from around the globe it's the cube with digital coverage of Red Hat summit 2020 brought to you by Red Hat hi I'm Stu min a man and this is the cubes coverage of Red Hat summit 2020 of course this year the event is happening all online and that gives us an opportunity to meet with red hat executives customers partners and practitioners where they are around the globe in this segment one of our favorites ever years we're talking to the women in open source and joining me for this segment first of all we have Elissa and Alexander who is the executive vice president and chief people officer of Red Hat this award fit thunder her domain dallisa it is great to see you again thanks so much for joining us thank you so much for having us all right and we have two of the Award winners so first if you see right next bit Elissa we have an epic Sain who's a doctor and PhD candidate in clinical neuroscience at the University of Gothenburg coming to us from Sweden method great to see you thank you very much all right we also have Megan Burge Sinicki who is a manager of research and operations at the open source program office at Google Megan thank you so much for joining us off though thanks for having me all right so dallisa let me hand it off to you is give our audience a little bit if they're not familiar with whipping an open source what the initiative is the community and you know what might have changed from previous years when we've talked about this sure so we realized that the tech industry is a great industry for diverse populations but a lot of diverse populations don't realize that and so as the open source leader we wanted to shine a light on the contributions that some of our underrepresented populations are making an open source that trying to inspire more people to join communities to participate to contribute we know that more diverse populations help us to innovate more rapidly they help us to solve more problems and so it's really important especially today with what's happening in the world lots of important problems to solve that we really invite more of our other upper sort of populations to join in the communities awesome so absolutely there there are lots of people that volunteer there are lots of people that do it as their day job Megan why don't we fuck you have a roll open source first Google as a strong legacy and open source in general so tell us a little bit about you know what you were working on and what you're being recognized for here yeah well a lot of the recognition comes from my work with the Drupal Association I had been with Drupal for 8 years hoping to build that foundation in supporting that community and lots of different ways from fundraising to community events running sprints and helping with their developer tools and so that was a lot what the award was based on and now I'm at Google and I've been here for about a year and a half and I run their research and operations and so Google is an expression of open source and we have thousands of people using thousands of projects and we want to make sure they do it well they feel supported that we are good citizens in the projects that we participate in and so my group provides the operational support to make sure that happens you know you know what one of the things that's always fascinating when I go to Red Hat there's so many projects there's so many participants from various walks of life last year at the show there was a lot of discussion of you know it was a survey really and said that you know the majority of people that tribute now it's actually part of their job as opposed to when I think back you know you go back a couple of decades ago and it was like oh well in my spare time or down in my basement I'm contributing here so maybe talk a little bit about the communities and you know what what Megan is embodying CSUN she worked on project now she's working for obviously a good partner of Red Hat's that does a lot of open source yeah I love the way she described what her role is at Google and that it's fascinating and Google has been really a huge contributor in the community for in communities for years and years so I think that what we're seeing with the communities and people saying yeah now it's part of my day job is that you know 20 years ago the idea that open-source development would be kind of on par with proprietary development and on par in terms of being used in the enterprise and the data center was something that I think many people questioned proprietary software was the way that most people felt comfortable making sure that their intellectual property is protected and that users could feel comfortable using it within the parameters required so that was the way it was 20 years ago and then now you think about you know most companies there is some form of open source that is part of their infrastructure so now open source is no longer you know that disrupter but it's really a viable alternative and organizations really want to use both they want to have some propriety or they want to have some open sources so that means like every company is going to need to have some need to understand how to participate in communities how to influence communities and Red Hat's a great partner in helping enterprise customers to be able to understand what those red Nets might look like and then helping to kind of harden it make sure things that they need to have application city to have certified or certified and make it really usable in a way they're comfortable with in the enterprise that's kind of special Red Hat place but it's just a tribute to where we come in a world in terms of open source being really accepted and thriving and it helps us to innovate much more rapidly yeah and there's there's no better way to look at not only where we are but where we're going then talk about what's happening in the academic world so that gives it brings us Aneta so you are the academic award winner you're a PhD candidate so tell us a little bit about your participation and open source what it means to be part of this community my PhD project involves using virtual reality to measure the arm movements of people with stroke so we have participants coming in into our lab so they we're these 3d glasses and then they start seeing virtual objects in the 3d space and they use their hands to touch at these targets and make them disappear and we have all these movements data specially interpreters and then we write code and analyze the data and find out how much they have recovered within one year after stroke this is my PhD project but my involvement with open source happens they before like in starting from 2010 I have been editing Wikipedia and I have been writing several articles related to medicine and healthcare so that is where I started with open open knowledge and then I moved on words and after my medical studies I moved to research and worked on this awesome project and so there are multiple ways by which I have engaged with open source that's far that's awesome my understanding is also some of the roots that you had and some of the medical things that you're doing have an impact on what's happening today so obviously we're all dealing with the global pandemic in Koba 19 so I'd like to hear you know what your involvement there you know your data obviously is politically important that we have the right data getting to the right people as fast as possible definitely yes right now I'm working on writing creating content for Wikipedia writing on articles related to Kobe 19 so I mostly work on writing about its socio-economic impact