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2019 European Ada Awards Finalists Announced

On behalf of the 2019 European Ada Awards jury and under the esteemed patronage of of Ms. Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, the Digital Leadership Institute and its partners are thrilled to announce the finalists of the 2019 European Ada Awards !

2019 European Digital Woman of the Year™ Award Finalists:

Nadia Aimé (Belgium)

Once homeless and a school dropout herself, Nadia’s work focuses on improving the lives of vulnerable groups, through education and creating more interest and enthusiasm surrounding careers within entrepreneurship and the digital sector. Today, she is an avid technologist social/tech entrepreneur, educator, a single mom, and studying cyber-security who seeks to help people evolve in a fast-paced world of technology and business. Nadia’s passion for sharing knowledge and constant learning, most especially improving her tech skills which she hones, birthed She Leads Digital, which is a Brussels based tech organization, aims at providing programs and initiatives that foster enthusiasm and encourage women and youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

Dee Saigal (United Kingdom)

Dee Saigal is the Founder, CEO & Creative Director of Erase All Kittens – an adventure game designed to give girls the confidence to code, whilst teaching digital and 21st Century skills. Like many women, Dee grew up believing that careers in technology were more for boys, which is why it took her years to follow her dream of getting into game design – and why she founded EAK. She and her team spent 12 months interviewing hundreds of students before designing their product, in order to create a coding tool that girls genuinely love. EAK has 150,000 players in over 100 countries, and 95% of girls want to learn more about coding after playing. Dee’s goal is for EAK to transform the way that children perceive coding and engineering, and to empower millions of girls worldwide with transferable, digital skills.

Eva Meyer de Stadelhofen (France)

Eva is the 21 year old founder of GirlCode, an international nonprofit who aims to reduce the gender gap in the STEM industry by offering free coding lessons to girls of age 7 to 17 in their schools. She also created a mentorship program through which GirlCode students can meet entrepreneurs, scientists, and all-around girl bosses in order to help them find their STEM superstar. GirlCode, which started as a small club, has rapidly grown these last two years into a worldwide “sisterhood of nerds”, with 304 clubs in 25 different countries and an estimated impact of 81’345 girls as of September 2019. Thanks to her work with her organisation, Eva has recently been chosen by Global Changemakers and the Thomas Reuters Foundation to attend their summits as one of the best entrepreneurs worldwide.

2019 European Digital Girl of the Year™ Award Finalists:

Tayra from Bulgaria (10 year old and under category)

Tayra is 10 years old and was born and lives in Sofia. Besides the gift of learning foreign languages (at the age of 8 she speaks some German, English, Chinese and Turkish), Tayra has another talent in the field of modern computer technologies. At the age of 8 Tayra participated in the  IT Znayko award contest and won a prize for an original idea and, as a member of the Coder Dojo club, won an award from the Bulgarian version of Coolest Projects Sofia 2017. The great victory comes in Dublin, Ireland, at the international competition Coolest Project 2017 involving more than 1,000 children from 17 countries. She won in the Scratch category at Coolest Projects 2017, when she is only 8 years old with her awesome project ABCD Code, which is a Scratch game developed to help children learn about healthy eating and the benefits of fruit and vegetables with the help of Makey Makey. The Healthy Eating project in English and Bulgarian version also became involved in the kindergarten process. She personally organizes and participates in workshops. At the age of 9, on 25.03.2018 she won a special prize from the Softuniada Kids (organized by Software University in Sofia, Bulgaria) with an amazing project (scratch project- “Three bears farytail”with the sign language videos for deaf kids).

Selin from Turkey (11-14 year old category)

Selin  is 13 years old and loves building robots and coding also loves animals and travelling. She started coding when she was 8 years old. Selin won first prize in the Hardware category at Coderdojo’s Coolest Projects International in 2018 with iC4U, her robot guide dog for the visually impaired. She was also a finalist in the Open Innovation category of the European Youth Awards 2018. In 2019 she received a 100% educational scholarship and attended a Robotic and Engineering summer camp held at Stanford University. She is presently working on the second version of her robot guide dog, the Raspberry Pi version and on a robot that aims to make life easier in schools and hospitals. She is hoping that her robot will help to make children’s stay in hospital a little easier if only to make them smile. She codes in Python language.    She is working on integrating image processing, voice control and artificial intelligence assisted dialogue capabilities in her robot project.  her aim is to study robotics at MIT or Stanford University and to build a humanoid. Selin speaks English, Turkish and French, she is also learning Python, C++ and Java. She facilitates workshops, mentors her peers and gives presentations at technology related events in order to inspire others especially girls.  She lives in Istanbul, Turkey with her mum, dad and dog Bailey.

