Diversity Archives | Women's Tech Hub~Bristol

25th July 202125th July 2021

Summer school

Apologies for the change of heart from Weston College for last weeks event – it turns out that they have got some even better news and free boot camps in the offing, so we’ll reschedule for them to share with us in September.

Here are some other initiatives that may be worth a look over the summer:

For under 18’s

UKESF Insight Into Electronics

‘Insight Into Electronics’ is an exciting new initiative from the UKESF. It is a self-paced, interactive and FREE course that provides young people with a hands-on introduction to microcontrollers, Electronics and programming. A collaboration between the UKESF and Aston University, the course is specifically designed for UK-based sixth formers and KS4 pupils (S3 in Scotland) interested in Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science. It will provide a fascinating insight into these technologies, for those thinking about studying these subjects at college or university.

Welcome to Future Legacy Project!

Future Legacy Projects is an exciting creative programme supporting young women to make a difference in the world by creating their own digital social action project.

Our aim is to support our participants to learn about social action projects whilst developing their STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Future Legacy Project brings together girls from London and Bristol to work on big ideas to create positive change.

During the programme the participants learn new skills such as web development, photography, video, animation and product design. We also work with brilliant mentors and have many opportunities to meet inspirational professional women.

and for the adults …

Come and collide with Bath Digital Festival

Our open call for events and speakers is now live – click the Get Involved button

The theme this year is collision. After over a year in isolation we want to showcase the fantastic innovations and initiatives created when industries and people come together. If you’ve got something interesting and exciting to share or something creative to show off, we want to hear from you!

UPSKILL OR UPGRADE YOUR CAREER with codefirstgirls

Our Career Switcher courses will give you the skills and confidence you need to supercharge your career in tech.

We have a range of women – from tech returners, to mums, to career changers, or those simply wanting to upskill – take part in our Career Switcher courses.

We ofter three learning areas across Web Dev, Python & Apps, and Data & SQL to get you started (with more in the pipeline!

18th July 202118th July 2021

Summer Break .. just one last thing ..

With Term coming to a close we are finishing off with one final event relating to last weeks newsletter:

Girl Geek Dinners presents Weston College courses

Weston College have funding to deliver a series of 12weeks skills bootcamps in Cloud services and Cloud Data Engineering which is free to independent learners. Running 2 sets from September and January and hopefully with the guaranteed interview.
They also have loads of engineering and tech courses available which they will present (part of the WEIoT) and are presenting and discussing what the option are on the final GGD events of the year this coming Thursday

Introducing the Data Ethics Club (hosted by the Jean Golding institute)

Data Ethics Club is a “journal” club about doing data science ethically. “Journal” because they will also read blog posts, (parts of) books, or watch videos.

The club is open to all and they are lucky to have attendees from around the world and with diverse expertise, from practising lawyers to data analysts in the UK National Health Service, to social scientists, to Research Software Engineers in the USA. Everyone is welcome to come and discuss Data Science and Ethics with us: and they look forward to learning from your perspective.

They send out regular reminders of our meetings to our mailing list, so joining it is the best way to regularly hear about our upcoming meetings.

11th July 202111th July 2021

What exactly is the WEIoT?

We’ve been in discussion with Weston college about the IoT or rather the WEIoT(and yes we got confused too by the Acronym) so we thought it’s about time to discuss it with you all so here it is:

The West of England Institute of Technology (WEIoT) is industry, education and research collaborating to design and deliver flexible, higher-level technical learning to equip people with the skills to fully participate in, and contribute to, economic growth driven by digital innovation and emerging technologies.
The WEIoT has been designed to support businesses across the region to thrive and embrace the opportunities of the digitalisation of the economy. We are one of only 12 national Institutes of Technology licenced by the Department for Education to support local employers develop higher-level skills and train employees for the jobs of tomorrow.

As mentioned, there are a few colleges and institutions involved and among them locally are Weston college and UWE both of whom we are closely involved as well as Bath Gloucestershire and Yeovil colleges. Therefore we will be bringing you some information of what the local members are offering in terms of courses and reskilling over this year. We’ll start with Weston College:

Weston College

Weston College is the regional Apprenticeship Training Provider of the Year, for three years in a row and works with over 2,000 apprentices across the South West, offering 50+ training programs designed by industry. They are always looking for new partnerships to support their apprenticeships so if you want to get involved with them so check out the courses on offer on their tech skills webpage. There’s also some level 3 training for free (if you do not yet have a level 3 qualification and are over 19!) – there’s even a cyber course in there, check it out here.

If you want to get a degree whilst learning then check out the level 6 options here it includes options as a BSc in applied computing, Digital and technical solutions, multiple engineering degree options, games and animation, graphic design .. in fact just take a look..

UX Bristol July the 16th

UXBristol is back again in July. We are offering a day of online talks, streamed completely free on the UXBristol YouTube channel. We now have a provisional schedule.

