what is oxWEST?
OxWEST (Oxford Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology) is one of the largest student-led societies at the University of Oxford. We promote gender equality in STEM subjects by supporting women studying or working in these fields, spreading awareness of diversity issues in STEM, and encouraging community members to become advocates.
What we do
Snapshots from Past events
WOMEN IN SCIENCE SERIES - diversity in engineering
On 26th January, Dr Nike Folayan joined us as part of our Women in Science series, discussing diversity in engineering.
Being an engineering consultant, she has worked with teams all over the world and has observed how innovation comes from the most diverse groups. To promote diversity within engineering, she founded the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, which supports students in high school and university.
None of this has been easy. Nike was constantly faced with challenges, but she sees being a black woman in a very white environment as a chance to educate those around her and we learned a lot from hearing about her personal experiences.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
Being an engineering consultant, she has worked with teams all over the world and has observed how innovation comes from the most diverse groups. To promote diversity within engineering, she founded the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, which supports students in high school and university.
None of this has been easy. Nike was constantly faced with challenges, but she sees being a black woman in a very white environment as a chance to educate those around her and we learned a lot from hearing about her personal experiences.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
Fantastic or Frightening: The Future of Artificial Intelligence
On 4th February, OxWEST had the honour of hosting Kathy Gong, Elena Sinel and Professor Sandra Wachter to speak at our Panel ‘Fantastic or Frightening: The Future of Artificial Intelligence’.
Kathy, Elena and Sandra shared their insights on the benefits and limitations of AI. The discussion touched upon the potential AI has to positively impact medicine and education, but also the regulation challenges and the struggle to keep up with the technology’s accelerating progress. There is much to be done to eliminate bias in AI where we can, but our speakers left us with some inspiring messages to take away.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
Kathy, Elena and Sandra shared their insights on the benefits and limitations of AI. The discussion touched upon the potential AI has to positively impact medicine and education, but also the regulation challenges and the struggle to keep up with the technology’s accelerating progress. There is much to be done to eliminate bias in AI where we can, but our speakers left us with some inspiring messages to take away.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
Women in Science series - INTERVIEW WITH DR. ELLEN STOFAN
On 18th February, OxWEST has the pleasure of being joined by Dr. Ellen Stofan for our Women in Science interview series.
Ellen shared her wide range of experiences with us, from growing up attending rocket launches to being a rare scientist in the engineering organisation of NASA and working in her current role at the National Air and Space Museum. We discussed commercialisation of space, the prospect of humans on Mars and learnt that humans won’t be leaving our solar system any time soon, unless we take a leaf out of the television show ’Expanse’ and invent warpdrive. There is still much to be done to encourage women into the field of space science but Ellen gave us encouraging advice and told us about her own efforts to raise the profile of the important, but often overlooked, work done by women in this field.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
Ellen shared her wide range of experiences with us, from growing up attending rocket launches to being a rare scientist in the engineering organisation of NASA and working in her current role at the National Air and Space Museum. We discussed commercialisation of space, the prospect of humans on Mars and learnt that humans won’t be leaving our solar system any time soon, unless we take a leaf out of the television show ’Expanse’ and invent warpdrive. There is still much to be done to encourage women into the field of space science but Ellen gave us encouraging advice and told us about her own efforts to raise the profile of the important, but often overlooked, work done by women in this field.
If you missed the event but would like to watch the recording, follow this link!
OUR SPONSORS
Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support! If you are interested in sponsoring our society, please reach out to us here.