Ada Lovelace Celebration is set to be held on January 2 and 3, 2020, with the aim of connecting all the tech-women of the country in a same platform under the initiative of the Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN). At the birthday of Ada Lovelace, the promoter of computer programming, Ada Lovelace Celebration was inaugurated on December 10, 2019 at the BdOSN office in Dhaka.
Originally, women students, interested in pursuing a career in the information technology sector, will be connected to the event where women personalities in the tech world will be present to encourage them. On January 2 and 3, the event will be a two-day seminar, workshops, policy dialogues with various programs where female students will have the opportunity to take hands on training in the field of skills development, including instruction on building a career in the information technology sector.There will also be a job fair for newly graduated women. There will be an opportunity to submit CVs to reputed companies in the country. For those who wish to study abroad for higher education after graduation, the same platform contains instructional information. There will be programming contests, poster contests etc. