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One of these 12 women astronauts will go to the moon
It wasn't until 1983, more than a decades after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their historic moonwalk, that Sally Ride made her journey into space and became the first American woman to leave our planet. According to NASA, of the 347 Americans who have flown in space, 49 of them have been women. NASA is now intent on making the moon co-ed. Its new lunar program, Artemis, has the ambitious timeline of returning to the moon in 2024, and the space agency promised that this time a woman will be making the trip. Landing a woman on the moon could inspire a whole generation of young women, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Posted on 17 Jul 2019
10 Ways to support New Mothers in STEM
Nature News recently featured an article stating that almost half of women in STEM either leave their profession or switch to working part-time after giving birth to their first child in the US. This is more than double the statistics on first-time fathers, although fathers in STEM also leave the field at an alarmingly high rate after entering parenthood. This begs the question, why are we letting this happen? And what can we do to change these numbers? A support group for mothers is a model for practical, inexpensive steps to ease women’s transition to motherhood - and hopefully retain them in science.
Posted on 09 Jul 2019
AWIS Launches STEM Equity Community Platform with the Support of Elsevier
A few days ago AWIS announced the launch of the ADVANCE Resource and Coordination (ARC) Network Communitywhich connects scholars and practitioners committed to equity in STEM. In support of this initiative, Elsevier's leading reference manager and academic social network, Mendeley, will host a dedicated ARC Network group. In addition, SSRN, Elsevier's leading early stage research and preprint server, will host a dedicated STEM First Look series to support the initiative. With the online research collaboration tools generously provided by Elsevier, the ARC Network will facilitate the early adoption and implementation of promising practices and sharing of new research findings- Providing these opportunities broadens our collective impact on STEM equity in unprecedented ways.
Posted on 28 Jun 2019
'This is the tip of the iceberg': More than 8,500 women have joined the 500 Women Scientists database
The name 500 Women Scientists is a bit of a misnomer. Since the grassroots organization launched its searchable database of women scientists in January 2018, more than 8,500 researchers across the globe have shared their information so that journalists, conference organizers, and teachers can tap into their expertise. From ''manels'' to meetings with an abundance of Michaels, the leaders of 500 Women Scientists say the need for their database is clear. And now, they have data to demonstrate its impact. In a new paper published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology, the researchers behind 500 Women Scientists report that their platform has been accessed more than 100,000 times. And among 1,200 participants surveyed about their experience, 11 percent said they had been contacted as a result of the database for media interviews, peer review, panels, and other opportunities. The group has ambitious plans to keep expanding its reach. They're raising money to start a fellowship for women of color working to make science more open and accessible and they have already launched an affiliate group, 500 Women in Medicine.
Posted on 18 Jun 2019
A Woman Has Won the 'Nobel Prize of Math' for the First Time Ever
This year, one of the most prestigious mathematics prizes in the world was awarded to a woman for the first time. Karen Uhlenbeck, a mathematician and emeritus professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is now the first woman to win the Abel Prize for mathematics. The prize, according to New York Times, cites ''the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.'' Modeled after the Nobel Prize, it is awarded by the king of Norway to honor outstanding mathematicians who have greatly influenced their field, and includes a cash prize of Norwegian kroner worth about $700,000. The award has been given out since 2003, but all previous winners have been men. Dr. Uhlenbeck is renowned for her work in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory, and integrable systems. As the Times reports, she she helped pioneer a field known as geometric analysis, and among her most famous contributions were her theories of predictive mathematics, inspired by soap bubbles.
Posted on 18 Jun 2019
AnitaB.org Opens Call for Participation for Hopperx1 New York City
AnitaB.org opens Call for Participation (CFP) for Hopperx1NewYorkCity which will take place on November 4, 2019. Modeled after Grace Hopper Celebration, the event will bring together women technologists – along with leading companies from industry, academia, and research – to build relationships, learn, and advance their careers.
Posted on 23 May 2019
Why female innovators need a new deal
A recent government report shows that despite their growing presence in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines, women are largely absent on patents. A ''patent new deal'' for female inventors could help turn the tide, writes Ami Patel Shah in this opinion piece. Shah is a partner in a global, patent-focused hedge fund and holds degrees in law, and electrical and computer engineering. She is a global speaker on patent issues, particularly at the intersection of patents and finance. Prior to her financial services career, Shah ran the global wireless patent portfolio of an international chip manufacturer, worked at various law firms and started her career as a United States Patent Examiner. As dyed-in-the wool STEM professional women of all stripes know, much to our surprise a funny thing's been happening on the way to the patent office: Women are going missing as inventors. According to a February report by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), women are today's ''lost Einsteins.'' Indeed, one of the report's findings is particularly damning: ''Gains in female participation in science and engineering occupations and entrepreneurship are not leading to broad increases in female patent inventors (emphasis added).'' With so much recent progress in STEM, how can women still be the Hidden Figures of the patent office?
Posted on 23 May 2019
Electronic Glove Gives Robots Human-Like Sense Of Touch
A new paper in the Nov. 21 Science Robotics sheds new light on how robots could take a more human approach in the future. Chemical engineer and Stanford professor Zhenan Bao and her team at Bao Labs have developed an electronic glove with sensors designed to give robotic hands a sense of touch - theoretically enabling a human degree of coordination and pressure sensitivity. ''This technology puts us on a path to one day giving robots the sort of sensing capabilities found in human skin,'' Bao said in a statement. The gloves achieve this effect by simultaneously measuring the intensity and direction of pressure - and demonstrated a capability of touching and handling berries and pingpong balls without destroying them. Like human skin, which employs a complex layering system to sense and react to outside stimuli, the gloves were designed with multiple layers that work in concert.
Posted on 01 May 2019
Facebook nominates Peggy Alford, first African American woman, to its board of directors
Facebook will nominate prominent technology executive Peggy Alford for election to its board. Alford would be the first African-American woman and second African-American to join the board of the social media giant. Her nomination at the company's annual meeting on May 30 would mark a major step in diversifying its nine-member board. Last year, Facebook named former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault to its board. The move came after years of pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson to add black executives to its board as part of the company's efforts to reverse decades-long patterns of exclusion in the high-tech industry, which mostly employs white and Asian men. Alford is being nominated to Facebook's board at a particularly turbulent time in the company's history as it faces intensifying scrutiny of its business practices after months of scandals.
Posted on 22 Apr 2019
Researchers say bias in AI a crisis, linked to lack of tech diversity
The questions surrounding bias in artificial intelligence are urgent and the answers lie in diversifying tech workforces, researchers say. A yearlong look at the issue, which included poring through 150 previous studies, found that ''bias in AI systems reflects historical patterns of discrimination,'' a new report being released Wednesday says. The report finds that such technology is being created by large tech companies and a few universities, mostly by wealthy white men who benefit from such systems, which can harm people of color, gender minorities and other under-represented groups. Only 15 percent of AI research employees at Facebook and 10 percent at Google are women, according to researchers at AI Now Institute at New York University, which published the report. The overall numbers of black workers at tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft range from 2.5 percent to 4 percent. Taken together, that constitutes what the researchers call a crisis, especially as AI is being used in determining loan or insurance approvals, who gets interviewed for a job, who gets bail, and in predictive policing and more.
Posted on 22 Apr 2019

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