Anne from Belgium (15-17 year old category)

Anne Maelbrancke, 15 years old, student at the Bernardustechnicum Oudenaarde, Belgium. Anne has been a member of Coderdojo Belgium since 2014. In 2015 she was confronted with a friend who had to stay at the hospital for quite a long time. She proposed to start an initiative called Clinicoders (facebook.com/clinicoders) to bring technology and programming to children in the hospital. Monthly, together with friend, she animates children patients with programming and robots.
Clinicoders also donates resources to hospitals to educate technology and programming in their schools. This year a “Clinimakers” initiative has been started to trigger children to build solutions for disabled children.

Alai from Spain (15-17 year old category)

Alai’s passion for STEM began when she was 7 years old. She has experience coding in multiple code languages, and has attended STEM workshops from textile technology to designing and 3D prototyping. In 2019, she was invited to speak at the Amazon Web Services Summit in Madrid to discuss her experience as a girl in technology. Additionally, this past May she was invited by Google to Women TechMakers Alicante to discuss her experience and future projects.

 

Congratulations to the 2019 Ada Awards finalists and all our nominees for their amazing leadership in digital fields in Europe!

Please join us at the Google Digital Atelier in Brussels on 16 October 2019 for the sixth edition of the European Ada Awards ceremony, where we will announce winners of the 2019 awards, with a special opening address by Commissioner Gabriel and a closing reception. This event is open to the public on a strictly first-come-first-served basis, with pre-registration required.

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2016 Digital Woman Award Finalists Named

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2016-17 European Ada Awards that recognise top girls and women in digital studies and careers in Europe, and the organisations who support them! Join us on 8 December 2016 at The Square Brussels for the fourth annual European Ada Awards Ceremony — taking place as part of Garages 2016 and the European Commission’s Vocational Skills Week 2016 — where we will announce the 2016-2017 European Ada Award Winners!

2016-2017 European Digital Woman of the Year™ Award Finalists:

Saskia Van Uffelen has been working in the sector of information and communication technology (ICT) for over 25 years. She has held national and international sales and marketing functions in leading companies such as Xerox, Compaq, HP, Arinso, Bull and CSB Consulting. Thanks to her experience to transform a product driven organization to a provider of services and solutions, Saskia was appointed in 2014 as CEO Belgium and Luxemburg of Ericsson bringing her through the Telecom offer in the heart of the Networked Society.Since 2012, the federal ministry of economic affairs appointed Saskia Van Uffelen as ‘Digital Champion’ for Belgium in support of the mission of the European Commission.

Nuria Oliver is a computer scientist and holds a Ph.D. from the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is one of the most cited female computer scientist in Spain, with her research having been cited by more than 10200 publications. Nuria is well known for her work in computational models of human behavior, human computer-interaction, mobile computing and big data for social good. Nuria is also interested in making science available to the general public. She has been a technology writer for Tecno2000 magazine and ‘El Pais’ newspapers, among others. Her work has been featured on multiple newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations both in Spain and the US.

2016-2017 European Digital Girl of the Year™ Award Finalists:

  • Cerys from England

Cerys is a fourteen-year-old who has a passion for technology. Over the past couple of years she has got very involved with Raspberry Pi Computers and now runs her own raspberry jam in her hometown. She also helps at a code club and visits events right across the UK. There is a growing number of media clips and blogs on the internet that she been involved in, all aiming at getting young people–especially girls–involved in tech. Her motto is “if I can do it, you can too.”

  • Gabi from Croatia

Gabi is fourteen years old and has been programming web and smartphone apps for three years. She builds digital projects and has a passion for creative digital content like music and graphics. Gabi regularly participates in coding activities in school and in her community, especially those reaching out to girls. Her first project was a website to promote ICT to girls and women. Gabi started volunteering at young age and is a member of the school archery club and woodwind orchestra. She is always keen to try new things and believes everybody can be good at something.

2016-2017 European Digital Impact Organisation of the Year™ Award Finalists:

Geek Girls Carrots is a global organisation focused on connecting, learning and inspiring women in Tech and IT. We create community by organising meetings, workshops and other events which gather people to share their knowledge and experience. We bring together female admins, analysts, application architects, developers, graphic designers, IT managers, programmers, social media specialists, system architects, project managers, women with startup ideas, computer science students and many more. Geek Girls Carrots is present in Poland, Germany, USA, Luxembourg, France, Ireland, UK, Japan, Portugal, Gibraltar, Israel, South Korea and Czech Republic. Since 2011, meetings have taken place in 31 cities.

