Computer Science News

Larissa Suzuki to be a Finalist at the 2018 WISE Awards

We are delighted that an alumna of the Department, Larissa Suzuki, has been named as a finalist at the WISE Awards 2018. Larissa, whose work has pioneered smart cities and data infrastructures to address poverty, safety, transportation and infrastructure issues, has been nominated as one of three finalists for the “WISE Innovation Award”, generously sponsored by BAM Nuttall.

The WISE campaign seeks to enable and energise people in business, industry and education to increase the participation, contribution and success of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Working together with partners in the industrial, public and third sectors, WISE aims to boost the talent pool from classroom to boardroom and drive economic growth.

The WISE Awards is an annual event to celebrate the outstanding achievements of inspiring organisations and individuals actively addressing the core concerns of WISE: promoting STEM to girls and women.

Larissa’s outstanding work towards increasing the representation of women in Computer Science has guaranteed her nomination for the WISE Innovation Award. While UK female inventorship has risen by 16% in the last 10 years, the proportion of female inventors remains at just 7.3%. The WISE Innovation Award will recognise a female inventor sparking inspiration for other women innovate in any STEM business, start-up, academic setting or non-profit organisation, large or small. The esteemed judging panel will be looking for innovation to inspire other women to succeed in STEM.

Larissa is an honorary research associate at UCL, where she completed her PhD in Computer Science in 2015, in collaboration with Imperial College Business School. Last year, she received the IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award for her commitment to promoting Women in STEM. “UCL sets a great example to women in STEM subjects; it is one of the most respectful institutions in the world, and the first in England to admit women on equal terms with men. I am a very proud UCL alumna.”

Larissa agreed that it is harder to be what you cannot see: “When studying my BSc in Computer Science, I learned about all the men in tech but I had never heard of Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer or Hedy Lamarr, the inventor of frequency hopping technologies. Women can often be put off technical degrees, not because they do not have the cognitive ability but because there are so few role models. We must make them visible to inspire the generations to come - both girls and boys alike.”

 

Read Larissa’s full biography on her website.

Watch Larissa’s TEDx talk on Smart Cities here.

Read more about the WISE campaign here.

 

 


Posted 31 Aug 18 10:40
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