The Australian Computer Society has awarded Canberra’s Dr Su-En Williams the Leoni Warne Medal for the promotion of women in ICT for her work and action as an advocate for increasing female participation in STEM subjects at school.
 
The Leoni Warne Medal recognises the contribution of individuals acting above and beyond their official employment to promote women in the ICT industry.
 
“Su-En is passionate about encouraging women into ICT careers. She has gained support from and worked with teachers across the ACT to design opportunities to change the demographics and increase female participation in STEM,” ACS Canberra Branch Chair Michael Hawkins said. 
 

“Su-En has been instrumental in bringing the Girls Programming Network to Canberra, providing workshops for students in primary and high school to improve computational thinking and coding skills.”
 
The Girls Programming Network is an extra-curricular program run by girls, for girls. The tutors are a mix of University IT students (from the University of Sydney and others) as well as professional software engineers from companies like Google and Atlassian. The Network aims to inspire and support girls interested in computers and technology.
 
The Network is open to all ACT female students from the aged of 8 to 18. The 2016 workshops facilitated by Su-En began with a handful of students and by year's end had increased to nearly 60 students per workshop.
 
“As part of her drive to see more women in all ICT positions, Su-En has also developed weekend workshops for women who want to learn ICT skills in a safe and welcoming environment. As a leader, Su-en always ensures that each participant is paired up with a more experienced mentor to assist and support their skills development!” Michael said.
 
“Su-En is affirming, enthusiastic and passionate about increasing the number of women working in the ICT industry and we are proud to have her in our local community and to have her as a Leoni Warne Medal recipient.”

Header image by Amanda Kelly Photography