ISSUE NO. 12 | APRIL 2021
WiE - UC Newsletter IEEE Student Branch of the UC - Women in Engineering Affinity Group
ISSUE NO. 12 | APRIL 2021
IEEE WiE interviews Vânia Gonçalves Vânia Gonçalves is graduated in Informatics and Computer Engineering (FEUP, 2002), has a master in Technology Policy from Cambridge (2007) Judge Business School and a dual PhD on Digital Media, Media and Communication Studies from University of Porto and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2016, Cum Laude). Vânia is also the founder of Geek Girls Portugal, a community and network for women in tech, whose main mission is the involvement, inspiration and empowerment of younger women mainly in scientific and technology areas. 1. You started your career path as an Informatics and Computer Engineering student at FEUC. What sparked your interest in engineering? Did you ever experience any uncertainty that this was the path for you? When I was 15 yo I wanted to pursue French studies and Informatics. Fortunately I pursued the latter in high school, which was a great introduction to programming and databases. Upon finishing high school I had no doubts I wanted to pursue Computer Engineering and was one of the two women in 50 students. 2. After that, you continued on academia pursuing a master's and a dual Ph.D., while you were also working in the industry. Did it add value to your work in the industry? After graduating from FEUP I worked in the industry for about 5 years. While I knew I wanted to enlarge my horizons and enrich my knowledge, I also knew I liked both worlds. Indeed, later on, several topics related to innovation that I worked on during my PhD resonated with the research and products industry was looking at. 3. However, at some point, you decided to quit academia and switch to the “business world”, working currently at Unilabs. What were the main reasons for leaving academia? I quit academia mainly for two reasons. Firstly, for its unstable and precarious working conditions which are a result of long term policies headlining underinvestments in science and research and little focused on the impact of science on society. I also worked in academia in Belgium back in .
2008 and conditions were far different from Portugal and by far more rewarding. Secondly, I also found academia in engineering to be a misogynist environment regarding equal opportunities and built on a fake meritocracy. 4. Now regarding “Geek Girls Portugal”, you founded the community in 2010. What are the main reasons behind the foundation of this community? Back in 2009 I participated in Brussels Girl Geek Dinners, part of the Girl Geek Dinners movement. Back then, those events were always sold out and more than a hundred women working in tech attended. I had never met so many women in tech and urged to create similar networking environments for women here in Portugal. Where one could meet other women in tech and not be afraid to tell her story, find help .
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and resources to change jobs or simply to enrich her knowledge. That is how the community firstly started, as Portugal Girl Geek Dinners, part of the same movement. With time, and with the need to extend activities beyond the mission of the movement, the community became Geek Girls Portugal. 5. Can you tell us a little bit more about the activities of “Geek Girls Portugal”? Can any of us join the community? The community promotes many activities in several cities in order to encourage experience sharing and to strengthen network relationships and careers between women and companies. Many ambassadors voluntarily organise regular meetups and tech workshops in seven cities. Furthermore, we also aim to encourage and inspire young women to choose a career in technology through informative sessions and talks in schools with tech professionals, as well as through hands-on tech workshops. We also target female professionals looking for a career change providing a forum to ask questions and mentoring support. Finally, many tech initiatives are promoted and employment opportunities disseminated through our communication channels.
Anyone can join one of our meetups and join the community through our website.
Never doubt you cannot pass it, make it or achieve it, whatever that is. And if you ever feel undervalued or unheard, be brave to leave in order to make a stand. 7. Regarding your entire work career, what was the most challenging work experience you ever had? Why? Probably having three different jobs at the same time, segmenting my brain and my days according to them and combining all that with my personal life. 8. Do you have any future projects in mind on the behalf of empowerment of women? In these times we are living in, it is hard to make plans. But we surely want to repeat a one-day of workshops to encourage young girls to love tech and science and pursue related studies. We organised such a memorable day in 2018 and are looking forward to repeating that experience.
Finally, as a bit of humor… 9. What apps/software/tools can’t you live without? Definitely Evernote for being my “cooking pot” for endless to do lists, recipes, holiday destinations and book wishlists...
