Joyce Kadibu

“Rewriting the Script: My Journey into Tech”

Joyce Kadibu

“Rewriting the Script: My Journey into Tech”

Ilenia Maietta

“You Belong Here”

Paula Kennedy

“Girls Who Startup: Building the Future with Tech”

Hanaa Ali

 “What is a Cloud Architect”

Hanaa Ali is a Principal Cloud Solutions Architect at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and the founder of her own cloud consultancy. An engineer at heart, she began her tech journey as a teenager, creating her first mobile game before graduating with a BSc in Computer Science. Hanaa spent many years working as a Senior Software Engineer, building real-world solutions before moving into Cloud Architecture. Today, she designs cloud systems, technical patterns and strategies for global businesses. Hanaa enjoys solving complex problems, loves programming in different languages, and is passionate about encouraging young girls to explore the world of technology and believe in their ideas.

Ella Podmore

 “Life in the Fast Lane”

Ella Podmore MBE is the materials engineering manager working for luxury supercar brand McLaren Automotive. She is responsible for all material-related investigations across all projects of the business, specialising in surface treatments and microscopic metallic analysis she is passionate about science and its impact on light-weighting. She has been at the company for 6 years and in that time has won IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2020, been named Surrey’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2022 and more recently received an MBE in Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours List for contributions to engineering, innovation and diversity. On top of her usual duties Ella is an avid STEM ambassador and frequently talks to students about the career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Her aim is to inspire the next generation to make an impact whilst showcasing that science and engineering is for everyone.

Lys Irebe 

Lys is a Software Engineer Apprentice at Vodafone, where she is actively developing her skills in software development, problem-solving, and teamwork. As part of her apprenticeship, Lys is involved in real-world projects that contribute to Vodafone’s innovative solutions, allowing her to gain hands-on experience in coding, testing, and deploying software applications. Her role also includes collaborating with experienced engineers, learning about the latest technologies, and growing her understanding of the tech industry. Lys is passionate about technology and is committed to building a strong foundation for a successful career in software engineering.

Emmy Habgood

“My Coding Projects”

Emmy is 13 years old and started programming at a coding club near where she lives, in Bath, when she was 7. She came across Girls Into Coding workshops a couple of years ago during lockdown and has attended over 20 online and in-person events.

One of the reasons why Emmy loves programming is because she enjoys working towards completing a project and seeing the finished results
She is interested in science and music, and has competed as an epéeist in the fencing British Youth Championships, and many other competitions across the country. She hopes to have a career in science when she is older, possibly as a geophysicist. She also loves reading mystery, dystopian and psychological horror books.

Harpreet Dulai

“The curse of ‘Not Enough’?”

From the age of 12 I have always been drawn to the technology industry. It gave me a sense of curiosity and the view of unlimited access for future growth. Knowing the Industry I wanted to explore helped forge my education path. I went to College, University and graduated in 2015 with a BSc in Computer Forensics & Security. I shortly after went into a full-time tech job which started off my career.

Now having navigated the Tech Industry for over 12+ years, my passions, and motivations stem from bringing awareness to diversity and inclusion challenges through mentoring & coaching individuals, to build their personal growth plans. I understand what it means to not fit in as a young Asian female in the Digital Workplace and enjoy lending my voice by sharing my knowledge, insights and lived experiences to raise awareness and confidence.

Olga Govorushenko

“Why we learn tech – for work and not only”

Olga has been close with IT and technology since her childhood: from enjoying Maths during her school years to obtaining a bachelor’s in Computer Science and then starting a career as a software developer. Throughout the journey, Olga worked with different technologies and learnt programming languages as an engineer and then moved to IT management positions as Business Analyst / Product Manager. In her position, Olga is fully responsible for figuring out what should be coded and why. Being familiar with coding helps her a lot to do it better and find the best solutions to use tech for company and business. Olga participates in the planning and development of complex software applications for big companies and businesses and is presented at all levels of the development cycle – from talking to software developers to presenting for company management. Olga never stops learning and enjoys exploring new technologies, whether it is a new mobile app or a trendy AI tool like Midjourney.

Israa Alkatip

“What kind of engineer can you be?”

Israa is a certified Biomedical Systems Engineer with a passion for innovation and problem-solving. Holding an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southampton and an associate membership with the Institution for Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), she specialises in automation systems prototyping and possesses a keen aptitude for learning.
Currently employed as a Mechatronics Engineer at Untap Health, she’s actively involved in automating various continuous qPCR reaction stages, aiming to achieve an automated continuous detection of disease detection in wastewater.
Having garnered extensive experience across various engineering domains, from robotics and automation at Xihelm to 3D and design engineering with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), she brings a wealth of technical expertise and a passion for innovation to every project. With a commitment to continuous growth and a diverse skill set spanning technical, soft skills, and languages, she’s poised to drive impactful advancements in the field of engineering.