writing about Kobe 19 testing and also about the disease in general mental health issues surrounding that social stigma associated began with it and so forth so I use all these high-quality references from the World Health Organization the United Nations and also from several journals and synthesize them and write articles on Wikipedia so we have a very cool project called wiki project code 19 on Wikipedia where people who are interested in writing articles creating data uploading images related to poet 19 come together and create some good content out of it so I am a very active participant there alright and making my understanding is you you also have some initiatives related to kovat 19 maybe you can tell us a little bit about those yeah well one I'm loosely affiliated with this kovat act now and that is a combination of developers data scientists epidemiologists and US state government officials and it's looking at how was the curve look like and how does that curve get flattened if governor's made decisions faster or differently than what they're making today and how does it impact the availability of ICU beds and ventilators and so that is a tool that's being used today by many decision-makers here in the US and my contribution to that was they needed some resources I reached into Google and found some smart generous volunteers that are contributing to the dataset and actually I just connected with Neda do this award program and now she's connected and is gonna start working on this as well yes oh that's fantastic yeah I mean dallisa you know we've known for a long time you want to move fast if you want to connect you know lots of diverse groups you know open sources is an important driver there what what else are you seeing in your group you know with your hat is the the people officer you know obviously this is a big impact not only on all of your customers partners but on fun Red Hatters themselves well it is a huge impact we're so fortunate that we have some experience working remotely we have about 25 percent of our population that historically works remotely so we have that as a foundation but certainly the quick move the rapid move to really thinking about our people first and having them work from home across the globe that is unprecedented and at this point we have some individuals who have been working from home for many many many week and others that are really in entering their fourth week so we're starting to have this huge appreciation for what it's like to work remotely and what we can learn about more effective inclusion so I think you know back to the idea of women and open source and diversity inclusion one of the things you may always prided ourself in is we focus on inclusion and we think about things like okay if the person is not in the room with their remote let's make sure for including them let's make sure they get to speak first etcetera well now we're learning what it's really like to be remote and for everyone to be remote and so we're creating this muscle as an organization I think most organizations are doing this right getting a muscle you didn't have before we really really having to think about inclusion in a different way and you're building a capability as an organization that you didn't have to appreciate those that are not in the room and to make sure they are included because no one's in the room you know we're really important pieces and dallisa you know one of the things that that's always great about Red Hat summit is you you bring together all these people as we just heard you know that your two Award winners here you know got connected through the awards so maybe give us a little bit of a peek as to what sort of things the community can still look forward to how they can continue to connect even though we're all going to be remote for this event yeah this event is is it going to be great event and I hope everyone joins us along our journey we are fortunate that Red Hat you know as the open source leader really wants to take a leadership position in thinking about how we can shine a light on opportunities for us to highlight the value of diversity and inclusion and so we've got a number of events not throughout the summit that we'd love people to join in and we're going to be celebrating our women and open-source again at our women's leadership community lunch is now not a lunch it is now a discussion unless you're having your lunch that you can check your desk but we're having a great conversation at that event I mean by people to join in and have a deeper conversation and also another look at our women in open source Award winners but these Award winners are just so amazing every year that applications that are submitted are just more and more inspiring and all the finalists were people that are so impressive so I love the fact that our community continues to grow and that they're more and more impressive people that are joining the community and that they're making those connections so that together we can you know really shine a light on the value that women bring to the communities and continue to inspire other underrepresented groups to join in and participate then a you know research obviously is an area where open-source is pretty well used but just give us a little bit of viewpoint from your standpoint yourself and your peers you know I would think from the outside that you know open sourced is just kind of part of the fabric of the tools that you're using is it something that people think specifically about a course or does it just come naturally that people are you know leveraging using and even contributing what what's available the tool I'm using is called cuteness it's an open source tool written in Python and so that gives me the possibility to have a look in deeper into the code and see what's actually inside for example I would like to know how what is the size of the target that is shown in the virtual space and I can fit know that correctly to the millimeters because it's available to me in open source so I think these are the advantages which researchers see when they have tools open-source tools and at the same time there's also a movement in Sweden and in most of Europe where they want the researchers are asking for publishing their articles in open access journals so they want most of their research be published as transparent as possible and there is also this movement where people want researchers want to have their data put in some open data city so that everybody can have a look at it and do analysis on the data and build up on that data if other people want to so there's a lot going from the open access side and knowledge side and also the open source side in the research community and I'm looking forward to what probably 19 will do to this movement in future and I am sure people will start using more more and more open-source tools because after the Manderly yeah making I'm curious from your standpoint when I think about a lot of these communities you know meetups are just kind of some of the regular fabric of how I get things done as well as you know just lots of events tie into things so when you're talking to your colleagues when you're talking to your peers out there how much is kind of the state of reality today having an impact in any any learnings that you can share with gaudí yeah that is definitely a challenge that we're going to figure out together and I am part of a group called Foss responders we are reaching out to projects and listening to their needs and amplifying their needs and helping to get them connected with