On 13th September, winners of WeAreTechWomen’s 2021 and 2022 TechWomen100 awards visited Durham University to benefit from a day of networking and workshops with Professor Sue Black OBE. Over 45 individuals met for lunch followed by a warm welcome from Dr Jacquie Robson, Faculty of Science and a virtual welcome from CEO and Founder of WeAreTechWomen, Vanessa Vallely OBE.
The day began with a keynote from Professor Sue Black OBE who told everyone if she could do it, so can they – this keynote covered Sue’s incredible story of being a single mum who fled domestic abuse, and then went back to university to gain her first ever Computing degree. Sue has since gone on to form many different groups to support and encourage women into tech including the first ever BCS Women’s group, Tech Mums and more recently Tech Up which is supporting women from marginalised groups to get into tech. Sue is an author and is known for saving Bletchley Park, (World War II codebreaking) with her Saving Bletchley Park campaign.
The group were then invited to join a research talk on bias in AI by Dr Noura Al Moubayed, from the Department of Computer Science. Thereafter the group got to conduct their own science experiments as part of a cool science practical session hosted by Dr Jacquie Robson, followed by a robotics demonstration at the MCS Vislab. After tours of the campus and beautiful surroundings in Durham, the group returned back to London.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Durham University for being our Education partners for TechWomen100 and for hosting such a fantastic day for our winners. A special thanks to Professor Sue Black OBE, Dr Jacquie Robson, Dr Noura Al Moubayed, TechWomen100 winner, Johanna Waite and Dr Wanquing Tu for making this such an incredible experience.
See pictures below.
