women and girls in science, technology, engineering + math :: stemming (.org)

I just attended an EPA user’s conference for a solid waste management program called RCRA. The EPA has system called RCRAInfo, which is where states submit the pertinent data for consumption by a wide variety of individuals.

During one of the panel discussions I was struck by how many women there are working on the technical side of things for this application. There were fifteen individuals introduced as members of the team doing the actual work on the software. Ten of them were women (and, because women ARE good at math, I don’t need to tell you how many men that (read more...)

Here in Boston, it’s one of the first spring-like days: hooray! Here are some links for your weekend enjoyment:

• Brown University’s Artemis Program for 9th grade girls interested in science and tech is seeking funding.

• The Free Software Foundation is also seeking donations to their Women’s Travel Fund to help get more women to this year’s LibrePlanet conference in Cambridge

• The National Center for Women & Information Technology is offering an award for high school girls interested in computing.

• 15 Female Scientists Who Changed the World — who else would you include?

• Rebecca Skloot talks

There is a lovely homage to the history of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage created by Syndney Padua. It is a comic strip, very entertaining and pretty well researched. I believe it was created for Ada Lovelace day last year. Enjoy! http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/

This quarter’s issue of Bitch Magazine had an interesting article about Facebook and how we (or perhaps some of us?) construct our lives on it in order to impress our former classmates, work friends, and what-have-you, as part of the 21st century ‘keeping up with the Johnsons’ sort of rigmarole. For me, on Facebook at least, that’s fairly true. My Facebook is my “public face” on the internet – it’s the one that’s tied to my real name, for one thing, and it’s one of the few sites online that I don’t tie to my Livejournal, where, for the (read more...)

• Wired reviews Secret Ada, an iPhone/iPod app that teaches kids basic cryptography and unlocks profiles of women scientists at each level
• Under the Microscope profiles several notable black women scientists and inventors
• Taralyn Tan writes about What Women (in Science) Want
• The Women in Science Symposium 2010: Building an Identity is coming up in Chicago this April
• Also in April, the New York City Girls Computer Science and Engineering Colloquium is coming up, for girls in grades 9 and 10
• Here are some ways to get involved in Ada Lovelace Day next month

You can now add comments to other users’ profiles that will be publicly displayed (kind of like Facebook’s “Wall”) — in addition to sending users private messages or networking/mentoring/menteeing requests.

In almost all areas of STEM, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to learn a little coding at some point to crunch your fruit fly data or make your robot go. Even if it’s not totally necessary for your projects, it’s often good to know some programming anyway — it’ll give you an advantage in your lab or office, it’s a great skill that can get you plenty of jobs on its own, and more importantly, it’s fun to learn and do.

Think you might want to learn programming, but don’t know where to start? Here are some great, (mostly) (read more...)

My advice to anyone who wants to get a job in pharmaceutical research is to get experience in school. Do a co-op or an internship! Or work in one of your professor’s labs. In 2006, when I graduated it was tough to get a job. I can’t imagine how hard it is now. But the one thing they look for is EXPERIENCE. Something, anything. Yes, we all took classes that has some experience but it’s not applied experience. Lab experience is what they are looking for.

I know a few friends who didn’t want to delay their graduation because of taking (read more...)