resources and one of the top three areas of need include how do I run an online community event how do I replace these meetups and what is wonderful is that groups have been moving in this direction already and so who would release a guide of how they run online events and they provide some tooling as well but so has WordPress put out a guide and other projects that have gone down this path and so in the spirit of open source everyone is sharing their knowledge and Foss responders is trying to aggregate that so that you can go to their site find it and take advantage of it yeah definitely something I've seen one of the silver linings is you know these communities typically have been a lot of sharing but even more so everybody's responding everybody's kind of rallying to the cause don't want to give you the final word obviously you know this is a nice segment piece that we usually expect to see at Red Hat summit so what else do you want to help share where the community is final closing thoughts well I think that you know we're not done yet we have been so fortunate to be able to highlight you know the contributions that women make to open source and that is a honor that we get to take that role but we need to continue to go down this path we are not we're not done we have not made the improvement in terms of the the representative in our communities that will actually foster all of the improvements and all the solutions that need to happen in the world though we're going to keep down this pathway and really encourage everyone to think through how you can have a more inclusive team how you can make someone feel included if you're participating in a community or in an organization so that we really continue to bring in more diversity and have more innovation well excellent thank you so much Alisa for sharing it thank you too - both of you Award winners and really look forward to reading more online definitely checking out some of the initiatives that you've shared valuable pieces that hopefully everybody can leverage all right lots more coverage from Red Hat summit 2020 I'm Stu minimun and as always thank you for watching the cube [Music]

>> Announcer: Live from Boston, Massachusetts, it's theCUBE covering Red Hat Summit 2019. Brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome back to our coverage here on theCUBE of Red Hat Summit 2019. We're live in Boston right now, and I'm joined by a couple of award winning professionals. And we're looking forward to hearing what their story is because it's fascinating on both fronts. And also by DeLisa Alexander who has a great job title at Red Hat. Chief People Officer. I love that title. DeLisa, thanks for joining us. >> Thanks for having us. >> Also with us, Limor Fried who is the and founder and lead engineer of Adafruit and Saloni Garg who is an undgergrad student, third year student, at the LNM Institute of Technology. And that's in Jaipur, India. So Saloni, glad to have you with us. And Limor, a pleasure as well. >> Thank you. >> And you're all lit up. You've got things going on there, right? >> I'm glowing, we're gonna get all into that. >> We'll get into that later. First, let's talk about the award that, they're two women in open-source are our winners this year. On the community side, Limor won, on the academic side, Saloni won, so talk about the awards if you would, DeLisa. The process and really what you're trying to do with recognizing these kinds of achievements. >> Well, this is our fifth year for the Women in Open-Source Award. So after this period of time, I can tell you what we wanna do is make an impact by really fostering more diverse communities, particularly gender diverse in open-source. And so that's the whole goal. Five years into it, what we've discovered is that when you really focus on diversity and inclusion within a community, you actually can make an impact. And the thing that's so exciting this year is that our award winners are really evidence of that. >> So talk about the two categories then if you would please. You have community on one side, academics on the other. It appears to be pretty clear cut what you're hoping to achieve there by recognizing an active contributor, and then somebody who is in the wings and waiting for their moment. But go ahead and fill in a little bit about, >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Limor and Saloni too about, why are they here. >> Limor: Why am I here? >> Yes, well, really what we're trying to do is create role models for women and girls who would like to participate in technology but perhaps are not sure that that's the way that they can go. And they don't see people that are like them, so there's less a tendency to join into this type of community. So with the community award winner, we're looking at the professional who's been contributing to open-source for a period of time. And with our academic winner, we're looking to score more people who are in university to think about it. And, of course, the big idea is you'll all be looking at these women as people that will inspire you to potentially do more things with open-source and more things with technology. We've been hearing for many, many years that we definitely need to have more gender diversity in tech in general and in open-source. And Red Hat is kind of uniquely situated to focus on the open-source community, and so with our role as the open-source leader, we really feel like we need to make that commitment and to be able to foster that. >> Well, it makes perfect sense. Obviously. Great perfect sense. Saloni, if you would, let's talk first about your work. You've been involved in open-source for quite some time. I know you have a lot of really interesting projects that you're working on right now. We'll get to that in a bit, but just talk about, I guess, the attraction for you in terms of open-source and really kind of where that came from originally through your interest in stem education. >> Okay, so when I first came to college, I was really influenced to contribute to open-source by my seniors. They have already selected in programs like Google Summer of Code Outreach channel, so they actually felt empowered by open-source. So they encouraged me to join it too. I tried open-source, and I feel really, like, I'm a part of something bigger than myself. And I was helped greatly by my seniors, so I feel it's my duty to give it back to my juniors and to help them when they need it so that they can do wonders, yeah. >> Great. And Limor, for you, I know you founded the company. 100% female owned. You've got-- >> Yeah, 100% me. >> Yeah, right. 