Women AT GECCO

Digital Technology and Gender Equality: A Challenge for Higher Education

Abstract
Digital technology is playing an increasing role in our society, but women are underrepresented. Today, less than 15% of computer science students in higher education in most European countries are women.
The Covid 19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital technology in daily life and the specific challenges faced by women in times of crisis, including in education and research.
Can we continue to be satisfied with a technical world designed, developed, installed and maintained by a population that is more than 80% male? How can we imagine a more inclusive digital world ?

The higher education can close the gender gap : it is not too late and not everything happens in primary school !

This communication will include :
- An historical review of how the field became so male and why it keeps so.
- descriptions of practices: those that are not so « good »... and those that have proven to be effective

Speaker Bio
Isabelle Collet is a former computer scientist. For 20 years, her research interests are focused on closing the STEM gender gap (especially in computer science) and developing inclusion strategies for women in higher education. She has been involved in several Europe-based projects on gender and information technology. She leads the Gender and Intersectional Relations research group in education (G-RIRE) at the university of Geneva. In 2019, she publishes « Les oubliées du numérique » (The Forgotten Women of the Digital World).

Pursuing an interdisciplinary research career

Abstract
My career has spanned research topics in several disciplines, ranging from AI and cognitive science to evolutionary computation and complex systems. I have also dedicated substantial time to science communication—in the form of books, essays, and on-line courses for the public. I will speak about the advantages and challenges of these multifaceted pursuits, and will be happy to answer questions about any aspect of research, public communication of science, life-career balance, or anything else of interest to the audience.

Speaker Bio
Melanie Mitchell is the Davis Professor of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute, and Professor of Computer Science (currently on leave) at Portland State University. Her current research focuses on conceptual abstraction, analogy-making, and visual recognition in artificial intelligence systems. Melanie is the author or editor of six books and numerous scholarly papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and complex systems. Her book Complexity: A Guided Tour (Oxford University Press) won the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award and was named by Amazon.com as one of the ten best science books of 2009. Her latest book is Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux).

Reflections as Retirement Nears

Abstract
As I look toward retirement in 3-5 years, this is an interesting time to reflect on how I did lots of things wrong but things worked out okay, how I tried to weave my political convictions into my day to day work, and what I see as challenges now and in the future for computer scientists who care about the impact of tech on people.

Speaker Bio
Valerie Barr is the Jean E. Sammet Prof. of Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College. She is completing 4 years as chair of the CS department, and is also co-chair of the Data Science program. In addition to her BA in Applied Mathematics from Mount Holyoke, Valerie's road included two stints in graduate school, earning an M.S. in Computer Science from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University. She spent time in industry, working on automated blood analyzers, banking backroom operations, and automated storage and retrieval machines. Valerie spent some time doing conventional CS research, chiefly in software testing, but she's always been interested in interdisciplinary applications of computing. Her recent work has involved a number of “big data” projects in areas such as Biology, English, Economics, and Political Science. Currently, Valerie is primarily involved in curriculum development, chiefly through the creation of interdisciplinary programs, with a goal of changing the demographics of computer science. Valerie is past-chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing and has served as a program officer for the National Science Foundation. Her antidotes to life on Zoom, and her antidotes to work in general, are bike riding and travel!