Tagged Mary Somerville

Ada Lovelace Day 2021

On Tuesday 12th October 2021, the University’s Information Services team are celebrating Ada Lovelace Day 2021 which is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

This year #ALD2021 will have fun & impactful Wikipedia editing activities and evening networking events. After a year like no other, it is even more important that we come together online and in-person (if we can) to celebrate and support one another this year.

Who was Ada Lovelace? 7 facts you need to know.

Programme overview

There are two events at our Science and Engineering campus:

  • 2-5pm: Women in STEM- a Wikipedia editing event in Teaching Studio 3212 in the James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) to create new articles focused on the lives and contributions of notable women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Book to attend on Eventbrite.
  • 5.16.45: Networking event at the School of Chemistry (Zoom and in-person).

All events are open to staff and students at University of Edinburgh. You can read about our work Changing the Way Stories Are Told: Improving Wikipedia Content about Women in Scotland in a new Open Access book on Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.

Booking details – Tuesday 12 October 2021

1. The Wikipedia editathon in the JCMB building – booking is now open!

  • 2pm – Arrive in Teaching Studio 3212 in James Clerk Maxwell Building.
  • 2:15pm to 3pm – Learn a new digital skill in learning how to edit Wikipedia
  • 3pm to 3.15pm – Tea break!
  • 3.15pm to 4:30pm – Researching and writing new pages about inspirational #WomenInSTEM
  • 4.30pm to 5pm – Publishing your new page on Wikipedia!
  • 5pm – Show off your brand new page and event close.

We are also currently accepting nominations for suggested Wikipedia articles:

We just need a name suggestion of someone suitably notable/eminent in their field and some sources of information (reliable published secondary sources ideally independent of the person themselves) to get a bio written of 50-100 words or more and help others all around the world read, discover and be inspired by their work.

Photo of people chatting at Ada Lovelace Day 2018 evening event at King’s Buildings campus.2. Evening networking event – Women in Chemistry (5.30-6.45pm (Zoom and in-person event)

The School of Chemistry are organising a hybrid event to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day and the 5 year anniversary of the Christina Miller Fellowship scheme, with the 5 Christina Miller Fellows sharing their stories and experiences (inc. Dr. Jenni Garden). In this short video, Dr. Jenni Garden and Professor Michael Seery discuss “What do we want the modern graduate to be?”

The online part of the event will run from 5:30 – 6:45pm using Zoom.

More details are available on Eventbrite.

3. Ada Hack

The Edinburgh Hoppers have decided to organise a hackathon in honour of Ada Lovelace. It’ll be taking place from 15th – 17th October, virtually. Here is the link to the Adahack website for more information :  https://adahack.tech/.

 

4. Colour your own Ada and Mary – Ada Lovelace OERS

These Open Education Resources are free to use and colour in from our Interactive Content Blog, Flickr and Wikimedia Commons:

Garden of Ada (Ada Lovelace):

Blog page: https://interactive-content.is.ed.ac.uk/ald15/

Mechanism of the Heavens (Mary Somerville):

Blog page: https://interactive-content.is.ed.ac.uk/mechanism-of-the-heavens/

More OERs can be found on our OER Service page:

5. Free short online STEM courses

More than 4 million learners have taken one of our free short online courses, and more than half of the learners on FutureLearn and Coursera are women! We’ve a huge choice of STEM short online courses you can take – and they’re totally free. Here are just a few:

Browse our whole catalogue of STEM short online courses here!

6. Why we still need to talk about Diversity in STEM

The Imperial College physicist Dr. Jess Wade was named one of Nature’s ’10 people who matter in Science’ 2018, as she made the resolution to make a Wikipedia page every day to highlight the often underacknowledged work of women, LGBT+ and scientists of colour. She has now written almost 1,500 biographies of women in STEM onto Wikipedia now. Jess recorded this talk for us last August and this one for the Women in STEM Society , on Why we still need to talk about Diversity in STEM.

Jess is only one person and we need LOTS more editors to help combat gender inequality. Only ~10% of Wikipedia editors are female which skews the content available in our search results so we need more female editors but we need more men to step up too to write about these gaps in our shared knowledge. Some suggested names for inspiring women in STEM missing from our search results are on this Women in Red list.

There will also be Wikipedia editing events happening in England, Wales, and New Zealand on the same day.

7. Resources to bridge the digital gender divide

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day 2021, the Digital Skills and Training team have created a resource list dedicated to bridging the digital gender divide. As Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), we thought it was time to shine a light on the barriers that women and girls the world over face when it comes to digital participation – particularly, the abuse and harassment that women face online. The following resources offer more information on the digital gender divide and the steps needed to close it. Content warning: Sexism, violence.

Link: Resource List

Ada Lovelace Day 2020

On Tuesday 13th October 2020, the University’s Information Services team are running a range of events to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2020 which is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

This year #ALD2020 will have a series of lightning talks, fun & impactful Wikipedia editing activities and evening networking events. With social distancing restrictions in place it is even more important that we come together online to celebrate and support one another this year.

#WomenInSTEM assemble!

Programme overview

The day is split in four parts:

All events are open to staff and students at University of Edinburgh. Book to attend one session, two, three or all four.

