Author Archives: Suw

Announcing our new Gold sponsor: Siemens Rail Automation

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Siemens Rail AutomationI am delighted to announce our second Gold sponsor, Siemens Rail Automation, who join ARM, the Royal Astronomical Society, UCL Engineering, figshare, Digital Science, Ada Diamonds and Meromorf Press in supporting this year’s Ada Lovelace Day. In their own words:

Siemens Rail Automation is a global leader in the design, supply, installation and commissioning of track-side and train-borne signalling and train control solutions. Its portfolio includes train control, interlocking systems, operations control systems, components, track vacancy detection, level-crossing protection, rail communications, cab radios, station systems and cargo automation for both passenger and freight rail operators. Siemens employs over 14,000 people in the UK, with 1,650 people working in the Rail Automation division from offices in Chippenham, London, Croydon, Poole, Birmingham, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Manchester, York, Glasgow, Newport and Derby.

You can follow Siemens Rail Automation on Twitter: @siemensuknews.

We depend on our sponsors to fund not just Ada Lovelace Day Live!, but all of our work including our resources database, free education pack for teachers, podcast, and free monthly newsletter. If you would like to join them and help us to expand our work, please take a look at our current sponsorship packages!

 

 

University students hold the key to more effective STEM outreach

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UCL hi-res_logo_200cThis guest post by Vicky Dineshchandra, third year Computer Science student and former vice-president of the Technology Society at UCL, was sponsored by UCL Engineering.

It’s wonderful to see the work being done to inspire younger children to take up STEM subjects. A wide range of people contribute to these programmes: academics, industry professionals, and parents, but I want to focus on a lesser known group that has the potential to connect with younger children on a more personal level, motivating them to pursue STEM at higher levels — university students.

Outreach

A recent survey from Emerson found that “many young people in the US are avoiding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education because they don’t understand the opportunities”. We also know that girls in particular are drawn to careers that have social worth. But the social worth of STEM is often poorly communicated, and that is a challenge that must be met to attract more girls to STEM careers.

University students are perfectly placed to inspire children stuck in the classroom who are perhaps unable to see past the equations, and have yet to be convinced of the potential impact of what they are learning. They are able to better relate to school-age children and understand their concerns, not least because they probably have experienced similar concerns themselves and found a way to overcome them.

As a second year computer science student at University College London (UCL) and a vice-president of the UCLU Technology Society (TechSoc), I have tried to tap into the enthusiasm of my fellow students and use that to inspire the next generation. I believe the Society has made huge amounts of progress in reaching out to children by mobilising the undergraduate student body, and I’d like to share my experience, in hope that other student bodies around the country can do the same.

For university students to volunteer their time and energy, it’s important to make them feel part of a community. We were able to do this through TechSoc, and we ran many events, hackathons and student-led projects to help develop a cohesive tech community. Students were made to feel comfortable (especially first years) and everyone was encouraged to share and contribute.

The engineering faculty at UCL ran many outreach events at schools and at the university, such as CoderDojo, with overwhelmingly positive support from the TechSoc community. This was largely due to the fact we had already established a base community; because students appreciated the events we ran for them, they reciprocated and wanted to give back, volunteering their time for children. As a result, we decided to start a TechSoc Volunteering Crew, which now has 110+ members. We found that people were always willing to help, and that entrusting them to run a small event or give a talk also helped to develop their confidence.

Around the same time, at the start of the second term, the first year students were about to start their Coding Curriculum projects, a course which encourages students to create computer science teaching material for younger students. TechSoc gave a short talk on why it’s important that they incorporate their prior experiences so that the material they produce is effective and engaging.

outreach team You can see the passion students invested in their work, and the richness in the quality of the projects that emerged as a result of them understanding the importance of outreach. It didn’t stop there; about 30 first year students went on to organise HackStart, a day of inspirational talks, tech demos and workshops to get young children interested in computer science. Every workshop, talk or demo presenter emphasised an aspect of computer science that was really special to them and why they studied it. Younger children were able to see past those equations and see something real in the world of STEM, not anecdotes from their teachers or parents, but experiences of someone closer in age whom they could aspire to be like in a couple of years’ time. This is the biggest value university students can bring to outreach events.

This is just the first year of the TechSoc Volunteering Crew, and the society has larger plans to make use of our technical skills, small age gap and passion for STEM to help a wider range of younger children, particularly those who are from underrepresented groups. Encouraging university students to engage with schools outreach projects has proven beneficial for both them and for the school children they have worked with, and it is a scheme that I hope can be replicated at other universities.