Tajinder Jagdev

“The Journey, Not the Destination”

Tajinder K Jagdev is a seasoned change specialist with over a decade of strategic leadership, business change, and project management experience across diverse sectors, including local government, health, and technology implementation partners. As a founding Trustee for a multi-academy trust, she actively contributes to her community, emphasising the importance of educational and creative opportunities. Tajinder envisions enriching school settings as crucial springboards for informing, upskilling, and empowering young people, aspiring to nurture the next generation of leaders and innovators. Her multifaceted contributions underscore a deep commitment to fostering positive change and empowering the potential of young individuals, utilising her extensive expertise to drive meaningful transformations.

Zoe Ciccardini

“My Coding Journey”

Zoé is a 13-year-old student who joined the GIC Community a couple of years ago. She has a strong interest in activities which have been traditionally male-dominated : sports in general, football is her first love, also STEM and in particular marine biology with a focus on sharks, and video games.
Zoé has won medals and trophies for competitive swimming at county level, cross-country, high jump, sprint, rounders, cricket, netball, football, aquathlons, and triathlons.
She is a Chelsea FC Academy Player (U14s), and she also captains the Kent U14s football team this season (2023-24).
Zoé would like to be a professional football player and then, later, a marine biologist.

Why developing her coding skills then? Explanations at the talk.

Satinder Dale

“Unlocking your potential”

Satinder Dale graduated with a Computer Science degree and embarked on a colourful career that has taken her around the globe. She has held many positions along the way: Management Consultant, Client Director, EMEA Regulatory Technology Leader and more recently VP of Product and Delivery. Working at Publicis Sapient, IBM, Celonis and now TCEU her career has spanned many industry sectors including travel, regulatory, process mining and data & AI. She is a mother of 3 busy children and actively volunteers in her local community as a Sunday School Headteacher and within various education boards.

Nivedita Narayan

“Adventures in the tech world!”

Nivedita works in Business Analysis and Product Management at EPAM. Over the past 10 years. She’s had the privilege of working with incredible companies like Credit Suisse, Deloitte Digital, and IBM, which have shaped her career and allowed her to explore her passion for technology, design, and business. Her professional journey began in the world of Java test automation, where she gained a solid foundation in technology. However, she soon realised that her true passion lies at the intersection of these three domains. Transitioning into the roles of Business Analysis and Product Management enabled her to combine her technical expertise with her creative and strategic mindset.

Outside of work, she has a couple of passions that keep her energised. She is an avid runner, and Photography is another creative outlet that she cherishes.

Oluwatosin Sonubi

“The Wonderful World of Data”

While studying at university, Tosin was exposed to the wonderful world of data and hasn’t looked back since. Tosin has been able to utilise numerous skills within her roles in data.

Tosin is passionate about “paying it forwards”, while working with communities close to her heart. She frequently engages in outreach initiatives and works as a diversity and inclusion consultant. Tosin also leverages this in her career to be an agent of change in the data ethics and governance space.

Tosin has a BEng in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Warwick. She is an advocate for lifelong learning and continues to pursue more education, in various forms.

Habs Kim

“Choosing a STEM career doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity”

Habs is a sculptor turned programmer and is currently an Engineering Lead at Trinny London – an E-commerce beauty company. She got into coding through electronics and building digital installations. She’s since worked at four fast paced start-ups, focusing on frontend development. Her enjoyment has come from data driven A/B testing and initiatives to increase conversion for B2C platforms.

In her current role, she leads a team of engineers that manages all forward facing systems (such as the E-commerce site). She is passionate about D&I and always brings her own experience of being a second generation immigrant and from a minority, to mentor and educate others.

Habs has given multiple talks at meet ups and looks to promote the importance of creativity in STEM roles. She is always open to mentoring new programmers so please do reach out.

Deborah Adewunmi

“Using Technology to make Healthcare Better for Everyone“

After a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry, Deborah went on to teach herself how to code so she could do a Ph.D in Bioinformatics and work with genomics and precision medicine. But excitingly Ishe got introduced to web development at a health-tech startup and kept at it in her free time. She participated in a few hackathons, won them, and which made her decide to go into software engineering. She enjoyed building innovative solutions in the medical device industry and went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Health Technology where she focused on AI in healthcare and completed her thesis on “Improving User Experience for Users with Dementia ”.

