2026-04-15: ACM Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing (CAPWIC 2026) Trip Report

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This year the ACM Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing (CAPWIC 2026) was held from March 27–28 as an in-person event. The conference took place in Alexandria, Virginia, and the event was hosted by the Virginia Tech's Institute for Advanced Computing (IAC). CAPWIC is all about bringing together women in computing and their peers to support each other and grow in the field. The conference connects students, faculty, and industry professionals from across the Capital Region – Pennsylvania to Virginia to share ideas, discuss research, and build a strong, supportive community.


The conference featured workshops, technical talks, flash talks, research shorts, poster presentations, as well as panel,  birds-of-a-feather and keynote sessions. I was the only participant from Old Dominion University's Web Science and Digital Libraries (WS-DL) research group this year, where I presented a research short. The event included parallel sessions across various categories and topics, and I attended sessions from each category.


Conference Venue: Institute for Advanced Computing (IAC), Virginia Tech, Alexandria, Virginia


Day 1: March 27, 2026 


The first day of the conference began with a campus tour and a graduate/career fair. Day 2 also included the campus tour and graduate/career fair for those who missed. This was followed by opening remarks and dinner. Next, the first keynote was delivered, and the day concluded with closing remarks for Day 1.


Campus Tour: Drone Display and Immersive Visualization Lab Visit


The Institute for Advanced Computing (IAC) of Virginia Tech is a research institute located at Alexandria, Virginia. The institute offers hands-on learning opportunities for graduate students in computer science and computer engineering. Specialized labs are available at the institute for research in immersive visualization, drone technology, wireless, quantum, and brain-inspired computing systems. We got the opportunity to visit the Drone Lab and Immersive Visualization Lab. 


The Drone Lab featured an indoor drone cage used to conduct flight experiments in a controlled and safe environment. The lab team introduced us to the fundamentals of unmanned aerial system technology and shared insights into their ongoing research. One of the interesting discussions was about how they are trying to detect commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) drones, which can be used for attacks or unauthorized surveillance. They also gave us a chance to fly drones inside the cage, which was a really fun and thrilling experience.


The Immersive Visualization Lab provided immersive projection on three walls and the floor, allowing users to be fully immersed in visual representations of data and other phenomena. We had the opportunity to experience a virtual walk through a beautiful garden, which felt truly magical. It was amazing to see how visual design and 3D modeling can bring environments to life and let us explore places we would not normally be able to experience in person.


Graduate/Career Fair

The sponsors of the event organized a graduate/career fair for the attendees. There were representatives from ACM Women in Computing (ACM-W), Virginia Tech’s Computer Science Department, Virginia Tech’s Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics, University of Mary Washington's College of Business, Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, and Women in CyberSecurity (WiCys). They shared information about graduate programs and career opportunities in research and academia, and also provided valuable feedback on resumes. I had the opportunity to interact with several representatives, which helped me better understand potential career paths in academia and research. 


Opening Remarks

After the campus tour and graduate/career fair, the conference began with the opening remarks from the organizers. The head of Virginia Tech’s computer science department, Christine Julien, welcomed everyone to the conference. The organizing chairs, Sehrish Basir Nizamani from Virginia Tech and ODU alumna (PhD, 2004) Mona Rizvi from James Madison University, provided an overview of the tracks for each category and schedule of the conference. The program included 2 panels, 5 workshops, 8 technical talks, 12 flash talks, 22 research shorts, 43 posters, and 1 birds-of-a-feather session, all conducted across parallel sessions.  


Keynote #1: Tools in Your Toolbox: What I've Learned as a Professional Female Computer Scientist 

Christine Julien introduced the first keynote speaker Laurian Vega, a Senior System Engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton. She shared her skills and expertise that she developed throughout her career as a female computer scientist. One of the key takeaways from the keynote was that no effort is ever wasted as long as you learn something from it. The speaker talked about how important it is to invest in soft skills and to build strong networks. She also encouraged us to choose workplaces that align with our values and treat us well. A point I found especially meaningful was that mental health is just as important as physical health. The speaker also emphasized caring about the work we do and using our skills to give back to the community. Finally, she highlighted that a PhD degree is not about becoming an expert in everything, but about continuously learning and growing. Overall, the talk highlighted that success in computing is not just about technical ability, but about developing a balanced toolkit that supports both personal and professional growth. 


Day 2: March 28, 2026 


Day 2 started off with breakfast, followed by the second keynote. Before the lunch break, two parallel sessions were held. During the first session, I attended a workshop and a technical talk. In the second session, I attended flash talks and another workshop. After the lunch break, there were two more parallel sessions. I attended a panel and a poster session for the third one and research shorts from the final one.


