Student Blog
Brought to you from your @GoogleStudents friends. From pre-university to PhD (and beyond), we got you.
Recognizing and supporting female engineering achievements at the annual Lovelace Colloquium
May 4, 2010
Did you know that the term ‘debugging’ was popularized by computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral
Grace Hopper
, after she found and removed a moth from her
Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator
? How about
Frances Allen
? She was the first ever female IBM Fellow and Turing Award winner. Ever heard of
Augusta ‘Ada’ King, Countess of Lovelace
? As if being Lord Byron’s only legitimate child wasn’t interesting enough, she also created the first algorithm intended for machine processing. Some consider her the world’s first programmer!
Augusta ‘Ada’ King, Countess of Lovelace: the ‘world’s first programmer’
Ada provides the namesake for the
Lovelace Colloquium
, an annual conference chaired by
BCS
(the Chartered Institute for IT), organized by female students and hosted in various universities throughout the UK. This year’s event, held at Cardiff University on April 8th, was a forum for networking, sharing and collaborating on topical computer science issues.
In addition to providing support and speakers for the event, Google also had a hand in the Colloquium’s planning and development. Lovelace organizers tried something new this year; holding virtual meetings, tracking outreach, publicizing the event and finalizing the agenda--all via
Google Wave
! Said lead organizer
Dr. Mikhaila Burgess
(Cardiff University): ‘It worked really well, particularly since our organizers and speakers were spread out around the country. People could simply log on to the Wave, comment and make adjustments in real time. This structured approach to publicity allowed us to reduce spam by contacting people directly, keeping the planning phase dynamic.’
The planning paid off; Lovelace speakers were united in their ability to bring inspiring personal experiences, anecdotes and examples to the table. For instance,
Dr. Sue Black
of the University of Westminster used her involvement with the
Saving Bletchly Park campaign
as basis for a comparison of traditional versus social media in raising awareness. Similarly, Google’s own Eve Andersson (Technical Account Manager) gave a talk on ‘The Wonderful World of Web Analytics’, in which she analyzed her
personal website
! (We hope this post drives some traffic her way :)
Great events like Lovelace generally lead to great, concrete results. Here’s an example: Google-sponsored speaker
Prof Catholijn Jonker
(Delft University of Technology), who attended the Colloquium with three Dutch engineering students, is already planning to set up a Lovelace-style event. This would be the first of its kind in the Netherlands. ‘I was really impressed and inspired by my fellow Lovelace speakers--they are truly adding value and supporting the cause of women in technology,’ said Jonker, ‘I was very interested to learn that the BCS’s intake is currently 20% female. This is a major step forward, we’re getting to the point where people start thinking of it as normal to have women in technical occupations. I thought, if the UK can do it, so can we!’
Planning will shortly get underway for the 2011 Colloquium, to be held in Birmingham. We look forward to another inspiring celebration of female technical achievement...and hope Google Wave comes in handy again next year!
Posted by Vicky Greaves, University Programmes
Post a Comment
Labels
A Day in the Life of a New Grad in Google Dublin
7
AdCamp
2
AdMob
11
Ambassador Program
14
APAC
7
Appy Trails
28
Back to School
4
Better Know a New Grad
1
Better Know an Intern
16
Better Know an Office
4
Black History Month
10
Caitlin Talks to an Engineer
9
Chrome Extensions
3
Chromebook
1
College Tips by Google
1
Community
14
Conferences
16
consortium
1
CSSI
5
Day in the Life
2
deSTEMber
1
Development Programs
1
Diary of a Business Associate Intern
1
Diary of a Summer Intern
41
Diary of a Summer Intern - Erika
9
Diary of a Summer Intern - Franklin
3
Diary of a Summer Intern - Jess
3
Diary of a Summer intern - Luke
3
Diary of a Summer Intern - Madelaine
4
Diary of a Summer Intern - Pablo
3
Diary of a Summer Intern - Rio
4
Diary of a Summer Intern 2012
18
Diary of an MBA Intern
2
Education
19
EMEA
44
Europe
7
Events
13
Exploring Design at Google
4
GHC15
6
Going Green
6
Gone Google
2
Google Code University
1
Google Code-in
1
Google Games
3
Google Japan
1
Google Lime Scholarship
1
Google on campus
2
Google Online Marketing Challenge
10
Google Science Fair
2
Google.org
1
Google+
6
Googlers
14
Googlers Beta
11
Grace Hopper
11
GradTips
9
Hangouts On Air
21
Inside ITRP
6
Intern Insights
31
Intern Program
73
Interns Making an Impact
7
Interviews
1
Jobs
5
just for fun
30
K-12 (Pre-university)
14
LATAM
2
Life at Google
17
Middle East
1
My Path to Google
29
My Summer at Google
15
My Summer at Google 2012
10
North America
4
Office Environment
4
Open Source
9
PhD
7
Products
94
Programs and Competitions
116
Recruiter Tips and Tricks
15
Rice Plus
4
Scholarships
56
Search
1
STEM
2
STEP
1
Student Tips
15
Students
13
Summer of Code
1
Teach Parents Tech
10
Tech Students
3
Tips and Tricks
27
Women in Engineering
20
Young Innovators
10
YouTube
2
Archive
2018
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Feed
Google
on
Follow @GoogleStudents
Interested in opportunities and programs for students? Visit
google.com/students
.