100% you. >> It's my fault. >> Right. Well, I wasn't going to blame you. I'll credit you instead. >> Yeah, that's our big thing. We wanna change. Get blame to get credit. >> Right. It's all about credit. >> More positive. >> So 100 employees? Is that right? >> 100, 150, yep. >> Okay, talk a little bit about kind of the origin, the genesis of the company and where that came from and then your connection on the open-source side. >> Well, I, yeah, so I grew up actually in Boston. So I've lived here a very long time. >> You said like a block from here. Two blocks. >> I used to live, actually, yes, in South Station nearby. I used to live by the Griffin Book line, and so Wilson has a very strong open-source community, you know. Ephesoft is here. And, yeah, that's kind of the origins of a lot of this free software and open-source software community. And when I went to school, I ended up going to MIT, and the open-source software and open-source technology is kind of part of, like, the genetics there. There's actually this thinking that you wouldn't do it. It's kind of by default. People write code, you open-source, you release it. There's a culture of collaboration. Scientists, engineers, students, researchers. All working together and sharing code. And when I was in school, so I had to take Thesis. I really didn't wanna do it, and so instead, I started building, like, MP3 players and video games. Taking all the engineering that I was studying and, like, not doing the work I was supposed to be doing. But instead, I was having fun and building cool electronic parts, and I would publish these projects online. I had, like, a MediaLab webs page, and I would publish, you know, here's all the chips and the schematics and the layout. And people sort of started coming up with the idea of open-source hardware. Let's take the philosophy of open-source software where we release the source code. But, in here, you release CAD files, firmware, layouts, 3D models. And so I did that, and I was publishing here's how you make this, like, Lite-Brite toy for Burning Man or an MP3 player or a cell phone jammer. All these fun projects, and people would end up contacting me and saying, hey, these are really cool projects. I would like to build this project myself, but unlike software where you just, like, type in, like, make, config, and compile and all that. You actually have to buy parts, you have to get these physical things. And so they said, you know, could you sell me a kit, like a box, where we'd get it and take it home and be able to build it. And I was totally like, no, I'm busy. I have to, like, not write this thesis. >> That's not what I do. >> But eventually, I did write the thesis. And then I was really stuck because I'm like, now what do I do? So I ended up selling kits. So I sold the synthesizer kits and such, and I did an art fellowship and stuff. And then, eventually, I was kind of like, this is, I was doing, you know, it's, you kind of fall into business by accident because if you knew what you were getting into, you wouldn't do it in my opinion. So I ended up sort of developing that, and that was 13 years ago. And now we have 4,000 products in the store, you know. >> 4,000 products? >> Yeah, I know. Ridiculous, right? That's a lot. >> Yeah, who's doing that inventory, right? >> Well, we have a pretty intense inventory system that I'd love to talk to you about, but it's kind of boring. >> I'll bet you do. Now, I was reading something about an circuit playground express. >> Yes. >> Is that right? So is that what this is all about is-- >> Yes! I knew you'd ask, and that's why I wore this. >> So it's a, kind of, an exploratory circuit board of-- >> Yeah! It's open-source, open-source hardware, open-source software and firmware. And we had a lot of parents and teachers and educators and camp counselors come to us and say, we wanna teach physical computing. We wanna teach coding but with physical hardware because, you know, we all, all the tier coders, right? No, I don't know. But, eventually, you're like, I'm typing on the screen. And you want to take that and you wanna make it physical. You wanna bring it out into the world where there's a wearable or a cosplay or assistive technology, or you wanna make video games, that are, like, physical video games. And the problem that teachers had were the classrooms, a lot of these classrooms, they don't have a lot of money. So they said it has to be very low-cost. It has to be durable because these kids are, like, chewing on it and stuff, which is fun. And it also has to work on any computer, even extremely old computers. 'Cause a lot of these schools, they only have a budget every seven years to buy laptops. And so this actually becomes a very difficult technological problem. How do you design something that's $20 but can teach physical computing to anybody? From kids who are not even good at typing all the way to college students who wanna implement fast 48 transforms, and so we designed this hardware. It's open-source, and it's cool 'cause people are, like, remixing it and making improvements to it. It's open-source circuit playground, and I'm wearing it. And it's glowing, and I don't know. It's fun! It's got LEDs and sensors. And you can just alligator clip to it and make projects, and we've got schools from around the world learning how to code. And I think it's a much more fun experience than just typing at a computer. >> Absolutely. Yeah, Solani, on your side of the fence, so I obviously, in your education years if you will, not that we ever stop learning, but formally right now. But you're involved, among the many projects that you've been involved with, a smart vehicle. >> Yeah, I'm working on it. >> Project, right? So tell us a little bit about that and how open-source has come into play with what you're looking at in terms of, I assume, traffic and congestion and flows and those kinds of things. >> Yeah. So what we're working on is, basically, we'll be fitting cameras and Raspberry Pis on buses, college buses. And then they'll detect, like, they'll detect lane detection and traffic signal violation and will report the assigned people. If there's any breakage of law or any breakage of traffic signals, so that's what, basically, we are working on and how open-source comes into the play is that we actually knew nothing about OpenCV and all the technology that is before all this. So I looked up some open-source projects that had already the lump sum of all this, and I got to learn a lot about how things actually work on the code-based side. So that's how open-source actually helped me to make this project. >> And, ultimately, who do you report to on that? Or how is that data gonna become actionable or, I assume it can be. >> Yeah. >> At some point, right? I mean, who's your partner in that? Or who is the agency or the body that, you know, can most benefit from that? >> Yeah, so, currently, this is an academy project, and a classmate of mine has been working with me. And we are working on a faculty member. And so, basically, we have decided to expand this project and to use it as a government project. And we, authorities we'll be reporting to whenever there's a signal or law breakage is that the traffic police department will be notifying them in case of any signal breakage. >> So if there's an uptick in speeding or red light running in Jaipur, we know who to blame. >> Yeah. >> Right? >> Shouldn't have run a report. >> It's, Solani, why'd you do that to them, right? All right, ladies, if you would. And I'm gonna end with DeLisa, but I'd like to hear your thoughts about each other. Just about, as you look at the role of women in tech and the diversity that Red Hat is trying to encourage, Limor, what have you seen in Solani here over the last day, day and a half, that maybe you think will leave a lasting impression on you? >> I love Solani's energy and her passion, and I can just, she's has this emanated strength. I can just tell that nothing stops her from achieving what she wants. Like, she wants to, like, do this Raspberry Pi traffic camera. She's just gonna figure out what it takes to solve that problem. She's gonna use open-source software, hardware, whatever it takes. And she's just gonna achieve her goal. I totally sense that from her from the last few days we've been together. