WomENcourage
AbbreviationwomENcourage
DisciplineComputer Science
Publication details
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
History2014-current
Frequencyannual

The ACM's womENcourage Celebration of Women in Computing (womENcourage) is a series of conferences designed to connect women from diverse STEM backgrounds for networking and other career coaching activities.[1]. The conferences bring together undergraduate, Masters, and PhD students, as well as researchers and professionals, to present and share their achievements and experience in the field of computing[2]. The conference program includes technical presentations and also discussions related to career issues in academic and industrial research. The 2023 conference will be held in Trondheim, Norway[3].


History

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In 2012, with the goal of bringing European women in computing together to build a community to raise awareness, Pat Ryan, Cornelia Denk, Reyyan Ayfer, Eva Navarro Lopez, Vicki Hanson, and Beryl Nelson got together and founded womENcourage[4]. The first womENcourage Celebration of Women in Computing was held in Manchester, UK, in March 2014[5]. The event brought together participants from 28 different countries[6]. The conference has been held annually ever since.

Conference Structure

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Speakers

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womENcourage features prominent women in technology both from industry and academia[7]. Speakers have included Valerie Barr, Åsa Cajander, Sophia Ananiadou, Madeline Balaam, and Danica Kragic.

Poster Session

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womENcourage features a technical poster session with over 50 posters.

womENcourage Hackathon

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The womENcourage Hackathon is a full-day event where teams race to create a functional prototype to offer a technological solution to a real-life problem.

Career Fair

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womENcourage features a career fair with tech companies, government labs, and universities. Presenters at the career fair vary from year to year.

Workshops

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womENcourage features workshops with topics ranging from Ethics and Equity in AI and inspiring women to pursue a career in IT, all the way to Visual art and Algorithms[8].

Scholarships

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Students make up a large portion of the attendees at womENcourage. Thanks to the supporters, local and international alike, there are participation scholarships to join the event.[9]

List of womENcourage Celebrations

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Past and future womENcourage Celebrations include:

Year Location Theme Date Conference Chairs Links
2023 Trondheim, Norway "Computing Connecting Everyone" September 20-22 Kerstin Bach and Letizia Jaccheri[10] Website
2022 Larnaka, Cyprus [11] "Drawing New Lines in Science" September 21-23 Josephina Antoniou and Antigoni Parmaxi Website
2021 Virtual event, hosted by Czechitas[12][13], Prague, Czech Republic "Bridging Communities to Foster Innovation" September 22-24 Barbora Bühnová and Olga Maximová Website
2020 Virtual event, hosted by ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan "The equation has two sides" September 24-27 Naila Allahverdiyeva, Ms. Ulduz Khalilova, and Dr. Araz Yusubov Website
2019 Rome, Italy "Diversity Drives Societal Change" September 16-18 Paola Velardi and Tiziana Catarci Website
2018 Belgrade, Serbia "Creating the Future Together" October 3-5 Bojana Milasinovic and Sandra Tomic Website
2017 Barcelona, Spain September 6-8 Núria Castell Ariño and Reyyan Ayfer Website
2016 Linz, Austria "Crossing Borders" September 12-13 Gabriele Anderst-Kotsis and Reyyan Ayfer Website
2015 Uppsala, Sweden September 24-26 Maria Andreina Francisco Rodriguez and Virginia Grande Website
2014 Manchester, UK February 28 - March 1 Eva Navarro López and Bev Bachmayer Website

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "PhD students from Informatics attend WomENcourage conference". King's College London News Center. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Cyprus Computer Society News".
  3. ^ "10th ACM Celebration of Women in Computing womENcourage".
  4. ^ "The Beginnings – Dreams Come True". Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  5. ^ "ACM womENcourage Europe - 01 March 2014, Manchester, UK".
  6. ^ "About the first ACM-W Europe womENcourage Celebration of Women in Computing" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Feminist Perspective". Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  8. ^ "ISU - ACM-W WomENcourage 2022 Cyprus: What we did". Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  9. ^ "WomENcourage". 28 November 2022.
  10. ^ "Letizia Jaccheri NTNU". Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  11. ^ "Concordia". Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  12. ^ "Czechitas spouští nadační fond. S jeho pomocí chtějí IT otevřít ženám ze znevýhodněných skupin". 27 October 2022.
  13. ^ "ACM womENcourage 2021 | FIB - Barcelona School of Informatics".
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Category:Women in computing Category:Computer conferences Category:Awards honoring women Category:Association for Computing Machinery conferences