Following initial sessions with the Institute of Applied Data Science and Careers & Enterprise with IBM UK, Queen Mary is hosting a university conference featuring women in technology.

The conference will have the theme #BalanceforBetter from this year’s International Women’s Day, and will be held on 10th June, Mile End campus.

The organisers are now looking for expressions of interest from Queen Mary female researchers in technology (in the broadest definition of technology) to present their work at the conference, for 10min or 30min (other formats will be considered).

If you are interested please see further details at this announcement.

Queen Mary is proud to announce a new event that is set to champion, encourage and inspire women to bring their skills to the technology sector.

More information at:

https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2019/pr/championing-women-in-tech-at-queen-mary-university-of-london.html

From the Queen Mary cs4fn team:

It’s not quite like getting your face on £50, but we hope this is a good way to say thank you…

As part of our work for the Institute of Coding, the Queen Mary cs4fn team have created a set of posters for universities, colleges and schools to celebrate diversity in computer science.

All too often celebrating diversity involves finding one or two ‘star’ people who have contributed to the field of computing. This seems to spotlight the few, rather than shine a broad beam on the many to show computer science really is for all.

We therefore created dozens of posters which normalise the presence of a wide range of people of all ages, from different ethnicities and gender, from the past and present who are making a difference to our world through their work in computer science.

If you have contact with local schools or colleges or friends at other universities, please share the posters with them. If you have people you would like to be included in the poster set please tweet #CSDiversity @QMEECS ‏@csf4n @IoCoding ‏with your nomination.

https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/celebrating-diversity-in-computing/

Exciting news from Ireland and the engagement of national HE with the Athena SWAN process!

Source: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/advance-he-responds-to-the-gender-equality-taskforce-action-plan

Quote:

“A new Action Plan by the Gender Equality Taskforce, on behalf of the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills (DES), recommends more widespread and deeper engagement by higher education institutions (HEIs) with the Athena SWAN Charter, an initiative run by Advance HE to promote gender equality.

The Action Plan notes that engagement with the Athena SWAN process has been “transformative for higher education institutions”.

To date, nine institutions in Ireland hold an Athena SWAN ‘bronze’ award, and twelve departmental awards have been conferred.  A bronze award indicates that the institution or department has completed a thorough self-assessment and has an action plan in place to address gender equality issues.  Several Institutes of Technology (IoT), colleges and departments are in the process of preparing applications.”

This is promote the Mentoring Program put forward by the N2Women group (Networking Networking Women http://n2women.comsoc.org/)

quoting from https://www.facebook.com/N2Women/:

N2Women is a community of networking researchers that promotes inclusiveness and diversity and aims at fostering connections among under-represented groups in computing. As a part of our mentoring program, we organize a series of online discussions around career-related (all career stages) questions and topics of interest to the members of the community. We crowdsource these questions and organize discussions around them. We invite everyone in the broader scientific and technological community to share their experience and insight and hope that this group mentoring format will result in a rich collection of diverse ideas and viewpoints available to everyone.

Yanbei Chen is studying for a PhD in Computer Science. Her research is mainly focused on deep learning for surveillance video analysis and she is a member of the school’s Computer Vision Research Group. (more …)

Nabila Nur is studying for a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Industrial Experience at Queen Mary, developing a broad and sought-after portfolio of technical skills. (more …)

Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-45654320/people-ask-me-where-the-doctor-is

Quote:

“Dr Hayaatun Sillem is used to people asking her where Dr Sillem is – and they’re usually quite embarrassed to find out that she’s standing right in front of them.

Since becoming the first woman to take the top job at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr Sillem has charged ahead with her mission to change perceptions of modern engineering.

In January, she created a social media campaign to encourage teenagers from all backgrounds to consider a career in engineering. The videos, which were shared on Facebook and YouTube, have had 16 million views.

Video journalist: Hannah Gelbart“

Source: www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/09/employers-mission-improve-diversity-it-technology

Quote:

“Big names such as Microsoft, the BBC and Cancer Research UK have signed up to employer-led initiative Tech Talent Charter to broaden the mix in the sector”