The Girls Who Code Inaugrual Gala was at the New York Stock Exchange was on October 22, 2012. It was in support of young women who are New York City’s future entrepreneurs and engineers, they unveiled the apps they built during the Girls Who Code program. The evening began the Social Investor Presentation where the Girls took over the NYSE Boardroom to pitch their creative technology and ability to change the future. The pitches were then followed by a networking reception and demos on the NYSE Trading Floor. Ladyada and pt stopped in and took some photos, it was PACKED! This was the first time any of the Adafruit team has visited the NYSE Trading Floor! Congrats to all the young women who are heading in to engineering because of this program!
WHO WE ARE
Girls Who Code is a new organization working to educate, inspire and equip 13- to 17-year-old girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in technology and engineering.
WHAT WE DO
Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship led by the industry’s top female developers and entrepreneurs.
WHY WE DO IT
Today, just 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women, and less than 10% of venture capital-backed companies have female founders. Yet females use the internet 17% more than their male counterparts and represent the fastest growing demographic online and on mobile, creating more than two-thirds of content on social networking sites. Technology companies with more women on their management teams have a 34% higher return on investment, and companies with women on technical teams increases teams’ problem-solving ability and creativity.
The numbers speak for themselves. By 2018, there will be 1.4 million computer science-related job openings, yet U.S. universities are expected to produce enough computer science graduates to fill just 29% of these jobs. And while 57% of bachelor’s degrees are obtained by women, less than 14% of computer science degrees are awarded to women.
Host Committee – Master Gardeners
Jack Dorsey, Founder, Twitter, Square
Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
Chris Hughes, Co-founder, Facebook
Beth Comstock, CMO, General Electric
Alexis Maybank, Founder, Gilt Groupe
Marisa Ricciardi, SVP Global Marketing, NYSE Euronext
Gina Bianchini, Founder, Ning, Mightybell
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
Hope Taitz, Board Member, Athene, Apollo Residential Mortgage REIT
David Hirsch, Metamorphic Ventures
Sunny Bates, Sunny Bates Associates
Evan Korth, Founder, hackNY
Andrew Rasiej, Personal Democracy Media
Kelly Hoey, Founder, Women Innovate Mobile
Greg Gunn, Founder, City Light Capital
Rachel Haot (Sterne), Chief Digital Officer, NYC
Nihal Mehta, Founder, Local Response
Steve Martocci, Founder, GroupMe
Caroline Ghosn & Amanda Pouchot, Founders, LevoLeague
Susan McPherson, SVP, Fenton
Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director, New York Tech Meetup
Kathryn Minshew & Alex Cavoulacos, Co-founders, The Daily Muse
Rachel Sklar, Founder, Change the Ratio & TheLi.st
Sponsors – Cultivators
NYSE Euronext
Twitter
Google
General Electric
AppNexus
AT&T
eBay
Goldman Sachs
D. E. Shaw
Raptor Capital
Global Grind
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
An unusual job paradox has occurred in the United States. The U.S. continues to face high unemployment rates (7.8% as of September 2012) yet American companies cannot find enough workers to fill all the available STEM positions. According to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy research organization based in Washington DC, “American companies urgently need professionals trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, but there are not enough workers with the necessary skills and too few Americans earn post-secondary STEM credentials.”
How can companies bridge the gap and be able to fill all those available STEM jobs? Microsoft is an example of one company not only seeking today’s answers, they are looking into the future and focusing on the group believed to be a key solution: Women.
Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and advanced manufacturing, has urged industrialists to close the gender gap by getting more women into industry.
“Women are a great untapped resource at a time when we need a wealth of new talent and higher level skills to improve competitiveness,” said Semta’s operations director, Lynn Tomkins.
“They comprise half of the working population yet only 21% of the workforce in UK advanced manufacturing and engineering are women and only 6% of engineers are women. That’s not good enough.”
The latest university admissions statistics show that 33.4% of successful undergraduate applicants for science subjects in 2011 were female, compared to 37% the previous year. Only 19% of engineering applicants were female.
The issue is further compounded by the fact that, of the minority of women who study engineering and technology, only 51% go on to a career in industry, compared to 70% of their male counterparts.