Booking details

1. Lightning Talks – book here

  • 12pm-12:10pm – Housekeeping and welcome from Melissa Highton, Assistant Principal for Online Learning.
  • 12.10pm to 1pm – Lightning talks.
    • Professor Jane Hillston, Deputy Vice Principal for Research and Head of School of Informatics will reflect on her experiences and the importance of mentors in STEM careers.
    • Dr. Athina Frantzana–   along with the Edinburgh University Women in STEM (EUWiSTEM) SocietySpread the Word  conducted an investigation into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students’ experiences of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the University of Edinburgh. Athina will present her findings.
    • Kirsty Lingstadt, Head of Digital Library, and Mike Boyd, manager of UCreate Makerspace will introduce the huge range of creative making opportunities available to students and staff at the University of Edinburgh.
    • Dr. Victoria Madden, Digital Safety Officer will present her findings which highlight the experiences of women online.
    • Lilinaz Rouhani, Equality and Data Officer will present the findings from her research into how different groups have experienced the shift to working digitally from home.
    • Ruth Boreham, writer and researcher will tell us stories of  Ada Lovelace‘s Scottish mentor, Mary Somerville after whom the data centre at Kings Buildings is named.

2. The Wikipedia editathon on Zoom – book here

3. Evening networking event – Women in STEM Society (5-7pm)

Book here.

For Ada Lovelace 2020 we will be virtually celebrating our role models with lightning talks, followed by a networking social to allow students to meet each other, industry professionals and our amazing speakers.

5:00pm: Welcome and Introduction

5:10pm: Lightning Talks

    • – Dr Alexis Cartwright-Taylor
    • – Nathalia Rus
    • – Dr Rosa Santomartino
    • – Maxim Cramer
  • 6:00pm: Networking sessions x 3
  • 7:00pm: End

4. Evening networking event – Women in Chemistry (7-8.15pm)

Book here.

Hosted by the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and ScotChem this free online event will feature talks from our invited speakers followed by a panel discussion to raise awareness, promote discussion and celebrate women in STEM. Our speakers include:

  • – Dame Athena Donald, University of Cambridge.
  • – Debra Carr, DASA.
  • – Hilary Jones, Chair of the Brewing Industry Leadership Group.
  • – Aruna Ivaturi, University of Strathclyde.
  • – Kiani Jeacock, University of Edinburgh.

Additional details on the Wikipedia editing event, including article to be created or improved:

We are also currently accepting nominations for suggested Wikipedia articles:

The following resources are all presented by or feature influential women in STEM and are recommended by the Digital Skills and Training team, Information Services Group.

The Digital Skills and Training team have a wealth of resources around the topics of data and programming. Take a look at some of our online resources and webinars below, and book your place to develop your skills in the spirit of Ada Lovelace:

  1. Basic Data Visualisations, 13th October 10.30am: Book here.
  2. Developing Your Data Skills Programme: Book here.
  3. Online Learning: Introduction to Python:  Book here.
  4. Online Learning: Python for Data Science: Book here.

We also have a new ‘Introduction to Programming’ webinar coming up in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for the pilot announcement!

Mary Somerville Data Centre

As part of our activities to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day this year, and to mark the occasion of the completion of a major upgrade project in the James Clerk Maxwell Building  data centre, we are going to name the data centre after Mary Somerville, so it’ll be the MSDC at the JCMB.

“If you are looking for a a female scientist and activist to celebrate, Mary Somerville is your woman.”

Please read Melissa Highton’s latest blog post on why Mary Somerville is the perfect choice for this data centre.

Mary Somerville Illustration

Today is Ada Lovelace Day 2017! To celebrate Women in STEM we are releasing a Mary Somerville adult colouring-in illustration created by Interactive Content team member Jackie Aim ✒️)

Mary Somerville was a mathematics tutor to Ada Lovelace and this artwork is titled ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’ after her 1830 publication on celestial mechanics.

Download your free Creative Commons licenced (CC BY-SA) print:

Read more about Jackie’s creative process ? http://bit.ly/mary-somerville

Ada Lovelace Day 2016

Hi all,

Just a gentle reminder that Ada Lovelace Day 2016 will be coming up on Tuesday 11th October 2016 and we will be looking to reconvene a working group to prepare for an Ada Lovelace day of events; incorporating a Wikipedia editathon celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

http://findingada.com/

The focus might shift a little this year to female mentors given that Mary Somerville is to grace the £10 note this year so with an extra focus on women in maths too.

If you were part of the working group last year then we’d love to get the group reconvened and if anyone who wasn’t involved last year would like to be this year then we’d love to hear your ideas too; hopefully building (geddit?) on the success of the Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage Lego and Raspberry Pi covers from last year. Similarly, if you know of someone who would like to be involved then please feel free to forward on the event details and let them know I’d love to hear from them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh/Events_and_Workshops/Ada_Lovelace_Day_2016

I’ve created the Wikipedia event page accordingly so that we can populate it over the next few months with some notable women in STEM.

Other projects are in development too. If you would like to be involved in them then email me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh#Projects_in_Development

Many thanks,

Ewan