She is passionate about improving global health and medical care one line of code at a time. She currently works with an AI start-up in the IVF industry. She spends her free time writing on her blog where she talks about who’s who in the African tech ecosystem and building things.

Yasmin Taylor

“Surfing Through the Clouds“

Yasmin’s aim is to create a magical bridge between technology and sales by explaining it in lamen terms to non techies. Her work history is within IT Project Management and Service Management whilst also managing her YouTube Channel where she builds and showcases her Robots!

She mainly showcases and teaches how to build a mini robot and how to programme.

She has a passion for encouraging young women to pursue roles within the STEM field. She enjoys sharing her experience as a woman of colour navigating through the tech world.

Her main area of expertise is around Cloud tech, AI, Robotics, Engineering, NLP, and the craze over Chabot’s. she also discusses the ethics of AI and its future impacts on our society.

She is currently working with a range of companies and consulting them on how to integrate cloud and dev ops into everyday appliances and situations seamlessly.

Cher Lowies

“How UX is Everywhere“

Cher is a Lead Research and Insights Specialist at EPAM, where she works with global clients to establish UX functions and user-first design thinking across different platforms and industries.

Before moving into UX she gained extensive experience in the Clinical Trials field, spread across both commercial and healthcare industries. Including managing a multimillion-pound Quality of Life Digital Intervention trial. This resulted in a charge to the medical practice in Northwest Head and Neck Cancer clinics to become more patient lead during post-treatment consultations.

Rose Fredua

“My Journey vs Your Journey“

Rose is a Vice President at Marsh McLennan, responsible for projects within a portfolio and oversight of the resources required to deliver the projects. Having been at Marsh McLennan for a year, Rose previously worked at a large audit firm as a Technology Consultant – providing technical strategic advice to clients globally.

Rose has recently won the TechWomen100 Award, an award which finds the top talent of female technologists in the country at the moment. Rose has a BSc in IT and Mathematical Sciences and with a keen interest in languages, is taking a break from studying Japanese and previously was learning Spanish

Eva Nakacwa

“Cultivating Creativity in the age of Automation“

Eva graduated in 2016 with a degree in Digital Media Technology. She also freelanced as a web and logo designer alongside her undergraduate studies. While designing the site for an IT Solutions Company as a Digital Marketing Executive, Eva developed a passion for cloud technologies and pursued additional courses on Udemy and Codecademy.

Currently, she is a Technology Graduate at Red Hat’s EMEA Graduate program learning about Red Hat Technologies and assisting with client projects. She also leads the Talent Attraction and Outreach pillar in the BUILD (Blacks United in Leadership and Diversity) UKI community as well as the UKI Universities Program at Red Hat. She facilitates outreach activities and attends careers events at Universities and Secondary Schools to help students develop high career aspirations.

Outside of work, Eva learns Python and game design on Scratch alongside her sibling as a way of engaging the next generation of STEM learners.

Anna McDougall

“From Geeky Teen to Opera Singer to Engineering Director: My Tech Journey“

Anna McDougall grew up in Sydney, Australia, and moved to Germany to pursue a career as an opera singer. After the birth of her first child, she retrained as a software engineer and rediscovered her love for code and technology. She quickly found that her mix of technical and social skills made her perfect for leading engineering teams, and she now works as Director, Product and Engineering (Projects and Organisation) for the tech arm of Europe’s largest media publishing house, Axel Springer National Media & Tech, based in Berlin.

She is also the author of “You Belong in Tech: How to Go from Zero Programming Knowledge to Hired”, and is passionate about getting historically excluded individuals into tech.

Bahar Fatih

“ Don’t be afraid to love tech”

Bahar Faith is a Senior Visual & Experience designer. Design career focusing on design & consulting for 5+ years across multiple industries, Technology Entertainment, Oil & Gas, Retail etc. Designing for a scalable future has always been the aim.

In her role, she is in constant communication with developers and clients to create the most useable designs to reach the largest number of users across platforms and countries.

The design and Technology industries are the best places to be and she is very honored to be in a field that is constantly growing and thriving to develop ways to make almost everything possible & accessible.

Hayley Roberts

“Why we need to rethink the view that tech is for techies”

Following a 20+ year career with blue chip enterprise businesses in retail, recruitment, and technology, Hayley Roberts is the founder and driving force behind IT Security distributor, Distology. The company specialises in identifying, representing, and distributing the latest disruptive technology in the cyber security arena.