A report issued recently by Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), sponsored by BAE Systems, found girls were put off careers in the sector by lack of careers advice, female role models and fear of sexism in the workplace.
We’ve all seen Rosie the Riveter: blue coveralls, red polka-dotted bandanna, biceps blazing. Rosie is a cultural icon, used to mobilize women into manufacturing during World War II. But sixty years after Rosie helped recruit 3 million women into war plants across the US, many women still seem reluctant to pick up the riveter.
Women make up over half of the population. So, why aren’t there more women repairing? Women are underrepresented in many fields—especially technical fields. In 1997, women earned just 33.8% of degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). By 2007, that number had dropped to 27.5%. As a woman in STEM, I’ve thought a lot about what stops women from joining our ranks. Maybe women don’t replace their hard drives for the same reason they don’t often change a tire: lack of confidence.
Did you know that Ada Lovelace, a computer scientist from England, is considered to be the first computer programmer? With her code-like language, she created a model for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine in the mid-1800s.
Nearly two centuries later, there are some very impressive women working in technology, such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. However, women still only make up just 25% of the workforce in STEM — that is, science, technology, engineering and mathematics — careers.
This infographic takes a look at some of the brilliant ladies whose contributions to the STEM fields are an inspiration to all women — and men.
Take a look at this Hall of Fame for women in tech, science, engineering and math, created by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; then, let us know how you think we can encourage more women and girls to enter STEM careers in the comments section.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Tuesday 16 October marks Ada Lovelace day, an annual event designed to raise the profile of female scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
Ada Lovelace worked with inventor Charles Babbage on plans for an “analytical engine” in the 1800s, now widely regarded as the world’s first computer model – making Ms Lovelace the first computer programmer.
In London a cabaret-style evening of talks, demonstrations and singing, all performed by women, is marking the event, with additional celebrations planned locally in Brazil, Slovenia, Sweden, Italy and America.
BBC News caught up with four of the women taking part in the London event, to find out about the experiences of modern women working in science.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, and to celebrate this computeering pioneer, we thought we’d ask artist Scott Brundage to illustrate Lady Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, as she works through the centuries, inspiring, creating, and perfecting the very device that the modern first world now cannot live without.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Becky is our Director of Wearable electronics here at Adafruit, she’s also a close friend. Today we’re celebrating women in tech who inspire us, so besides Ladyada who I get to work with on a daily basis, I’m also lucky enough to work with Becky. Her energy, creativity and passion for teaching and sharing is incredible. Thank you Becky for being part of this adventure with us at Adafruit – Editor’s note, this is Phil writing this post on behalf of all of us at Adafruit
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Alicia Gibb, President
Alicia is the founding president of the Open Source Hardware Association. In her spare time, Alicia is starting an open source hardware company specific to education. Previous to becoming an advocate and an entrepreneur, Alicia was a researcher and prototyper at Bug Labs where she ran the academic research program and the Test Kitchen, an open R&D Lab. She is a member of NYCResistor, co-chair of the Open Hardware Summit, and a member of the advisory board for Linux Journal. She holds a degree in art education, a M.S. in Art History and a M.L.I.S. in Information Science from Pratt Institute.
Danese Cooper
Danese has a long history of advocacy for open-source, earning her the nickname “Open Source Diva”. She is a Board Member at Drupal Association, an Open Source Strategist (consulting) at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an Emeritus Board Member / Observer at Open Source Initiative (OSI), and a Member at The Apache Software Foundation. Previously, she was Chief Technical Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation and, for six years, an open source advocate at Sun Microsystems.
Wendy Seltzer
Wendy is a Fellow with Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, previously a fellow with Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy; the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado; and with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. She was a Visiting Fellow with the Oxford Internet Institute, teaching a joint course with the Said Business School, Media Strategies for a Networked World. She has previously taught at American University’s Washington College of Law, Brooklyn Law School, and Northeastern University School of Law, and served as staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Before joining EFF, she taught Internet Law as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University School of Law, and practiced intellectual property and technology litigation at Kramer Levin in New York.
