With the aim of recognizing and making visible the work of Chilean women who have had a relevant career for society in the areas of engineering, technology and other scientific fields, for the first time the award will be presented in the country. Ada Byron Award for Woman Technologist Chile 2022whose applications are already open, with a deadline until November 30.
The recognition is inspired by those women who have contributed to different scientific disciplines, such as the British Ada Byron, who in the 19th century was the first person in history to carry out programming in the field of computing. The award was established in 2014 at the University of Deusto, Spain, and as part of its internationalization process, starting this year it will arrive in Chile, hand in hand with the Andrés Bello University..
Each candidate can present herself or be presented by another person or entity, for which she must meet the following requirements: be a woman, of legal age, resident in Chile, with Chilean nationality, and have a degree or professional career in technological areas , engineering and other scientific fields closely related to technology.
All the data on the process can be found in the application bases published in the https://premioadabyron.unab.cl/. The official call for the prize was made on September 9, and three months later, on January 9, 2023, the name of the winner will be known, who will receive three thousand euros as part of the prize.
Valuation Criteria
Among the criteria that will be considered to assess the applications, the following stand out: the relevance of the innovations contributed by the candidates in their scientific or professional career, as well as their postgraduate degrees.
In addition, they will be considered the abilities of the applicants to connect different activities through collaboration with other people and entities; socialize knowledge and achievements through public dissemination; overcome difficulties, including, where appropriate, those derived from her condition as a woman and those generated by the need to reconcile personal, family and work and/or professional life.
An important criterion is also related to support for the presence of other women in the scientific field and to promote changes in this field towards greater equality.
These criteria will be evaluated by a scientific Comittee, made up of personalities related to the scientific-technological world and gender equality. This committee is chaired by the dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the UNAB, Dr. Alejandro Caroca.
Together with him, the following people make up the entity: Consuelo Fertiliodirector of Women Engineers of Chile; Gabriela CastilloExecutive Director of Ingeniosas; Dr. Carla Taramascoresearch professor at the Faculty of Engineering UNAB; Dr. Pamela Alvarezdirector of the Department of Engineering Sciences and representative of the Gender Equality Committee of the Faculty of Engineering UNAB; Dr. Maria Francisca BlancoGeneral Director of Research UNAB; Ignatius WarriorGeneral Director of Graduates, Employability and UNAB Networks; Dr. Nicholas BronfmanAcademic Vice Chancellor of the Andrés Bello University.
The scientific Comittee will define among the applicants three preselected, among which the winner will be chosen, by a independent juryheaded by the rector of the UNAB, Julio Castro. They will accompany you in this task: the Dr. Silvia DiazMinister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation; Gloria Huttformer Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications; Silvana Droppelmann Igorfrom Huawei Chile; Alex Pessolegal director and manager of Corporate Affairs of Microsoft Chile; Dr. Silvana Cominettipresident of the Institute of Engineers of Chile; Margaret Ducciexecutive director of the United Nations Global Compact Chile Network; Hernan Orellanadirector of Banco BCI, director of Companies, advisor on Digitization in Innovation; Dr. Alex Rayon JerezVice-rector for International Relations and Digital Transformation at the University of Deusto.
Promote female participation
The Andrés Bello University has been characterized by promoting the participation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, through various national and international initiatives. For this reason, the institution positioned itself as the appropriate one to host the Ada Byron Award in Chile. To mention just a few of these initiatives, at an institutional level, UNAB has a Committee for Gender Equity and Female Leadership, and last year the Faculty of Engineering created a Gender Equality Committee to promote justice, equality of opportunities and gender equity.
The director of the UNAB School of Engineering and president of the Faculty’s Gender Equality Committee, Lilian San Martínpointed out: “We believe that we are responsible for contributing to the search for equality, and we are constantly working to contribute to the development of girls and women in STEM.”
In addition to the academic support from UNAB, the Ada Byron Chile 2022 Award is sponsored by Microsoft Chile and Huawei, as well as the collaboration of HubTec.
The Communications Manager of Huawei Chile and member of the jury, Silvana Droppelmann, explained that “the development of countries is closely linked to research in all areas and, of course, to the adoption of cutting-edge technologies in all areas. For this reason, Huawei not only supports the inclusion of women in the field of ICTs, but in the 170 countries where it has operations, it works with different alliances to increase the number of women in science and in the tech world.”
Alex Pessó, legal director and manager of Corporate Affairs at Microsoft and member of the jury, commented that “we are excited and honored to participate in the call for the first edition of the Ada Byron award in Chile for women who empower themselves and dare to change the world with science, engineering, mathematics and technology. This is an issue that is closely linked to our mission.”
“For HUBTEC it is very important to support this type of initiative because gender equality has been incorporated since the beginning of our operations, it is in our DNA, and we consider it highly relevant to recognize, value and incorporate talents and knowledge into the R&D ecosystem. that many Chilean women have in science and technology”, commented the CEO of HUBTEC, Ignacio Merino.