Hayley has carefully nurtured a unique company culture that encourages vibrancy and ambition and as a result, Distology has won various accolades including CRN’s Distributor of the Year 2019, Cloud Distributor of the Year 2020, and the Gender Parity at the Women in Channel Awards. Hayley was also named CRN’s 2021 Women in Channel Woman of the Year and Role Model of the Year.

Hayley is a leading voice of authority within the industry and sits on the CRN judging panel for Women in Channel and is a co-founder of the Channel Community, and she recently presented a TEDx talk to empower more people to choose a career in tech.

Imhariaosoria Ughu

“ Is there space for me?”

Imhariaosoria Ughu (Imharia for short) is a Cloud Engineer. She has always been a lover of maths and science which is why she took maths and all sciences at A-levels. She went on to do Chemical Engineering at university which really broadened her horizons and gave her some invaluable skills. It was at university that she really realised her passion for technology and she knew then that was the field for her. She used the skills she had picked up in her course to help her get into the tech space and was fortunate to land a job in her exact area of interest. She is now in that role and really enjoying the whole process of learning and exploring more technologies. Apart from work, she ha

Jen Dionisio

“ Your Career is an Adventure?”

Jen Dionisio is an Associate Director of Content Strategy at EPAM where she helps clients create digital experiences that make the lives of their users and teams easier and more impactful. In her role, she also manages a team of fellow content strategists, supporting them on their unique paths to fulfillment and purpose.

As an ACC-certified coach through the International Coaching Federation, she also helps people identify what they want to do with their lives, with a focus on finding direction over one perfect destination.

Lami Akagwu

“ What career options are there in the tech space?”

Principal Technical Account Manager, Red Hat UK

As a Technical Account manager at Red Hat, Lami is the single point of contact for the customers that she works with and is responsible for advocating on their behalf to aid their successful adoption of Red Hat middleware technology stacks

In her current role, she works on strategic technical issues raised by customers as well as being the go-to person to liaise with Red Hat product engineering, product management, and the quality engineering teams as and when the need arises.

As the evolving customer business landscape dictates, she also leads critical situation handles,, and mobilises the Red Hat technical subject matter experts and facilities dialogue with 3rd party vendors Building good relationships with customers requires an understanding of their constantly evolving technology landscape, business needs, expectations, environment/infrastructure constraints coupled with effective communication skills and ability to manage expectations

Folora Duang

“ 5 reasons you should be a software engineer ”

Folora Duang-Arop works as a Software Engineer, providing digital, data, and technology solutions across the public sector. She has 10+ years experience of Programme Management, Digital Transformation, and Recruitment across corporate, big tech, government, and start-up environments.

Justina Blair

“ Choice, not destiny ”

Justina is a Digital Innovation Degree Apprentice at NatWest. She is halfway on her journey to becoming a Software Engineer, fuelling her passion for coding.

As a registered role model for Women in Science, and the 2021 BAME Apprentice Of The Year winner, Justina is now in a position where she supports young people with their career aspirations.

Her interest in the STEM industry began with a volcano making kit at 9, studying all the sciences for A-Level, and now launching a career in the technology sector. Justina is a champion for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and is passionate about encouraging young women to break the bias and be successful through choice, not destiny.

Shahira Makandar

“ A little bit of everything ”

Shahira was born, brought up, and educated in Bengaluru, the silicon city of India which houses many big IT companies and startups. Her first global exposure was when she worked as a consultant in Dubai and then in Sri Lanka. This was an opening to another world and a calling for a better technician she can ever be. Life took its course and she decided to stay on the receiving end of what technology had to offer. Hence chose to be a tester, challenging every build, every component of the product in hand. It encouraged her to take up training outside her academics and not to be lost in the ever-changing IT space.

Besides her interest in IT, she is an ardent nature lover, loves to trek, hike takes long walks on unknown trails, play table tennis, social work, and indulges in gardening and cooking. Her 4-year daughter is a great companion in all her adventures.

Dr. Kitty Yeung

“ Applying STEAM to contribute to the society in a beautiful way ”

Dr. Kitty Yeung is a physicist, engineer, and artist in addition to her role as founder CEO of fashion-tech incubation and senior quantum architect at Microsoft. She’s the producer of Microsoft’s quantum learning materials, including the MS Learn quantum modules and the Quantum Learning website; author of comic series Quantum Computing & Some Physics; lecturer at HackadayU and Microsoft Reactor on Quantum Computing. To drive integration between science and art, she also founded a sustainable and STEAM fashion brand, Art by Physicist, and leads the Fashion Hack at Microsoft.

