The UC3M celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science
11th February 2022
2/7/22
The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) joins the celebration events for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2022 held on 11th of February by organising different activities, such as a Gymkhana about data science, an interactive online theatre show about the documentary “El enigma Agustina”, a session about cybersecurity with an educational card game and a programme of technological workshops.
An online Gymkhana about data science, dedicated to Mary Eleanor Spear (a data visualisation instructor), aimed at high school students within the STEM for Girls UC3M Programme, will take place at 11am on the 11th of February. The aim of this activity is to develop students’ critical thinking skills, to promote scientific methods and to demonstrate the importance of analysing and interpreting data in everyday life.
The Ágora Telefónica-UC3M in Women and Technology: “A human vision to break up stereotypes” will also take place on the 11th of February at 1pm. This activity will take place in a hybrid format (both on-site and online) at the University’s School of Engineering and will be open to the public. There will be three spaces for discussion and analysis at this event: one dedicated to women’s access to careers related to IT; another that focuses on inspiring projects and ideas from female lecturers and students within this field; and a third that will showcase technology projects that focus on people and their needs.
The STEM for Girls technological workshops will take place on the same day at 6pm. These workshops are aimed at girls and young people in their 4th year of high school, A-Level students and those undertaking training courses. It is about bringing together research work carried out in different fields at the University: 3D organ bioprinting, adhesives and paints materials science, cryptography and cybersecurity, app development and augmented reality, the operation of mobile batteries, electrical engineering and photovoltaic solar energy, and telecommunications in the transmission of information.
Other activities during the week
At 11am on Tuesday 8th February, an activity for centres of secondary education about “El Enigma Agustina”, a film that focuses on a female scientist who lived in Spain in the first third of the 20th century, will take place in the UC3M’s Auditorium on the Leganés Campus. This event, which will be attended by the actress who played the protagonist, the director and actor in the documentary, covers topics such as relativity, quantum mechanics and cosmology, as well as some basic ideas about the history of science.
On Wednesday 9th February, a session will be held at 10:30am for high schools in which participants can learn about cryptography using the Crypto Go game. Basic cybersecurity concepts will be presented in a fun way and the usefulness of symmetric cryptography for understanding the risks involved in surfing the internet without security will be explained. The activity will highlight the contribution of different female scientists to this field of computer science.
A Female Science and Technology event will take place on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th February at the UC3M’s Science Park. This initiative has been organised by the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain. A series of workshops focusing on improving four of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for our environment and a video competition will take place during these days. In total, 240 female high school students from Leganés are expected to take part in the programme, thanks to the collaboration of the Leganés Town Council.