Wanted to share the details of our Women in Security: Mind the Gap event taking place Wednesday 14^th July 1-2pm with the focus of taking career risks and embracing change.

The content is relevant to anyone, irrespective of their position within security, and we most certainly welcome ‘manbassadors’ too as we understand that they have a huge role to play in lessening the gender gap that still exists. Sure you’ll agree that we have some fantastic panellists lined up too including Andy, CISO at the FCA.

So please feel free to attend yourself and share with your colleagues and within your communities; we would love to have you there. The more the merrier!

Userlab paid research opportunity

We’ve had a request in from Userlab around health which sounds pretty interesting as they are looking for quite specialised.

We’re a small user research company in the UK and we’re currently working on a discovery research study for the HRA (Health Research Authority) who are part of the NHS. We want to understand the needs of specific user groups to help the HRA make their services more accessible and user-friendly to non-clinical users, essentially.

People we’d like to speak to as part of the research are:

1. Startup founders/co-founders/SME leads in the health/med-tech space
2. Postgrad students in Computer Science/Ai/Bioinformatics who are working with/on healthcare data
3. Professionals working in digital healthcare e.g. Healthcare Technologists, Research/AI Leads, Software Engineers/Developers, Bioinformaticians

OHT Bristol Summer Social is on the 14th of July

As the summer is rolling on in full bloom, OHT Bristol is cordially inviting our local One Health Techies for an in-person social on 14th July! This is an opportunity to network and exchange ideas without constraints of a set topic and just have a little bit of fun in the centre of Bristol!

4th July 20214th July 2021

Finding Ada conference speakers announced

We’re tired and getting ready for our summer break – hence the kitten picture, that’s our tired face! There are still some things coming up that look interesting though…

Finding Ada Conference 2021 – 20th – 22nd of July

The Finding Ada Conference is a fully online global conference for women in STEM and advocates for gender equality.

They have a variety of talks with live Q&As, interviews and panel discussions scheduled over three days, so whether you are a woman in STEM who wants to develop her career, a business leader or HR exec, an educator or parent, or an advocate or community organiser, as they are running sessions for you.

Themes

They have three themes for the day:

Career development: Career advice; professional skills; personal growth.
Policy and advocacy: Talent acquisition, retention and promotion; business policy, processes and standards; advocacy strategies.
Widening participation: Increasing girls’ interest in STEM; increasing diversity; supporting diverse communities.

Tickets

With so many women negatively affected by COVID-19, we decided to make tickets free. We offer honoraria to all our speakers, so please do consider making a donation in support of both our speakers and the wider FindingAda.com project via GoFundMe. Get your tickets here

KWMC awarded grant from the Culture Recovery Fund

Support from the Culture Recovery fund will enable them to make urgent repairs to KWMC and adapt their spaces so they can manage social distancing and safely welcome people back to use their facilities and meet others.

It will also help them cover unavoidable losses of income that were incurred while their buildings were closed, and enable them to develop programmes to support artists, many of whom have faced reductions in their work and income during the last year.

Biotech company wins Bristol’s Tech-Xpo 2021

A team of scientists at the University of West England in Bristol are developing technology that could allow businesses and organisations to detect viruses including Covid-19 on surfaces as the UK transitions out of lockdown.

The Safe Surface Sensor uses AI technology to determine whether a location has been properly sanitised and warn people if it detects a virus or bacteria in the area.

The sensors are placed in any public area where the transmission may occur before the sanitation process.

The area is then sanitised, ideally using a ‘fogging’ method, before a mobile app instantaneously scans the sensors and receives a result on the presence of any contamination.

27th June 2021

Stemmetes A – Z list and £50 Alan Turing

Ever been asked who your top engineering role model is and struggled to think of any that you know? Here’s a list from Stemettes to help you find some for the next time you are asked on instagram.

Talking about Stemettes they are running the Future Legacy Projects which is an exciting creative programme supporting young women to make a difference in the world by creating their own digital social action project. They are working alongside Knowle west and are currently searching for young girls aged 16 – 18 to join their 2021 retreat – check it out here.

New £50 note featuring Alan Turing enters circulation

How cool is that!? The note features and celebrates the work of Alan Turing, educated in Sherborne, Dorset, who helped accelerate Allied efforts to read German Naval messages enciphered with the Enigma machine, and so shortening World War Two and saving lives.

He was also pivotal in the development of early computers, first at the National Physical Laboratory and later at the University of Manchester. The choice to place him on the note is also designed to promote diversity.

The WeF have just published some AI principles

the World Economic Forum has published 9 ethical AI principles for organizations to follow: Organizations around the globe are becoming more aware of the risks artificial intelligence (AI) may pose, including bias and potential job loss due to automation. At the same time, AI is providing many tangible benefits for organizations and society. You can also check out the ODI’s Data Ethics Canvas which runs in a similar vein here.

International Asteroid Day

Just thought it made for a nice Feature pic, but also it’s pretty cool that they have an international day to celebrate them – on the 30th of June