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Yeah! >> All right. Solani, your turn. For Limor. >> What I have done is just a fraction of what she has been doing. She's, like, inspiration. I look up to her, and I, also, I mean, I hope I start my own company someday. And she's really a role model and an inspiration for me. So yeah. >> Yeah, I think you've got a pretty good mentor there in that respect. And then, DeLisa, when you see young ladies like this who are, you know, their achievements are so impressive in their respects. What does that say to you about Red Hat, the direction of the program, and then the impact on young women that you're having? >> Well, the program has gotten so much more participation. So many people, 8,000 people actually voted to select our winners. And all of our finalists were so impressive. We have major contributors to open-source, and so, along with our finalists, our winners are people who are just role models. And I am just so impressed with them, and I think that every year, we're learning something different from each of the winners. And so, as they round down into a community, the things that they'll be able to mentor people on will just be exponentially increasing. And so it's really exciting. >> Fantastic. Well, thank you all. The three of you, the ladies. Congratulations on your recognition, your accomplishments. Well done. Safe travels back to New York and back to India as well, and I would look forward to hearing more about what you're up to down the road. I think this is not the last we're gonna hear from the two of you. >> Thank you for having us. >> And thank you for calling me a young lady. >> Absolutely. I mean, look at the source. Open-source, you might say. That was awful. All right, back with more Red Hat Summit 2019. We're live here on theCUBE in Boston. (gentle music)

>> Announcer: Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering Red Hat Summit 2018. Brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome back, here, when we here live, it's theCube, here in San Francisco live for Red Hat, Summit 2018. I'm John Furrier, the host of theCUBE. Our next three guests is the Delisa Alexander, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer at Red Hat. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thanks. >> Zui Dighe, who's the... Did I get that right? Zz-- >> Zui, yeah, mm-hmm. >> Zui? OK, winner of the Open Source Academic Award from Duke University, Go Blue Devils (chuckles). >> Zui: Yes. >> And we have Dana Lewis, winner of Open AP with OpenAPS, which stands for? >> The Open Source Artificial Pancreas System. >> Artificial open-source Pancreas System, great stuff. So congratulations, you guys are all award winners. Before we get into some of the questions, love your applications, talk about the program. What is this about? What's the awards program here at Red Hat Summit, and why are these guys here? >> So as Red Hat, we believe, as an open-source leader, we have a responsibility to promote women in technology and particularly women in open-source. And so, one of the things we thought we could do is to create an award that really spotlights the contributions women are making in open-source to inspire future generations to consider being open-source developers or contributors. >> Congrat, Delisa, love that you're doing that. It's fantastic. We'll start with the young student gun here. What's your degree, first of all? What are you studying? >> I'm studying biomedical engineering and computer science. >> John: Tough major, huh? >> Yep, very tough. (Delisa laughing) Not easy, but I'm-- >> This is an easy-- >> First question is, how do you in a block chain impact? It's funny, Jim always asked that question on day one. No, in all serious, tell about what your application is. This is super important. >> Yeah, yeah. So I'm basically working on researching and creating a tracking system for vaccines that enter into developing countries. So through that, you're able to understand how exactly do vaccines travel through these countries as well as where does the system break. And if you can pinpoint that, you can actually solve the problem. >> And how did you get the idea? How did this all come together? >> I was in a research course at Duke, which has collaboration with the university in Uganda, and we actually got to travel to Uganda and interview various stakeholders, pharmaceutical companies, health system, and understand how does the-- We wanted to be in vaccines, but we didn't know what exactly to do. And so after interviewing, I kind of came up with the idea of why don't we actually put a tracker on these devices that gives off the GPS location and the temperature so we can actually understand the entire system. >> It's going to get that ground truth, too, and again, the local areas. >> Yeah. >> The big walk away, what, about vaccines. This is important to track it from the origination to destination and making sure it all kind of matches up. >> Making sure, first of all, you don't have any data on exactly where they're going because this box is just carried by hand. And the pharmaceutical companies, once they ship the vaccines into Uganda, after that, they don't provide any data on what's going on. So that data is also important, and it's also, you want to know when does the system break because often in last end, when the vaccines are actually administered, they've already gone out of their cold chain cycle, and so they don't work anymore. >> That's a great story. How 'about your story? This is a good one. This is a real practical one for people with diabetes. Talk about, first of all, show the product 'cause it's always good to a little live prop there. So turn, yeah, there it is. So what is that? >> So this is an open-source hardware board. It's actually got an Intel Edison on the back side. But what this does is, it talks to my insulin pump and my continuous glucose monitor, brings the data together, runs it through an algorithm, and sends commands back to the insulin pump to tell it what to do. So this is what we call a close-loop system where we have the computer doing the math instead of the human with diabetes doing the math several times throughout the day. >> And does it do auto-injections as well? So it kind of feeds the glucose levels as well? So it's data-- >> Right. So the insulin pump is automatically dosing the insulin, and we also have a continuous feed of the blood sugar every five minutes as well. >> And that's what you mean by close-loop. >> Exactly. >> For people have these monitors, they have remotes, statistics. Does it talk to a device as well? The mobile device, how does that work? >> Yeah, so I can glance down at my watch and see how I'm doing, on my phone. My loved ones, wherever they are, can see how things are going. So if they need to intervene, they're able to do that remotely. So it really provides peace of mind as well as a lot better outcomes for those of us living with Type I diabetes. >> And what was the motivation here, to get involved deeply in this project? >> It was really selfish, I wanted to sleep, and I couldn't hear my CGM alarm, my glucose alarm. And so my project actually started of, just get the data off to make a louder alarm. And then we built an algorithm that allowed us to look into the future and do proactive alarms. And then we worked with other people to actually communicate with the insulin pump, and that's how we progressed to closing the loop. And because I've been helped so much by other people in open-source, it was a no-brainer to also make our work open-source. >> And so you open-source everything. What other progress can you share? I mean, you have predictive analytics that tell you that, "OK, I'm going to go for a hike soon, "so therefore, I'm going to do this," and all kinds of cool data gathering. Does that play into it? Is