Another Alumni Talks Women Edition took place on March 8, at Técnico – Alameda campus. Seven alumnae accepted the challenge of returning to Técnico to share their experiences and the challenges they faced as women in a male dominated environment.
Isabel Dias, the vice-president of Técnico for Financial Management, opened the session by emphasising “the importance of women for Técnico and the need to attract them more and more to engineering”.
The alumnae who attended the event were Maria Carrilho (Applied Mathematics and Computing, responsible for the E2E Transformation at Santander), Marta Sousa e Silva (Environmental Engineering, Project Manager at Xylem, Inc. ), Inês Lynce (Computer Science and Engineering, professor at Técnico, president of INESC-ID and member of the Gender Balance @Técnico group), Sara Guerreiro de Sousa (Applied Mathematics and Computation, Innovation Product Manager @ Unbabel Labs & Centre for Responsible AI), Lara Próspero (Engineering Physics, Global Director – L&D Delivery Excellence at Microsoft), Joana Pinto (Biomedical Engineering, Co-founder and CEO of Clynx Health) and Mariana Marques (Aerospace Engineering, CAMO Engineer at EuroAtlantic Airway).
Inês Lynce, representing the Gender Balance @Técnico working group, recalled “the important role of women in Técnico” and, in an interactive moment, distributed cards to all those present with the definition of sorority, a word that “despite existing in Latin and English for a long time, has only recently been introduced into our vocabulary”.
The participants talked about their careers, highlighting not only the success they had achieved but also the obstacles they had to overcome in a field where gender equality is still a goal to be achieved.
Pedro Amaral, the vice-president Técnico for Corporate Interface, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, closed the event and thanked the audience: “Técnico is very proud to be able to organise events that value women, especially on such an important day (International Women’s Day)”.
The event aimed to provide an open space for fundamental discussions on gender equality and inclusion in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), and an inspiration for the students present.