CyberMentor is Germany’s largest online mentoring program for girls in STEM (MINT in German). Up to 800 pupils from 5th to 12th grade are accompanied by a personal mentor for one year. The mentor serves as a role model for STEM activities and provides guidance on the choice of subjects and studies. Mentoring is provided via a protected online platform with mail, chat and forum, and is supported by a wide range of information on STEM, studies and professional choice. Cybermentor has been very successful since 2005: After leaving the program, 71% of all former participants choose an STEM subject as a subject or a course of study.

2016-2017 European Ada Awards Ceremony:

2016-17 European Ada Award Winners will be announced at the fourth annual European Ada Awards Ceremony on 8 December 2016 at The Square Brussels, in celebration of the 201st anniversary of the birth of Lady Ada Lovelace! Public attendance is welcome but registration at this link is required!

 

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2015 European Digital Woman of the Year Finalists

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2015 European Digital Woman of the Year™ Award!

Monique is the Chief Technology Officer for New Frontiers at Cisco that uniquely focuses on empowering women through the intersection of research, economics and technology execution. Her current focus is spearheading an Internet of Women movement as an opportunity for women worldwide to collectively shape the future of the Internet powered by a SHE (Supercritical Human Elevated) technology platform.

Janneke is a female serial technology entrepreneur who, next to her role of Chief Innovation Officer at Improve Digital, also makes big efforts to help other entrepreneurs and is a strong advocate for women in tech. She is mentor for startups, angel investor and regularly speaks at events to share her experience in building a high-growth international technology company. She is co-initiator of Inspiring Fifty, that makes female role models in technology more visible. She recently published a novel for young girls (10-14) to create a role model for them and show them how great and fun technology is and how many possibilities it offers.

In her work, Nicole supports account teams and partners that need her technical expertise. She is passionate about the Internet of Things (IoT), IPv6 and Security, and is currently playing with new technology e.g Sensors in her own home. Nicole is a Champion of Change for her passionate work in the Industrial Automation space, and is a frequent blogger and attendee at the four annual Dutch Hacker Conferences.

 

Join us on 14 December at the 2015 European Ada Awards Dinner — taking place as part of the 15 December “Transforming Europe toward the Digital Age” event in Luxembourg — where we will announce the 2015 European Ada Award-winners in all categories!

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2014 European Finalists

Congratulations to the finalists for 2014 European Digital Woman of the Year™ Award!

martine  Initially Martine studied philosophy because she wanted to learn about people and life. Afterwards she did a degree in business administration, where she learned about the technical knowledge on the job and discovered that she is more a “techie” than a philosopher. However, according to Martine, it is the combination of her technical insight and philosophical approach that has helped her a lot to become who she is.  Among many other accomplishments, Martine is Member of Executive Committee of BEL20 Company Telenet, Senior Vice president of Telenet For Business, with an annual 350Mio turnover, and responsibility for 300 employees.  She launched CoderDojo Belgium with 25 clubs in Belgium for children from the age of 7, where about 900 children attend coding workshops every month.

cathrin  Cathrin joined DANTE in 1997, after studying a degree in International Business. She had stumbled upon an advert in the Guardian which said: “Not for profit organisation, cutting edge Internet technology, looking for a new member of staff with an international profile.” During the interview Cathrin realised she was more than a little out of her depth. DANTE had 11 employees and was much like a typical internet start-up at the time, albeit in the not-for-profit sector. Their goal was ambitious – to organise and operate a European research and education networking infrastructure. Excited by the challenge and the potential benefits this network could bring to society, she famously stated: “I can learn that” and got the job on the spot.  Among may global accomplishments, Cathrin is project manager of the DEVCO funded AfricaConnect project which builds the first ever telecommunications infrastructure crossing borders in the African continent, and she plays a leading role in the GÉANT project, a collaboration between 41 European partners. GÉANT plays a crucial part in the European Commission’s Excellent Science: e-infrastructures program with a vital role to ensure Horizon 2020 project participants are able to collaborate, share and access data, discuss and learn together, and test their innovations across the network unimpeded.

esther  From a young age, Esther was leaning towards technology. Her family still remembers how she would play for hours with any electronic toy or how enthusiastic she was when assembling a new toy like pirate ship from Playmobil. Throughout, science and mathematics were always a passion for her and it was something that she never lost. When faced with the university studies choice she was told may times that engineering was a difficult path. She also saw that it was a manly male dominated environment. However, she never hesitated and followed her heart even with all the bias that she was faced with.  There was no specific role model that inspired her. It is actually this lack of female role models that drives her today to be a role model herself for people currently working or studying. That also driver her petition to the entertainment industry.  Among many achievements, Esther has launched “WISE EMEA” – ‘Women in Science and Engineering’ is a Cisco employee recourse group which includes 200 members across all countries in EMEA; and WIN, ‘Women in Networking,’ – a group of female technical support engineers that aims to attract, build and retain strong female technical support engineers, which includes than 100 female engineers.

