‘Women in Tech’ focus of lecture series

A lunchtime lecture series featuring some of the country’s top female IT brains will take place in Cork in the hope it will encourage more women into technology, science, and engineering.

A 2012 World Economic Forum Corporate Gender Gap Report reported that a lack of role models remains one of the greatest barriers to increasing the number of women leaders.

The Women in Tech lunchtime series, run by it@cork European Tech Cluster, is hoping to change that by increasing the visibility of “talented women in the ICT sector”.

It@cork European Tech Cluster is a not-for-profit independent business organisation representing the interests of the IT industry in Ireland.

It represents more than 300 member companies with over €250bn revenue globally.

Ruth Buckley, Cork City Council head of IT and business services, said Women in Tech wants to “highlight the careers and interesting work of the remarkable female role models out there”.

The first woman to speak at the series will be Professor Geraldine Boylan, director of the Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (Infant) and professor of neonatal physiology at UCC.

As head of a team at Infant — the Science Foundation-funded research centre at Cork University Maternity Hospital — Prof Boylan will discuss the recently developed computerised algorithm for detecting the signs of brain injury in newborn babies, which is being trialled in a number of countries across Europe.

Prof Boylan will also talk about her career in science, technology, engineering, and maths and the importance of technology in perinatal care.

* The inaugural it@cork Women in Tech quarterly lunchtime series will be held on April 2 at the Clarion Hotel, Cork.