Empowering Women in Tech – Tech.Strong.Women. EP 29

Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Techstrong Women, where we feature amazing women doing amazing things in tech. I'm Jody Ashley, executive producer at Techstrong, and I'm here with my co-host, Tracy Reagan, creator, and CEO of Deploy Hub.

Before I introduce today's guest, I wanna give you a quick day update about what's happening here at Textron. Be sure to register for Textron Con 2024 happening on April 3rd. It's our virtual event.

Speaker submissions are still open, and of course, we always love sponsors, so be sure and reach out. And if you're attending CubeCon in Paris, March 19th through the 22nd, Textron will be live streaming interviews from the event all week. So you wanna be sure and stop by our booth and say hello or reach out and we'll set you up for an interview.

com, and be sure to tune in every day to Techstrong TV for great shows and interviews. Hey, Tracy, what's on your mind today? Now, I know we, we, we don't wanna really geek out too much, but I'm gonna take us there Anyway, I wanna talk, today I wanna talk about quantum computing.

Oh, Now why did I bring this up? Is because, you know, I'm always looking at, um, and I'm, I'm really starting to read more about ai and I wanna, in my head I'm thinking, how do we apply some of this new technology to solving the problem of cyber attacks through our software supply chain? How do we start trending on it and how do we react to it?

Because there's so many dependencies and there's so many pieces of the, of the puzzle. So I started looking at quantum mechanics, quantum computing, and I just wanna bring it up because I believe that we're gonna see more of it. And as young women out there, you know, look at where they should focus their careers, I always say focus it on the newest stuff because everybody's new and it's easy to be new and everything's new, and it puts you in a really good place for the future.

And it's not necessarily that scary. It just sounds scary, but just, lemme lemme give you an example of what Aqua Quantum Computing is. So in our regular kind of computers that we have today, we, we, it, they perform tasks and they do that by manipulating bits.

And those bits are valued at one or zero. Well, quantum Computing is very, is similar but different. It's non-binary.

Uh, it, instead of it, it can be one, it can be zero or it can be both. Um, and also one bit can, one qubit is what they call 'em, can influence another qubit state. So they have these states that they would call superpositions or entanglements.

And what that does is it creates a, a, a broader way of processing and manipulating data. It becomes, um, instead of just one and zero, we have, uh, one and zero or both or something that's in between something that's super, has a super position or has an entanglement. And it gives us the ability to come up with more answers.

Our regular computing often gets stumped. It says, oh, I can't answer this because it could only answer things in ones and zeros. But not everything is that is black and white.

Correct. And Quantum Computing is addressing that. There's a whole, it's a whole new, uh, new interesting field.

IBM's doing a lot of work around it. I find it to be pretty interesting, um, from just a, what the future of computing's gonna look like. And it's this kind of processing, along with our large language models, is, is what's going to take us to a higher level of solving problems.

So today I say go learn about quantum um, computing. It's pretty fascinating, and IBM's got some stuff that you can play on. Alright, very cool.

Very cool. Yeah, I, I saw a really, uh, I think the 60 Minutes did a really cool thing on quantum computing a couple months ago, and, um, I was really intrigued by it too. So it's gonna be pretty exciting to watch that grow over time.

Well, everybody, I'd like to introduce you to our guest today. Christine, go Lion. Did I say it right?

You did. I've had her last name in my brain wrong for too long, and now I'm trying to relearn it. Christine, tell us a little bit about you.

Thank you. And thank you for having me and, uh, saying my name correctly, uh, pronouncing my name correctly. Uh, yes, Christine Gole.

Uh, currently I am a program manager in, uh, SUNY's Global Information Security Group. Um, but I actually started, it's funny that you mentioned quantum computing and the bits with zeros and one, because I started my career as a software engineer at Sprint, and I was hired to prepare for Y 2K, so, um, you know, coding in cobol. And that was at that time, uh, thinking that I was coding in cobol.