ALD Podcast, Ep 4: Abbie Hutty & Anne-Marie Imafidon

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iTunes | Google Play | RSS (Soundcloud) | Stitcher

Welcome to the Ada Lovelace Day podcast, highlighting the work of women in STEM. Each month, we talk to women from around the STEM world about their careers, as well as talking to women and men, about historic and modern women’s achievements, discoveries, and inventions.

In this episode

01:30: Senior spacecraft structures engineer Abbie Hutty talks about how Airbus’ ExoMars Rover Project will search for life on Mars, and the challenges of building a portable lab that can both do delicate science and withstand the rigours of the Red Planet.

22:30 Head STEMette Anne-Marie Imafidon talks about the inspiration she’s drawn from the work of Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, software pioneer, entrepreneur and child refugee. (You can watch Dame Stephanie’s 2015 TED talk at the bottom of this post.)

Ada Lovelace Day Live!

ALD Live is an entertaining evening of geekery, comedy and music suitable for everyone over the age of 12. If you’d like to enjoy a taster, take a look at our videos from 2015, 2014 and 2013!

Our amazing ALD Live! speakers this year are:

  • Yewande Akinola, design engineer focused on sustainable water supply systems and the engineering design coordination of large projects in the built environment.
  • Dr Sheila Kanani, planetary physicist, science presenter, secondary school physics teacher and space comedienne with a background in astrophysics and astronomy.
  • Dr Kat Arney, science writer and broadcaster whose work has featured in the New Scientist, Wired, the Guardian, the Times Educational Supplement, BBC Radio 4, the Naked Scientists and more.
  • Jenny Duckett, developer with the Government Digital Service.
  • Dr Sara Santos, mathematician, director and founder of Maths Busking.
  • Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani, computational biologist working on drug discovery for Cancer Research UK.
  • Dr Anna Jones, deputy science leader for the British Antarctic Survey’s Atmosphere, Ice and Climate Team.

Early Bird tickets are £10, and available until 31 August from Eventbrite, so get yours now before they run out! Find out more about our speakers, venue, tickets and schedule.

Our interviewees

Abigail Hutty

Abbie HuttyAbbie Hutty is senior spacecraft structures engineer on Airbus’ ExoMars Rover Project. She gained her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Surrey University where she received several awards and prizes for her achievements, including for her master’s thesis on the use of composites in spacecraft structures. She joined Astrium at Stevenage, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a mechanical engineer in 2010, and now leads a team of specialists in the design of the ExoMars Rover Vehicle Structure. In 2013, she was selected as the IMechE’s Young Member of the Year and later named as the IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year. You can follow Abbie on Twitter, at @A_Hutty.

You can also find out more about how the ExoMars Rover will search for life on Mars in Abbie’s ALD 2015 talk, available on YouTube and Figshare, and at the bottom of this post.

Anne-Marie Imafidon

Anne-Marie ImafidonAnne-Marie Imafidon is Head STEMette and cofounder of STEMettes – an award-winning social enterprise inspiring the next generation of females into science, technology, engineering and mathematics roles via a series of events and opportunities. In three years more than 7,000 girls across the UK, Ireland and Europe have attended STEMette experiences. As part of the initiative Anne-Marie has also co-founded Outbox Incubator: the worlds first tech incubator for teenage girls. She sits on the boards of Redfield Asset Management, Urban Development Music Foundation and Inspirational YOU. You can find out more about Anne-Marie on her website and follow the @STEMettes on Twitter.

Thanks to our sponsor

This podcast is brought to you thanks to the generous support of ARM, our exclusive semiconductor industry sponsor. You can learn more about ARM on their website at ARM.com and you can follow them on Twitter at @ARMHoldings.

If you would like to join ARM as a sponsor of the Ada Lovelace Day Podcast, please email us.

Get in touch!

If you’d like to send us feedback about the show, or if you’d like to take part, please email us. We’re especially interested in hear from men who would like to talk to us about the women in STEM who have influenced them, especially those women who are less well known.

Credits

Episode edited by Andrew Marks.

Our links

Videos

 

ALD Podcast: Ep 3, Hazel Gibson & Dr Erik Klemetti

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iTunes | Google Play | RSS (Soundcloud) | Stitcher

Welcome to the third episode Ada Lovelace Day podcast, highlighting the work of women in STEM. We’ll be talking to women from around the STEM world about their careers, as well as talking to women and men, about historic and modern women’s achievements, discoveries, and inventions.

In this episode

01:00: We talk to Hazel Gibson about geoscience cognition and communication — how the metaphors we use for geological concepts, like underground rivers, affect how well we understand geological processes.

26:33: And Dr Erik Klemetti, volcanologist and author of the Wired Eruptions blog, tells us about the work of vulcanologist Professor Anita Grunder.

