Ada College is devoted to educating and empowering the next generation of diverse digital talent. It encourages women and individuals from low income backgrounds in tech careers. As part of Ada College ‘Futures Week’ an online outreach session has been organised by Dr Paulo Oliva for over 70 Ada students on Monday 28 June 2021. The session focused on Web Programming with particular focus on Web App Security. Demonstrations of several common web attacks was given, with students able to try to those attacks using one of Dr Oliva’s online tool — a mock social network (https://oliva-apps.co.uk/social/) where security measures can be turned on and off. The students had great fun trying to hack each other’s accounts, while learning about what mechanisms one can use to prevent such attacks. One of EECS student ambassadors (Chloe Bugeja) also joined the session and answered some of the Ada students’ questions about studying at EECS and life at University. The session (done via Google Meet) started at 11:50 and lasted for one hour and thirty minutes, closing at 13:30
By Mariya Pavlova, MSc AI student and DeepMind scholar 2020-2021
Mariya Pavlova, MSc AI student and DeepMind scholar
I had the pleasure to be a panellist at CogX Festival this year alongside UK minister for digital infrastructure. It was a great opportunity to share my views on an important topic that has been on my mind for some time – the shortage of AI skills in the UK, diversity in the industry, creating a responsible AI industry, and most importantly, how the UK government is addressing these.
For those of you who know me, you probably are aware how strongly I feel about these pressing issues and that I never fail to share my candid views on them. CogX was the right platform to do that. After all, the festival has always been about thought leadership and providing a platform for conversations to happen and ideas to spark. It makes me consider again my participation and the conversation I had with the government’s Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Matt Warman, and Institute of Coding Director, Rachid Hourizi. It was not one of those staged events with government officials that you would normally expect. Rather, it was an honest conversation with people who cared about the opinion of someone with first-hand experience. I consider how within the short span of 40 minutes we managed to quickly bond towards a common goal: building a better and more diverse AI industry; how they listened patiently and intently to my story and challenging them to acknowledge society’s fears about AI and the long journey we still have until we unleash the transformative power of AI. I also consider the power of having not just government but also mentor support in creating a more diverse tech industry. Indeed, I was asked about the best part of being a DeepMind scholar. I did not even think twice before answering that it is having a mentor. Because no matter how much experience we have, we never outgrow our ability and need to learn from each other. I was also asked to challenge the believe that AI is techy and male dominated. It reminds me of a painting I recently saw in a Financial Times article. It was a late 19th-century oil work “The Women’s Life Class” (c1879) by American illustrator Alice Barber Stephens. Her first published work after petitions for women to be allowed to attend life-drawing classes. Something that was considered highly inappropriate for ladies at that time. We do not have to fight any more for a space in which to develop our skills. We still must fight for acceptance though. Indeed, AI is becoming more inclusive, however the glass ceiling and stereotypes are still there. Thus, the government’s initiative Build Back Better has never been more important. Because no matter how much we have “arrived”, there is more to be done. There are positive changes though – just take a look at the increase of female students in the Electronic Engineering and Computer Science department!
My panel discussion also reminds me that help can come from
all directions, horizontally as well as vertically, across age gaps and
cultures and socio-economic status. The UK AI strategy that is yet to be
published aims at just that. After all, AI impacts just about every aspect of
our lives and is at the forefront of innovation in almost every major sector.
Therefore, it comes with huge responsibility and needs to be shaped by people
from different genders and all backgrounds. I passionately believe that if more
students from underrepresented groups are supported, the UK has the potential
to be a leader in the ethical, safe and trustworthy development of responsible
AI.
A report from the office of students shows great news on student numbers for postgraduate conversion courses. These courses have recently had 1,000 scholarships created aimed at tackling diversity issues by recruiting from underrepresented groups. They have also been designed to be flexible and fit around other work and caring responsibilities.