And then just however many years later you're talking about quantum computing is just so exciting and fascinating. Um, but after a few years of doing consulting and telecom, I fell into the cyber industry and, um, just have been loving it. And throughout that journey, I really found a great passion for, um, you know, the women in the field.

Uh, I was president of Women at Technology and then now I'm currently the chair for STEM for her, which is a 5 0 1 C3, um, organization. And our mission is really to empower and educate young girls, young women in the field of stem, um, and mostly the under, um, you know, the disadvantaged populations. Um, and I'd love to speak about the importance of that, you know, later in this discussion as well.

Um, but yeah, that's, that's a very, uh, short version of, uh, my journey in the IT industry. Well, you know, every woman we talk to, um, one of the first questions we ask is, tell us about you as a young, a young Christine. Mm-Hmm.

You know, did you have somebody in your life who influenced you? My mother really pushed me into the technical side of things. Um, I actually wanted to be an architect, and she looked at me and she said, oh, honey, you could never do that.

You can't draw straight line, which was true. Nobody could even read my writing much less me, me draw something. And she really pushed me towards stem.

Did you have somebody like that that influenced, uh, you in your life and kind of tell us what your journey was? Did you know, what did you study in college? You know, how did you end up in technology in the first place?

Yeah, so, you know, growing up, I actually, I remember the young Christine, and I don't think it has changed since because I still love fashion, but the young Christine would, when my mom was out, she was an accountant, and when she was out in her job, I would steal some of her heels and dress up. So I always thought I'd be in business, um, just because she would come home in her business attire. Um, and then in college, I actually studied international business and Spanish, but it was around that timeframe that, again, I mentioned Y 2K, and I think the growth of the internet at that time, um, that it was more of an external factor that pushed me in it, because I think at that timeframe, I wasn't sure.

I, I liked math, I liked art, and I didn't really know what was in front of me. Um, there weren't that many educators out there that was pushing for stem, and that's why it's so important that you know, what I'm doing with stem. For her, it's so important to really expose those who would not see what STEM would be like, um, and make it possible for them.

But I think the young Christine was always definitely in the business field, in the international field, but the big thing was also creating an impact for whatever I was doing. And that's why I loved it when I was at Sprint, because I saw the evolution. Again, it was a timeframe where internet was growing, and I saw the evolution of, you know, I, I'm here in the States, you know, you had to call long distance or calling cards to call back to the Philippines, and then it's like the internet boom, and I'm able to connect with my family at home without having the great costs of, you know, long distance calls or anything.

And then email came and it's just the convolution of, uh, connectivity and communication. Um, I think the impact really helped me, you know, really learn more about technology. Oh, um, so, so true.

And I, I personally think that during COVID, we had, uh, so many virtual events, and I am, I, I will always be now a fan of virtual events. Um, tech Strong does great virtual events because it democratized education around software. So for example, I, we, I have, we, I run an open source project and not everybody can go to CubeCon.

Not, not everybody can afford flights to these, uh, these places. And when we were doing virtual events, I felt like I, I felt really proud that the industry stepped up, did things virtual, and we kept, we stayed connected and we continued educating. I feel we've lost something going back to in-person events.

While I know they're important, I feel like that they should be both so that we can continue reaching out to more, more individuals. We don't, we don't create a class system that says, you know, if you're working for a big company and you, they can, that you have a training budget, you get to go to these. But if not, sorry.

Right. And that is part of the problem with, you know, even with women, because oftentimes women can't say, I'm gonna leave my kids to go to a conference. It's hard for us, for, for some women to, to, to leave the house for a week to go to Paris and hang out at CU gone.

It's just not in our, it, it, it's just, it's not there for us. So I think the virtual events is so important and bringing everybody together through the internet has changed the way we, we s see the world. Yeah.

Communication. And I think, you know, you were, again, going back to the advancing of, you know, quantum compute, uh, quantum computing, but now with the age of AI and virtual, um, reality, I think one of the things that they're coming up with is like a screen or a projector so that if you are doing virtual conferences, you can kind of, um, put this, uh, I don't know, little hub, um, clip on your laptop. And it, it's, it's kind of like a hologram of what the conference room would look like.

