Celebrating International Women’s day – our next generation of women computer scientists

Within our department we have women working at the cutting edge of Computer Science at every level, from eminent professors to DPhil students taking the first steps towards an exciting career, whatever aspect of Computer Science they choose to research.

Our next generation of women are already making their mark, here are some of their achievements:

Andreea Marzoca was the joint winner of the WCIT University IT Awards 2017. The awards were created in 2015 by The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Charity (WCIT Charity) to recognise outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate IT students within the UK. Andreea and the other winner were the first women to have won this award. She is also the Vice President of OxWocs, the Oxford Women in Computer Science Society.

Bushra AlAhmadi is a DPhil student specialising in cyber security. In 2016 she was awaded the prestigious Google Anita Borg scholarship for women in technology. Bushra has co-founded a community outreach initiative called InspireHer. The aim of InspireHer is to build on young girls’ interest in computer science, by engaging both parent and child with a fun and interactive coding workshop. The first event was recently held at the department and was a huge success.

Linde Wester is a DPhil student working in quantum computing. Linde takes an active role in our outreach programme and this year will be taking part as a speaker at the Hay Festival, explaining the complexities of quantum computing and the multiple universe theory to thousands of visiting families and school children.

Paula Fiddi is working directly with young women on a project called go_girl: code + Create. Young women from non-traditional academic backgrounds living in the Oxford area are learning media production skills and computer programming in order to raise awareness of the under-representation of women in coding and enhance their IT skills. Paula’s research interests are in human centred computing, security, gender issues in ICT and S.T.E.M education. 

Elizabeth Phillips is a DPhil student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security. She has received numerous scholarships and awards including the Gender Representation in Security (GREPSEC) award, a Google Women in Tech Travel award, the Blackhat Executie Women Forum scholarship, and in 2014 received an Outreach Award from the University of Oxford MPLS division. She is the co-founder of the annual Women in Computing Conference.