PASCAL Hackerspace is happy to announce a new bimonthly workshop! One of the core goals of our organization is to provide educational opportunities to people in the information security and technical communities of Portland, and with AlgoBytes we get to do exactly that!

AlgoBytes is an informal workshop series to learn a bit more about the formal foundations of the field of computer science and about core data structures/algorithms frequently used for interviews, whether you've never explored them before or need a refresher.

Each 90 minute session we will focus on a different topic, although we may repeat them if there are requests to revisit material. Currently there will be 20-30 minutes of presentation, a walk through of a problem, followed by breaking into small groups to practice. Attending sequential events is probably helpful if the material is new to you, but not required.

First Session's Theme: Analysis Foundations

What is an algorithm, besides a scary word?
I'm a practical person, why do I care?
What is a data structure?
What is complexity analysis?
What is Big O? Big Theta? Big Omega?
How do I apply them?

Please bring your preferred note-taking device(s) and preferred scratch paper.

A laptop with your editor & language of choice may be handy for trying out your solutions- especially important if you are prepping for technical interviews, but is not at all required.

The PASCAL board is excited to be hosting this event alongside a very accomplished and brilliant woman in security-

Allison Marie Naaktgeboren is a Senior Software Engineer. She has previously written (and regretted) code at Mozilla, Amazon, Cisco, FactSet Research Systems, and the Biorobotics Laboratory in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Allison holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Allison is a mentor in the PDXWiT mentorship program, supports the Women Who Code Portland Algorithms track, and mentors high school students in robotics and programming (Go Rebel @lliance!) She is a member of PASCAL & the OWASP Portland chapter.