Celebrating International Girls in ICT Day 2021

Publication date
Thursday, 22 Apr 2021
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The Australian National University (ANU) is proud to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day 2021 (#GirlsinICT).

While girls across the world tend to outperform boys in reading and writing skills, they continue to be under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

International Girls in ICT Day is held annually on 22 April, celebrated by the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 

It aims to inspire a global movement to increase the representation of girls and women in technology. This year marks the 10 year anniversary, with the 2021 theme of connected girls, creating brighter futures. 

To celebrate International Girls in ICT Day, we're showcasing just a few of the outstanding women in our community who are studying and working in information and communication technologies and related fields.

 

 

If she can see it, she can be it!

 

Paige

Bachelor of Software Engineering/Arts '20

“When I tell people I’m studying software engineering, they expect that I spend hours alone writing and rewriting code - but this is not the case at all! It’s engaging, interesting, fascinating, challenging and involves a lot more collaboration and teamwork than I first expected.”

 

Mengyan

Bachelor of Advanced Computing (Honours)

“ANU provides great advanced computing courses like machine learning and artificial intelligence. It’s great to do something meaningful and even better if it’s something that you are really interested in.”

 

Chaitanya

PhD student, Mathematical Sciences Institute

“Maths is actually a booming field at the moment. It has such a broad scope and there are so many opportunities in it. It’s not going anywhere, except up. It’s a great, exciting, creative field to be working in.”

 

Bettina

Bachelor of Science (Advanced)

“I really enjoy mathematics that is linked to the real world.”

Bettina ended up using her mathematical know-how to understand the different shapes of leaves. “Leaves are so varied. I used a technique called persistent homology to identifying their holes and components, to see if we could use statistics to separate out different types of leaves.”

 

Tina

Bachelor of Advanced Computing (Honours)/Bachelor of Science

“There’s actually a lot of humanity in computer science, which you don’t realise until you look beneath it. Computer science has completely revolutionised how the world is run today, and this isn’t going to stop anytime soon.”

 

Susanne

Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Pure Mathematics in '76, PhD in Plant Physiology in '81 Susanne’s field of research is all about connections, flows and logic. The elegant equations that she has designed to represent photosynthesis have been extensively tested and utilised around the world. Those models are used in a range of scales from crop canopies to leaves, explaining biochemical processes and atmospheric gas exchanges. She is now a worldwide expert for using mathematics to represent the process by which plants convert sunlight, gases and water into sugars and oxygen – photosynthesis.

 

Elena

CEO/Founder, GippsTech
PhD Computer Science ‘14

“Computer science allows you to create things that people can use. It was more creative and real than any other subjects. My PhD at ANU taught me how to approach solving big complex problems, which was extremely valuable both in my work in developing innovative products at Google and in starting my own company.”

 

Jess

User Experience Researcher Google, Seattle
PhD in Computer Science ‘15

Jess, has always been interested in computers. In high school she was often found playing video games, upgrading computers, taking them apart and putting them back together. Then she realised she could turn her passion for computing into a career.

“Google is a fast-paced environment, which requires you to be really good at communicating. Having a rich social life at ANU, being involved in clubs and working in team environments has differentiated me from graduates of other universities.”

 

Yaya

Bachelor of Software Engineering (Honours) ‘20

“My degree allowed me to gain essential systems and design thinking skills, and gave me the confidence to explore both engineering and computer science. I've discovered through my internship at Google and courses at ANU that teamwork is a huge fundamental component of software development."

 

An Ran

Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) '15

“There’s a level of sophistication that really draws me to maths. Especially the idea that we have these structures and truths in mathematics, and you’re looking at this going ‘this cannot be true’. But then you’re actually like ‘this is true because I just proved it!’”

Eloise

ANU mathematics alumni

"In doing maths you’re not closing any doors, rather you’re opening up many more. The skills I’ve learnt through maths could be applied to a whole range of jobs, and an employer would say, ‘You’ve got maths skills yeah you might just be the person I need’."