And then now they have the headsets where you are more in 3D and not just like a tv, like, um, a person to person virtual. So I don't know. We're in a really interesting timeframe, and I'm glad I'm part of it.

Well, And that you've seen too, since we've gone back to In person, a lot of these conferences have that have gone on forever. Never like RSAC and CubeCon and just, there's so many out there have there, a lot of them are offering a virtual post event for people who can't attend in person. And I think those, I've watched those over the last four years just grow to be, you know, not just, we're gonna show a few speakers, but we're actually gonna make it more immersive.

And you get to really participate after the fact. And so I, yeah, I, I agree. I also think that it pulls the younger audience and in a way, college kids, just out of college kids who would only get this exposure in a job, now they can go to these virtual events that again, they would not, not otherwise be able to participate in and get all this information they can for text drawing.

We create chat rooms, people can network with each other, people can meet each other, people can, you know, contact each other after the fact. And I think that's just as important. Like Tracy said, we've turned it into this more, what everybody always says, the hallway track at an in-person event, right.

When you're walking down the hall and you see people, you know. But virtual events are more and more developing into those kind of, um, environments, which are super important, I think, And especially for just outreach. Yeah.

So let's go back to STEM for her. Tell us how you're, uh, you're doing outreach to young women to get them in the door and get them excited about stem. Yeah, I, gosh, I can talk, um, all day about this, so you can always cut me off, Judy or edit it out.

Um, But, um, yes. So STEM for her right now we are focused in the DC region, and what our growth plan would be is, um, you know, maybe go to Richmond, Baltimore, uh, the cities surrounding us, and then maybe someday we'll have chapters, um, all over the states. But our outreach right now, we do reach out to, um, the Loudoun County public schools, um, all the different counties within Virginia, DC and Maryland.

And, um, it is so fantastic. The girls are so in love with math and, um, they already know what they want to do. And some of them, you know, they, and it's not just one thing they want to be, um, uh, they want to do something within the biomedical field, but at the same time also do something with mechanical engineering so that they can come up with, um, you know, solving, uh, solving, uh, those who come back from war, maybe they don't have hand, but it's amazing their imagination and creativity right now.

And I think it's the exposure to internet and everything that they can see that it's possible. Um, but we do have middle school, high school and, um, college aged students within STEM for her. Um, and our outreach is really, uh, we do a lot of programs that, uh, for example, last year we did a program with the FAA, and it was to celebrate, I think it was one of their, it's their own wifi capability in the air, whatever technology that was, it was their 25th year anniversary for that technology.

So they invited STEM for her, the girls got to do, you know, uh, flight simulations, and then they got to look at the weather map. So it was not just, um, you know, uh, flight and pilot, it was also, uh, meteorology as well. So, um, I think the more that they learn, the more that they get engaged.

And that's why we want to expose them to these, um, industries that they may have never thought about it. And then a lot of what we get the feedback is that, um, I now know I can do it. I never thought I could, but I see that that's a female pilot.

She looks like me, she talks like me, we're the same color, and she's rocking it, so I know that I can rock it too. So, and that's really our mission. Yes.

And I'm, you know, those, those young girls, as soon as they're exposed to the possibilities, I know that they'll soar. But we still have a huge cultural issue in this, in stem, in, in corp, let's just call it the corporate STEM world. Mm-Hmm.

I heard a discussion. Um, I don't remember where, where I was about, um, a person saying if they saw a woman pilot, they would ask to get off the plane. Oh, you're kidding.

No, I'm not. I wish, I can't remember where I heard it was like I was listening to the news or something and they, they were talking about, um, basically diversity and how there still was a, uh, you know, in some areas they still believed a man should be doing it and not a woman should be doing it. And that's not, and that's not everywhere, but we still have that problem.

Um, Well, and it goes beyond that. It goes beyond that because it's not just a woman, it's a woman of color too. Right.

