ACM-W Europe December 2023 Newsletter

 

In this issue:

 

Reflection on 2023:  A Look Ahead to Another Year of Growth and Collaboration

As we bid farewell to 2023, it’s with great pride and gratitude that we reflect on the remarkable journey we’ve undertaken together.  Reflecting on the past year allows us to appreciate the strides we’ve made. This year has been marked by a series of noteworthy achievements that have propelled us forward on our journey, fresh faces joined our various groups, working committees, and standing committees. Welcoming a cohort of dedicated volunteers and witnessing the expansion of our community have been pivotal moments in our journey. ACM-W Europe’s commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for women in computing was reinforced through various initiatives, including impactful talks, workshops, and scholarship programs.

As ACM-W Europe, we try our best to inspire women in Europe and create a network between them to raise awareness and share the ideas with our events.  We had a number of blog series as past chairs of our events and reflections from our scholarship awardees, the history of ACM-W Europe and so on. The first Indo European ACM Celebration of Women in Computing: A Decade Celebration was virtually held on June 22, 2023.  The joint anniversary celebration with ACM-W India was a highlight, symbolizing the strength of our global collaboration. We’ve successfully laid the groundwork for further expansion into regions like Africa Celebration of Women in Computing, setting the stage for a more diverse and interconnected ACM-W. 

10th Anniversary of womENcourage unfolded at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, from September 20 to 22, 2023. The conference was centered around the theme “Computing Connecting Everyone.”  More than 250 participants graced the conference, with 67 among them being recipients of participation scholarships. Across the three eventful days, attendees engaged in a rich array of activities, including 15 workshops, a poster session featuring 50 posters, a bustling career fair hosting 11 booths, a dynamic hackathon involving over 50 participants and guided by 11 mentors, and inspiring talks delivered by keynote speakers.

We now have chapter buddies collaborating together for their future events. Our first student chapter buddies ATU ACM-W Student Chapter which is at Atlantic Technological University, Ireland, and ACM Bilkent, which is at Bilkent University, Turkey just had their first event ACM Celebration of Women in Computing, Bean Feasa, hosted by Atlantic Technological University on November 24th , 2023. We also have one professional chapter buddies which are Trondheim ACM-W and The Greek ACM-W and their work will start in 2024.

The year concluded with a workshop dedicated to our chapters, bringing together committee members from each ACM-W Europe student and professional chapter in Brussels for our inaugural in-person meeting. The primary focus of the workshop centered on strategies for organizing local celebrations and effectively promoting the presence of women in computing through such events. Twelve individuals from various countries participated in the workshop, and we anticipate expanding our community further through the events they will organize in the near future.

As we express our gratitude to every contributor, we eagerly anticipate the year ahead, where we aim to build upon our achievements and continue championing diversity and excellence in the field of computing. Thank you for being an integral part of ACM-W Europe’s success in 2023. Here’s to a future filled with even greater accomplishments and shared aspirations!

We extend our sincere appreciation to each contributor of ACM-W Europe and especially to our volunteers. 2023 was great with all of your help and we are looking forward to the upcoming year. Our goal is to further advance our achievements and persist in advocating for diversity and excellence in the field of computing. Thank you for being part of the ACM-W Europe family and for helping us to have a successful season in 2023. Cheers to the New Year!

 

ACM-W Celebration from Buddy Chapters

ATU ACMW Student Chapter and Bilkent ACM-W Student Chapter successfully organised their first ACM-W celebration as a collaborative event between two buddy chapters. ACM Celebration of Women in Computing, Bean Feasa hosted by Atlantic Technological University on 24th of November. 

Below is a summary provided by Shreya Shantharama Shetty, Chair of the ATU ACMW Student Chapter and a Master’s student in DevOps at Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland.  

“We were thrilled to collaborate with the Bilkent ACM-W student chapter with which we connected as part of the ACM-W Buddy Project and engage participants from various corners of the world.  

The event featured an inspiring keynote by Dr. Virginia Grande, along with guest talks from esteemed speakers such as Dr. Tammie Bolling, Veronica Rogers, Ruth Lennon, and Evelyn Mc Glynn. I extend my heartfelt thanks to all the speakers for their valuable time and insightful contributions. One highlight of the event was the active participation of students, who not only discussed their role models but also put into practice the lessons learned in Evelyn’s Personal Branding workshop at the event on day 2. The enthusiasm and engagement of the attendees were truly remarkable. Following the event, we organised a pizza party for all the students, creating a fun and conducive environment for networking.  

