EECS Women Higher Education Network (WHEN)

17 March 2025

Please outline the work you lead and how it relates to progressing gender equality

The project aims to build and bond a community for individuals identifying as women and provide opportunities for exchange among academics at all levels (from PhD students to research assistants, and postdoctoral fellows, to academics). The network aims to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion by strengthening the relationships and sense of belonging among its members, fostering trust and a shared identity. Balanced gender representation improves working culture, supports a broader range of viewpoints and, therefore, leads to more creative ideas and innovation. This is particularly relevant for the fields traditionally underrepresented by women, such as computer science and engineering.

What has inspired and motivated you to progress this work?

A long-term gender imbalance in computer science and engineering remains a key barrier to diversity, with women making up only 20% of computer science and 19% of engineering undergraduates, and just 23% of academic in these fields (HESA, 2022-23). This project addresses these challenges by building and expanding a network for women-identifying PhDs, Post-Docs, and academics in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Our previous successful experiences contributing to similar groups in other institutions (Women Robotics at Imperial; Women in Music Tech, 2016-17, Georgia Tech; WoNoMute, 2018-2019, NTNU/UiO; WiNIME, 2019-2022, NIME) has provided evidence that we need to act and be proactive in facilitating safe spaces for discussion as well as an open platform for letting network members connect, exchange knowledge and make visible the often hidden work by those identifying as women in fields of research where we are a minority. Hence, our voice is difficult to be heard.

We also think that building a community is an excellent way to facilitate research collaborations, receive advice from more experienced researchers in the field and to provide a safe space for discussing difficult questions.

How do you hope that this work will make a difference to promote gender equality and have you seen any impact so far?

Thanks to the generous funding of the ERIC Fund (10K for the 1st round 2024 & 7K for the 2nd round 2025), we have been able to be realising our vision. In the initial phase (year 1), WHEN established a solid foundation for community engagement and support for women in EECS. Our activities included: launching a dedicated website, mailing list, and Teams group, with 38 active subscribers (numbers are growing); organising six events, including educational workshops, talks, and social gatherings, which received positive feedback and fostered preliminary connections within the community. We hired a research assistant, María José Barrera-Chávez, who conducted a survey among the network members. The results indicated our next actions: need for support (mentoring/training workshops), learning (sharing resources and research projects/ideas, science divulgation/topics, conference evening), and socialising (networking/monthly meetups, trip/interest group/sports). We also received some suggestions from our members for further development. The first year showed a slower growth and showed us a direction for the development.

This second year, we are targeting these needs. So far, we have organised 5 more events (once per month). We have been able to hire a research assistant, Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi, who will be helping us with the announcement and production of the events as well as outreach. Together with Byte Queens we are now organizing an event for students, who identify as women, and we hope to conduct further international activities, mentoring program and outreach to schools. The attendance numbers are growing, and we are experiencing an expansion of the brand WHEN to other Schools of the Faculty such as the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences (SBBS) WHEN led by Laura Crucianelli and Giulia de Falco.

What did you enjoy most about this piece of work and do you have any plans going forward?

We have enjoyed every single event, and how the network has been growing from year 1 to year 2. It is rewarding to organise bigger group events and see them getting fully booked, such as our next Tea Party event on 18 March 2025 2pm-3pm for 30 attendees to celebrate the International Women’s Day of 8 March 2025 over tea, coffee and treats. We are also excited to collaborate with like-minded organisations, such as Byte Queens, a UK-based tech network for women by women that aims to empower and connect women across the UK to become the next generation of leaders in computing. Our forthcoming joint activity Byte Queens Networking Event on 23 April 12pm-3.30pm will help 50 UG and PG students to develop professional skills and connect with other women.

Apart from expanding the network to other schools of the faculty with similar intentions to realise our vision of a network of networks, we hope to be able to continue providing a networking platform across the faculty members. The mentorship program “Empowering Future Female Leaders in AI Research and Education” is also in the pipeline being organised by Aisha Abuelmaatti and includes two phases: (1) preparation, mentorship pairing, workshops, mid-program feedback and (2) community engagement event, evaluation and dissemination. On a personal level, it is rewarding to meet like-minded women and this network already led to several collaborations in research and in projects regarding social impact. 

Please share any publications or resources from your work that would like to highlight

Website: http://when.eecs.qmul.ac.uk 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13038114 
Teams: “EECS Women in Higher Education Network" 
Mailing list: eecs-when@qmlists.qmul.ac.uk 
Eventbrite page    
The EECS female academic network