Equalities @ EECS

Computer Weekly has announced the 2020 list of the Most Influential Women in UK Technology, including this year’s winner, Anne-Marie Imafidon, CEO of Stemettes.

Full article at Computer Weekly.

Quoting from https://www.facebook.com/events/551085988997013:

Our team presents findings from an international online survey (n=387) of recording engineers, producers, and studio assistants’ experiences of discrimination and microaggressions within the recording studio. In this session we discuss how both our quantitative and qualitative findings highlight significant and systemic gender inequalities within the recording field. In partnership with the Audio Engineering Society and through the support of The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities (CREDO).

Event Details: October 7, 2020, 1pm – 2pm MST
Zoom link here

This is a message from Simon Lucas (head of school at EECS).

In October this year we will be marking Black History Month, an opportunity to celebrate the achievements, contributions and histories of Black people in the UK and around the world.

To mark Black History Month in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, we will be celebrating the work of historical and contemporary Black scientists, researchers and contributors through a ‘People Profile Series’.

We hope this will help highlight the important contributions of Black researchers working across STEM and in turn encourage us all to work on diversifying our curriculums to include more work by Black academics.

To help us explore the diverse contributions of Black researchers to science and engineering, we want your nominations of who you would like to see featured in this series.

Your nominations can be for historic or contemporary figures from both within and outside the Queen Mary community. Your nominations will then be collated and shared through various communication channels during October.

What you need to do:

To submit your nomination for inclusion in the People Profile Series, you will need to send the following information to Sophie McLachlan, Faculty Communications Manager (Science and Engineering) by Monday 5th October:

• The name of your nominee, who they are and a summary of their contributions to science and engineering (e.g. what area of STEM they have contributed to and how, what impact have they had etc.)
• A photo of them and a link to a webpage for further information if possible
• Why you are nominating them, what do they mean and/or represent to you?
• Your own name and School

If you are considering nominating someone who works at Queen Mary, please ensure you ask their permission before nominating them.

I personally will be nominating Magda Osman, from SBCS.

Magda had made some outstanding research contributions to decision-making and behavioural interventions, and works closely with different groups in EECS (RIM and CogSci). She is also seconded for 50% of her time to the Government’s Dept of Business and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) where she is currently influencing senior decision makers in the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

Thank you to Norman Fenton for this nomination.

If a Black researcher within your field (or another field within STEM) does not immediately spring to mind, I would ask you to reflect on why this might be the case and take the time to do some research on the work of Black academics in your area. I hope this project will help us all learn more about the important contributions of Black people to science, and ensure we do better going forward to platform and highlight their work within our curriculums and our own research.

I look forward to reading your nominations.

Black History Month in the context of Black Lives Matter

While marking this celebratory month, it is also important to remember the broader context of racial inequalities and anti-Blackness around the world and across the UK. The events earlier this year following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement brought this context and the urgency of tackling all forms of individual, structural and institutional racism into sharp focus.

Educating ourselves and others is an incredibly important first step in tackling racism, so I urge you to all to take the time to begin this work: you can find a range of educational resources here.

Our work in EECS

As a School, we will be working with the University to contribute to the new Race Equality Action Group and the production of a race equality strategy. You can find out more about this here.

If you want to get involved in Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) work in EECS or join our School EDI Committee, please get in touch with Laurissa Tokarchuk or Nikos Tzevelekos. You can also get involved with the Science & Engineering EDI Committee by contacting Daisy Crowfoot, the EDI Officer for S&E.

The IEEE has launched a virtual workshop that will take place October 26-27th on signal processing. PROGRESS (PROmotinG DiveRsity in Signal ProcESSing aims to support women and under-represented minorities in the field of signal processing.
The objective is to promote diversity in the field and the project will motivate and prepare those attending to pursue academic positions. The workshop will give information, tools and networking opportunities.

Highlights include:
– Inspirational talk by Prof Mary Cummings (researcher in human-robot interaction and one of the first US navy female fighter pilot)
– Professional training to support career success
– Panel of high profile academics discussing hiring processes

Find out more here:

http://2020.ieeeicip.org/progress/

23rd September is Bi-Visibility Day and to raise awareness QMUL is calling for staff to join the LGBTQ+ staff role models in giving a short bio and interview, with some fantastic examples here.

“Visibility and representation is particularly important for bi+ (this includes people who are pan, omnisexual, bi romantic, questioning and/or bi-curious to name a few) communities as their experiences and identities are often denied by and erased from both LGBTQ+ and heteronormative spaces. Bi+ people can also face biphobia from both these groups. Visibility can help people feel seen, included, valued and able to be their authentic selves. ” — original call from QMUL

For more details on how to get involved, please get in touch with the EECS Equalities team.

Ada Lovelace day is held on the second Tuesday in October and celebrates women working in STEM around the world. This year it will be purely online but you can find videos from previous years on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRRgOeJy5Pk&list=PLKLzYBTgfhxk-1zF3_XX4CidwNB4wEKBc

In 2019 the Independent wrote about the 2019 celebrations:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/ada-lovelace-day-first-computer-programmer-forgotten-women-a8557416.html

You can find out more about the virtual 2020 Ada Lovelace day here:

https://findingada.com/events/ada-lovelace-day-live/

A new group focussing on race equality has been formed at Queen Mary. It is currently looking for volunteers to help out with priorities including: the ethnicity pay gap, supporting career progression, reducing student attainment gaps and investigating issues with bullying and harassment. It will act as an advisory and implementation group for all aspects of race equality at QM.
If you want to know more, find out here:

http://connected.qmul.ac.uk/news/items/race-equality-at-queen-mary.html

The School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London is delighted to receive a significant donation from Tata Consultancy Services in support of 10 female Computer Science students and 10 students from low income households.

Find out more

Earlier this summer, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published data on diversity characteristics for the last 5 years, harmonised over its seven research councils. Quoting from UKRI:

The dataset contains data on four protected characteristics (sex, age, ethnicity, disability) for:

• Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator grant applicants and awardees
• Fellowship applicants and awardees
• PhD studentship starts

For the first time, UKRI is also publishing data on award values for the different groups. In addition, it has set out to enhance its data capabilities in the future by collecting data on additional characteristics as well as through advanced forms of data analysis to better understand trends, while continuously using insights from data analysis to drive our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policy development.

Access the data and data narrative report here.