Like Christina's saying, these little girls need to see someone who looks like them in every way to, to be like, oh, wow, you know, I can do that. I can, it's so important. So it goes just, it goes so far beyond just being women to being diverse.

Diverse. We have to have the role models. We have to Exactly.

They have, Christine had her mother as a role model. She wanted to put her mother's business clothes on, and she wanted to go out and be a business person. Right?

Yes. That was a role model, though, that imprinted in your mind that you could do that too. And she must have been beautiful and in her beautiful business clothes, and you wanted to aspire to that, you know?

Yeah. And, you know, I remember too, you know, that's what I wanted, that that was the view, uh, connotation that I had when I would graduate from college. Right.

And then, um, I entered the workforce and I felt like I had to, because it was, you know, programming male dominated industry. I was usually the only female in the room in meetings. And I felt like I had to hide my femininity a bit, where it's okay, maybe I shouldn't wear my nice suit or dress.

Maybe I'll just wear pants all the time. Um, maybe I should just pull my hair back. It's like, I, I couldn't be authentically me because authentically me didn't fit in the IT world yet.

And I think that's, I'm glad that, you know, however many years now, we, we do see more women in the room and, you know, any hairstyle, any, um, uh, clothing goes, but it's just, it took a while for me to really embrace who I was and really be me in a meeting. Um, and then it actually changes, like, okay, physical, but then mentally too, I felt stronger when I was more me instead of hiding. I could really voice myself when I felt stronger.

Um, so yeah, I think it's, it's still, it, it's come a long way, but we do still have some time to go. Um, I was at a conference where, uh, someone did an exercise with us. The speaker did an exercise with us, and I was like, all right, close your eyes.

I wanna do an exercise, picture yourself in a plane, and as you're getting up out of the plane, the pilot says this, and then the male come, and then you're walking out of the room and there's a family there. Okay. Now, open your eyes.

Um, can you tell me in your mind, what did you think the, was the pilot? A male or female was, um, you know, the server, a male or female, so, and 90%, 95% of the room said that the pilot was male. So I think it's just ingrained in our minds, and that's one thing that needs to shift.

Boy. Well said. It really does need to shift.

And it's interesting that you talk about being your authentic self. And I'm looking right now at our, our tech strong women. We had a, we had a guest who actually wrote a book about being your authentic self and how important it was for you to achieve success.

And I'm sorry, I don't remember which woman it was. It's frustrating because she had, she had some really good tips around that particular problem. And she talked about it from the aspect of, you cannot succeed if you have something that you're kind of dragging along with you all the time.

And that's the thought that you have to fit into a, a, a, a, a male world or a, a certain format that you may, you may not fit into. So if you wanna have purple hair and tattoos, you should be able to do that because it's your skills that we're looking at. And the more you can be your authentic self, the better you can be at your job.

Yeah. You're not sitting in the room worrying about how your appearance is or how you're being, you know, you know, the guys aren't sitting around doing that, but it's just, it's a distraction. Right.

It's a total distraction to your, to being able to just do what you wanna do. Yeah. Trace, I'll figure out who it was.

We've had so many, This is such A, you're not, you're, it's, so when I hear that, I mean, you're so not the first person who's told us that. The whole, what do I wear? What do I do with my hair?

It's like, ah, Yeah. And I remembered, um, this is at a different company, and I was lucky enough and fortunate enough where, um, it, it's a really big company, but each quarter they would have the, uh, c-suite comes. So the CEO the president, everyone.

And at this timeframe, I remembered, we had, and this is when cloud was just starting to become cloud, and no one knew what cloud was, but we had a female executive that was in charge of that vertical. And so, you know, someone was talking about, they were talking about the numbers, all the leaders were on stage. And finally it was awesome to see that there was a woman on stage as well.

But then a lot of my colleagues, um, male and female were kind of saying, oh, well, why is she wearing that? Or her heels and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, because those men, they can rock their Rolexes and their Hugo boss suits.

