Panel: Women in digital and robotics: A must-have

Friday, 15 November, 10:30-12:00, Technical University of Poznan

Participation at the event is free, no prior registration is required. The workshop is in English.

 In Europe, there are four times more men than women with ICT-related studies, and the share of men working in the digital sector is over three times greater than women’s share (source). The panel will investigate how:

• women can be more involved in product development,
• to recruit more women and engage them in high-level decision making in senior leadership levels,
• public authorities and educators can encourage girls to take STEM education using creative and innovative technologies,

in order to reduce the gender-gap in digital.

The panel aims to draw a set of recommendations for building a digital and technological future in which women have a strong presence and involvement.

MODERATOR:

Ana Maria Stancu (Bucharest Promo Robots, Romania) – started the NGO E-Civis in 2009 with the goal of promoting human rights and democratic values in Romania and around the world with the help of new technologies. She designed two online video games to teach teenagers about the activity of the Romanian Parliament, started RoboHub – a space where she provides robotics and programming classes for vulnerable groups and she is now teaching a course – Civic Education 4.0 – that helps children understand the role of local and public institutions with the help of programmable robots. Besides her NGO activity, Ana-Maria founded in 2017 the first Romanian company for humanoid and service robots, Bucharest Promo Robots. Until this year, the company has been working on renting, selling and integrating service robots, and currently they are working for a prototype for a multinational client. In 2019 Ana-Maria coordinated in Romania the European Robotics Forum 2019 and became a Board Member of euRobotics.

SPEAKERS:

Marina Bill (ABB, Sweden / Switzerland) is the Global Head of Marketing and Sales for ABB’s Robotics and Discrete Automation business. She joined ABB in September 1997. Since then she has held several management positions across ABB, from 2013 to 2015 she was the Product Group Manager for ABB Power Generation Automation Products business line, from 2016 to 2018 she was the Global Marketing and Sales Manager for the ABB Grid Automation business line within the ABB Power Grids business. Other positions in her career include Global Project Excellence Manager for ABB Power Systems, business line Marketing Manager, and Regional Sales Manager for ABB Net-work Management in Mannheim Germany. Marina Bill holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering and management, specialized in Thermodynamics from the Royal institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. She is also a graduate from the Senior Leadership Development Program from the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Alicja Laskowska (PSNC, Poland) is a senior IT specialist and software analyst at Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center. She received M.Sc. degree in computer science from Poznan University of Technology and graduated from Top 500 Innovators Program at Haas School of Business at Berkeley University in California, USA. Her research expertise and interests include requirements and software engineering, interoperability, usability and smart cities. She has actively cooperated in several national and European projects. From 2017 focuses on digital transformation solutions for smart cities and industry, supporting HPC4Poland Digital Innovation Hub.

Beatrice Masala (Scuola di Robotica, Italy) is an educator. After her graduation in Multimedia Art she devoted her interest into the field of equality, diversity and social inclusion. She then specialized in the educational field with an interest in developing tools to reduce gender education gap. She currently works inside and outside the school world, introducing children and schoolteachers to the use of creative and innovative technologies.

Erma Mulabdic (IT Girls, Bosnia Herzegovina) is a co-founder and team member of IT Girls Initiative – an initiative supported by the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) aimed at increasing participation of girls and women in ICT and STEM. She holds master’s degrees in human rights and European Studies. Erma has more than 8 years of experience in the women’s rights movement in BiH, child protection with UNICEF, and is currently working with UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina on ending violence against women. Her other focus is on youth issues and innovation. Erma is also an author of several articles on the rights of female domestic workers and migrant workers.

Pia Engström (City of Riihimäki, Finland) is working as a Development Manager in the city of Riihimäki, Finland. In Riihimäki all children study robotics from day care up to high school. Pia is pedagogical qualified teacher, Master of Political Sciences and Social Counsellor. Previously she has worked in the social and health care industry and circular economy. At the moment Pia is building up the R&D&I center - Robotics Campus Riihimäki - with her colleagues.