Women In CS, UCL

Hello!
If you previously signed up for the Cohere x UCL event scheduled to take place this Wednesday on Campus, unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of the train strikes, the AI Centre has had to cancel this event.

We have a number of amazing Cohere leaders in town from across the globe, and they would love the chance to meet and connect with you this week!

Although the notice is short - we welcome you to join us in the Cohere Office today Nov 8 at 5pm for a panel discussion with our leading women in tech (starts at 5:30), and networking with the Cohere team!

If you are able to attend (details below) - please let us know by replying to this email! Food, drinks, and chances to win some Cohere swag and credits!

We hope to see you there!

Cohere Talent Team

You might have notice that we haven't posted for a while - we are sorry about that!

PhD life can get pretty busy sometimes, and with summer in the middle things got a bit more complicated than expected. This is why we have decided to step down a little bit from the 10min chats videos, and to take a proper break so we can focus on our PhD work for a bit. In the meantime we will be thinking of new, and better, ways to deliver the best quality content that we can.

In the mean time, we leave you with this wonderful longer video of the interview we recorded with Ivana Drobnjak back in July, we just couldn't keep it to 10 min. She's an amazing woman, director of the Bachelo's degree Computer Science and Professor of Computational Healthcare. In the video, she explains how she got tenure while also being a mum of three. We talked about overcoming challenges in life, while finding a path that works for you. She speaks to us about how she did it: community, planning, preparation, being proactive. I would really encourage you to watch the video until the end, as she also shares with us different funding options to help women after maternity leave, and other wonderful useful tips.

It's been lovely to share these videos with you.

Lots of love,

Mar and Bea

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL 2022 "You might have notice that we haven't posted for a while - we are sorry about that!PhD life can get pretty busy sometimes, and with summer in the middle thi...

Hello!! Due to covid and other complications we couldn't get any video out in June, we are sorry! 🙏❤️ - but we have a very special one planned for July so watch this space!! Have a wonderful month ☀️🌸🌼

🌞 Hello!! 😍

This month we had with us Poppy Nikou and we talked about why she chose to do a PhD in UCL and her research topic 👩‍💻. We also discussed the pros and cons of working flexible hours during a Phd and how it can lead to cycles of overworking, burn out and underworking; as it is difficult to manage how much extra work we can take in apart from the main PhD project! 😵‍💫 We also chatted about the very important topic of the lack of representation of women in higher positions in research - could it be because of the very unstable stage after the PhD where you don't know if you are going to make it? (a.k.a post docs? ) 🤷‍♀️

I hope you enjoy this very interesting interview. Let us know what you think! ❤️❤️

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL May 2022 Hello!! This month we had with us Poppy Nikou and we talked about why she chose to do a PhD in UCL and her research topic. We also discussed the pros and con...

🥳Last month we celebrated '10 min chats with women in Computer Science' turning a year old (yay!) 🥳 So, we have been planning an in-person event to celebrate and connect with everybody we have interviewed and anyone else who might like to come.

We would love to invite you to join us for an afternoon of cake and drinks on the *7th June, 4:30 - 5:30* in the function space at 90 High Holborn 🍰☕️🥂

Come along and bring your friends! We are super excited to meeting you in person and celebrate together 🥰🤩

🥳🎉🎈 HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY TO ‘10 min chats’!! 🥳🎉🎈

We can’t believe it’s been a year already since we decided to embark on this adventure. For the occasion we decided to make a special video, summarising the year in review and then we interview each other! We discuss the three themes that occurred throughout our interviews over the last year: GUIDANCE, FEMINISM and BALANCE.

Watch the video to find out how Bea would solve the ecological crisis and see Mar do an interpretative dance of her PhD 🤪.

We hope you enjoy! As ever if you would like to participate, or have feedback, please get in touch :)

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL April 2022 🥳🎉🎈 HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY TO ‘10 min chats’!! 🥳🎉🎈We can’t believe it’s been a year already since we decided to embark on this adventure. For the occa...

🥰 Hello everybody! 🥰

This month we talked with Siqi Zhu, a second year undergraduate Computer Science student. She told us about her involvement in Athena Swan, where she has found a community of women around whom she feels heard and supported 💞. We all agreed that cooperation and community are not only features of the contemporary feminist movement to be proud of, but are also fundamental for achieving gender equality 🙌. Siqi told us that she would like to a PhD next, as her studies and involvement in organisations such as Athena Swan makes her smile 😄

We hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think in the comments😊 Don't forget that you can also participate, don't hesitate to send us a DM!📩

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL April 2022 Hello everybody! This month we talked with Siqi Zhu, a second year undergraduate Computer Science student. She told us about her involvement in Athena Swan, ...

Hello lovely humans! Here is the belated interview for February where we spoke to Serena Verdi a PhD student in UCL CS. We had a great discussion about:

- The many ways one can find their path to CS - most of us don't come from a CS background!
- How important (almost the most important!) it is to find a good supervisor for your PhD .
- Confidence confidence confidence!! We find this topic to be repeated across many interviews. It seems to be a key difficulty for women in our department. Serena shares with us how being a woman in CS can sometimes dim our confidence and how it shows up in our work.
- And finally ... 'My humps' 😉

We hope you enjoy!

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL February 2022 - Serena Verdi Hello lovely humans! Here is the belated interview for February where we spoke to Serena Verdi a PhD student in UCL CS. We had a great discussion about: - ...

Hello lovely people 💕 After taking a break for December (because rest is important!), for the first month of 2022 our ten minute chat is with Sophie. Sophie is a PhD student in the centre for medical computing here at UCL. Her work looks at using neural networks to understand healthy brain aging. 🧠 We chatted to her about maintaining good mental health during a PhD, the pros and cons of wfh, and what she does to unwind.

We hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing your feedback ✨🥰

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL January 2022 Hello lovely people 💕 After a month rest (because taking breaks is important!), for the first month of 2022 our ten minute chat is with Sophie. Sophie is a...

Hello one and all! 💃

This month we had the pleasure of doing our first 10 min chat in person(!) with Laasya! 🥳 It was both so much fun and interesting speaking to Laasya, a second year undergraduate in CS at UCL. We discussed everyday sexism in university and how it has evolved since Bea and I started our degrees. We also talked about the importance of including men in the conversation, and Laasya told us about what drew her to CS ✨

We hope you enjoy, let us know what you think in the comments and don't hesitate to contact us if you want to participate:) 🥰

10 minutes with a Woman in Computer Science, UCL November 2021 Hello one and all! This month we had the pleasure of doing our first 10 min chat in person(!) with Laasya! It was both fun and interesting speaking to Laasya...

💥TODAY!💥

UCL Women's Engineering Society is hosting their "Get Women Into STEM" event TODAY!

You will be hearing insights from speakers from many top companies such as EY, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, NHS, TradeWeb, and Schneider Electric! Our event is targeted at all UCLWES members & UCL STEM undergraduates both men and women that are interested.

Registrations are still open so don't miss out on this opportunity if you haven't signed up!

Event Details
Date: November 10 | Time: 7:30-9:30pm
This event is open to everyone!

Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd84vSalG69nCPkG0HXrt90V0AswIYBtcfOq3VOTJ_x9-zgbg/viewform