A National Science Week event.

The Women in STEMM panel discussion is the first workshop in the STEM Infographic competition. The panel discussion will be hosted by Dr Bita Zaferanloo, lead of Shaping STEM Futures at Swinburne. It will include a presentation by Dr Ruwangi Fernando and a Women in STEM Networking panel delivered via collaboration with the Women in STEM club.

Our speakers and STEM student leaders will inspire students to become STEM communicators. The following topics will be addressed:

• Technology - What does the changing role of technology mean for women in STEM?
• Women in STEM 2050 - what does the ideal future look like?
• Contribution to sustainability - What will be the role of Women in STEM?
• Women as STEM leaders - What unique qualities do women bring to STEM leadership?

By taking part in the competition (STEM Infographic), students will form multidisciplinary teams to produce an infographic solution to a sustainability problem to increase community knowledge, encourage women into STEM careers and make the world a safer place. Additional workshops will follow including Adobe training to produce the infographic, research of sustainability issues and data collection and visualisation. The competition will enhance communication and digital literacy skills and build employability.

Speakers

Dr Ruwangi Fernando is an Information Technology specialist with over 16 years of experience in broader IT technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. She completed her PhD at Victoria University in collaboration with Data61, CSIRO and the Department of Transport in Victoria. Having worked as an academic internationally including in Sri Lanka UK, and Australia and a consultant for top tier companies internationally, she is now a changemaker for Women of colour in STEM and advocating for an intersectional approach to diversity and inclusion in the Australian STEM sector. Dr Fernando believes in giving back and founded STEM Sisters to empower STEM women of Colour which delivers award-winning five structured programs along with events, workshops and advocacy campaigns. She was recognised for her efforts and awarded a 2020 STEM Women Changemaker by the Australian Academy of Science, 2022 Tech diversity Business awards and a finalist for the Pro Bono Australia 2021Impact25 awards. Dr Fernando is also the co-founder of iSTEM Co. a research, consulting and talent sourcing company whose core objective is to enable employment of women of colour as well as women from CALD backgrounds in Australia’s STEM organisations.

Belinda Nation has over 20 years’ experience in the finance Industry with a core focus on Strategy and Architecture.  She has a passion for technology and disruption, and enjoys working with executive leadership to challenge the norm and transform the Customer Value Proposition through modern Cloud First Technology solutions.  She is a high energy leader with a track record of building high performing and highly engaged teams As EM for Product and Architecture at IAG, Belinda’s core responsibility is to work with Business Stakeholders to provide thought leadership and leverage industry best practice and market insight, to drive world leading customer experience solutions.  With a team of product managers and Specialist Solution Architects, her focus is on cloud native solutions that will transform the legacy technology towards the Target State Architecture. Before joining IAG, Belinda was the Head of Architecture Consumer Banking at nab, as well as multiple leadership roles across Architecture.  In this role she was responsible for defining the Consumer Banking Domain Roadmaps with a focus on Home Ownership, Everyday Banking, Open Banking and Digital Architecture. She is a passionate advocate for Women and Girls in STEM being an active committee member of Women in Tech at nab and now Women in Tech at IAG. 
 

Dr Emily Cook is a Senior Lecturer in STEM Education teaching in the Department of Mathematics. She is a leader in the implementation of practice-based learning in Swinburne STEM courses which has included the scaffolded development of communication skills for all STEM students. 
 

Further Events (Students, staff, alumni register via SwinEmploy)

• Thursday 15th September, 3.00pm - 4.00pm, STEM Infographic Workshop 2 -  Adobe Express or Illustrator
• Monday 26th September, 4.30pm - 5.30pm, STEM Infographic Workshop 3 - Data Visualization
• Thursday 3rd November, 4.30pm – 5:30pm, Live Showcase