The very first ever Ada Lovelace Celebration, organized by Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN), ended yesterday, 3rd January in Dhaka. Hosted by the University of Asia Pacific the Celebration was organized under the theme “Celebrating Digital Bangladesh with Women in Technology”. The festival was inaugurated on January 2 by Tagore Song "Ekla Chalo Re" and the recitation of the poem "Nari" of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam to encourage our female to lead their way.
With around 300 young female students of various universities from all over the Bangladesh participated in this Celebration by the name of Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer. At different times of the whole festival, the female experts of IT and ICT industries have joined the Celebration and discussed about the ways forward of the ICT based careers in Bangaldesh. Mohammad Rafayat Ali, a Ph.D student of the University of Rochester, conducted the Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing Workshop. Awalin Sopan, Dr. Jasmine Jones, Nasreen Jahan, Syeda Lammim Ahad participated in Skype sessions from outside the country.
One of the important segments of the Celebration was the session named ‘Honoring the Pioneer’. On January 2, at the end of the day, eight female personalities of the country was honored who have contributed in various ways to the information technology of our country. Among them Dr. Fahmida Nilufer Chowdhury, Program Director of the National Science Foundation of the United States, Dr. Yasmin Haque, Professor of Physics at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Luna Shamsuddoha, former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Janata Bank Limited and Chairman of the software firm Dohatek New Media, the first female Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Nazneen Sultana, our first female programmer, Shaheda Mustafiz, Dr. Jesmin, Professor of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology department of Dhaka University, Kashfia Ahmed, CEO and Chairman of Win Incorporated and Winmiyaki Limited and Mahmud Nazin, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) et al have come and shared their journey to encourage the new prospective female students.
A job fair was also arranged on the first day at the plaza area of the university with the participation of BACCO, Wedevs, Bangladesh Women in Technology (BWIT), DohaTech, Creative IT, D.Net, Skylark Soft Ltd., Onnorokom, Workstation 101, Interactive Artifact and many more. Career sessions were also conducted by EMK center, Kazi IT and Call Center Augmedix. Robotics and programming camp were also arranged for the school students and they participated in a Robot Show in the closing ceremony of the Celebration.
At the end of the two-day event, a prize giving ceremony took place for the winners of the National Girls’ Programming Contest and Poster Contest. The Championship trophy of the National Girls’ Programming Contest of 2020 was awarded to the Sylhet team 'Last Tries' of Metropolitan University. Poster competition Champion was awarded to the student of North South University, Taposhi Rabeya. The winners were awarded certificates, trophies, and cash prizes.
Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB), Bangladesh Women in Technology (BWIT), Internet Society Bangladesh Chapter, HerStory, Bangladesh Computer Association, Amber IT, Walletmatix, Programming Platform and many other organizations collaborated with this Celebration.