The CSforAll Consortium announced commitments from over 170 organizations to develop and support computer science programming and train teachers, the latest in a series of recent efforts to promote STEM education and computing. Just last month, the White House released a memorandum instructing the U.S. Department of Education to direct up to $200 million a year for the next five years toward STEM and computer science. In relationship to the White House announcement, a collection of tech and education companies pledged $300 million to funding computer science programming.

STEM is currently developing an exciting new project to get your A level students involved with quantum physics. It is a free project that aims to get Quantum Ambassadors, researchers in the field of quantum physics, into your classroom to bring cutting-edge physics and technology to life. Perfect for A level or equivalent students of physics or computer science, this programme will demonstrate what fundamental quantum science is and how it works with future technologies. The project will provide a range of support to help you lead quantum physics activities in the classroom.

A new report outlining ten benchmarks to transform practical science education in England been published by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. The Good Practical Science report details recommendations to help secondary schools achieve world-class science education. The benchmarks include recommendations for schools, policymakers, Ofsted and teacher trainers. Looking at more than 400 secondary schools in England to gauge the status of practical science, the report also involved visits to world-leading nations including Finland, Germany and Singapore to learn what was done differently internationally.

The GirlCode Academy platform is the first program of its kind in Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa. It provides Nigerian women free training in software and web application development. The Academy has just recently graduated its first class. We spoke with administrators at GirlCode and discovered that they've found early success and have bigger plans for the future.

In a New York Post op-ed last week, Ivanka Trump said she intends for education technology to be one part of her White House portfolio. ''Given the high and increasing demand for workers with computing skills, it is imperative that all of our students, including women and minorities, have access to computer-science education,'' Trump wrote, emphasizing the need for K-12 students to have opportunities to learn computer science at an early age.

It pays - literally - to have women heading start-ups, a new report by researchers at the University of Connecticut and the non-profit organization Girls With Impact suggests. Researchers examined five years of college venture competitions at the University of Connecticut and found that although only 17.8% of participants were female, over half of teams that went home with prize money had at least one woman in a leadership position.

Women in the U.S. are substantially more likely than men to say gender discrimination is a major problem in the technology industry, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in July and August. The survey comes amid public debate about underrepresentation and treatment of women - as well as racial and ethnic minorities - in the industry. Critics of Silicon Valley have cited high-profile cases as evidence that the industry has fostered a hostile workplace culture. For their part, tech companies point to their commitment to increasing workforce diversity, even as some employees claim the industry is increasingly hostile to white males.

Sexism in tech isn't new. But 2017 has been the year that the harassment and bias that many women in Silicon Valley have long endured has come to light. Uber along with several venture capital firms have been outed for fostering environments where sexual harassment and discrimination have thrived. The fallout has been swift and public. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor is investigating wage disparity at Google, and now as many as 90 former employees are suing over similar discrepancies.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that assistant professor of biochemistry Tijana Ivanovic has received a New Innovator Award to conduct research that may improve our chances of forecasting a flu pandemic. Right now, we have no way of predicting which strain of the flu virus will evolve and become capable of being passed from human to human. She hopes to change this. The New Innovator Award is one of the most prestigious grants an early-career scientist can get. It's part of the NIH's High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program aimed at encouraging cutting-edge, out-of-the-box science. Ivanovic will receive $1.5 million over five years.

In this network event speakers will talk about The future of Artificial Intelligence: The impact of AI on employment, workforce, finance and healthcare. What happens when your computer knows you better than you know yourself? How is the technical landscape changing? Is the workforce changing apace? What are the gaps between talent and industry needs? What should new grads be learning to stay ahead of the curve? Are you integrating new tools to accommodate for this changing landscape?