She can certainly wear her Jimmy shoes or whatever. She can wear whatever she wants. And her message about the cloud was so strong, and I wish that it was so strong, but I wish that what they were saying about her clothing it, like overpowered and it overshadowed her message.

But her message was so strong about the cloud, and it was so insightful. So, um, that was probably 15, I'd say 10 to 15 years ago. Um, I'm sure it's changed now, but that I, that was so ingrained in my mind, that memory, Well, I'm tall, I'm five nine.

And so when I put on a pair of heels, I'm like, six feet without any problem. And the number of times at work, I would be taller than a man, especially if it was a four inch heel. And they would, they would comment because I was looking down on them because they had to look up at me.

And I was like, and I actually found it to be pretty fun. 'cause it was like, okay, fine. If that intimidates you, I guess that's your problem.

But for a long time, I didn't wear, I wore flats all the time, and I reached a point where I'm like, you know, I wanna dress the way I wanna dress. And, and, but it, it's funny 'cause especially as a woman, if you're taller than them, 'cause they're, you know, they're 5 10, 5 11, and you're 6 6 1, um, yeah, they don't, they're like, they don't like it. It's pretty funny.

Well, this goes to another discussion, right? Because if you can't be who you wanna be and wear your four heels and be six foot tall, you may not use your voice. Right?

Right. Right. So that's the first step for fixing the problem, is to be okay with who you are in order to find your voice.

I always tell people, I think I was 50 before I found my voice. It took me a long time. I would say quietly in meetings.

And once in a while, I would say to somebody, would you please, you have to stop talking right now because you're gonna embarrass yourself, because what you're saying is completely not accurate. And I, I'm going, I I'm gonna, I'm gonna use my voice today, but it would have to be, I, it, I have, it would have to go pretty far before I would say, wait a second, everything you're saying is not actually true. Um, and if we make decisions based on this discussion, we're gonna make wrong decisions.

So why, you know, it took a long time for me to go, I'm okay wearing my platforms and my miniskirt and using my voice in a meeting. Well, and what Christine said is so important because these girls are coming to this program stem for her, and they're this generation of kids. I have a 26-year-old daughter, and she doesn't struggle nearly with this the way we did.

They come in and they're like, what I, I can do whatever you can do. I, and you know, I think it's amazing because they just have a totally different attitude, and the more we can empower them, the better. Yeah.

And same Tracy, I, it, I don't think that I found my voice until later on as well. Um, probably just, you know, 10 years ago. But, um, yes, I love it be what you just mentioned, Judy, because I love, so I call them, I have a group of friends, they're girls, and I know you see the, um, memes or the gifs out there saying like, intergenerational friendships are great at work, or, or coworkers and friendships are, um, very important.

And I call them my small group of friends here. Um, my wit Next gen, so women in Technology Next Gen, because I'm like, I, I think I'm Gen X. Am I Gen X?

And then I have someone that's a millennial and then also Gen Z, and we go out all the time. And then the stories that they tell me when they're saying, oh, like one of 'em wanted to go back to school and they were negotiating with the universities, like, which one of you is going to give me a lower rate for my tuition? And I'm like, did I ever do that?

No, I did not. And then, um, another one is like, oh, well, I told my manager that you know this, and they know what they want. This next generation, they are using their voice so much more to fight for, you know, what they think is right.

Um, so I'm so glad because I don't think that I had ever done what they've done in the years that they're doing it. Yeah, absolutely. Tracy, it was, um, Tricia Montalvo, Tim Great.

Who wrote a book. We interviewed her and she wrote a book called Embrace the Power of You Embrace the Power of You Owning Your Identity at Work. And she talked all about some of the things that you've brought up.

It's a, it's a good read. Yeah. So viewers who wanna expand on this, this particular topic, that is a good place to go.

And it might be a good place for your, your, uh, stem for her ladies, right? Yeah. So they're okay with it, and you have to be told you're okay with it.

I'm just gonna say one more thing on this topic, then I wanna ask technical questions. But I went and saw the movie Origin. Oh, I don't know if you've heard about it yet.

