Successful ChileWiC 2022 gathering

December, 2022.- Consolidating the relevance of role models and collaboration within the community of women working in computing, computer science and other STEM fields, the tenth Chile Women in Computing (ChileWiC) gathering was held with a large turnout and great enthusiasm from participants, at the San Joaquín campus of Pontificia Universidad Católica.

“We are very happy to have been able to meet again at ChileWiC. This is the tenth gathering, we have been growing and we feel that today we are in a place that was unexpected at our beginnings, with a community that is very interested and eager to participate, to join in and to be active promoters of change,” said Valeria Herskovic, faculty member of the Department of Computer Science of Pontificia Universidad Católica and one of the organizers of the event.

At the event, the student competition was held for the first time in two tracks: individual and pairs, which represents an important step forward for the community, as for the first time there were groups of women presenting their work in the field.

Among the talks, the Keynote by Bárbara Poblete, one of the founders of ChileWiC, IMFD Researcher, faculty member at DCC U. Chile, and currently working at Amazon, was presented, in which she shared her experience and the positive changes for women that have taken place in the field since she began working in this sector. Katherine Vergara, the winner of the Abie Award Student of Vision 2022, also gave a presentation.

The panels featured various initiatives that seek to empower, give visibility to and raise awareness of the work of women in STEM, such as Niñas Pro with Carolina Silva; Inspiring Girls Chile, with Macarena Salosny; Technovation Girls Chile, with María Paz Retamales; and Tremendas, with Micaela Riquelme.

The winners of the competition, individual and pairs, were Daniela Concha, Carla Gallardo and Ximena Yovaniniz, all students from the UC Department of Computer Science.

 

At the closing of the event, the relevance of active inclusion and what women can do to foster diversity in this field were discussed, together with DCC U. Chile faculty member Jocelyn Simmonds and Pía Guerra, from the National Human Rights Institute. The various testimonies from participants, sharing similar stories, resonated throughout the auditorium, creating an atmosphere of camaraderie and consolidating the community and collaboration.

“Along with the annual event, we would like an active community to be created that lasts throughout the year. We are interested in giving more visibility to women and dissidents who are part of computing and technology, because we know that role models are important for new generations,” highlighted Claudia López, organizer and faculty member of the Department of Informatics of Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María.

The Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD) actively participates in promoting the inclusion of women and diversity in STEM fields. IMFD’s interdisciplinary work has shown the invaluable contribution that comes from having different perspectives in scientific research work. This is why, for IMFD, having and promoting diversity in our teams is part of the institute’s objectives.

In Chile, only 25% of those who enroll in science, technology, engineering and mathematics degree programs are women, and women graduates in these fields make up only 7%. This is also reflected in the field of scientific research: of the total number of researchers in the country, 35% are women, according to the Gender Radiography study by the Ministry of Science. The study, which analyzes the gender gap in academia and research, presented by Observa of the Ministry of Science in 2021, also reveals the salary difference in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), reaching a 16% gap between men and women.