  • Valentina Dagiene, BEBRAS Founder & PhD Professor in Physical Sciences (Informatics), from Lithuania

ValentinaValentina is impassioned about technology for two reasons:  She has had a passion to support rural education with modern technologies since her homeland, Lithuania, became independent in 90s and there was a huge demand to reshape education by integrating modern technologies in schools.  And, she had a wish to support talented children, especially in mathematics and information technology. After Lithuanian independence, Valentina started many initiatives for bringing digital technologies to children, including BEBRAS, an online platform to teach technology to kids that has reached 40 countries around the world and more than 5 million children. She initiated bringing Lithuanians to the international Olympiad in Informatics in 1992.  In the early days, Valentina organized Olympiads in Informatics for school pupils in Lithuania, and then she established the Baltic Olympiads in Informatics in 1996.  She is  founder of two international journals, author of over 200 scientific publications and of 60 textbooks on Informatics & Education of Informatics.

Join us at the 2014 European Ada Award Ceremony – taking place as part of the “e-Skills – Making a Career with Digital Technologies” event on 30 October 2014 in Rome, Italy – where we will announce the 2014  European Digital Girl of the Year™!e-skills_week_logo

 

 

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Finalists for 2013 European Ada Awards Announced

Congratulations to the first-ever finalists for Europe’s Ada Awards, recognizing top girls and women in digital fields, and the organisations that support them!

European 2013 Digital Woman of the Year™ Award Finalists:

SashaSasha is founder of both the European Centre for Women and Technology and the Bulgarian Centre of Women in Technology, having launched the latter at end 2012. During her career as a global executive for Hewlett-Packard, Sasha succeeded in attracting key investment in the ICT sector in Bulgaria that resulted in thousands of new digital jobs. She is responsible for launching and actively contributing to a multitude of outreach activities that aim to inspire girls and women to pursue digital careers in Bulgaria and beyond.

Carrie Anne is leading change in the way computing is taught at schools across the UK through her work with the department for Education, the Raspberry Pi Foundation and computing at school. She is engaged in projects to inspire girls and other minority groups into computing and tackling teaching resources that currently disenfranchise young girls and women. For the second year in a row, Carrie Anne’s initiative Geek Gurl Diaries has been nominated for a digital heroes award. She is also writing a fun tech book for teenagers about Raspberry Pi to engage all regardless of gender.

gekeGeke is co-author of “Ronde vormen in IT” (Shapely Curves in IT), a book about the careers of women in ICT environments and the importance of the feminine touch. She is founder of “Female Ambassadors in ICT,” ForceFive, the first Dutch “Women in ICT” survey, and the CIAO Academy, a new Dutch education program that aims at streaming talented, career-aged women into creative roles aligning ICT and business.

European 2013 Digital Girl of the Year™ Award Finalists:

  • Amy from Manchester

14-year-old Amy has been coding for three years and has inspired people of all ages with her keynote speeches at the Raspberry Jamboree, Campus Party EU and Wired: Next Generation. She teaches older pupils how to code during her school lunch breaks and with the Manchester Girl Geeks.

Lune develops her own games and interactive movies with CoderDojo. She designs robots and dreams of becoming an engineer. At nine years of age, she is already a true digital visionary and has a track-record of getting girls her age excited about digital endeavor.

 

At 13, Olina Helga has taught both children and teachers the basics of programming. She has blogged for Little Miss Geek in the UK, been nominated to speak at TED and showcased as a keynote speaker at Iceland’s largest IT conferences. She especially enjoys seminars for girls that combine the basics in programming and building up self-confidence.

2013 European Digital Impact Organisation of the Year™ Finalists:

berlingeekettesThe Berlin Geekettes are a community of women dedicated to helping aspiring and established female tech innovators. They believe that the more women get involved with tech design, development and leadership, the more successful and diverse our companies and products will be in the future.

ciscoAs part of its Inclusion & Diversity commitment, Cisco undertakes a range of activities around the world to support girls in making ICT relevant study choices. This includes the 2013 “Tech Needs Girls” campaign where Cisco sponsored a competition for school-age girls in Belgium to design a mobile application thus creating a great vehicle for introducing girls to ICT careers and ICT studies.

htwThe Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft is Berlin’s largest University of applied sciences. In 2009, HTW inaugurated an innovative women-only bachelor program, “Frauenstudiengang Informatik und Wirtschaft”, aimed at increasing leadership for women in technology. The program accepts forty applicants every year and celebrated its first graduating class in 2012.

Join us at ICT 2013 on 7 November in Vilnius, Lithuania where Ms. Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President responsible for the Digital Agenda, will announce the 2013 Digital Woman of the Year™, Digital Girl of the Year™ and Digital Impact Organisation of the Year™!