6. What’s the most important advice you could give to a woman starting a career in science/engineering/academia?
Carolina Travassos
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Biography MARTA TEMIDO Marta Alexandra Fartura Braga Temido de Almeida was born on March 2, 1974, in Coimbra, known in Portugal as the city of students. Marta Temido lived in various areas of Portugal throughout her childhood, at the age of 12 she had already lived in the cities of Viseu, Évora and Castelo Branco. This is justified by the careers that her parents had at the time: her father was a public prosecutor and her mother a teacher. SOURCE: ARSLVT.MIN-SAUDE.PT
Marta Temido has an academic and career path enriched in several areas. Currently, at the age of 47, she holds the position of Minister of Health in the XXI Constitutional Government of Portugal. Marta has a doctorate in International Health from the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of the Nova University of Lisbon, a master's degree in Health Management and Economy from the Economics School of the University of Coimbra and a law degree from the Law School of the University of Coimbra. She also has a specialization in Hospital Administration from the National School of Public Health from the Nova University of Lisbon. Throughout her professional path, Marta has held a series of important positions that demonstrate her great experience in the health area, more specifically in hospital management. She was vice director of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of the Nova University of Lisbon and non-executive president of the administrative council of the Hospital da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa before taking place in the XXI government of Portugal. Marta Temido chaired the board of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators, between 2013 and 2015. Between 2016 and 2017, she was president of the board of directors of the Central Administration of the Health System. .
She also exercised administration and management responsibilities in several hospitals of the National Health Service in Portugal, participated in the advisory board of the Group of Activists for Treatment (GAT) and was a professor at several institutions in the health area. Marta is the author and co-author of several scientific publications in the health field. Marta Temido recognized in an interview, in 2019, to the magazine “Notícias Magazine”, that it was with some family influence that she decided to start her academic career with a degree in law, but also because the defense of what is right and is more fair always attracted her in a personal way. However, after doing an internship in the area, Marta found out that she didn’t feel completely fulfilled and later it was with hospital management and administration that she found her true passion and vocation. In that same interview, Marta Temido was asked if she ever felt prejudice against women in politics, and replied: “We are more targeted. A more objective man in the comments is assertive. A woman is at risk of being considered rude or hysterical. This prejudice, this subliminal judgment exists and I feel it.
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I was born in 1974, I grew up with parents who shared functions symmetrically and, therefore, this issue was never a topic. Until you feel discrimination on your skin. Today, I know very well that it still exists.”
Nowadays, as Minister of Health in Portugal, Marta Temido has a preponderant and very important position.
Throughout the current pandemic, she has proven to be someone with all the strength needed to fight and manage this highly critical moment of our lives. It is her dedication and resilience that Marta Temido is known for.
Margarida Gomes
Achievement FRANCES H. ARNOLD
Frances Arnold holds a PhD in chemical engineering and is the Linus Pauling Professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She is also a director of Alphabet. Inc, the world’s fourth-largest technology company by revenue and one of the world’s most valuable companies. In 2018, she became one of the seven women to have ever won the Nobel prize in chemistry with her work with the directed evolution of enzymes. She was also the first and only woman to this date recognized by the Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2011, the highest honor an engineer can receive in the United States. She is among the small number of individuals, and the first woman, elected to all three branches of the National Academies: The National Academy of Engineering, The National Academy of Medicine, and The National Academy of Sciences. Most recently, the Pope made her a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
SOURCE: NOBELPRIZE.ORG
Mariana Fernandes
ISSUE NO. 12 | APRIL 2021
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ISSUE NO. 12 | APRIL 2021
Curiosity of the month... We all know Albert Einstein, one of the best physicists of the 20th century, but have you ever heard of Mileva Marić? She was a physicist, too—and there is evidence that she contributed significantly to his groundbreaking science. Mileva Marić was born in Titel in Serbia in 1875 and was Einstein’s first wife. It all started in the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich (now ETH) where they were both enrolled in the physics-mathematics section. Albert and Mileva became inseparable, spent countless hours studying together, fell in love, married and had three sons.
SOURCE: BLOGS.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM
Unfortunately, not all love stories have a happy ending. In 1912, their marriage collapsed when Einstein started an affair with his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal. Einstein wanted the divorce but Mileva was adamantly against it. After several attempts in 1919, she agreed to divorce, with a clause stating: if Albert ever received the Nobel Prize, she would get the money. There’s no hard evidence that Mileva collaborated in a meaningful way to Einstein’s research but, as agreed when Einstein won the Nobel Prize, he dumped all his prize money to his first wife, Mileva Marić.
Marta Pais
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