Keynote #2: Goodbye Imposter, Hello Winner: Overcoming Perceptual Expectations to Reclaim Excellence

Erika Olimpiew from Virginia Tech introduced the second keynote speaker Candace Aku, a Senior Technical Program Manager at Google Public Sector. She shared her journey in the tech industry and the process of creating a professional identity beyond others’ expectations. The speaker emphasized on the importance of not limiting one’s potential before even starting a career, and of reflecting on whether actions are driven by personal goals or others’ expectations. The speaker also highlighted how constantly chasing the “next” can lead to burnout, reminding the need to prioritize well-being. The discussion on the weight of expectations such as intelligence, imperfection, fear of failure, and judgment was particularly insightful, as these factors often contribute to imposter syndrome. The keynote was highly motivating, encouraging individuals to embrace their identity, challenge limiting beliefs, and grow without sacrificing their well-being. 


Workshop: Debugging Your Resume

Aubrey Baker, an eCommerce Web Developer from Red Van Workshop, and Holly Wilsey, a Video Game Engineer from Purple Basil Games, organized a hand-on workshop on preparing resumes. The session was chaired by Nguyen Ho from Loyola University Maryland. They shared best practices on customizing resumes for various purposes, such as academic work, internships, employment, and volunteer experiences. Participating in this workshop gave me a better understanding of how Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) screen resumes before they are seen by a human. I learned how small details in formatting and wording can impact visibility, and how to avoid common mistakes that can weaken a resume. The breakout sessions were especially helpful, as we got to review and improve our resumes in a group while receiving useful feedback. 


Technical Talk: Education & Inclusion


Denise D'Angelo, a Transformation Technology Leader at DynamicD Enterprises, presented a technical talk “Designing the AI-Ready Workforce” as part of the Education & Inclusion track. The session was chaired by Mohammed Farghally from Virginia Tech. The speaker offered valuable insights into how to approach AI-enabled work more thoughtfully, especially in the context of hiring. As AI becomes part of our everyday work, traditional ideas about roles and performance are evolving, influencing both opportunities and trust. She explained that being “AI-ready” is not just about knowing how to use AI tools, but about understanding how people and AI systems work together. The talk was very helpful to clearly understand how to prepare for interviews in an AI-driven hiring landscape. 


Flash Talk: Trust, Fairness, and Societal Impact of AI


Mona Rizvi chaired the flash talk session on the Trust, Fairness, and Societal Impact of AI track. 

As the first presenter, Sadia Afrin Mim from George Mason University presented “LLM-Guided Input Generation for Causal Fairness Testing.” Current fairness testing methods in machine learning systems often create unrealistic test cases by ignoring how features relate to each other in real-world situations. To address this limitation, the presenter introduced a new approach that uses large language models (LLMs) to generate more meaningful and context-aware test inputs. 

Next, Arshnoor Bhutani and Mahi Sanghavi from University of Maryland, College Park presented “Data-Driven Exploration of Physiological Factors Perpetuating Bias in Pulse Oximetry Readings for At-Home Use.” They examined bias in pulse oximeters which is used to measure blood oxygen levels and found that skin tone remains an important contributor to this bias. They analyzed the BOLD data set and identified a clear pattern showing that errors increase as skin tone gets darker. Their work aims to better understand these patterns so that corrections can be developed to help reduce health disparities.

Next up, Khoulood Alharthi from Virginia Tech presented “Gender, Culture, and Privacy: Navigating Social Media Concerns in Saudi Arabia.” She explored how privacy concerns on social media are shaped by culture and gender, focusing on users in Saudi Arabia. She emphasized that privacy is not only determined by platform features, but deeply influenced by users’ social and cultural values such as modesty, reputation, and social boundaries. Her work provided valuable insights into how social media platforms and privacy settings can be designed to better align with users’ cultural expectations.

Christopher Parham from Virginia State University presented the next flash talk, “A Trust-Aware, Biometrically-Secured Social Network Using Decentralized Identity Protocols and the Analytic Hierarchical Process for Collaboration.” His talk focused on improving security and trust in online systems by addressing human factors in cybersecurity. He proposed a novel decentralized method that creates one-time biometric features to prevent attacks like replay or misuse of credentials. His work aims to create a more secure, user-friendly authentication framework that supports reliable and trust-based collaboration.

