International University. She has taught multiple courses in Data Science, Computer Science, and Software Engineering and has supervised several MS and Ph.D. research scholars.

Her research interests include graph data analytics as a multidisciplinary domain comprising work from various fields such as Data Mining, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, and Graph Theory applied to different disciplines, including computational neuroscience, computer, biological, social networks, and, most recently, undergraduate STEM Education (educational data mining and learning analytics). She has published over 54 peer-reviewed articles, at top-tier venues in Computer Science, including IEEE, ACM SIGCSE, Neurocomputing, and Journal of Neural Engineering. She has received many teaching grants, including the eLearning Teaching Research Grant for Innovative Learning Space and Center for Teaching Excellence Major Teaching Research Project at Miami University, Ohio, USA.

Mayank Joshi – is the Senior Application Development Manager at Uline with over 15 years of industry experience in IT across Infrastructure, Platform and Application Development areas. Mayank plays a key role in helping to modernize complex supply chain systems at Uline. Uline’s next generation application stack is “hosting agnostic” i.e. it can run and scale in on-prem and off-prem environments. Mayank’s team was instrumental in implementing modern platform practices practices such as Infrastructure as Code(IaC) and Configuration as Code(CaC) to build immutable platform architecture.

Over his career, Mayank has helped Fortune 500 companies and fast moving e-commerce businesses implement highly resilient infrastructure and middleware solutions employing toolchains that are rooted in automation, open source and industry leading enterprise platforms. His current role involves Linux, perl, python, microservices, machine learning, enterprise middleware products such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash(ELK), lightweight java runtimes, Apache NiFi, Jenkins, Ansible, IBM WebSphere and MQ.

Mayank has an MBA from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and Engineering from Karnatak University, India.

Takis “Ty” Kinis – is District Chair for Information Technology, and IT Web Software Developer and IT Data Analytics Instructor at Gateway Technical College in Racine, WI. Ty has worked in IT for over 25 years, amassing a wealth of knowledge and expertise on a variety of hardware and software platforms. Ty spent many years as an entrepreneur founding and running several area companies. Ty also served as an instructor for Cardinal Stritch University, University of Phoenix, and the Art Institute of Wisconsin. Takis holds a Masters in Computer Science Education (1996), and 2 Bachelors degrees in Computer Science, and Business Administration (1994), all from Cardinal Stritch University. He also earned an Associates degree in Business Management from Milwaukee Area Technical College (1988), and a Guitar Studies diploma from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music (1989). Ty was also a professional musician between 1987 and 1994, releasing 2 albums with his band Realm on Roadrunner Records. Ty lives in Milwaukee with his wife and 2 teenage children. He enjoys playing guitar, live music, and science fiction.

Christopher Venckus – has over 25 years of industry experience doing technical support and n-tier development on a variety of platforms.  He holds a Masters Degree in Information Systems Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics.   He’s honed his skills working in the private sector, public sector and for several start-ups including his own.  When he’s not writing code, Christopher has a strange affinity for puppets and their possible usage in zSpace.

Christopher is currently an IT Web & Data Analytics Instructor at Gateway Technical College. He teaches courses in the IT-Web Developer and Data Analytics degree programs. Courses include Web Programming (HTML5, CSS), Java Programming, Python Programming, Databases, PHP, JavaScript, and Data Analytics using R and Python.  He’s taking Graduate courses in Data Science at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.