Peggy Whitson, PhD, is a biochemistry researcher and a retired NASA astronaut. She has spent 675 days in space, more than any other American or woman, placing her eighth on the all-time space endurance list. Her career has been filled with a surfeit of firsts. Whitson was the first woman commander of the International Space Station, and the only woman to serve as International Space Station commander twice. She was the first woman, and first non-pilot to serve as Chief of the NASA Astronaut Office. She is the first woman to complete 10 space walks, and the first woman to command a private space mission with Axiom Space.

In the SWE newest episode of Diverse: a SWE Podcast, we dive into the SWE Awards Program with FY24 SWE President Alexis McKittrick, FY24 Awards Implementation Lead Pamela Morison, and FY23-24 Director Inaas Darrat! They share the significance of recognizing women in STEM, the history of the SWE Awards Program, and the upcoming changes that will make the program more inclusive.

September is Update Your Resume Month. With the current job market becoming more competitive, it’s critical that you differentiate yourself from others. Behnaz Akbari highlights key tips from the AWIS webinar “Resume and Interview Tips to Get Noticed and Get the Job.”

The innovator section of TikTok strikes again. How efficient would it be if mathematical instructions could translate different dialects of sign language? A TikToker put it to the test with a quick demonstration of her process. Under the username @ Mrembo, the TikToker shared that she built a machine- learning algorithm to turn Kenyan sign language into audio. Although she had the idea, she was initally unfamiliar with the type of artifical intelligence (AI). However, with the help of YouTube and a machine learning course, @Mrembo was caught up to speed on building out her machine learning model.

A famous photo shows the control room at Kennedy Space Center on the day of the historic Apollo 11 launch packed with hundreds of men in white shirts and skinny black ties — and, among them, a single woman sits at a console. As Apollo 11 began its flight to the moon on July 16, 1969, 28-year-old instrumentation controller JoAnn Hardin Morgan became the first woman ever permitted in the launch firing room, which is locked down in advance of a space flight. Morgan, who was the first female engineer at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, would go on to have a 40-year-long career at NASA. While she encountered challenges along the way, including being "the only woman there for a long time" and spending the first 15 years working "in a building were there wasn't a ladies rest room," Morgan says that "I had such a passion that overrode anything else, the lonely moments, the little bits of negative. They were like a mosquito bite. You just swat it and push on."

After a 20-year career as a mathematics professor, teaching at the college level and doing research in nonlinear integral equations and natural resource modeling, she became the Executive Director of the American Mathematical Society, which is the professional society for research mathematicians. This Fall, she will begin a new role as CEO of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications.

What is it about robots? Whether it’s the appeal of new technology, seeing science fiction become science fact, or exploring what they might be able to teach us about ourselves, robots and robotics seem to have an endless capacity to fire our imagination. For Dr Micol Spitale, Nida Itrat Abbasi, and Minja Axelsson, researchers in Cambridge’s Affective Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory – directed by Professor Hatice Gunes - it’s the potential they have to help foster wellbeing in humans. A recent study led by Dr Spitale, and co-authored by PhD student Minja, showed that robots could be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace, although perception of their effectiveness depends on what they look like. And separate research by PhD student Nida, and co-authored by Dr Spitale, suggested robots are potentially a promising tool in evaluating mental wellbeing issues in children, compared to parent-reported or self-reported testing.

The mission of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is to work toward solving water resources challenges in a collaborative, multidisciplinary way that brings together stakeholders from the public and private sectors, including representatives from government, business, academia, and the nonprofit world.
AWRA has spent almost 60 years bringing together scientists, researchers, academics, and a variety of stakeholders from the private and public sectors to solve critical water issues in the United States and abroad. At our meetings and gatherings, you will not be surprised to find an engineer, a hydrologist, a public health scientist, a sociologist, a policy analyst, a land planner, and community advocates working together: we believe that this is how we will resolve water resources challenges, and, in fact, that we will find solutions to these issues by providing a forum for information exchange, professional development, and education. This multidisciplinary emphasis has drawn membership from a wide variety of water-related disciplines in academia, government, and private industry and has allowed AWRA programs to rapidly adapt to emerging issues, changes in technology, and the shifting needs of our members. The driver of change for much of our work is created through AWRA’s Technical Committees, which together serve as a national, organized body of professionals who work to highlight the emerging obstacles and opportunities happening in the water resources community.

If you haven’t read this year’s bestseller Lessons In Chemistry, you’re missing out. Clever, funny and powerful, it follows the story of a single mother in the Sixties battling the patriarchy as she fights to make her way in the world of science. Abiogenesis specifically, aka the origin of life. Thankfully that was a different era, but despite recent progress, women are still underrepresented across STEM industries – science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to the For Women in Science programme, a partnership between the Foundation L’Oreal and Unesco, women make up only a third of researchers worldwide, and less than 4% of Nobel prizes have been awarded to women. In a bid to change that, the programme supports hundreds of young female researchers every year – and also highlights five scientists from around the world working on ground-breaking and vital research, awarding them the honour of International Laureate. ‘In the time of a generation, the For Women in Science programme has contributed to creating a real transformation by raising the profile of women representing every continent and breaking new ground in all disciplines,’ said Alexandra Palt, executive director of the Fondation L’Oréal. ‘However, while we are conscious of the progress we have made, we remain determined, as the task remains significant. The presence of women in science and particularly in senior positions is still too low due to the gender inequality and discrimination they still have to face.

Representation, community, and equity: this is how we’re changing the face of tech. Watch Dr. Tarika Barrett speak about closing the gender gap in tech on PIX11 News.