Prior, Kitty worked as a manager and creative technologist of the Bay Area Microsoft Garage Program; UX Designer at Intel Maker Group; Research Scientist and Hardware Engineer at Intel Silicon Photonics; PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University, MSci and BA in Natural Sciences from The University of Cambridge.

Deanna Patterson

“ My journey into the clouds; from Law to Tech ”

Having aspired to be a Barrister at the age of eleven, Deanna’s path into cloud tech is a non-conventional one.

Deanna is a Senior Cloud Technology Programme Manager, who has a wealth of experience in technology consulting, project, and programme management. Deanna has led a multitude of large-scale ERP and Business Transformation projects throughout her time spent in the technology industry. She has a strong interest in cloud technologies and the way in which companies are leveraging the benefit of ‘The Cloud’ to scale their businesses.

Deanna is a member of Tech London Advocates and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Alongside her day job, Deanna mentors individuals wanting to break into the world of tech.

Her aim is to inspire all young girls and women to be “bold and bullish” and wants them to remember to “go against the grain and break that status quo”.

Rebecca Whitworth

“ How can you trust artificial intelligence systems? ”

Rebecca Whitworth is an engineering manager at Red Hat and is part of the TrustyAI initiative. Here she is in charge of prioritising work, meeting goals and managing the team and its vision. TrustyAI is an open-source project that aims to create explainability and trust in AI-infused systems and to help support the decision-making process for companies using these technologies. She completed a Ph.D. at Newcastle University, in which she developed a platform for scalable, geospatial, and temporal analysis of Twitter data. After this, she moved to a small startup company as a Java developer creating solutions to improve performance for a CV analyser.

Lucy Rushbrook

“ Building a solar-powered car to race across Australia ”

Lucy is a Mechatronics Engineer at Xihelm that loves design challenges. She studied Mechanical Engineering at University and during that time she worked on the design of an electric race car and carried out award-winning research into the phenomenon of pseudo-capacitance in supercapacitors. For her placement year, she spent 14 months designing and building a solar-powered car to race across Australia (and for 24 hours in Belgium). She’s also worked on a district heating network that heats homes in London using household rubbish.

Outside of work, she loves all things hands-on – whether that be gardening, building or painting. Just recently she designed and built a log cabin in her mum’s garden so she could have some extra space during the pandemic.

Allie Katz

“ Art or Tech? You Don’t Have to Choose! Starting Your Journey as a Creative Technologist ”

Allie Katz is a dual national non-binary artist, content creator, and creative technologist who’s been diving headlong into their passions for as long as they can remember. Online they are known as Geeky Faye of Geeky Faye Art, a channel devoted to the exploration of the part of the Venn diagram where analog and digital overlap, to combining art and technology in new and exciting ways, and to inspiring everyone who feels a bit uncertain or left behind. They’ve had a long and varied professional career including creating traditional art, animation, 3D designs for emerging technologies, video games, and VFX, cosplay, and much more. These days they’re exploring the vast world of microcontrollers and DIY electronics, 3D printing in all its wonderful forms, and building with exciting new kinds of materials.

You can follow along with their adventures on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/geekyfayeart/) or find out more about what they’re up to at geekyfaye.art.

Amber Shand

“ Finding focus in a world full of opportunities ”

Amber Shand works as a Junior Software Engineer at American Express, an Advisory Board member at GirlDreamer, and an Instructor & Ambassador with Code First Girls. She started her coding journey with Code First Girls on a Web Development course in Autumn 2018 and a Web Application course using Python in Spring 2019. Since then, during the summer of 2020, she won the Pay It Forward Award with Code First Girls for a combination of reasons including being placed on the Bank of America FinTech Mentoring scheme and becoming a Web Development instructor for the first time. She went on to complete Sky’s Get into Tech scheme where she worked with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, MySQL, and Flask. This gave her the confidence to become a Code First Girls Fellow where she taught Python to 35 women and completed a research project which showed why women belong in the tech space.

Paulette Watson

“ AI and the impact of Big Data in our society ”

Paulette Watson is a Global Evangelist Tech Disruptor + Digital Transformation Consultant. Born and raised in Newham, Paulette understands the need for quality education for children and young people (CYP) from all backgrounds. Using her community projects, she analyses the mental inequality in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and explores the real-life experiences from children and young people’s unfair and bias treatments from the school system (being excluded) and the Police (especially now that facial recognition has severe biases). 

Paulette is particularly interested in how lockdown has created a stark digital divide in the UK, with 1.9 million households with no access to the Internet and tens of millions more reliant on pay-as-you-go services to make phone calls or access healthcare, education, and benefits online.  Her concerns are how the Artificial Intelligent technology tool is used across different sectors to potentially exclude BME groups. 

