KAUST ·
A panel discussion on women in biology was held as part of the 2016 Fall Enrichment Program at KAUST. Jasmeen Merzaban, Ashwag Abdullah Albukhari, Bettina Berger and Peiying Hong were the speakers. The event featured successful female scientists sharing their experiences. Why it matters: Showcases KAUST's commitment to promoting women in STEM fields and providing a platform for their voices.
KAUST ·
KAUST hosted a regional Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference, part of a global event held at over 100 regional institutions led by Stanford University. The KAUST event featured exclusively female speakers and aimed to highlight data science research and applications. KAUST is launching a 'Women in Data Sciences and Technology' initiative to support women's education and careers in the field. Why it matters: This initiative can help address the underrepresentation of women in data science in Saudi Arabia and the broader region.
MBZUAI ·
NYU and NYU Abu Dhabi researchers are working on user-centric gender rewriting in NLP, especially for Arabic. They are building an Arabic Parallel Gender Corpus and developing models for gender rewriting tasks. The work aims to address representational harms caused by NLP systems that don't account for user preferences regarding grammatical gender. Why it matters: This research promotes fairness and inclusivity in Arabic NLP by enabling systems to generate gender-specific outputs based on user preferences, mitigating biases present in training data.
KAUST ·
KAUST is highlighted for its commitment to multidisciplinary research, innovation, and strong leadership, particularly regarding women's education. The university was the first mixed-gender university in Saudi Arabia, with women comprising around 40% of its student population. KAUST actively recruits female faculty members and appoints them to leadership positions, demonstrated through workshops like Women in Science and Engineering (WISE). Why it matters: This underscores the increasing role of women in STEM fields within Saudi Arabia, facilitated by institutions like KAUST.
KAUST ·
A 2016 KAUST Winter Enrichment Program seminar, "Women in Science and Engineering," convened female scientists from KAUST and abroad. Panelists like Jasmeen Merzaban and Charlotte Hauser shared their career experiences and addressed challenges faced by women in STEM. They noted that women constitute 60% of higher education graduates in Saudi Arabia and will be vital to the Kingdom's knowledge economy. Why it matters: The event highlights the increasing role of women in Saudi Arabia's STEM fields and KAUST's commitment to supporting female scientists.
KAUST ·
KAUST's 2018 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) featured a significant number of female speakers, highlighting the growing role of women in STEM. Events like "The Rise of Nanomachines" and "Women in STEM" provided platforms for female scientists to share their work and experiences. A "Speed Mentoring" session facilitated mentor-mentee relationships between graduate students and women in STEM at KAUST. Why it matters: Such initiatives help to foster a supportive environment for women in science and engineering within Saudi Arabia's leading research university.
KAUST ·
KAUST is launching the "Dear AI" campaign and hackathon to address gender bias and under-representation of women and Saudi/Arab people in AI, after finding AI image tools return only 1% women for prompts like "imagine entrepreneur." The campaign calls for accurate representation in AI datasets from Saudi Arabia and beyond. KAUST notes that 47% of graduates in their AI academy are women. Why it matters: This campaign highlights the need for more inclusive AI training data and addresses gender imbalances in STEM fields in Saudi Arabia.
KAUST ·
KAUST has launched the Early Career Accelerator Program (ECAP) for Women in Cybersecurity to promote gender diversity in Saudi Arabia's cybersecurity workforce. The program provides training to Saudi female graduates in security, governance, risk, and compliance, in collaboration with RSA Security LLC. The inaugural program included four graduates from Prince Mugrin University who received training in integrated risk management and will receive ongoing mentoring from KAUST and RSA. Why it matters: This initiative aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Cybersecurity Authority’s efforts to increase female participation in cybersecurity, addressing the global skills gap and strengthening the Kingdom's cyber defenses.