#lab lunch

[knightlab]

Who we met: Rebecca Miller-Webster, VP of engineering at Polymathic.

What she does: Apart from her work at Polymathic, Rebecca is the founder of WriteSpeakCode, a group that works to increase the visibility and leadership of women who (you guess it!) write, speak, and code. Established in 2013, W/S/C holds workshops, events and meetups across the country, and the team is currently planning in conference for women in tech in 2016. She previously worked at a non-profit consulting firm using .NET and Java and worked in investment banking and start-ups for a while before joining Polymathic.

Why she does it: "I want people to realize they can use coding in broad ways to do awesome stuff with the things they're passionate about."

Contact: @rmillerwebster // www.rebeccamiller-webster.com/

[knightlab]

Who we met: Darryl Holliday, co-founder of the Illustrated Press, former Logan Square reporter for DNAInfo Chicago, subject of this Chicago Reader profile, and instigator of a cool new project to develop young journalistic talent in Chicago.

What he does: Darryl worked at the Invisible Institute on police misconduct data and he’s a co-founder of City Bureau, a “neighborhood newsroom and journalism training lab aimed at regenerating civic media in Chicago’s historically disenfranchised and underreported 'hoods.” Chicago magazine  called him one of “Chicago’s pioneers of comics journalism” for the work he’s done as part of the Illustrated Press.

Why he does it: “Journalism is in spot where it needs innovation to survive. Entrepreneurial spirit is becoming a required thing to create new ways of storytelling to reach audiences who are disenfranchised and left out of conversation.”

Contact: @d_holli // www.diaholliday.com // diaholliday@gmail

[midnightmooncatcher]

so at lab lunch today we were talking about how some other students were just being ridiculous with what they said to teachers like one student who said a teachers joke wasn't funny in front of the class and so one of the grad students said "you know it's just like how my little ponies spread the bubonic plague" and then another student brought up a book called corn man (which we weren't sure if it was cannibalism or a penis reference, apparently it's cannibalism). it ended in us coming up with a t-shirt for a fake band called bubonic corn man (but personally i still want to see a grim reaper my little pony spreading the bubonic plague)