It's based on this book called the ca cast, C-A-S-T-E, like the, like the cast system. Yeah, I've heard about it. Oh boy.

It is, you have to be brave and go see it. I can tell you, I cried for about 20 minutes, like cried, cried for about 20 minutes watching it. It's a really good, really good movie.

It's about the woman who wrote it in her journey in writing this book Cast. Um, but it talks about a caste system in every culture and in what, in many ways, what we're talking about here is the caste system and where women are on the, on the, you know, on the ladder of technology. Men have always, we actually used to dominate technology, let's remember that.

And somehow in the eighties, we lost that position. And men have always now been on the top. And I always tell people this, women in technology who are out like me with startups, we have about access to about 2%, less than 2% of investment, less than 2% of investment.

So it's hard to get those people that women up the, the chain to be role models, but we have to understand it from the caste system because we start thinking about it that way. We start understanding how to support each other, how to use our voice when we see it happening, and how to fix the problem for good. Now you're in the security business, and I, this is an area I'm, I'm, I'm pretty focused on because of what we're doing, um, at Deploy Hub, my company, as we're gathering security data.

Where do you see, if we, if we look at the future and we say within the next five years, where do you see the biggest holes in our security? Does it continue to be in ransomware? Is it in the software supply chain?

Is it in, you know, penetration? Um, is it in denial of service? You know, where should, uh, organizations start focusing their attention in the security realm?

If I were to look like at a roadmap, I don't think it would, well, ransomware I think will always be there in just because of the money that comes with it. But I think with the rise of ai, um, you know, we have to think about what are the new things and how do we secure them? Because I know, uh, you know, um, so for example, um, endpoint security, let's say.

So it used to be, okay, I'm gonna push something out to your computer endpoint security, and it's going to, um, identify that malicious vector and then it's gonna block it, and then we'll do something about it. But now they're adding ai, some companies are adding AI into that endpoint detection so that it's not only like, okay, I'm just gonna continue to monitor, block it, and then do something with it. It's actually now learning the habits of what the user is doing in the system, and then kind of bringing that back.

I, I mean, I don't think they're doing it maliciously. They're just trying to collect data to gather what the habitual, um, you know, acts are to learn more about the, uh, process in, in the computer and what's going on. But I think the more that they're going to add AI into these certain products, that of course there's gonna be some player that's going to do something with it.

So I think trying to figure out where, how we can stop the bad actors from the ai, um, features that are being plugged in to some of these, um, solutions that we have now. That's kind of a big thing that I'm looking at. I agree.

You know, I, I just was reading something on a similar topic around the, you know, 'cause AI needs these large language models, right? Uh, generative AI does, and how do we start protecting those, those large language models is a data, you know, data security has always been a top priority. And this is a whole different kind of data security.

It may not be somebody logging in with a 1, 2, 3 password and, and somebody gets to your data. It may be something, um, a little, uh, more complex and a little more nefarious and hidden. Uh, and so how do we start protecting that?

And also on the news today, before I sat down, I was having some coffee and they, they started talking about, you know, the disinformation campaigns. We'll probably start seeing in 2024 that are AI generated and how do we start? And that's part of security.

Yeah. I mean, if you think about the us those, those disinformation campaigns can be really, really bad for the, the security of the nation in, in any nation that experiences that. So I think you're right.

AI security is an area that we all should be really talking about. Well, they're already doing it too. They're already doing it.

They did a robocall where they used AI to generate the president's voice to tell people not to go vote. Yeah. It's already happening.

Oh, wow. Yeah. They did it in one Of the states.

They did do that. United States, They, and, and they used his like words like malarkey and, you know, the folksy words that Joe Biden likes to use. And it was, we, I listened to it and it was frightening.

And they're in big trouble. They're being prosecuted for it. I mean, they jumped all over it, but still, doesn't that happen That prosecution can last another six years and No, Exactly.