Her passion is aligning the #BeMe goals to the United Nation (UN) sustainable development goals: Education #4 Quality Education: Entrepreneurialism #8 Decent work and economic growth: Innovation #9Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: Social Inclusio#10 Reduced Inequalities

Awards: Most Skillful Shepreneur for the Ghana Ladies in Tech (GLiT) 2021, Wintrade GlobalAward Women in Engineering 2019; Computer Weekly, listed on the longlist: The 50 Most Influential women in the UK Technology 2021; Nominated as the most influential women in Technology in the UK; shortlisted for the Women in Tech Excellence 2021; where she will be dedicating her win to #BeMe project for raising 1 million BME girls’ aspirations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers.

Paulette is also writing her book on black girls’ experiences in getting into the tech industry in the United Kingdom.

Website: www.paulettewatson.com

Natalie Heinsen

“ My journey to working as a developer”

Natalie is a ServiceNow developer at Arm. She joined Arm two years ago on their early careers programme. She really enjoys working as a developer, solving interesting technical challenges, and getting involved in the detail of how a system works. Her role involves creating new features on the platform, working with stakeholders to explore what’s possible whilst maintaining technical best practice, and troubleshooting issues when they occur. She mostly works with JavaScript and has enjoyed learning it as a language. She also works with APIs and integrations on the platform. ServiceNow combines aspects of front and back-end development, and she really likes that variety in her work. She still has lots to learn but enjoys the continuous learning which comes with working in development.

Apoorva Panidapu

“ Powering Innovation with STEM and Creativity”

Apoorva is a young mathematician, artist, social entrepreneur, and advocate for youth in STEAM, pushing against the discrimination she and many other girls face for being a girl in math. She has written and co-authored several research publications, working alongside world-renowned mathematicians. She is a 2021 Davidson Fellow Laureate, a 2020 Global Child Prodigy, and a 2019 World Science Scholar. Apoorva then created her column, Gems in STEM, to welcome everyone to STEM in an accessible way. She reaches over 50,000 people through published newspapers and Medium, and won the Strogatz Prize for Math Communication due to her column’s considerable global impact.

Apoorva is also the founder of Apoorva’s Art Gallery, an online platform to raise funds for underserved children and to advocate for social reform. She has raised over $35,000 for charity with her art and teaching, receiving the 2021 Diana Award and five President’s Volunteer Service awards in recognition of her service. Through her teaching, art, public speaking, and writing, she strives to create a world where women and gender minorities in STEM are treated equitably.

Jessie Auguste

“ Finding Communities”

Jessie is a Psychology graduate who transitioned into software engineering earlier this year. After working in tech for a couple of years at a cyber security startup, CybSafe, first in marketing and then customer success, she was determined to make the move into software development. Along with lots of self-guided study and support from online communities as well as her workplace, she was able to make the career change.

Outside of work Jessie is passionate about equality, diversity, and inclusion, and spends time volunteering with organisations that help underrepresented people get into tech. She often helps to run events and social media for Coding Black Females as a part of the leadership team and volunteers with the Black Valley community. In her free time, she loves reading and learning new languages.

Nicole Young

“ Tech is EVERYWHERE”

Nicole Young is a full-stack software engineer and content creator with a mission to help more women and people of color get into and thrive in the tech industry. She found tech after graduating with a degree in Psychology and quickly fell in love with all that the industry had to offer. She is now focused on using her skills and perspective to help others find their place in tech like she did.

Akua Opong

“ My Journey into STEM”

Akua works as a Senior Analyst within the Corporate Technology team at London Stock Exchange Group.

She currently holds active membership in the following networks: BEING (Black Employees), Ability (Resource Lead), WIN (Women’s Network, Community Lead), Wellbeing (Mental Health Champion), and UK Charity Committee (Volunteering Champion) alongside her day job in Technology.

Outside her work environment, Akua is a Team London ambassador, mentor for Cajigo and Inclusive Careers, charity volunteer, a keen sports volunteer for Netball England and British Athletics.

Megan Arnold

“ The Apprenticeship Approach”

Meg is a degree apprentice at Arm, working as part of the Fast Models team who create simulations of the latest Arm processors. She has been in this role for nearly 3 years and studies for a BSc degree alongside being an active employee as part of the apprenticeship scheme.

She joined Arm straight out of Sixth Form where she studied Computer Science, Maths, Physics, Spanish, Geography, and English Literature for her IB diploma and often goes back to school to talk to students about degree apprenticeships and alternative routes into STEM.