it a lifestyle and-- >> Absolutely. >> So it's like a FitBit meets close-loop. (Women laugh) >> It's more like taking standard medical devices and boosting their capacities with the help of computing technologies. It's not fancy machine learning. It's the same math a person with diabetes would do, but the benefit is, it's automated to go every five minutes, and it doesn't fall asleep, it doesn't get lazy, it doesn't round up or vary down. It's going to be giving really precise increments so that when your situation changes, you skip a meal that you though you were going to eat, you're going to go hiking, for whatever reason, if you're going up or down more than expected, it can react instantaneously and much better than a human can. >> I'm so glad you're doing that, too. How does someone get involved with this project? Obviously, it's open-source software, but you have devices. Is it in market? Is there? >> So this is an open-source project because we are not a company, so we cannot distribute medical devices. That's frowned upon by the FDA. And so this is an open-source DIY project for people who want to get involved either to help with the project or build one themselves. They can go to OpenAPS.org. We've written a plain language reference design to help anybody, whether you're a person with diabetes, a loved one, a healthcare provider, a researcher or developer understand how the system works, and then that leads you to the documentation of how to build one as well as to the code where anybody can get involved and help out. >> So that's the loophole, (Dana laughs) to say it plainly, get around that whole being a company. You build your own. >> Yes. >> So that's the way, that's here. OK, great, so congratulations. So where's this all going? This is fantastic, this story. How many other people are involved in the program that you have? Share more about how people can get involved, too. >> This is our fourth year of having the program, and we're really just thrilled with the quality of the nominations. We had over 100 nominations. Our judges then narrowed the field down to 10, and then the community selected the winners. We don't really see an end to this. We just see the community adding and growing organically. So one thing we did this time is, we introduced our winners to our CO.LAB students, and so now they're creating a network. And that network density is just increasing and improving and, I think, getting stronger. >> It's really amazing. And one thing I've always loved about open-source, and you guys see the benefit of it, obviously, with winning and succeeding, is that democratization and community are coming together at a whole nother level. And I think what's interesting about the projects that you guys have is, you got good things happening with tech. So it's tech for good. But since Obama put the Jobs Act in, means fund these projects now as entrepreneurial ventures and be mission-driven OFFLEM. You don't have to do it as a non-profit. So we're seeing a huge growth in entrepreneurial activity around tech for good on projects that would never would funded before. So you're seeing a whole nother generation of great tools and technologies saying, "Hey, let's solve a problem." >> Yeah, and I think that's one of thing I love about us both being in healthcare is, it really shows that there's amazing applications. We can take this technology and apply it in healthcare and do it in different ways, and it doesn't have to be a company right away. It doesn't have to be either a for profit or non for profit. There's a lot of ways open-source is bringing people together to solve the very problems we need to be solving. >> Do you feel good that you built something great like that, and think now you got people using the software? What's the feeling like? >> Oh, it's just incredibly rewarding. I mean, myself, I just have the peace of mind to be able to go to sleep at night. That is a priceless feeling, but then when I hear other people using it, they build the project for different reasons. Some, they want to be able to remotely monitor their loved ones. Others are doing it for their children so that they have better health outcomes. But there's just these amazing stories outpouring from the community. And to me, that's the beauty of open sources. You can really apply it however you need to apply it to your lifestyle. >> Where can someone get involved in your project? Is there like a GitHub repository? >> Yep. >> Is there a site? >> Everything's on GitHub for us, but I would go to OpenAPS.org first. It links to the documentation and the code where people can connect. >> OpenAPS.org. >> That's right. >> OK, great. How 'about your project? How do people get involved with what you're doing? >> Ours is on GitHub right now, so you can get involved through there. But I guess we're kind of right now developing in the backend stages. Soon we'll be at that stage where you can contribute more. And right now, we've just been using other open-source libraries and kind of contributed in that way. But actually, we talked earlier about how do you get involved in open-source, and especially being a student, I kind of fell into coding because of open-source in a sense >> Working on your project? where, yeah, yeah, yeah. So coming into college, I wanted to apply the engineering concepts I was learning in the classroom, and I got involved in a lot of entrepreneurship on campus, and through that, I was asked to make a front-end interface, and I didn't really know how to go about doing that. So then I found an open-source library stumbling around that was doing a similar thing. And that's how I kind of taught myself, and then from there, I branched out and learned more and more. And I think for any budding student, budding entrepreneur, open-source is a great way to take your ideas further. And my interest is in healthcare, so that's where I went, but anyone could have an idea, "Oh, I want to start this business in this way." And they might not think that open-source is a way to go about doing that, but it is a great way to learn more. >> It's a good way to change a lot of things, not just career or projects. >> Yeah. >> There's a nonlinear progression of learning happening. You can come in, you're stumbling around, quote, learning. >> Yeah, yeah. >> It's not like chapter one course, online course. Go to chapter two. >> Right, that is true. >> There's a YouTube, there's stuff on GitHub, open-source. There's people involved. This points to a whole new generational shift. >> It is. >> Of learning, connecting, you're tapping into it. >> It's so exciting because she's the role model we're talking about. We want girls to see that you can become a coder later. You don't have to necessarily start-- >> She's 14, she'd coding in unity. >> Yeah! >> I tell a soliloquy, great. (Delisa laughing) Do some smart contracts and get the bobchain action. (Delisa laughing) Bobchain's the future, you're the Bitcoin in intheoreum. Some cool stuff. >> Yeah. Congratulations, thanks for doing this. >> Thank you very much. >> Very inspirational, and thanks for sharing the story on theCUBE, and keep in touch, thanks for coming, appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> Great women in tech, great leaders doing some great stuff. Award winners, celebrities here on theCUBE. I'm John Furrier. Be back with more live coverage after this short break. (electronic musical flourish)