The turtle, they Took it very seriously, much more quickly than I've ever seen happen. Like they, they're trying to nip it in the bud, but yeah, it's already going on. And that's not, we could, you know, we think about just threat models.

How do you know your threat model hasn't been tweaked, Right? So there's so many aspects of AI that we haven't thought about yet. It's more than just, did we, did somebody put an piece of open source code that wasn't secure in their, in their software, or they pulled in a, you know, a, a wind sock, uh, DLL into a, um, SolarWinds, uh, application That was bad.

It is. These things are becoming more and more complex. That's why the con, that's why the discussion around quantum computing for today, because there's some complex environments that we're dealing with now.

Thousands of dependencies, thousands of configuration settings, and so many ways to attack a system. Um, it, it's sad that we're here, but we are. And for your, for your ladies who are gonna watch this, because I know they will, cybersecurity is a really good area to be in.

If you wanna go into stem, it can be a different, you know, cybersecurity has covers many things. Mm-Hmm. Not just software.

Yeah. Like policy privacy. Yeah.

Yeah. The US government's spending some time. I saw another thing on the news, uh, on Reuters.

They said that the government's starting to track, you know, how well we're addressing vulnerabilities. This is in software. And over 2023, we, uh, in, in increased our performance by 20%.

That's not a lot. Mm-Hmm. But it's bigger.

It's, it's, it's the right direction. It's like, It's better than zero Something, right? It's better than, it's like being on, you know, going on a diet and getting on the scale of, you know, every week and then finally you go, I lost two pounds.

It's going the right direction. At least it's going the right direction. Right.

And then if you think about like FinTech too, all these payments, um, you gotta secure them in the right way. Um, gosh. And then the stock market, they have algorithms that they use as well, and then you inject AI into it and Yeah.

It, it's, Think about space. Yeah. Space force and space exploration and Seattle and satellite.

I keep calling 'em Seattle's satellites, uh, you know, satellite management. That could be pretty bad, right? Yeah.

And, and utilities and energy. These are all core places where, in particular, in the, in, in like the energy sector, we have old systems. They can easily be hacked, really old systems.

And, you know, it's not just AI and the new stuff, it's some of the old stuff that's been running out there. So it's a really good area to go into. So ladies, you know, take that on, make that the, where women succeed in cybersecurity, because it will be a big, big area in the, in, I'd say in the next 15 to 20 years, we're gonna see a lot of development in this space and a lot of new jobs.

And it is an, you know, if you like being a spy, it's an interesting area. It really is. Christine, when you're working with the, the, um, younger women, is there a, a specific area that, you know, social media and all this stuff they're exposed to, is there an area that you see more of them leaning towards?

Or is it, is it diverse? It's pretty diverse. Um, I'm just very, uh, sometimes I just get really, um, like I'm surprised with some of the mm-Hmm.

Things that they come up with. Like I said in the beginning, um, mathematics is a big one for them. So they're trying to learn, um, more, you know, it, is it just accounting?

Is it finance? But then we're like, no, it's data analytics and then you can turn it into what you can do at nasa. And then it talks about algorithms.

So, um, it's kind of expanding their knowledge on that specific, uh, subject. So s science, is it just this? And if you think about it, you know, we have the T for technology, science, technology, engineering, math, but then technology is hitting each and every single one of the science, engineering and math as well.

So we we're trying to tell them the evolution of what STEM is. But yeah, mathematics is a big one for them. Um, a lot of them want to do, um, aerospace, um, engineering, which is fantastic.

And it's just not your, uh, typical what we grew up thinking, what STEM was. It's so advanced in their thinking, and that's what I love about it. But mathematics is a big one for them.

That's good. Girls feel empowered to do math. Yes.

We know that wasn't always the case. Yeah. You know, the aerospace industry, the space, basically the space market could grow to a trillion dollars by 2030.

It went up from, I'm reading this 447 billion, um, last year up from 280 billion in 2010. And they propose it, they, they believe it'll get to a trillion dollars by 2030. Wow.

