by Shannon Cuykendall keeps a presentation about her research on generative artificial intelligence with one hand, while she keeps her six -month -old son in the other.
Cuykendall is a postdoctoral researcher at the IVIZ laboratory at Simon Fraser University, a man-dominated area of the majority more and more frauen-Ki-Labor.
According to the federal government, women make up less than a quarter of people who are employed in the career of the MINT career (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). 75 percent of the IVIZ laboratory researchers in Surrey, BC, are women.
“It is not looked down to bring your children to the laboratory if they need,” said Cuykendall in an interview with CBC News.
An academic, gender, diversity and inclusion researched in Stem, says that Labors should take note of the SFU laboratory across the country.
“If an environment is created in which women can be successful, all types of women with all life experiences and all different needs can be successful, which is really incredible,” said Lisa Willis, assistant professor for biosciences at the University of Alberta.
“This shows other laboratories that it can be done. We have ideas on how things can be implemented in our own laboratories.”
Shannon Cuykendall, a postdoctoral researcher at the Iviz Lab, keeps a presentation on her AI research. (Murray Titus/CBC)
Chances
Women still only make up a third of the global scientific community, with the percentage stagnating in the past ten years, according to a report by UNESCO 2024 (educational, science and cultural organization of the United Nations). In some countries, less than 10 percent of researchers are women.
You only have 22 percent of the MINT workstations in G20 countries and only one ten in management positions.
While progress has been made, sexism is still a problem in Stem fields, which according to Willis is often perceived as male areas. She said that many women and girls feel like not belonging to the MINT.
The SFU laboratory currently has eight researchers -six women and two men who work on their master’s degree and doctoral students. There are also four female students who research as part of their studies. Former researchers have taken on management roles at technology companies and in science.
“It is cool to have so much cooperation with people who have an understanding of what it is to be someone who is marginalized in this area, and it is cool to see other women who are also interested in technology,” said the PhD candidate and Iviz researcher Julia.
O’clock | How the AI laboratory from SFU defies the trunk gender gap:
The researchers say that the laboratory is their community, a place full of mentoring, friendship and the flexibility that is necessary to reconcile other aspects of their lives.
“I took a few years to take care of my daughter and I came back to school and [the lab] My personal needs is very supportive, ”said doctoral student Mehae Song.
Song currently uses AI improvements, portable sensors to collect physiological data that can help people practice meditation and mindfulness. Her 16-year-old daughter comes to the laboratory with her and helps her with research by wearing the sensors.
“I think our research is so interesting because it is very organic. We bring many of our personal experiences into research,” said Song.
Charlotte Hou works on a AI model to help women neglect increases with their boss. (Yasmine Ghania/CBC)
Use AI to get an increase
The master student Charlotte Hou, who previously received a master in negotiating and conflict resolution from Columbia University, develops a AI model that can negotiate women in the corporate world.
Users can speak back and forth with a male boss until the AI figure agrees to give them an increase and enable women to gain trust in a realistic but low-risk attitude, said Hou.
“I wanted to enable women … to fight for what they deserve,” she said, adding that women could also use the AI model to practice for interviews or other opportunities to advance their career.
“Many of us think that AI is such a threat, but that’s completely wrong because AI is an assistant and that’s why we use them to help women,” she said.
The daughter of the doctoral candidate Mehae Song, right, wears a sensor on her forehead to help her mother on the left with her AI research. (Yasmine Ghania/CBC)
“I just like to work with clever people.”
The SFU laboratory is headed by Steve Dipaola, the director of the university’s cognitive science program. He says he recruited many female researchers who showed a lot of potential in his lectures but were shy.
“They nod at the right time and just go to them and say: ‘Hey, you would be good in it,” said Dipaola.
But he says he knows that as a man he has to go a fine line.
“How do you do that in a way that is not overwhelming? I always think about these problems, although I generally only like to work with clever people,” said Dipaola.
Willis, assistant professor of the University of Alberta, would like to see more programs, the girls are interested in young years and for people in management positions in order to continue talking about the gender -specific inequalities in the fields.
Lisa Willis, assistant professor for biosciences at the University of Alberta, says, although more women are now in a stem, there is still work to give women a welcome feeling in these rooms. (Emily A. Agard)
Willis says she tries to create an inviting environment in her Glyco immunology Lab. She has a code of conduct on her website, which partially “offensive behavior or comments on gender, gender identity and expression … are not welcome”.
“So anyone looking for me can see my website, see that I take care of people as people and if this is something you are interested in, then turn to me. And the number of women who turn to me is astronomical,” she said.
Your laboratory is currently 100 percent women.
“This is not because I scream out men,” she said. “It is because women want to work somewhere where they are seen and appreciated and be successful.”