>> Announcer: Live, from Boston, Massachusetts, it's The Cube, covering Red Hat Summit 2017. Brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome to more of The Cube's coverage of the Red Head Summit 2017, I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. I'm joined today by DeLisa Alexander, she is the Chief People Officer here at Red Hat and then, joining us also, are the women in Open Source Technology winners. We have Jigyasa Grover and we also have Avni Khatri. So congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm looking forward to hearing more about why you were bestowed with this honor but I want to start with you, DeLisa. >> DeLisa: Thank you. >> Why this award? Why did Red Hat feel that highlighting women and what they're doing in Open Source was worthy and we needed to showcase these women? >> Red Hat believes this is incredibly important. We all know that there are not nearly enough females in the technology industry and as the Open Source leader, we felt like we had a responsibility to begin to make a difference in that way. >> So tell us about the process. How do you find these women? How do you then winnow it down to who deserves it? >> So it's community based. It's a power of participation. >> So it's the Open Source way. >> It is the Open Source way. So the nominees come in from whomever would like to make a nomination. We do have a panel of judges that narrow down the nominations so there's five of each, the academic and the community And then we put it out to the community to vote. And so the community selects our award winners. >> Great, okay. So let's start with you, Anvi. So you, you're based here in Cambridge. >> Anvi: I am. >> And you were talking about how you had a five year goal. >> Yes. So, I was working at Yahoo! at the time and my boss at that time had asked us to make one year, five year, and 10 year goals. And in my five year plan, I had listed I wanted to set up computer labs for underserved populations. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see other cultures and I wanted to bring technology to other cultures. And I went to this awesome conference, the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing. >> The Cube has a great partnership and long-term partnership with Grace Hooper. >> Awesome, it's a great conference. I was there and I met ... I reconnected with some folks and I was so inspired by all the women that were there and I came back and I was looking at my goals and I was like, why do I have to wait five years to do this? And I looked online and I saw that someone I had reconnected with, Stormy Peters at Grace Hopper, was running Kids on Computers and so I emailed her and the rest is really history. I found one of my passions in life is to bring technology to people who don't have access to it and doing it with Open Source so that it's accessible to everyone who needs it. >> So tell me about some of the stories, some of the kids that you're working with, and how it is, in fact, changing their lives. I just got back Monday night from a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico for Kids on Computers. We were there for a whole week. But we were setting up computer labs for these local rural communities. Most of them don't have internet. Some of them are now starting to get internet but what we do is we take donated equipment and grant money and Red Hat has also been ... Has awarded Kids on Computers a grant for contributing to some of the labs we set up last week. But we set up two new labs, we took donated equipment and we purchased equipment in country and we worked in the small towns of Antequera and Constitución. Those are actually the school names. We worked in the city of ... It's a suburb of Oaxaca City, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and working with them is really enlightening. So, some of the teachers have never used a computer before. Some of the kids have but most of them have not. So just seeing them trying to use a mouse, learning how to do single-click, double-click and going from the point where they haven't used it to the point where they have and where the understand it and getting to the point where one kid is teaching another kid is just really ... Just seeing that makes you feel, like, wow. I've actually made an impact and then, hopefully, by providing accessed technology and also providing access to educational content. So the offline content pieces for schools that don't have internet, working with a partner of Kids on Computers, Internet in a Box, providing offline Wikipedia, Khan Academy, MEDLINE content, offline books, that we give them a pathway to bettering their own lives and bettering the lives of their communities. >> That's really incredible and it will be this really big leveling of the playing field. >> Yes, I hope so. I really hope so and I am hopeful that will come to fruition 'cause I think education is one of the most sustainable ways to improve communities and I think Open Source is an avenue to get them there. >> Thank you. Jigyasa, so you are the academic winner. You are still a college student and with this wonderful award so congratulations. >> Jigyasa: Thank you so much. >> I want to talk to you. So you went to an all-girls high school in India and then got to university in New Delhi and weren't very happy with what you saw when you got to university. Can you tell us a little bit more. >> So I told you what was at the end. What I see is ... I am doing my undergraduation in Computer Science and Technology. In my batch, 80% of them are boys and the rest, girls, and not much interested in pursuing a career in technology, as such. They're pursuing different stuff like arts, designing, or even going for civil services back home. So when I came, I wanted to actually pursue a career in technology and do something apart from cataclysm. Not just books, but do something so that I can apply the concepts somewhere. We were just studying different mordents of software engineering but I wanted to be a part of a team, which actually implements it. So Open Source was the only way because I had internet, I had a good internet connection, I had a laptop and lots of free time. So one day I came across Pharaoh. The name itself fascinated me because it reminded me of Egyptian mummies and all. So that's how I actually got into Pharaoh. I've been contributing to it since three years now and also been apart of different world wide programs like Google Summer of Code and to give back to the community which has helped me so much, starting right from scratch. I tried to meet 13 rich developers and budding programmers through programs, like one of them is Learn IT Girl. So it pairs females, both mentors and mentees, worldwide. So not only do you get to know about technology but you can also know about their culture by being a team and knowing about how it works, how are their working styles and temperaments. Also, I wanted to be a part of something local so that I could interact with them physically so I'm the Director for Delhi Network of Women who Code which has more than 400 plus members back in New Delhi and I organize code labs, teach them, or randomly give pep talks sot that they do not feel bogged down and have enough to look forward to. It's been a pretty exciting journey, as I say. >> It's just beginning. >> And this is the thing is that we are bombarded with headlines about how difficult it is for women in the technology industry because it is such a male-dominated industry. There's a lot of sexism, there's a lot of discrimination, a lot of biases where people just don't put women and technology together. You think of a technologist, you think of an engineer, you think of a guy. So how do you think that these awards, DeLisa, are