2017’s Ada Lovelace Day Live!, our annual ‘science cabaret’ in celebration of women in STEM, was held at The Royal Institution on the evening of 10 October. Playing host to the UK’s most fabulous women in STEM, ALD Live is an entertaining evening of geekery, comedy and music suitable for everyone over the age of 12.
Our videos from 2017 are available on YouTube, where you can also take a look at talks from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013!
Our amazing speakers!
Dr Praminda Caleb-Solly
Praminda Caleb-Solly is an Associate Professor in Independent Living Systems in the Faculty of Environment and Technology at the University of the West of England, Theme Leader for Assisted Living at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Head of Electronics and Computer Systems at Designability.
Her multi-disciplinary background, underpinned by degrees in Electronic Systems Engineering, Biomedical Instrumentation Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science, have lead her to address technical issues from a soft systems perspective in relation to human experience of technology in different contexts.
Her current portfolio of projects includes assistive robotics technology to support older adults with ageing related impairments, intelligent data processing for smart home sensing and understanding children’s use of powered mobility, and adaptive interfaces for driverless cars. She has also co-designed an app for self-management of anxiety, SAM.
Twitter: @Praminda
Dr Brenna Hassett
Photo: Rachel Fisher
Brenna Hassett is an archaeologist who specialises in using clues from the human skeleton to understand how people lived and died in the past. Her research focuses on the evidence of health and growth locked into teeth, and she uses clues from both teeth and bones to investigate how children grew (or didn’t) across the world and across time.
She has worked at the Pyramids in Giza, a 10,000 year old village in Anatolia, and a series of basement labs in between, and her book Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death is a fast-paced and frequently humorous journey through our recent evolution into a majority-urban species.
Brenna is also one-quarter of the TrowelBlazers project, an outreach, advocacy, and academic effort to celebrate women’s contributions to the trowel-wielding arts.
Twitter: @brennawalks & @trowelblazers
Web: Passim in Passing
Yasmin Ali
Photo: Engineering Showoff
Yasmin is a chartered chemical engineer in the energy industry, with experience in coal and gas-fired power stations, as well as the UK oil and gas sector.
Outside of work Yasmin is a keen volunteer and dedicates much of her time to promoting engineering at schools, career fairs and festivals, with a variety of organisations including the IET, IChemE, and WES. She is also passionate about informing the public about engineering through the media, and has worked with the BBC’s science unit. Yasmin also enjoys stand-up comedy, music and sports!
Twitter: @engineeryasmin
Tricia Sullivan
Photo: Lou Abercrombie
Tricia Sullivan is an Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of nine science fiction novels, including Maul, Occupy Me, and Sweet Dreams. Mostly centring on human consciousness, her work has been translated into eight languages and shortlisted for many awards. She studied music and full-contact martial arts, taught English in New York City, and in her early forties settled on physics as a second career despite having left school with a ‘D’ in algebra. Thanks to the Open University, she is now a PhD student working in data science at the Astrophysics Research Institute in Liverpool.
Web: triciasullivan.com
Dr Eugénie Hunsicker
Dr Eugenie Hunsicker is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Loughborough University. Her research started in pure mathematics, but over the past few years has become involved in developing applications of geometry and topology to data science. She enjoys collaborating closely with computer scientists, physicists, chemists and engineers.
For the past year and a half, she has served as the Chair of the London Mathematical Society Women in Mathematics Committee, and as part of that work has begun work on a new web resource, Success Stories in Mathematics, aimed at celebrating a broad view of mathematical careers, mathematicians and mathematical success.
Photo: © Trustees of the
Natural History Museum, London
Miranda Lowe
Miranda Lowe is a museum scientist and Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum, London. She is responsible for many historically important oceanographic specimens, including specimens from the Discovery and Challenger expeditions, and Charles Darwin’s barnacles. Her specialist area of interest is marine invertebrates especially Crustacea and Cnidaria.
As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology she communicates her science, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4, BBC Four and CBBC. She is passionate about the role that science and museums play in our understanding of the natural world, and her favourite birds are puffins! Miranda was a finalist at the National Diversity Awards in the ‘Positive Role Model Award for Race, Religion & Faith’ category in 2013.
Twitter: @nathistgirl
Web: LinkedIn
Professor Beate Kampmann
Beate Kampmann is Professor of Paediatric Infection, Immunity and International Child Health. The aim of her work is to link scientific discoveries in the laboratory to the delivery of evidence-based care for children in the UK and Africa.
Twitter: @BeateKampmann
Helen Arney
Photo: Steve Ullathorne
Once again, we are delighted to confirm that comedian Helen Arney will be our compère for the evening. This will be Helen’s sixth Ada Lovelace Day Live!, and she has been one of the driving forces behind it. We’re very happy to have her back!
Helen is a self-professed geek songstress, who writes maths and science-inspired comedy songs and performs across the UK as herself, and with “Festival of the Spoken Nerd”. Helen’s first book, The Element In The Room, “a rib-tickling, experiment-fuelled and fully illustrated guide to the science that’s all around us”, is co-written with Steve Mould and out on 5 October. You can download a free sample from Amazon and preorder the book now!
Web: helenarney.com
Twitter: @helenarney
Venue
2017’s event took place in the Faraday Theatre at The Royal Institution, London. You can find information about the venue on the Ri’s website, including travel details and accessibility.
Website: http://www.rigb.org/
Twitter: @Ri_Science
Address: 21 Albemarle St, London, W1S, 4BS.
With thanks to our sponsors
We would like to thank ARM, UCL Engineering, figshare and Digital Science for their support of Ada Lovelace Day in 2017.
We always have a variety of sponsorship options available, so please take a look at our sponsorship prospectus or get in touch for more information.
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