We were delighted to welcome two exceptional students, Elif Şen and Zeynep Torun, from the Bilkent ACM-W chapter. Their presence ensured that our online members were well represented, and they took home spot prizes, adding an extra layer of excitement to the event. Invitations were extended to five universities from across Ireland, and the overall response was outstanding. We are grateful for the support of our sponsor, ACM, whose generosity contributed to the success of the event. The event was skilfully hosted by the ATU ACM-W Chair (myself) and the team, which includes Priyanka Polasi (Vice Chair), Sushmita Holthal Manjunath (Treasurer), Honnesh Muppala (Celebrations Chair), and Shreya Raghuvanshi (Social Media Chair). This dedicated team was led by ATU ACM-W Chapter Academic Lead, Ruth Lennon. 

I had the wonderful opportunity to serve as the anchor for the event, marking my first time as the Chair of the ATU ACMW, and I am grateful to Ruth Lennon for entrusting me with this significant responsibility. I express my sincere thanks to all the speakers, students, and Bilkent University ACM-W student chapter for their wonderful participation. The event was a resounding success, and we are excited about the positive impact it has had on fostering a sense of community and empowerment. 

We believe that sharing this experience will inspire and inform the wider ACM-W community.”

 

womENcourage™ – Celebration of Women in Computing

Responsible Computing for Gender Equality Madrid, Spain, June 26-28, 2024 

The 11th ACM Celebration of Women in Computing: womENcourage™ 2024, will be hosted at Escuela Politécnica Superior of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Open to all genders, this event is aimed at celebrating the role and impact of women in computing, and supporting participants at different stages in their STEM careers by offering an international, multisectoral, and multidisciplinary forum to share experience and knowledge, get constructive feedback, and promote meaningful networking.

The theme, Responsible Computing for Gender Equality, highlights the gender gap on computing and puts the stress on  the utilitarian nature of computing, as a tool to augment human capabilities and contribute to the progress of society.

Check out the website for updates on the event.

Poster, Workshop & Tutorial deadline 15 February 2024
Scholarship application deadline 15 March 2024
Early Registration 1 March 2024 – 16 May 2024

 

Call for Posters for womENcourage 2024

ACM womENcourage 2024 invites everyone to submit their work to the Poster Track. Posters provide womENcourage participants with an opportunity to present their work, benefit from insightful feedback and discussion, exchange knowledge and establish collaborations.

We welcome poster submissions from all areas of computer science and computational sciences. As the theme of this year is “Responsible Computing for Gender Equality” we would like to encourage the authors to stress in their submissions at least one of these aspects:

* The usefulness of computing as a tool to augment human capabilities and contribute to the progress of society.

* A responsible perspective of computing can permeate different domains.

Submission guidelines and Templates are available here. 

Upon acceptance, the authors should submit the final extended abstract, the final poster and optionally a 1-minute video recording to summarise the work and to serve as a teaser to attract the audience.

 

ACM-W Europe Celebration Workshop

As ACM-W Europe one of our goals is bringing people together to support women in computing and having a diverse environment in computer science society. To reach our goal, we wanted to have an active relationship with our both professional and student chapters.  On 8th and 9th December 2023, Dr Duygu Bektik (ACM-W Europe Celebrations Chair), Dr Dorota Filipcuzk (ACM-W Europe Vice-Chair) and Dr Rukiye Altin (ACM-W Europe Chair) held the first ACM-W Europe Celebrations Workshop in Brussels. 

We invited one representative from each chapter to be with us and at the end we were twelve people with nine chapter representatives.  This 1.5-day workshop hosted ACM-W Europe in nine different countries including Germany, UK, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Norway, Spain, Turkey, and Bosnia Herzegovina. 

This interactive workshop allowed its participants to learn more about celebrations, what it is, what it is for, the purpose of holding one, goals and main characteristics. Participants discussed the key features of successful celebrations, and heard example success stories from invited speakers. They also got familiar with the application process, planning a celebration, the timeline and what to consider when planning budgets and sponsorship for their celebrations. To have more inspiration, we invited Dr. Poonam Yadav to give a talk about ACM-W UK Celebration of Women in Computing: INSPIRE. We also invited Professor Paloma Díaz Pérez who is Dean of the Engineering School at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid  and General Chair of womENcourage 2024 to give information about ACM Celebration of Women in Computing: womENcourage.