Catarina Mota is also on the board, but we posted about her earlier today
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
For each new project, she spends endless hours on into the night refining scripts and edits not only to communicate clearly and effectively the science and techniques behind 3D printing, but also to celebrate the diverse community of those discovering science, engineering, and design through this emerging field.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
I had the pleasure of running into the impressive scientist and educator Nina Tandon at the launch party for GE Garages’ “Making Things” series at STORY last week, along with a few other talented women scientists and artists. She shared with us, among other things, her deep excitement about current projects in progress, her passion for making use of open hardware microcontrollers for doing science, and the importance of Becky and Limor’s fingernail polish in all of the product videos at Adafruit — what a great message that is for young women engineers.
I shared above the video of her TED talk from last year on the topic of “Caring for Engineered Tissues” – well worth your time if you haven’t caught it yet.
She is an electrical and biomedical engineer at Columbia University’s Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, and adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union, teaching a “Bioelectricity” class.
She spent her early career in telecom (Avaya Labs), and transitioned into biomedical engineering via her Fulbright in Italy (working on an electronic odor detector). She completed her PhD under Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic at MIT and Columbia, researching electrical stimulation for cardiac tissue engineering. After consulting at McKinsey from 2008-10, she has resumed her research on electrical stimulation for broader tissue engineering applications.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
is dedicated to bringing women in the sciences together to work on awesome computer science projects. We also go cool places to learn new things! We provide is a unique learning and growing opportunity for women pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated fields.
Last year, they had a cool Arduino-powered water light-painting exhibit at MakerFaire:
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Designer and miniaturist Kacie Hultgren, who goes by the design name Pretty Small Things, has played a crucial role this past year introducing a architects and scenic designers to DIY 3D printing, as well as teaching 3D printing enthusiasts about fundamental techniques for architecture and design. She shared a bunch of her recent research results and technical methods on a series of posts at MakerBot.com, and continues to innovate and explore new territory including printed wearables, new furniture effects, and jewelry.
She tells the story at her new miniatures store for how she got started experimenting with DIY 3D printing:
I’m a scenic designer in the theatre industry. Building model furniture has always been one of my least favorite activities and I’ve always been frustrated by the cost, shipping time and lack of variety in commercially available products. In the fall of 2011, I started playing with desktop 3D printing as a model building tool. I wanted to develop a line of furniture that encompassed all the typical shapes I need on a recurring basis: armchairs, sofas, side chairs, a variety of tables, etc. I started with my Queen Anne collection, and continue to build on my designs to include more historical periods and styles through a combination of 3D scanning and CAD modeling.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Liz Upton is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s only full-time worker. She runs the community, does the Foundation’s PR and corporate comms, is the person you talk to when you’re tweeting Raspberry Pi, stuffs envelopes with the stickers you buy, works with the press, takes some of the photos and videos you see here, and also wields a soldering iron in emergencies. She shares a surname, two cats and a house with Eben Upton, the Foundation’s Executive Director. Liz is an award-winning freelance writer and a freelance editor. She has a background in educational publishing. She is responsible for all the They Might Be Giants lyrics which mysteriously found their way into Learning and Teaching Scotland’s online material, and bakes a mean flapjack – you can read more about her at her blog (currently dormant, and likely to remain that way until the Foundation can afford to employ some people to take some work off her hands) http://www.gastronomydomine.com.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Growing up I was equally interested in biological sciences and technology, dissecting both backyard lizards and living room electronics. However, in my K-12 experience the biological sciences won my favor due to tangibility and excitement. Math and physics classes consisted of routine memorization and regurgitation of formulae, and a few tangible experiments often based on seemingly irrelevant and archaic technology. My biggest drive is to understand how things work. Following my curiosity about human physiology I attained my doctorate degree in Biomedical Sciences, but a flicker of wonderment about technology always lingered. Combining my passion for kinesthetic learning and the concept of play, I dreamt up a Department of Education at SparkFun Electronics, a company dedicated to the open source movement and sharing ingenuity. I am inspired to promote a system that encourages both educators and students to engage in the learning experience. By exciting students and creating materials that cross grade levels and fields of study our hope is that a greater and more diverse population of people will be interested in playing, hacking, tinkering, and creating.
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
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