It is a going to be a very big It is. It is a new, it is the new frontier. And it's a very interesting, um, area to get into because there's gonna be a, you know, you don't have to go into space.

I wouldn't go into space, but you could be working on antennas and, you know, and all kinds of new technology and space vehicles that they're gonna be putting up in the, you know, in into orbit. Uh, and so it's another big area to get into if you're into stem. Yeah.

And then if you think about even just retail, right? Um, they're not thinking about it of, you know, just designing clothes. It's okay.

Well, um, there's now I think it's either Nike or one of those, um, vendors that have, um, uh, clothes where for deaf people, they can wear it and it will, whatever. They go to concerts, it kind of lets them feel the beat even more. There's like sensors all over.

Oh wow. Um, that shirt. And then they have shoes.

I think it's Nike that has this where, um, those who may have lost limbs in the war, et cetera, it's like they don't need to tie shoe laces. They just put the, um, their foot in the shoe and it just wraps by itself. Mm-Hmm.

So it's just thinking about where we are today, what does society look like today, and then what does technology look like today to use that? And you know, it try to visualize what people need and then they do it. Yeah.

That's, that's a pretty cool description of clothes that are smart. Yes. Yes.

Smart clothing. Smart clothing. Smart clothing.

That's, it's a new one. I haven't really thought about smart clothing. Well, it's really cool.

There's companies that have done even lower levels of it, but they're doing, it's like Columbia, which is a huge brand that I like to wear, has designed this whole inner lining that's reflective. So you can wear a coat in really cold weather that's half the weight of a big puffy coat. But because it looks like tinfoil, but it's not.

But the fabric and the designing in it, it reflects your heat back onto your body. So it keeps you much warmer with way less materials than a regular big puffy winter coat where you're Walking. That is really cool.

I had, Columbia's has this whole line of it. We have it, and sometimes it's too warm, like you can't wear it to the grocery store. 'cause you can all That really cool.

I have to, I have to decide what the weather is and what I'm doing and pick the coat that has it or doesn't because it, I need that. Wow. I need that Gloves.

I need, you're gonna have to, afterwards, you have to send me a text to let me know what it is. 'cause I need that for writing. I hate putting on heavy coats for writing.

Oh, oh, totally. I'll hook you up. It's great.

And I'm freezing. I'm only in like a, and I'm, it's like, okay, I wish I'd get warmed up 'cause it's cold out here right now to ride. But that's, it's so cool.

That, and, and Christine's right. There's so many cool ways that, you know, watch some Star Trek episodes. People look at all cool futuristic things that, that are happening.

Movies That we used to watch are all coming to fruition. Exactly. We're huge Turkey fans in my house Now.

I'm just ready to be beamed up someplace. Right. Beam me up.

Oh, I don't wanna go to space. I wanna stay on Earth. I wouldn't mind.

It's cold right now. I wouldn't mind being beamed to some beach somewhere right now though. That is real.

Well, you guys, we are, we are coming to the end of our time together. Christine, this was so great. I gotta tell everyone, I've been trying for all like a year to get her here and it's just hasn't worked out.

And even with everyone getting sick at the end, we still pulled it together. So thank you so much for being here and Good luck with your girls. Really.

Oh yeah. For her is such an important project. Uh, congratulations on the work that you've done, and I wish you all success as you move into those different, uh, areas, those different states.

Thank, Thank you. And thank you for having me. I'll make sure that, um, you know, in three months we do this again.

Yay. That would be great. Cool.

Yeah, it's such a, it's such a great time to meet with you, so thank you so much. Maybe We should bring some of your stem for her girls who are, who have found their voice so we could do a little panel. They're Eent that they're so eloquent.

They would absolutely love it. Oh, let's plan, let's do it. I will.

I That would be fun. I would Be in touch with you. I would love to do a panel with you and, and some of your girls.

That's amazing. Great Call Trace. All right, everybody, stay tuned.

There's a lot more tech on TV to watch today. Thank you Christine for being with us and we'll see you next time on Techstrong Women. Thanks.

Stay well. Thank you.