All posts by elisek

Featured, Women In Tech

Stories from the WIT Trenches: Melissa Pickering

[This is the twelfth in a series of posts exploring the personal stories of real women in technology. Every woman in tech overcame, at the very least, statistical odds to be here; this blog series aims to find out why, and what they found along the way.  This week we met up with Melissa Pickering (ln), founder and CEO of iCreate to Educate. If reading her story inspires you to share yours, please email me.]

Melissa Pickering

Among edtech digest’s most fascinating edupreneurs, Melissa Pickering, is founder of iCreate to Educate, a local Boston startup aimed at empowering students to blend the arts and sciences with hands-on learning. An impressive background as a mechanical engineer at Disney Imagineering, Melissa harnessed her experiences to fan the flames of passion for STEM in the future innovators of America: K-12 kids. (View some of the stop-motion films students have created with tools iCreate to Educate provides.)

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am the founder/CEO of iCreate to Educate, a small learning company in Boston that engages kids with simple tools to blend hands-on exploration with digital creativity.  I’ve built up the company for three years to unleash the imaginations of kids in both homes and classrooms around the world.

2. Can you take us back to your “eureka!” moment—a particular instance or event that got you interested in technology?

I first became interested in technology through my half-credit intro to mechanical engineering course as a freshman in college.  We were exposed to and challenged to create various types of robots out of LEGO MINDSTORMS, programming them with the computer to achieve certain tasks such as walking or picking up objects.  From that point on I started becoming heavily involved in leading similar activities in local K12 classrooms, recognizing the skill-sets each student (elementary or university level) could gain from the integration of technology into the core curriculum.

3. Growing up, did you have any preconceived perceptions of the tech world and the kinds of people who lived in it?

Growing up I was generally exposed to the engineering and tech worlds because my dad was an engineer and my younger brother was always taking apart and rebuilding computers.  Continue reading Stories from the WIT Trenches: Melissa Pickering →

Events, Featured, OfficeWriter, Programming, Webinars

New! [Webinar] PivotTables in OfficeWriter 8.4

Because we had such a great response from the first webinar, we’re opening more seats and hosting this PivotTable webinar again.

Take a first look at the new PivotTable API within OfficeWriter 8.4 in this interactive webinar.

Our Senior Sales Engineer (and adept demo master), Chad Evans, will walk you through several ways PivotTables can help you wrangle and report on your data. Bring your questions or email them beforehand and we’ll be happy to include them.

When:

Friday, March 1, 2013 at 1 p.m. EST

What we’ll cover:

  • How to use PivotTables to better sort and filter your data
  • How to programmatically create Excel PivotTables in OfficeWriter
  • How to programmatically update existing Excel PivotTables in OfficeWriter
  • Your questions

Spots are limited. Save your seat and register today.


Can’t attend, but still want to learn more? Register anyway! We’ll send the slides and a recording of the webinar after the event.

ASP.NET, Events, Excel, OfficeWriter, Programming, Webinars

WEBINAR Feb 22nd: PivotTables in OfficeWriter 8.4

Have you heard? OfficeWriter 8.4 with PivotTable support is here! You’re invited to take a first look at the new PivotTable API within OfficeWriter 8.4 in this interactive webinar.

Our Senior Sales Engineer (and adept demo master), Chad Evans, will walk you through several ways PivotTables can help you wrangle and report on your data. Bring your questions or email them beforehand and we’ll be happy to include them.

When:

Friday, February 22, 2013 at 1 p.m. EST

What we’ll cover:

  • How to use PivotTables to better sort and filter your data
  • How to programmatically create Excel PivotTables in OfficeWriter
  • How to programmatically update existing Excel PivotTables in OfficeWriter
  • Your questions

Spots are limited. Save your seat and register today.



Can’t attend, but still want to learn more? Register anyway! We’ll send the slides and a recording of the webinar after the event.

