Girls Geek Dinners details for the 29th of April are coming together; full details are on our Girlgeekdinners page. The first speaker announcement is from Anna Wykes on Data Engineering for Data Scientists.
Anna is a veteran software & data engineer, with over 15 years of experience. She’s tackled projects from real-time analytics with Scala & Kafka, building out Data Lakes with spark and applying engineering to Data Science. Anna is a senior consultant with Advancing Analytics, helping shape & evolve their data engineering practice. She has a real passion for data and strives to bring the worlds of Software Development and Data Science closer together. Other areas of interest include UX, Agile methodologies, and helping to organize/run local Code Clubs
Subject
A Data Engineer should be Data Scientist’s best friend, but sometimes the 2 roles get mixed up, or pitched against each other. In this session, Anna explores the core responsibilities of a Data Engineer and how proficient Data Engineering can actually make your Data Science projects more fun. We’ll look at what tools and techniques a Data Engineer uses and why they use them. We’ll also look into a history of the techniques/technologies and how they have evolved (and why)
Cyber security needn’t be a daunting challenge for small business owners. Following the five quick and easy steps outlined in the guide below could save time, money and even your business’ reputation. This guide can’t guarantee protection from all types of cyber attack, but the steps outlined below can significantly reduce the chances of your business becoming a victim of cyber crime.
Want some positive news?
We are finding all the ‘who to hate now’ conversation slightly overwhelming as we’re sure you are too. So here’s the latest news from the positive news site:
Britain set a green energy record
Bee-friendly face masks launched
Seeds were sown for a community farm in Manchester
It also gave us an excuse to add a nice bee pic to this page – what’s not to love?
Ahh – its spring, the suns out and we get to eat chocolate, what a great time of year. There’s not too many events on this week but we’ll share a couple of things we’ve recently spotted.
We spotted this from our friends at the UKESF (UK Electronics Skills Foundation) and although there is a cost they are also open to applications from those that can’t afford it. We love the work that the UKESF are doing and know that we have a future issue with a lack of electronics engineers coming through the system.
Content and delivery for this online course for current Year 12 (S6 Scotland, Year 13 NI) is by UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), in conjunction with Aston University and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Course session timings: 13 – 15 July 2021. Each day: 9:30 – 13:30 hrs. There will also be a session about careers – timings tbc.
Are you one of those people who is considered to be a real, committed Trekkie? Did you spend your youth trying to Vulcan Nerve Pinch those problems away? Is there a regulation StarFleet uniform in the closet and is speaking Klingon as a second language a lifelong pursuit?
Then it’s time to get that uniform on and prepare to celebrate First Contact! Star Trek First Contact Day is celebrated by fans everywhere. Even those people who don’t know Zefram Cochrane from Zac Efron are still absolutely welcome to join in!
Looks like there’s a new tech magazine just been launched which is actually covering the South West. It would be great to actually have a bit more Tech content and less about money – and more about the issues around diversity in the industry since we spotted that we are the worst area in the UK for gender diversity in the TechNation report recently. We’re on a lets wait and see for now but possibly worth knowing its out there.
I think there may be some new dictionary additions this year 📚 It’s getting busy with zoom but we are starting to settle into this online life, it shouldn’t have been too hard given the nature of the group!
Workshop Wednesday (and F3F)
Currently, we are available for support online in place of our Free Three Fridays (F3F) & Workshop Wednesdays for zoom catch-ups. Sign up on our meetup here or mail us on info@wthub.org for details.
Workshop Wednesday
The Workshop Wednesdays are coming together – currently, we are lining up possible workshops and are currently speaking to potential speakers. If anyone fancies running a workshop then please get in touch and we can work it into the agenda. The best time to discuss it would beat this weeks zoom meeting Workshop Wednesdays by Women’s Tech Hub ~ Bristol
CV workshop and job hunting
Linkedin profile
Cybersecurity- subject to speaker
BA workshops by Sara Price
System thinking – subject to speaker
Python beginners
Webdev101
‘Intro to’ Sessions
Bristol College initiative
We are pleased to announce the new partnership between NW digital education provider & apprenticeship specialist Code Nation and City of Bristol College this week – a move which will expand the provision of Software Development courses and apprenticeships in the South West, as well as Code Nation continuing their work in Manchester.
User Testing opportunity
We are looking for up to 10 IT professionals across a range of career stages to help with some user testing. Sessions will last no longer than an hour and will take place between the 11th – 22nd May. We’ll confirm our selection by Friday 8th May, and successful participants will be rewarded with £30 Amazon vouchers. If you’re interested in getting involved, sign up here: https://hubs.ly/H0q0dZn0.
