Improving Diversity in STEM
Online Event 13 October 2022, 9:00am - 3:00pm
Day 1
9:00am
Online Registration
9:30am
Chair’s Welcome Address
Dr Julie Wall, Reader in Computer Science, Director of Impact and Innovation, UEL
9:40am
Keynote Address: From The Co-founder Of Colorintech.org
Ashleigh Ainsley FRSA, Co-founder, Colorintech.org & Black Tech Fest
9:55am
Keynote Address: #TOWIE - The Only Way Is Engineering
Dr Ollie Folayan CEng FIChemE, Chair, AFBE-UK Scotland
10:10am
Keynote Address: Expecting a Fish to Climb a Tree
Jessica Okoro, Founder, BeScience STEM
10:30am
How Do You Engage Home Grown Talent Into STEM
- The world we live in faces ever-changing societal, environmental and economic challenges, which are felt regionally, nationally and also globally.
- UKBlackTech supports, promotes, represents and encourages the continued growth of young innovators in stem.
- We work with institutions, industry, local businesses and communities to solve these challenges. To build a great tech eco-system we need to see equity, transparency and representation at the cutting edge of tech.
Mark Martin MBE, Assistant professor in CS and Education Practice, UKBlackTech
10:50am
Break and Networking
11:30am
Case Study: How Lightyear Foundation Breaks Down Barriers To Get More Disabled Children Into STEM
Katherine Sparkes MBE, Chief Executive Officer, Lightyear Foundation
11:50am
From Missing Particles to Missing Physicists
- My experiences as a scientist with a physical disability
- Intersectionality – drawing comparisons between the community of LGBTQ+ scientists and scientists with disabilities
- An analogy from particle physics to demonstrate why these communities benefit from increased visibility
- The role of science communicators as role models
Dr Claire Malone, Science Journalist and Inclusion Consultant, University of Cambridge, CERN and IOP
12:10pm
Breaking Bad (practice) - Overcoming bias when returning to research after a career break
- Discussing the barriers and biases that researchers often face when returning to a career.
- Highlighting the difference Daphne Jackson Fellowships make to returners and the impact on their skills, confidence, retraining, research and subsequent careers.
- Discussing how Daphne Jackson Fellowships offer a way to increase the diversity and improve culture in the STEM workforce
- Discussing the way forward and what key stakeholders can do to overcome bias and increase diversity in the workforce
Dr Katie Perry, Chief Executive, The Daphne Jackson Trust
12:30pm
Question And Answer Session
12:50pm
Lunch And Networking
1:40pm
Keynote Address: Improving Diversity In Upper Levels Of Tech Companies
- Tech is a hard sector for minorities to get in
- Top positions are usually filled by the same demographics and ethnicities
- The bubble effect makes it further hard to break in
- The statistics of this actually impact the accelerating impact of tech on the world
Joyeeta Das, Chairperson, GYANA
2:00pm
Diversity In Tech: Changing The Ratio
Claire Thorne, Co-CEO, Tech She Can
2:20pm
Say It With Capital
- The Funding Gap
- The filtering process and the need for change
- Walking the talk
- The most powerful action we can take
Kevin Withane, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, Diversity-X
2:40pm
Question And Answer Session
3:00pm
Chair’s Summary And Close
*programme subject to change without notice
Dr Julie Wall, Reader in Computer Science, Director of Impact and Innovation, UEL