Our interviewees

Hazel-GibsonHazel Gibson is a PhD research student at Plymouth University who works on geoscience cognition and communication; the study of what people think about geology and how they talk about it. With a background in engineering geology and public engagement, Hazel has worked all over the world sharing her curiosity for geological subjects wherever she goes. She blogs at My Patchwork Planet and for GeoLog and is also on Twitter, @iamhazelgibson.

You can read Hazel’s paper, A “mental models” approach to the communication of subsurface hydrology and hazards, on the Hydrology and Earth System Sciences open-access journal website. And you can watch her talk from Ada Lovelace Day 2013 at the bottom of this post, on YouTube or Figshare.

Dr Erik KlemettiDr Erik Klemetti is a volcanologist and petrologist at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio. He uses radiometric dating and chemical analysis of zircon crystals to find out how magma composition changes over time. Looking at the processes that create volcanic and other rocks tells us about the dynamic events that have created the Earth and will change the planet far into the future. Erik has been fascinated by geology since he was young, either with the vast mineral collection that his grandmother in Massachusetts had collected or with the vistas of Nevado del Ruiz from his grandparents home in Colombia. He also write a blog about volcanos, Eruptions, for Wired. You can follow Erik on Twitter @eruptionsblog.

And you can find out more about Professor Anita Grunder via her Oregon State University page, and read the Association of Women Geoscientists’ Outstanding Educator 2009 profile of her in their newsletter, Gaea.

Thanks to our sponsor

This podcast is brought to you thanks to the generous support of ARM, our exclusive semiconductor industry sponsor. You can learn more about ARM on their website at ARM.com and you can follow them on Twitter at @ARMHoldings.

If you would like to join ARM as a sponsor of the Ada Lovelace Day Podcast, please email us.

Get in touch!

If you’d like to send us feedback about the show, or if you’d like to take part, please email us. We’re especially interested in hear from men who would like to talk to us about the women in STEM who have influenced them, especially those women who are less well known.

Credits

Episode edited by Andrew Marks.

Our links

Video

ALD Podcast: Episode 2, Fran Scott & Maia Weinstock

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iTunes | Google Play | RSS (Soundcloud) | Stitcher

Welcome to the second episode of the freshly minted Ada Lovelace Day podcast, highlighting the work of women in STEM. We’ll be talking to women from around the STEM world about their careers, as well as talking to women and men, about historic and modern women’s achievements, discoveries, and inventions.

In this episode

01:11: We talk to science communicator Fran Scott about her work designing science demos for television and schools, and how to get into a TV presenting career.

22:09: We also hear from Maia Weinstock, deputy editor at MIT news, who discusses the queen of nuclear research, Chien-Shiung Wu, her crucial role in disproving the Conservation of Parity and her vital contribution to the Manhattan Project.

Our interviewees

Fran ScottFran Scott is the only female science presenter on Children’s BBC. A scientist by training and an engineer at heart, Fran uses her knowledge of these subjects to explain their principles in entertaining, exciting and accurate ways often using high-impact demonstrations to prove her point. She has presented six series for Children’s BBC, five series for BBC Learning Zone, and one for BBC Worldwide, and has received numerous recognitions including a Royal Television Society award and three BAFTA nominations. Web – Twitter

You can watch Fran setting rockets off with her finger during Ada Lovelace Day Live! 2013 either on YouTube or below:

 

Maia WeinstockMaia Weinstock is the deputy editor at MIT News and a writer specialising in science and children’s media. She has contributed to outlets including Scientific American, BrainPOP, Discover, SPACE.com, and NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers. Maia is a strong advocate for girls and women; most recently, she has been recognised for her science- and law-themed LEGO minifigure creations. She has also led efforts to increase the participation and visibility of women on Wikipedia. Web — Twitter

You can read an excerpt from Maia’s chapter on Chien-Shiung Wu here on our website, and you can read the full chapter in our anthology, A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention, which is available as an ebook on Amazon for £1.99.

Thanks to our sponsor

This podcast is brought to you thanks to the generous support of ARM, our exclusive semiconductor industry sponsor. You can learn more about ARM on their website at ARM.com and you can follow them on Twitter at @ARMHoldings.

If you would like to join ARM as a sponsor of the Ada Lovelace Day Podcast, please email Suw Charman-Anderson.

Get in touch!

If you’d like to send us feedback about the show, or if you’d like to take part, please email us. We’re especially interested in hear from men who would like to talk to us about the women in STEM who have influenced them, especially those women who are less well known.

Credits

Episode edited by Andrew Marks.

Our links