Cheryl Lorica is Trintech’s Manager of Software Engineering. She works out of our Dallas office and her 3-year anniversary with Trintech is coming up in April. Continuing our celebration of International Women’s Day, please enjoy this interview with Cheryl.

What does innovation mean to you and how do you exhibit it in your daily life?
Innovation is a creative approach to problem-solving. It’s the application of novel ideas and the enthusiasm to try new things and gain new skills. I intersperse innovation in my daily life by constantly seeking ways of making my life and other people’s lives easier. Whether it be creating a script to automate some of my tasks, trying out a different process to enable a more efficient way of doing things, or brainstorming ideas – I try to include innovation in my daily life.

How do you leverage your perspective as a woman in the tech industry?
I try to serve as an example and use my experience to help young women develop a passion for technology and help them maintain that passion.

• I am heading Trintech’s relationship with the Girl Scouts STEM Program. I, along with several volunteers from the Engineering team, are teaching girl scouts of every age the importance of science, technology, engineering and math and how they can apply it in their daily lives. We will continue this relationship to inspire future leaders.
• I’ve been invited to talk at the Society of Women Engineers at UNT. I am going to share my insight and experience as a female professional in a male-dominated field.
• I am also mentoring some of the female software developers in our company to ensure that they are continuing their education and getting the information they need to succeed.

The next generation of thinkers and innovators are emerging. I wish to encourage young ladies to ensure a more diverse industry in the future.

How have generations of women in your family before you impacted the work you do in your job?
My mom inspired me to pursue higher education and develop a passion for continuous learning. Her work as a researcher involved analysis of quantitative and qualitative data which relies heavily on mathematics and computer analysis. When I was a kid, I watched her develop her research on an 8-bit computer, the Commodore 64. She used MS-DOS and ran WordStar to write her research. After she was finished with her work for the day, we would play PC-booter games (from 5¼ floppy disks) such as Pac-man, Frogger, Paratrooper, and Jeopardy. These programs amazed me and piqued my interest in computer programming. I wanted to figure out the mechanics of how the applications worked, so I strived to be a computer programmer.

Do you identify with any particular woman in history? Why?
Ada Lovelace is considered one of the first computer programmers. She was a visionary – she was the first person to write and publish a full set of instructions that a computing device (the Analytical Engine) could use to reach an end result that had not been calculated manually in advance and that had no human interference. Her paper inspired Alan Turing (the father of theoretical computer science and AI) in the design of modern computing. Ada’s passion and vision for technology have made her a powerful symbol for me and numerous women in technology.

Thank you, Cheryl, for your dedication to innovation at Trintech and in teaching the next generation of STEM-minded young women!