For a bit of extra money it may be worth looking at joining up at peopleforresearch as they regularly advertise user research or website testing for amazon vouchers or money – and its not like some of you are strapped for time (although I know alot of us are still very busy!)
Lisa Forte – has been a great supporter of WTHub. She is a brilliant international speaker of some repute, a brilliant trainer of Cyber and many things in between. She put a call out some weeks ago to look for a volunteer force to help on all things cyber to support healthcare services during this pandemic. They are now live and going out internationally to support so check them out here and feel free to put the word out. Lisa and the team – we would like to say THANK YOU!
CV19 is a volunteer organisation setup to provide Cyber support for those in need. This was setup following the outbreak of COVID19 (Corona Virus) across the world. Our focus is on Prevent and Response services to support healthcare services in the UK and Europe on a voluntary basis. Here you will find a wealth of information regarding how we and our volunteers can help in the fields of cyber security, network security, internet security, information security and computer security. If you are a healthcare provider in need of assistance please use our service request form. If you wish to volunteer please see both our volunteers page and also visit our LinkedIn group and LinkedIn page.
CV19 Cyber Volunteers
Anyone fancy visiting Leeds?
Leeds are hosting their Digital festival virtually – which means that we all get to visit – looks like there’s a plus to this shutdown when it comes to virtual festivals. @leedsdigifest is massive and has some great workshops – we’ve listed them, with links, below but the main site details are here.
Workshop Wednesday (and F3F)
Currently, we are available for support online in place of our Free Three Fridays (F3F) & Workshop Wednesdays for zoom catch-ups. Sign up on our meetup here or mail us on info@wthub.org for details.
For Workshop Wednesdays we are looking for members to pop along and tell us what they are looking for – we are currently discussing continuing the training sessions with a social time and then a workshop. You can therefore pop in and out for whichever part you will be interested in, the next WW will be discussing what we will be offering for these – and we would love your input to check that we are supplying what you want to support your learning.
Stuff we spotted and thought we would pass on
Last week we were looking at upskilling into electronics and to be fair it was difficult to find great resources online. Interestingly the very next day we spotted on the UKESF blog that the open university is offering up a free course on it so if you want an introduction into electronics then take a look here.
Other upskilling resources can all be found on our training page.
The AI summit is offering us 25% discount and will send on all the presentations as its US-based – mail us on info@wthub.org for the discount code
Current service offer – Bristol Mental Health Employment Service
We support people who need support with their mental health and wellbeing, are facing problems at work or searching for employment. This can be through brief interventions, or over a longer period – usually 4 months of fortnightly support. We continue to offer employment support and take referrals for this.
Our landline and email address are still the best ways to contact us: 0117 9232741 enquiry.bmhemployment@richmondfellowship.org.uk. During this unprecedented health crisis we are relaxing our criteria to include anyone who has a wellbeing support need – this can include their employment situation, or it can be about coping with isolation, anxiety, concern for others or anything people might need to talk about. As experienced mental health professionals we can offer a listening ear and provide any information we have, as well as signposting to sources of support and information we are aware of. We are also happy to hear from those who have a mental health support need and only wish to volunteer, rather than seek paid work in the current period. We understand that there is an increased need for volunteers and many people want to help.
SWCTN
We are continuing our Covid 19 business support sessions! Offering the most up to date, and key information in this ever-changing time, SWCTN have teamed up with legal firm TLT, and accountants Saffery, to give our network some added support. With this expert help our aim is to cut through the noise and ever increasing mountain of information facing businesses and freelancers, to give them the guidance that they need to continue doing what they do best.
These sessions will cover the below areas:
Legal Services
Intellectual Property
Accountancy Services
Access to Finance Alongside assisting participants in accessing additional funds, which we understand to be of upmost importance in the current climate.
Paper Airplanes is a nonprofit organization that provides free, one-on-one language and skills learning for individuals whose lives and education have been interrupted due to conflict. Their Women in Tech program works with women ages 18 – 35 who speak advanced English, have little to no coding experience, but are interested in learning coding. The program seeks to equip women with basic skills in coding languages such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. Each student is matched with an instructor and a personal mentor, who meets with her once a week to help with assignments and answer questions! They are currently looking for instructors to deliver the content for our Women in Tech program. They are especially looking for individuals with experience in the coding languages above. They prefer candidates who also have previous experience teaching coding, and can speak some Arabic – but these aren’t requirements! This is a volunteering position, with an expected time commitment of 4 – 6 hours per week. Importantly, they are looking for people who are passionate about providing educational opportunities for women and refugees.The application for their summer session is now open. It will run from June 21st until August 29th. If you are interested, have a look here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RgfeSbWf81r0_amltfn50iiJuXBlHaz94iYvYl0MTcQ/viewform?edit_requested=true