ASP.NET, Excel, Featured, News Releases, OfficeWriter

PivotTables Now Available within OfficeWriter 8.4

OfficeWriter 8.4

WATERTOWN, MA (February 12, 2013) – SoftArtisans announced the addition of PivotTables to their OfficeWriter product today. OfficeWriter 8.4 is now available for download. Included in this new version, is the ability to create, modify, and remove PivotTables within users’ Excel workbooks. With the new PivotTable functionality customers have the ability to add Report Filters to better filter and sort their data, as well as change the data source of a PivotTable (including PivotTables already copied with CopySheet). This provides users with more fine-grained control over their data and reports.

Also included in this product release are new features to their WordTemplate model. Within WordTemplate DOCX files, users now have the option to programmatically set the document properties of their DOCX files and to remove bookmarked content when delivering reports.

OfficeWriter provides customers Continue reading PivotTables Now Available within OfficeWriter 8.4 →

IT, Mobile

The Mobile Bandwagon: the BYOD Generation is All In, Your IT Dept Not So Much

VentureBeat Screenshot

Everyone’s jumping on the mobile bandwagon, especially the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) generation. Advertisers are trying to harness its ability to be in front of this constantly connected audience; developers are trying to build compatible apps every user wants (ahem, shameless plug for Gander); businesses are looking for new ways to best tap into this market. There’s one group, though, that hasn’t overlooked the security challenges and additional costs this new trend brings: your dedicated, behind-the-scenes IT team.

VentureBeat wrote an article last week on the mobile BYOD trend, citing the increase in employees using their personal devices (often more than one device) to access sensitive company information and the frustration of the IT departments.

“A massive majority of companies, 81 percent, now allow employees to bring and use their own devices, and 56 percent of companies have codified that into their corporate guidelines, according to a new study by iPass and MobileIron.”

If you’re like me, you would think having employees use their own devices would lower company costs. However, factor in multiple data plans across multiple devices and things start to get messy. Continue reading The Mobile Bandwagon: the BYOD Generation is All In, Your IT Dept Not So Much →

Business Intelligence, Enterprise Software, Excel, IT

Is Microsoft Excel the Next Great Business Intelligence Tool?

1 Comment

Credit: http://www.pbi2.com/images/img_businessIntel.jpgWith Microsoft’s release of Office 2013, now fully equipped with features such as PowerPivot and PowerView, news outlets and blogs are abuzz speculating this is a push to make Excel the next Business Intelligence (BI) tool. Software Advice sat down with Rob Collie, CTO of PivotStream and one of the founding engineers of PowerPivot, to get his perspective on how the new Excel will affect Business Intelligence and Excel professionals.

[Read the full interview here.]

Takeaways from the interview:

1. More adoption of PowerPivot in the Excel community. PowerPivot has yet to receive a lot of attention among the Excel audience. 

“Unlike programmers, BI specialists, and other IT pros, the Excel audience doesn’t congregate at conferences and they don’t closely monitor what Microsoft is saying about the next version of their toolset. Overwhelmingly, the way they learn about new Excel capabilities is by inspecting the latest version once it lands on their desktop.”

All of that is about to change now that Office 2013 has more tightly integrated PowerPivot into Excel. Originally a separate download, PowerPivot is now part of the original package upon purchase.

2. The PowerPivot community is growing.

“Using PowerPivotPro traffic as a guide, I’ve seen the PowerPivot audience double in size every year since 2009. But I’d still estimate that less than one percent of the eventual PowerPivot target audience has been exposed to the product as of today.”

3. All Office users now data analysts? Continue reading Is Microsoft Excel the Next Great Business Intelligence Tool? →

ASP.NET, Events, Meet the Team, Programming

Events: Spring 2013 Career Fairs

IMG_1115 Photo 2IMG_1056

Coming to a college near you. We’re Looking for swashbuckling, creative college grads with object-oriented programming under the belts, a penchant for amassing new skills, and who don’t mind a few board games and BBQs. Think you’ve got the coding chops to work in this dynamic office environment? Then we want to meet you.

