IMFD will be part of ChileWiC 2023, the most important event for women in computing in the country.

October, 2023. "Around the world, women are not keeping pace when it comes to driving the creation of new technologies that will define their lives. This is not good for women, nor is it good for the world. Women must take their rightful place at the table, creating the technology of the future."

This is the vision that drove Anita Borg, a computer scientist from the United States, a pioneer in the 1980s and 1990s in the design of operating systems and electronic communication platforms, who was until her death in 2003 a tireless fighter for increasing the participation of women in computing. 

It is precisely because of her key role and influence in the fight for gender equity in STEM that the Chilean Women in Computing Meeting (ChileWiC 2023) will honor Anita Borg in its eleventh version, to be held in December at the University of Santiago de Chile. 

The event is supported by the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data (IMFD) and this year one of the main speakers will be IMFD researcher Jocelyn Dunstan Escudero, an academic from the Dept. of Computer Science and the Institute of Mathematical and Computational Engineering, both at the Catholic University.

"Ahttps://www.uc.cl/nita Borg's vision has been an inspiration for many, many women in computing and programming. Early in her career she realized the scarce presence of women in this area and began to work actively to reverse this scenario: she dreamed that, by 2020, women would represent 50% in the world of computing. There is still a long way to go, but she created networks and initiatives that exist to this day and are vital to promote the participation of women in STEM", says Valeria Herskovic, from the Department of Computer Science at U. Católica and co-chair of ChileWiC.  

For Claudia Lopez, from Civil Engineering in Computer Science at U. Técnica Federico Santa María and co-chair of ChileWiC, "another element that makes Anita Borg a very powerful figure is her vision of participation in computing and technology not only as a gender equity issue, but also as a way for women around the world to access a better quality of life. She always affirmed that technology can contribute to solve more problems in our society when there are more women thinking about it and building it". 

XI ChileWiC 2023 will be held on Friday, December 1 at the University of Santiago de Chile, in the Auditorium Ingeniero Ramón Escobar Inostroza, located in the Teaching Innovation Rooms Building (Avda. Víctor Jara N°3524, Estación Central, Estación Central subway station).

As every year, it will feature a competition segment for students, plus presentations and forums with academics, professionals and innovators in the field. ChileWiC is organized by academics from Universidad Católica, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Los Andes. They are supported by NIC Chile, the Institute of Complex Engineering Systems (ISCI), the National Center for Artificial Intelligence (Cenia) and the Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data (IMFD).

Registrations to participate in the student competition are available at this link.

Registration to participate in the meeting is available at this link.