Equalities @ EECS

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.

A recent report from UN Women, the United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, examined the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on gender equality:

This paper presents the latest evidence on the gendered impact of the pandemic, highlights potential and emerging trends, and reflects on the long-term impact of the crisis on the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Read the full article here.

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) are looking for female volunteers to be part of their schools outreach project. Their aim is to run events that will encourage more young women to take up computer science. They are recruiting right now for events that will take place when COVID guidelines allow.
Find out more here:

https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/what-we-do/wise-projects/gender-balance-in-computing/

The 7th ACM celebration of women in computing is going to be virtually hosted from 24th to 27th September by ADA university in Baku, Azerbaijan. The event is aimed at bringing together women in computing from a variety of disciplines and will have talks from distinguished speakers, a hackathon, career fair and poster session, as well as workshops and tutorials. The early deadline to register is the 14th August. To register or for more details on the different activities, check the event website here: https://womencourage.acm.org/2020/