By Salma Atta
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH – In collaboration with Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society (UPE), the American University of Sharjah’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) held a virtual panel discussion featuring working women in CSE on March 22.
Under the title of “Women in CSE,” Hend ElGhazaly, Naiyarah Hussain, Alia ElKattan, and Salsabeel Shapsough presented a session about the challenges and opportunities of working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The presenters started the session with a short introduction about themselves and their previous experiences in STEM majors and careers. ElGhazaly, a lab instructor in the CSE department, asked the other hosts, “What do you think you have done as a student that helped you or prepared you in your current position?” Hussain, a lead developer advocate at IBM, said that university education only was not helpful enough, so she approached self-learning which included online courses.
Speaking about the gap between males and females in CSE and the male domination of the field, ElGhazaly asked her colleagues, “Why do you think there is such a gap?” Hussain shared her thoughts and said that the field was female dominant but when people started to realize that CSE is a valuable field, they became biased towards hiring more men.
At the end of the event, the hosts answered the audience’s questions and inquiries.
The event took place on Blackboard Collaborate at 6-7:00 p.m.