Saanvi Shashikiran from Georgetown University presented the last flash talk, “Understanding State-Level AI Readiness Policy.” She explored how prepared different U.S. states are for adopting AI, focusing on the role of policies, infrastructure, and support systems. She examined five states and analyzed government documents to understand how policies regulate AI use. She discussed how text-based search methods can be used to identify policies relevant to AI readiness, and found that a specific scoring method (BM25) performed most effectively.

 

Workshop: Cyber Hygiene That Sticks: Research in the K-12 Space on Cybersecurity


Deborah Kariuki, an Assistant Teaching Professor at University of Maryland Baltimore County, led a workshop on how cybersecurity in K-12 education can be improved through more interactive and human-centered approaches. She emphasized that relying only on rules and one-time sessions are not enough to strengthen cyber hygiene. She demonstrated how interactive activities through real-world scenarios can help students effectively recognize threats like phishing, password safety, and data-sharing online. She also talked about the broader efforts of organizations like WiCyS in actively promoting cybersecurity education and awareness, helping students build confidence and lasting digital safety habits. 


Panel: Navigating the Path to Grad School: Discuss, Reflect, and Make an Informed Decision


Mohammed Seyam from Virginia Tech moderated a panel session that provided a reflective perspective on what it is truly like to pursue an advanced degree and how to decide whether it is the right path. The panel featured Madison Barton, a graduate admission counselor at Northeastern University, Mohammed Farghally, a collegiate assistant professor at Virginia Tech, Promise Owa, a graduate student at Northeastern University, and Chandani Shrestha, an Assistant Professor at James Madison University. The panelists shared their own journeys, including their uncertainties, key turning points, and lessons learned, while addressing common questions such as –


  • Does taking a year off or doing a job before starting grad school have any impact?

  • What are the key factors to choose grad school? Funding? Research facilities?

  • How much research interest matters to sustain throughout grad school?

  • What are some challenges for women in CS grad school?

  • How to deal with imposter syndrome during grad life?


The session was very encouraging for the participants to think intentionally about their goals, interests, and readiness for grad school. 


Posters: Cybersecurity, Privacy & Responsible AI


Jessica Zeitz from University of Mary Washington chaired the poster session on the Cybersecurity, Privacy & Responsible AI track.


Fairuz Nawer Meem from George Mason University presented two posters. One poster titled “Hope or Hype? Understanding Vibe Coding through Software Practitioner Discussions” showed analysis on online discussions to understand how developers’ opinions about “vibe coding” changed over time. Another poster, “Well-Being in AI-Assisted Software Development,” showed an experimental study on how using AI tools affects developers’ stress, emotions, and overall well-being while coding, compared to coding without AI. Sadia Afrin Mim, also from George Mason University, presented the poster “Towards Practical Discrimination Testing for Software Systems,” discussing the evaluation of a user study that fairness-specific tools, along with AI support, help developers find and understand bias in software more easily. 


Min Zhang from Virginia Tech proposed a way for smaller local AI models to get help from powerful remote models while protecting sensitive data in her poster “PrivacyR1: Privacy-Preserving Collaborative Reasoning in Multi-Agent Systems.” Jennifer Alexandra Thompson, also from Virginia Tech, presented the poster “Exploring Socioeconomic Status Narratives of Computer Science Students,” exploring how a student’s socioeconomic background affects their access to technology and success in computer science education. Another student from Virginia Tech, Kimberly Giordano presented the poster “Beyond the Android Manifest: Analyzing Native Libraries and Eye-Tracking Use in Virtual Reality Applications,” showing an analysis on how VR apps use eye-tracking data based on Android Manifest evaluation and native code inspection. She found that some apps may access data without clearly informing users. 

Rebecca George from the College of William & Mary presented performance evaluation of a new storage system (DAOS) on a large supercomputer and identified the best ways to optimize data reading and writing for faster performance in her poster “Benchmarking DAOS Filesystem on Aurora.” Zahra Rizvi, also from the College of William & Mary, presented the poster “Bridging the AI Education Gap: A Self-Funded AI Awareness Initiative in Cocoa-Farming Villages of Ghana,” introducing an initiative that teaches basic AI concepts to students in rural Ghana and aims to expand access to AI education in underserved communities.  

Susan Zehra, a PhD student and senior lecturer from Old Dominion University’s CS department, presented her poster “Securing Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) Against Cyber Threats,” proposing a decentralized security system to protect vehicle communication networks and showing it can effectively detect and prevent cyber attacks.


Research Shorts: Cybersecurity, Trust & Resilience

Nareman Hamdan from James Madison University chaired the research short session on the “Cybersecurity, Trust & Resilience” track.