The workshop right before Christmas gave all of us a friendly and calm environment and also gave us a chance to get to know each other well for future collaboration. We are so thankful to Ruth Lennon, Chair of ACM-W Global, for supporting us in this workshop. 

We are very happy to see an application already coming through and cannot wait to have many more within the next 6 months.

Announcements and News

Open Academic Positions

IMT Atlantique, Technology University in France is opening a new, EU co-funded, doctoral program for students all over the world that includes topics on a whole range of technical topics: SEED that will train 40 doctoral students over the next 5 years in the context of the major societal transitions: digital, energy, environment, industry and health of the future. All information on the program (description, application information, the 20 topics open for application as part of the first cohort) is available here.

Young women researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. In accordance with EU guidelines, the SEED programme promotes gender equity and commits to foster equal opportunities. The scientific components of the SEED programme, notably including its selection procedures and its executive board, will be fundamentally gender-blind, and all the stakeholders in this proposal consider the promotion of gender balance as a priority. More generally, the programme is committed to provide equal opportunities, irrespective of gender, colour, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origins, disability or age.

Webinars for all topics in January 2024

The co-supervisors of the SEED topics will present the topics and answer questions by organising webinars, one per topic, in January. These webinars will take place, allowing exception, during the second week of January, that is from 8-12 Jan. 2024. See details here.

Application deadline: 31 January 2024, 23:59 CET

 

The Department of Computer Science from Durham University has an open position for Assistant Professor, Permanent, Full Time.

Key responsibilities:

  • To deliver lectures, seminars and tutorials at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, with the opportunity to teach more widely within the Department, as well as engaging in related activity such as assessment
  • Engage in pedagogic activity at Departmental level that supports a high quality, academic professional community of practice within the Department and beyond.
  • Maintain an active membership and engagement with a professional body (e.g. HEA or discipline-specific bodies).
  • Contribute to ongoing curriculum development, demonstrating innovation in educational practice to enhance the quality of the educational environment in the Department and wider University in support of our continuing emphasis on international excellence as well as equality, diversity and inclusion.
  • To contribute to the administrative work, citizenship and values of the Department.
  • Engage in and enhance the values of the Department with regard to its commitment to its vibrant and international postgraduate culture.
  • Carry out such other duties as specified by the Head of Department.

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion 

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  We also live by our Purpose and Values and our Staff Code of Conduct.  At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI. 

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our workforce, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritized ethnic groups.

Further details here.

Application Deadline: 09 February 2024

 

The Walter Benjamin Programme enables researchers in the postdoctoral training phase to independently conduct their own research project at a location of their choice. The project can be carried out at a research institution in Germany or abroad, with the host institution providing support for the project.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is now expanding its existing funding measures for academics who have fled their home country by opening up the Walter Benjamin Programme with the aim of enabling this target group to become integrated into the German research system. In the current situation, this practical support measure for refugee researchers from all regions of the world is also an expression of solidarity with researchers from Ukraine as well as persecuted researchers from Russia. 

Deadlines: Proposals may be submitted at any time.

ACM Awards and Advanced Grades of Membership Deadlines

Each year ACM recognizes outstanding achievements of its members through awards that cover a spectrum of professional and technological areas and different stages of professional development. 

To learn more about awards, we recommend the article by the ACM President Cherri M. Pancake, who dispels some common myths about ACM Awards and Honors in the Communications of the ACM, August 2019. One of the myths is that the ACM Awards never honour people working outside North America. Prof. Pancake writes that even though nothing would make ACM committees happier than to recognise the achievements of people from around the globe, there are very few nominations. Source: Dispelling Common Myths About ACM Awards and Honors.

Call for ACM Senior Member Nominations

The Senior Member advanced grade of membership recognizes ACM members with at least 10 years of professional experience and 5 years of continuous ACM Professional membership. Nominations are accepted on a quarterly basis. The next deadline for nominations is September 3, 2023.

Students
Early Career
Mid Career
Late Career
Area-Specific, typically Mid to Late Career

For SIG-specific Awards, please visit here.

For ACM Advanced Grades of Membership, please visit here.

 

Thank you for joining us in recognizing the accomplishments of ACM Women in Europe and ensuring they are nominated for ACM Awards they deserve.

 

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