QU event discusses role of women in data science

The Kindi Centre for Computing Research (Kindi) at Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) recently hosted the ‘Women in Data Science’ (WiDS) Conference, in commemoration of International Women’s Day.
The event, which is organised in collaboration with Stanford University and sponsored by British Council Qatar, is part of Cyber Women, a Kindi initiative to encourage and empower women towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It aimed to discover new local STEM role models and share inspiring success stories from Qatar, and inspire and empower data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, as well as to support women in this field. It was supported by IEEE Qatar Section, IEEE Women in Engineering, GDG Doha, Women Techmakers and ArabWIC Qatar.
Attendees included CENG dean Dr Khalifa al-Khalifa, Kindi director Dr Noora Fetais, CENG Department of Computer Science and Engineering head Dr Sumaya al-Maadeed, QU College of Business and Economics Professor of Information Systems Dr Karma Sherif, British Council Qatar country director Dr Frank Fitzpatrick, Hamad Bin Khalifa University assistant professor Dr Dena al-Thani, and Sidra Medical and Research Centre paediatric immunologist and allergist Dr Amel Hassan.
The event was an opportunity to bring Arab women together to network, communicate and share the latest news and knowledge about their field, a press statement noted. It was also a great opportunity for women from academia, industry and research to get to know local female leaders in the STEM area. It included four workshops on ‘Introduction to machine and deep learning using Python’, ‘How search engines work’, ‘British Council Qatar Springboard’ and ‘WiDS Stanford Video – cast’.
Dr Fetais said, “Kindi will continue its ongoing efforts to lead and support events and activities that help and push forward women in technology in all sectors, since this will contribute to guaranteeing a fruitful future for females to be able to share passion for technology. I would like to express our gratitude to the event’s sponsors, partners and speakers who are committed to make a great value to the future of women in data science.”
Dr Fitzpatrick said, “The British Council is very glad to be involved with this event celebrating International Women’s Day. We focus strongly on initiatives promoting and celebrating women’s skills and achievements, and to see and hear so many success stories is very encouraging.”
Dr Dena noted, “It is such an honour to be among pioneer women in computing in Qatar in the ‘Women in Data Science’ Conference. This conference represents the Kindi Centre’s intention to support women in data science and computing.”
Dr Sherif added, “Women are well positioned to design machines that can collaborate with humans not replace them; that can take humans to the next level not make them obsolete.”