Outside of work, Meg is a unit leader for her local Rainbow unit – the youngest members of Girlguiding – and so she’s often found building campfires and roasting marshmallows.

Tara Ojo

“ Code is everywhere! ”

Tara is a Software Engineer, a speaker, teacher, and writer, sharing her experiences of working in the Tech industry, including useful tips and advice on career development. She does this at conferences and events across Europe, via social media and her blog.

Tara has supported programmes and projects to empower black women into tech roles by teaching them to code and mentoring them in their careers. She has also worked as a STEM Ambassador inspiring children and young people, while volunteering at Code Clubs, giving career talks at school events, and joining the UN as a panelist for their event to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Amrita Das

“Anybody can code”

Amrita is of Indian origin, born and brought up in Bhubaneswar, India. After graduating in engineering. She worked as a techie in various service and product-based companies back in India. Her interest in software architecture and project management brought her to Germany to pursue her Master studies. After working for a few years back in Germany, She moved to Lausanne, Switzerland to join Frontiers an open science journal publishing company. She has extensive industrial IT experience in many domains, programming languages and technologies across India, Germany, and Switzerland.

She likes to contribute to society through her skills by teaching and organizing fundraiser events. She strongly believes education can empower people to do better both for themselves and others.

Ebony Allison

Ebony is northerner make it in the big city. Her background includes a degree in electronic engineering and is currently completing a masters in web & mobile app development whilst working full time as a Hardware Design Engineer. STEM outreach is a passion as she believes your skills can really do the talking.

Omotola Shogunle

“What makes a good coder?“

Omotola is a Software Engineer at Ampersand UK, an Educator/ Volunteer, and the creative behind the account @mycodinghabits on Instagram. For work, she is currently helping build powerful e-commerce websites for brands like Poundland, Swoon, and SecretSales in the UK. Her work focuses on the backend functionality of these platforms. In her spare time,she indulges in sharing her knowledge via teaching, writing, speaking, or creating technical content that helps people navigate the tech space. She believes and advocates for a diverse and inclusive workspace for people wanting to work in tech.

Pamela Cortez

“Internet of Things (IoT) for Good”

Pamela is a developer advocate and Senior Program Manager focused on growing the hardware ecosystem and IoT developer communities for Microsoft Azure IoT at Microsoft. With over a decade of experience in tech and embedded space, Pamela was recently featured as one of the 5 Inspiring Women Who Are Reshaping The IoT World from GirlTalkHQ and recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in IoT by IoT World Today.

Pamela is passionate about diversity and inclusion in tech, teaching STEM to all ages, and driving awareness on how tech can be used for good. When she isn’t playing drums poorly, she is busy being one of the organizers of r00tz, which is a nonprofit dedicated to teaching the next generation of white-hat hackers and encouraging more girls into tech.

Emma Yang

“The Power of Possibility”

Emma Yang is a high school senior and the founder of Timeless, a startup that empowers Alzheimer’s patients to stay engaged and connected to their loved ones. Since its inception in 2016, Timeless has garnered many awards and has been featured in media around the world, including Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, BBC, and CBS. In 2017, Timeless was selected as the winner of the MIT Solve Brain Health Challenge. In 2018, Timeless was named the Grand Prize Winner of the Women Startup Challenge hosted by Women Who Tech and Google.

Emma is a keen computer science, history, music, and language enthusiast. She is also passionate about encouraging girls to pursue STEM and empowering the elderly community, a population that is underserved by technology. Emma frequently speaks about these key issues at panels and keynotes in national and international forums, such as TEDxFoggyBottom, Talks at Google, the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, Women Who Code, and the Asian American Community Development Conference, to name a few. Most recently, Emma co-founded the Wolfram Middle School Summer Camp for girls, with the inaugural camp being held virtually in June 2021.

Talja Parkinson

Talja is a Data Professional, Diversity Champion, and Mum to 3 boys aged 17, 13, and 4. She has spent the best part of the last 20 years leading technical teams in fields of Data Analytics & Business Intelligence, across a number of organisations including, Sky, Capita, and Serco.

Talja has recently stepped out of her Corporate 9 to 5 role to start up her own Consultancy & Coaching business, where she is using her valuable experience to coach Leaders, especially in the Technology Sector, on the benefits and importance of creating and nurturing dynamic, engaged and diverse teams.

Kerrine Bryan

Kerrine Bryan is a chartered electrical engineer. Her unconventional route into engineering, a profession she really enjoys, gave her a passion for inspiring the next generation by addressing misconceptions and stereotypes in various professions.

She is a fellow and council member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and volunteers with the Social Justice + Engineering Initiative.