The official announcement from the Office for Students is here:
QMUL has launched the “Dignity and respect” champions network. This aims to provide confidential advice for those targeted by harassment or bullying. This is a service providing guidance, assistance and advice for any members of staff. It also provides a way for serious allegations to be taken to the appropriate university authority. Currently there are no representatives from SEMS enrolled as dignity and respect champions. You can find out more about the scheme here:
As part of IEEE ICC conference a free event “Women In Engineering: The journey continues” will be held on 14th June. The times are 10:00-12:45 GMT-4. (Which translates to the slightly awkward 5:00-7:45 in BST). There are a great selection of speakers and a networking session at the end. You can see all the details on the website here:
The aim of the report was to look into why “talented black people are not finding science careers in UK academia”. The key findings of the report can be found in more detail in the above report but, in brief: 1) Black, Asian and multi-ethnic candidates are less likely to apply for Royal Society early career fellowships (even when considering the small numbers eligible to apply). 2) These groups are under represented in the eligible pool and applications to Royal Society schemes. 3) There is “little to no” representation of Black postdoctoral researchers. They highlight some possible steps forward including mentorship and workshops. The full reports include thorough data and analysis.
This interactive workshop will help you to address problems you’ve encountered around addressing
inappropriate behaviour and work towards building a healthy workplace culture of constructive challenge
and personal responsibility. All sessions include tried and tested decision-making and personal
effectiveness techniques, designed to overcome the initial fear of tackling challenging situations.
Develop decision-making skills and overcome fear and paralysis in challenging situations;
Identify personal effectiveness techniques to tackle difficult conversations;
Explore verbal and non-verbal language techniques to challenge unacceptable behaviours. Book your place by searching ‘active bystander’ on QMUL CPD Booking System
12:00-13:00 Mindful Wellbeing for Women with OPD team
Investing in your wellbeing has proven to help reduce stress and create a more positive work-life balance. This interactive workshop will explore the links between work, health and mental wellbeing and your role in promoting wellbeing for yourself and others. Join us to connect with like-mind women to open up the discussion around self-care and self-compassion to create a more positive work-life balance.
Explore the key issues effecting wellbeing;
Identify the links between work-related stress and investing in wellbeing;
Understand how to promote workplace wellbeing for yourself and others. Book your place by searching ‘mindful wellbeing’ on QMUL CPD Booking System
This educational and interactive event with Dr Louise Younie, GP and Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Health Sciences Education, will explore themes including physical, emotional and social symptoms and managing the menopause with holistic or medical options, and a personal narrative on surgical menopause as part of cancer treatment. This event is aimed at members of Queen Mary staff who are experiencing or will experience the menopause, and there will be an opportunities throughout the session for attendees to ask questions openly or anonymously.
On 8 March 2021, Women in Innovation are holding a one-day online conference of ‘workshops, inspirational speakers and groundbreaking ideas.’
The event ‘aims to highlight the many inspirational female role models working within the UK, support the next generation of female innovators through workshops and expert advice sessions, and strengthen the UK as a world leader in innovation and gender inclusion.’
Women in Innovation programme ’empowers pioneering female entrepreneurs to develop innovations, through a women-only competition with awards offering innovation grant funding and a tailored programme of mentoring and business support.’ It is part of Innovate UK, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Women in Science and Engineering at Queen Mary University of London (WISE@QMUL) is a student group for discussion of female participation in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine).
WISE@QMUL have announced a free two-day online conference to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021.
On 25th-26th March WISE@QMUL will host inspiring speakers to discuss two main themes:
Ethnic minority women in STEMM.
Future directions and priorities for women in STEMM.
WISE@QMUL writes, ‘This is a unique opportunity to celebrate women in the field of science and engineering who have had remarkable journeys and broken glass ceilings, whilst encouraging young female scientists to pursue careers in STEMM.’
Registration for the WISE@QMUL International Women’s Day 2021 Virtual Conference is open.
The UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) aims to recognise the critical role women and girls play in science and technology communities.
Queen Mary marked this day by highlighting some of our students, staff and alumni from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering who are making a difference to their fields and helping to inspire the next generation of girls and women into STEM careers.
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