We’re big on hands-on learning and career development. In years past we’ve had interns work on product demos, pick up a new programming language, and share their expertise on our blog. Have a question? Ask it. Have an opinion? State it. Have an idea? Run with it.

Got you curious? Let our Technical Services team give you an inside look at this eclectic group and the types of projects you could be working on in this video.

Who we are: SoftArtisans is a leading developer of Microsoft Office reporting software. As a key Microsoft partner, SoftArtisans delivers award-winning products to over 20,000 clients in over 70 countries. We’re a company founded on brains not gimmicks and we aim to keep it that way.

Find out more about internship and career opportunities at SoftArtisans and how to join the SA Crew (and get in on those BBQs) by interacting with us on all of the usual social media hotspots or visiting one of the career fairs below. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Spring Career Fairs

Olin College

Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Continue reading Events: Spring 2013 Career Fairs →

Truth in Tech, Uncategorized

This Week in Tech News

This week in tech news: Harvard medical school rakes in a cool $1 million to study NFL injuries and Foodspotting app is acquired for $10 million. But nothing beats the priceless price of putting your head on a PEZ dispenser.

Boston: Harvard Medical School Awarded 100mil by NFL Players Association to Study football injuries. The program’s goal is to “improve the health and well-being of NFL players, while further elucidating the risks of participation in American football.” – the research to improve players’ health will include studying concussions, treatment for ACL injuries, and heart function.

Continue reading This Week in Tech News →

Featured

Office 365 Launches Today

Microsoft launched the newest version of Office today (January, 29, 2013). Designed in the Cloud and with people on-the-go in mind, Office 365 Home Premium was aimed at helping businesses and families organize their increasingly busy schedules. See what all the buzz is about with these pictures, tweets, and videos from the launch.

http://storify.com/softartisans/office365-launches-today

Big Data, The Intern Diaries

Big Data for Dummies. Big Daddy for Geniuses.

[The following is a guest post from our partner company Riparian Data and new intern and data-ist Brennan Full. Happy to have you on board, Brennan!]

I first heard the words “big data” while listening to the radio at the gym, the host’s voice guiding me over the precipice of a “hill” on my humming elliptical.  The words immediately brought me back to my “Sandler period” where Big Daddy was watched on repeat until one had reached comedic enlightenment.  It wasn’t until the 3rd mention of “zettabytes” that I finally came around and realized that this conversation was concerning the mountains of data humans create every day.  Disappointed, I changed the station. Months later, looking for marketing opportunities I came across an opening at Riparian Data, a company that works with “big data”.   Again, the flashbacks returned; Scuba Steve, tripping people in Central Park, teaching Rob Schneider how to read… I have got to find a way to work there!

Before my interview I began researching the company, shocked to find out that I was horribly mistaken/illiterate and that Riparian Data in fact had nothing to do with the magnum opus of my childhood.  I sat for hours, researching, working desperately to understand what this emerging technological field was all about.  Hours passed and I was no closer to grasping NoSQL.  Dejected, I turned to my worn copy of Big Daddy.  As I slowly descended into a meditative state it hit me, BIG DATA AND BIG DADDY AREN’T COMPLETELY DISSIMILAR!

You see, much like shapeless masses of data, Sandler’s character lacks purpose, that is until someone comes around and gives the data/“daddy” meaning.  Big data is the collection and analysis of the information we’re all constantly generating as we text, tweet, buy things, use GPS, etc.  This incomprehensible mountain of information would lack significance if not for the tools brought about by big data.  This, ladies and gentlemen is how my warped mind came to understand what big data is all about.

Thanks for having me on board Riparian Daddy!

NOTES: I never went through a Sandler period, I never use an elliptical, and I’m fairly certain Rob Schneider was acting like he couldn’t read.