This day occurs annually on 11 February and aims to commemorate the vital role of women in the world of science and to promote their access to science education. Registration is required for the Become a Woman Scientist Day event - female high school students have until January 31, 2024 to register.
The Czech Republic has long been one of the EU countries with the lowest proportion of women in science. According to information from the current yearbook of the Czech Statistical Office, 115,100 men worked in science and technology in 2021, but only 43,300 women.
The disproportion is also clearly visible in technical fields, where 10,526 women studied in the same year, while total number of students was 26,467. Overall, the number of students in technical fields is decreasing. However, in the natural sciences, for example, the number of female students outnumbered male students. While there were 13,200 girls, there were 10,300 boys. However, this is still only slightly reflected in the final representation of women in science.
The lack of women in research and higher education is due to a number of factors, including the often persistent stereotypes and the imaginary division of disciplines into "male" and "female". Breaking down these prejudices and inspiring female high school students to study science and engineering is the main goal of Become a Woman Scientist for a Day. It will be held for the ninth time this year.
What's going to happen?
According to Dr. Jaroslava Óbertová, a scientist and the main organizer of the event, the programme is again a bit richer than last year. "We have two new exercises on offer. One of them will introduce the students to working with an electron microscope, the other will take them to the state-of-the-art HiLase laser workplace in Dolní Břežany. Another new feature is an evening programme organised by the EPS Young Minds association," described Dr Óbertová.
The event will kick off with a morning series of lectures by female scientists and students from CTU FJFI and CTU FEL. This part will take place in the FJFI building on Trojanova Street in Prague. Dr. Mária Marčišovská from the Department of Physics of FJFI will introduce the world of elementary particles and her related research in the field of radiation resistant semiconductor detectors of ionizing radiation to the students. Professor Edita Pelantová from the Department of Mathematics of FJFI has prepared a lecture whose title is - Can we trust our own calculator?
An interesting project will be presented by Bc. Kateřina Poláková, student of cybernetics and robotics at CTU FEL. "As part of my internship at VALEO, I developed an application for driving a passenger car using a tablet," Kateřina Poláková described the topic of the lecture.
There will be a panel discussion with four female scientists at noon. Prof. Helena Jelínková, an expert in lasers, Dr. Katarína Křížková Gajdošová, an expert in particle physics, and Dr. Monika Kučeráková, who researches the physical properties of rocks and metals and their applications, will present their journey into the world of science and what they are currently doing. The representative of FEL will be Dr. Michaela Valentová. "In my professional activities, I am now focusing on promoting energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources," said Dr. Valentová, adding that she sees climate change and sustainability as one of the biggest challenges of our time.
Science in practice
In the afternoon, high school students will literally "touch" science in science workshops of their choice. For example, Ing. Sara Haidlová from FJFI will explain how to analyse data collected from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider LHC at the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research CERN. They will then evaluate the experimental results during a video conference moderated by scientists directly from CERN - and compare their results with those of groups from different universities.
Aneta Pjatkanová, a student of mathematical physics at FJFI, will show how the mathematical tool Modulo simplifies calculations with large numbers during her course. And Ing. Magdaléna Parýzková will introduce them to the basic principles of quantum information processing.
The capacity of both novelty workshops is currently full. "At the HiLase Centre we are involved in the design of high-power lasers and their applications. One of the possible applications is interference microstructuring - writing an interference field into a sample, as a result of which it is possible to change the wettability or reflectivity of a surface," said Ing. Dominika Jochcová, who is in charge of this workshop. "As part of the exercise, it will be possible to try out work in the laser laboratory - we will focus on the interference phenomenon, which we will investigate through the Mach-Zehnder interferometer," added the scientist.
Scientists and students from Faculty of Electrical Engineering are again preparing interesting workshops. "At the exercise we will talk a little about the state of photovoltaics in our country and in the world, what is being worked on, and also about community energy, which is a very hot topic in our country right now. In addition, we will make a solar lamp that each participant can take home as a piece of green energy," said photovoltaic expert Dr Ladislava Černá about the content of her course.
Even complete beginners will be introduced to programming by members of the faculty association wITches, which popularizes IT. "You will learn how to use variables, strings, conditions and loops in the Python programming language at the workshop. Besides, you will find out what is hidden under mysterious abbreviations like API or HTTP. We will practice the acquired knowledge right afterwards and create an application that will predict the user's age based on public data and the user's name," described Margarita Tkachenko, a member of the association.
Next, students will be guided by PhD student Ing. Jindřiška Deckerová from the Department of Computers at FEL in a course to learn how to program a walking robot. The prerequisite for participation in this workshop is a basic knowledge of the Python programming language.
Detailed programme and information about speakers can be found at: https://www.fjfi.cvut.cz/cz/media-a-verejnost/akce-pro-stredni-skoly/vedkyne
More photos from the last year are on the CTU website: https://media.cvut.cz/cs/foto/20230210-stan-se-na-den-vedkyni
https://media.cvut.cz/cs/foto/20230210-stan-se-na-den-vedkyni-fel