ACM-W Europe Newsletter
March 2017
International Women's Day, March 8, 2017On this International Women’s day it is important to recognize women and men around the world who support the betterment of women world-wide. Whether in any of the many countries in the world, anyone supporting women and making their lives easier and more productive should be hailed as heros. For all who are fighting to improve women’s lives and the future of all the young girls that will become women, I salute you. Keep going, keep fighting, one day we will overcome everything that holds us back. In addition to ACM-W Celebration of Women in Computing: womENcourage 2017, ACM sponsors smaller regional events. This is one way for women to gain positive influences and to have men understand the issues behind the low number of women studying and working in STEM fields, especially in Computer Science or Information Technology. These events supported by ACM-W, Microsoft and ACM Chapters allow women and men to discuss the issues and collaborate on solutions. In the next article, we celebrate one of such events: Perm Women in Computing 2017. In the next few months many such events will take place across Europe. See below the overview of one such event and the list of events that are planned across Europe. These events are effective because they are smaller and more intimate, generally presented in the local language and closer to where the participants live and work. This affords the opportunity for more people to attend at much lower cost for the participants.
Perm 'Women in Computing' 2017Bev Bachmayer, Vice Chair of ACM-W Europe, participated in the Perm Women in Computing 2017 event from 1-3 March in Perm, Russia and found it an exceptional opportunity to see first hand such an event and to learn about this very interesting place and the culture. Association of Computer Machinery and Microsoft sponsored the event. Over 100 participants filled the auditorium at the Academic School of IT. The attendees were welcomed by Mikhail Zach, Director of JSC "Perm Scientific-Industrial Instrument Company» (JSC PNPPK);" and Batishcheva Svetlana, director of "Academic School of IT", both of whom stressed the importance of the impact that women have on the productivity of the work environment. The plenary lectures were presented by Bev Bachmayer, who gave an overview of ACM worldwide and ACM-W Europe. Ulduz Khalilov, representative of ACM-W Chapter in Azerbaijan, spoke about the ACM-W Chapter that she leads in Azerbaijan and why it is important to start and maintain a Chapter. Galina G. Scheremet told about the decrease of number of women in computing since 1984. She discussed also some reasons on why this has occurred and what can be done to improve it. Dinara Gagarina, Associate Professor of Perm State University and chief editor of the portal “Interesting Robotics” also stressed the importance of women being in the computing profession and talked about various projects in this field. After a day of interesting talks, second day 15 teams from local universities worked together to complete multiple designated problems. In general, about 100 students from different universities took part in the student contest. womENcourage 2017 -Call for Participation and Key DatesSee the new website at: https://womencourage.acm.org. ACM Europe Celebration of Women in Computing: womENcourage 2017 aims to celebrate, connect, inspire, and encourage women in computing. The celebration brings together undergraduate, MSc, and PhD students, as well as researchers and professionals, to present and share their achievements and experience in computer science. WomENcourage solicits posters from all areas of Computer Science. The Call for Participation is now available. Key Dates
See more information https://womencourage.acm.org. News around the worldInformatics Education in Europe - Key Data 2010-2015The latest edition of the report Informatics Education in Europe: Institutions, degrees, students, positions, salaries is available for download. Now in its fourth edition, the popular report offers a solid and objective picture on the state of higher education in Informatics in Europe and continues to be the only reference for a Europe-wide perspective on key academic and economic parameters such as:
It also includes a comprehensive list of names identifying Informatics programs, complete List of Departments / Faculties / Schools / Institutes per country, and detailed description of the system of higher education for the countries included. Thanks to Informatics Europe WISE group for producing such a valuable report. Call open for 2017 Minerva Informatics Equality AwardInformatics Europe proudly announces the second Minerva Informatics Equality Award devoted to initiatives which seek to encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education. The second of this annual award will be presented in October 2017 and is sponsored by Google. The Informatics Europe Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognizes best practices in Departments or Faculties of European universities or research labs that have been demonstrated to have a positive impact for women. On a three-year cycle the award will focus each year on a different stage of the career pipeline:
The 2017 Award is devoted to initiatives supporting the transition of female PhD and postdoctoral researchers into faculty positions. Nominate here: Minerva nomination link HiPEAC at DATE 2017Attending DATE 2017? Be sure to visit HiPEAC's booth (no. 22) to meet theur dedicated recruitment officer and find out what career opportunities are currently available from companies in our network. HiPEAC will also host a special session in the DATE exhibition theatre - come along to find out more about what the network can do for you. |