The first presenter, Stephanie Travis from Virginia Tech, presented “Identifying Human Factors in Red Teams for Cyber Exercises.” She focused on making cybersecurity training more realistic by considering how real attackers think and behave. She studied existing works and gathered insights from experts to create a set of human behavioral factors to incorporate in cyber defense exercises in simulations. She found that by improving how red teams simulate attacks, the training can better reflect real-world situations.

Next, I presented “Framework for Finding Attribution of Social Media Screenshots.” Sharing screenshots on social media platforms is now common. I pointed out legitimate reasons why people share screenshots, such as to enable cross-platform sharing, to use as evidence for deleted posts etc. Then, I showed how people can create fake tweets easily and share such screenshots on social media platforms. Next, I demonstrated different ways the live web and web archives can be used to find attribution of screenshot content. I emphasized using web archives to find attribution of deleted posts since they cannot otherwise be found on the live web. Lastly, I shared my evaluation results of the automated process of how one can find attribution of a screenshot using the Wayback Machine.


Next up, Xinyi Zhang from Virginia Tech presented “From Vulnerable to Resilient: Examining Parent and Teen Perceptions on How to Respond to Unwanted Cybergrooming Advances.” Cybergrooming is a harmful online behavior that can affect teens’ mental health and physical safety. The presenter studied how teens and parents react to different scenarios and identified behaviors that can either increase risk or help protect against harm. By analyzing these responses, she developed patterns of both vulnerable and protective actions to better support teens through education and tools that would encourage safer online behavior. 

Yeana Bond from Virginia Tech was the last presenter and discussed improving how metadata-related bugs are detected in Java applications in “Towards Large Language Model-Powered Automation of Detecting Metadata Related Bugs.” Misuse of metadata can cause severe issues in Enterprise Applications written in Java, so her goal was to make debugging metadata problems more efficient with the help of AI. By comparing different AI models, she found that newer models produce more accurate and complete rules. 


Keynote #3: Human-Centered Automation: A Journey through HCI, AI, and the Future of Robotics

Jessica Zeitz from University of Mary Washington introduced the final keynote speaker Meg Dickey-Kurdziolek, a UX Lead/Senior Staff UX Researcher at Intrinsic.ai. She shared her journey from her PhD at Virginia Tech to her current role at Intrinsic.ai, and how her understanding of human-centered design has changed along the way. She provided valuable insights into the evolving role of UX in the age of AI and robotics. She discussed the challenges of making complex robotic systems more user-friendly. She talked about how Explainable AI (XAI) helps people better understand and trust these systems as AI becomes part of our everyday life. In summary, the speaker highlighted how HCI principles can guide the future of automation and provided useful insights into navigating this rapidly evolving field. 


Closing Remarks and Award Ceremony


The conference concluded with acknowledgments to the sponsors and a vote of thanks to all participants and organizers, followed by an award ceremony. The organizing committee delivered closing remarks and announced that CAPWIC 2027 will be held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. They also introduced the organizing chairs for the upcoming conference. Next, the awards for ‘Best Research Short’, ‘Best Flash Talk’, and ‘Best Poster’ were announced in both graduate and undergraduate categories, along with honorable mentions for each category.

I was delighted to receive the ‘Best Research Short’ award in the graduate category for “Framework for Finding Attribution in Social Media Screenshots.” 


The awardees for Best Flash Talk and Best Poster (graduate category) are listed below:

  • Best Flash Talk – “Benchmarking and Advancing Generative Models for Calorimeter Shower Simulation” by Farzana Yasmin Ahmad from the University of Virginia
  • Best Poster – “Well-Being in AI-Assisted Software Development” by Fairuz Nawer Meem from George Mason University


Wrap-up


CAPWIC indeed provides a supportive and encouraging platform for sharing ideas while fostering meaningful opportunities for both personal and professional growth. This was my first time attending the CAPWIC conference in-person. It was a great opportunity for me to connect with researchers, students, and professionals across different areas of computing. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to ODU ACM-W for providing travel support to attend this conference. I also had the wonderful opportunity to stroll through one of the oldest areas in the U.S. – Old Town, Alexandria. I was mesmerized by the brick sidewalks, cobblestone streets, historic townhouses, cherry blossoms in bloom, and the beautiful sunset views along the waterfront. It was refreshing to relax after a full day at the conference.



Previous trip reports for CAPWIC by WS-DL members: 2025, 2015.


---- Tarannum Zaki (@tarannum_zaki)

 

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