Kerrine currently works in New York for WSP USA as a Power Systems Engineer working on exciting power delivery, renewables, energy-saving, and electrification projects.

She is a co-author of multiple children’s books including ‘My Mummy is an Engineer’ and is the co-founder of the publishing House – Butterfly Books.

Kerrine has won various awards for her work as an engineer, her volunteering activities, and her books. “

Omoniyi Giwa

Omoniyi Giwa is a principal program manager at Arm responsible for the program delivery of the Total Compute strategy which is arm’s approach to transform the development of the SOC by accelerating compute performance, providing improved developer access, and expanding security through greater protections across the ecosystem.

Prior to Arm she worked as Program Manager in the transport sector delivering highway projects across London one of which was the deployment of the several electric vehicle charging points you might have seen across London, and transformation of the iconic Baker Street in London to a two-way system. At Arm Omoniyi is focused on using her proven ability to initiate improvement and change to successfully drive the delivery of the Total Compute Strategy.

In her spare time when she is not planning a kid’s party, she is busy raising awareness as a STEM ambassador on the variety of enjoyable career paths open to all when STEM subjects are studied and how it can enable you cut across industry sectors

Avye Couloute

Avye, 13, is a coder, maker, workshop leader, a girl in tech advocate, the Founder of Girls Into Coding, and a multi-award winner.
she started coding & attending physical computing workshops at 7. She is very active in the tech & maker community, dedicating a lot of her spare time to exploring & learning about coding & technology. She leads regular coding & physical computing workshops, both in-person and virtually. She has won competitions with the robots which she designs and makes.

She is enthusiastic about sharing her skills & experiences with others and is an Arm ambassador, part of the GenArm2Z program which enables young people to talk to tech leaders about how technology is being used & shaped for the future.

Two and a half years ago, aware of female under-representation in STEM education & careers, she was motivated to found Girls Into Coding to encourage more girl involvement in tech.

Roma Agrawal

Talk: “”Building Bridges”

Roma is a chartered structural engineer who has worked with signature architects during her fifteen-year career designing footbridges, towers, and sculptures; including six years as a senior structural engineer on The Shard, the tallest tower in Western Europe.

A multiple award winner, both for her technical prowess and her contribution to raising awareness of engineering as a career, Roma was given the ‘Diamond Award for Engineering Excellence’ by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering. She has appeared in documentaries and has been featured in many UK broadsheets, magazines, and online; on the BBC, ITV, has given two TEDx talks about engineering.

She actively promotes engineering, scientific and technical careers to young people and particularly to under-represented groups such as women.
Roma recently authored ‘Built: The hidden stories behind our structures’, released in the UK and USA in February 2018, with the aim to inspire an interest in engineering with the general public.

Isabella Gottardi

Talk: “How technology and in particular CV and ML have changed during the years and are now applied to our daily life”

Isabella is currently working as Software Engineer at Arm within the Machine Learning group. Together with her team, they develop code samples and demos to showcase the impact that machine learning can have in our daily life and guide developers to achieve the best performance on Arm powered platforms.

She is a passionate supporter of STEM and women in technology and worked as a mentor for the GenArm2Z project that supports the Global Goals and young into coding.

Melenie Schatynski

Talk: “Starting your Ed tech Company”

Melenie is an Engineer at Applied & Co-Founder at My Code Kit. She is an Educator and Entrepreneur who spends her time creating beautiful things whilst giving people the tools to be able to do the same.

Vanessa Madu

Talk: “Technology meets Music: How well does a computer understand your singing”

Vanessa is a Mathematics student at Imperial College London. She is very passionate about increasing gender diversity in STEM and inspiring other young women to discover their potential. She is also a social entrepreneur and has founded and co-founded two different initiatives aimed to improve STEM diversity.

Lauren Alie

Talk: “The Art of Programming”

Lauren is a PwC technology degree apprentice aiming to improve diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. She is working on encouraging young people from under-represented backgrounds to consider a career in technology, through her work with Hackathons for Schools Association and being a recruitment ambassador for the PwC technology degree apprenticeship programme.

Neveen Elasar

Talk: “Why I Chose Tech!”

Neveen Elasar is a Platform Engineer/DevOps Consultant with Sparta Global, an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and a Diversity and Inclusion advocate. In her current role, she has been part of the platform engineering team working on automation, productization of tech services through Infrastructure as Code, and aiming towards moving the company to cloud native technologies. With her experience and understanding of the variety of technologies and what it means to be a woman in tech – Neveen hopes to encourage more young people to consider careers in the digital sector.