The UZG FER WIN event
The project acknowledges that gender stereotypes also exist in the business sector and that more women in STEM are needed. Each GEP implementing partner had to organise its WIN event. In particular, the WIN event had a double fold aim: on one side it highlighted and valued women’s led innovations presenting startups and spin offs and examples of gender sensitive product development/design; on the other hand, it raised awareness to attract more girls to STEM research.
In the case of UZG FER, on April 28 and 30, 2022, a two-day FER-WIN was held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). As part of the event, they organised a panel discussion on women’s experiences in innovation, along with the presentation of the publication on the first female researchers at FER and the programming workshops for primary school students. About 30 FER students, employees and alumni participated in the organisation and implementation, and various activities attracted over 200 visitors aged 5 to 90+.
In the panel discussion on the first day, they presented women in innovation, and researchers that obtained their PhD degrees at FER and now work in the R&D industry. In the conversation, they described their experiences from the doctoral study, lifelong motivation for research work and ongoing cooperation with researchers from FER. During the second half of the panel discussion, they presented a book about the first female researchers of FER. The publication provides a brief overview of the socio-historical context of women’s inclusion in the scientific and educational system and presents the first seven scientists in the field of electrical engineering who worked at the faculty until 1970. They discussed the participation and contribution of women in research and teaching conducted at FER from their respective perspectives.
The programming workshop for elementary school students was divided into three parts, depending on the age of participants: Scratch, LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and Croduino. The workshops covered various topics: climate change, space exploration and traffic. In addition, they organised a “fun room” where students could have fun and get acquainted with robots STEMI, Sphero, Codey Rocky, Lego robots, mini Tesla transformer, applications that use augmented reality and make luminous greeting cards. It was organised in collaboration with Stemalica, NGO for STEM education of children and ŠUZA, official program of FER for science popularisation.
The WIN event is part of the GEP actions of UZG FER.