changing things? What are your hopes and dreams for women in this sector? >> Well, we've come so far in terms of the way we think about supporting women just in our conference alone. And so, I think that when we're really, really successful we won't need this award anymore. But we have a long way to go between now and then. Women like these women are just so inspiring and by sharing their stories and showing what women can do future generations of girls, hopefully, will be inspired to join. Men will understand the contributions that women are making today and it will help really generate the next leaders in Open Source that are women. >> Anvi, five years from now, what do you hope? How many labs do you hope to have opened? What's your grand plan? >> So we have 22 labs right now, which is so exciting, in five countries. >> In how long? >> So, we're eight years old. We were a 501(c)(3) in 2009, so super exciting. So my hope is that ... We are currently focusing in Oaxaca and we just formed a partnership with a local university down there to provide support because, as we know, technology is just one piece of the puzzle. We need the community, we need the support, we need the education pieces along with the technology to really fulfill the project. So my hope is that ... At this point, we've kind of figured out how to deploy one lab at a time and my hope is that now we can do this at scale. That we can work with local universities, governments, and actually get .... Reach out to kids who need it because I think Oaxaca has one of the lowest literacy rates in all of Mexico. This is definitely communities where most of the kids do not go on to high school and definitely most do not go on to college. So if we can make an impact, show the measure, like be able to measure the impact that we're making, longitudinally, I think that then we can grow and we can scale. So, very hopeful. But this is my passion, right. So it's going back to as a woman, how do you find your passion. I think, find what you're passion is and go for it and that makes things so much easier. And I think there's a lot of opportunities for growth and look for people that will support efforts that you're doing, like DeLisa. And Jigyasa, she's mentoring girls already. >> And I think that that's also a great point too. This is the Open Source way because it is about community building and it's about collaboration and that is also, you're doing these things ... The software is a metaphor for what you're doing in life. >> [Jigyasa and Anvi] Yes. >> Jigyasa, what's next for you? So first, graduate from college, that would be >> Yes. (laughing) >> A big priority. But then where do you hope to work? >> Actually, I want to learn lots and travel the world, know more about everything. That's what Jigyasa means. So Jigyasa means curiousity in Hindi and Sanskrit so I hope I live up to my name and the next few years, I just want to keep the learning mode switched on, be curious, and if I want to do something, at least I'll give it a try so that I do not regret that I never gave a try. So always be curious, interact, and give a try. >> Do you want to continue working in technology or do you want to come to the States? Where do you see your career path? My career path, it's like I'm trying to balance everything. I want to learn more theoretically about computer science and technology. Maybe do a Master's degree further and then move on to industry. Also, I am pretty excited about the research work. I've done a couple of them in Europe, Asbarez, and Canada so I want to do something which is a mix of everything so that it keeps me going. >> Do you see ... These are really social initiatives that you're both working on. Do you see that as sort of a real future for Open Source innovation and technology? We know that Open Source is helping companies grow, get more customers, make more money, improve their bottom lines, but we also see it having this big impact on global and social progress. I mean, how untapped is this, where are we in this? Open Source is a way, it's not a technology, it's a way. It's a way of doing things and thinking about the world. Transparency, using the best ideas, innovating rapidly. We have a lot of complex problems to solve, now and in the future. Using the Open Source way, we will solve those problems more rapidly. Whether it's a technology issue or something entirely outside of technology. >> I agree with that completely. Open Source is a mechanism by which we can accomplsih not just technical innovations, but also social innovations. We have to look at it wholistically. We have to look at the ecosystem wholistically. It's not just technology, it's also society, it's also community, education and how do all the puzzle pieces fit together. JeLisa, we talked a little bit about the challenges of recruiting and retaining women in this industry. What is Red Hat doing to get the best and the brightest and the most talented women engineers? Well, we've come a long way. We have a long way to go. The first thing we wanted to do is to create an ecosystem within Red Hat that was very welcoming and inclusive because if you are recruiting people and they come in and they have an experience that isn't positive, they're going to go right out the door. So the most important thing was shoring up our community and creating an environment. So we focused on that, really, in the beginning. Then we started thinking about outreach. Now, the problem is so complex to solve, right. So we started realizing there's not enough people to outreach to. So now our next step has been to start to go deeper into the school systems and start partnering, We have a partnership with BU and also the city of Boston where we supported girls coming from middle school into a lab environment and doing some fun stuff, they get introduced to technology and we're going to keep our eyes on them and we'd like to recreate this type of experience in multiple places so really go deeper in to help create an interest at the middle school age with girls. Because that's what we understand that's when we need to get them interested. >> And that's when research shows confidence falls off and women, young girls, start raising their hands less in class. >> And all that stuff. Yeah, it's such a difficult issue but we hope that we will make a difference by reaching into the pipeline and then certainly retaining. We develop our women, we really focus on that. We want to support them as leaders and so it's the whole pathway. >> And Jigyasa, are you finding that your mentorship is making a difference for the young women you're working with? Young girls? >> It certainly is because even after the program ends I receive messages and emails from girls and boys alike about the program or how they want to build their own product. So, I remember one of the girls from Romania. I mentored her during a program sponsored by Google and all she wanted to build was a website for herself and she's very young. So she used to text me about what technologies she should use and how is it shaping up. Can I test it for her? So I really liked that even after the program ended, she kept up her spirit and is still continuing with it. >> And as DeLisa says, now you got to keep an eye on her and make sure she stays with it and everything. Well, DeLisa, Anvi, Jigyasa, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> Well-deserved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> This has been Rebecca Knight at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. We''ll be back with more after this. (electronic beat)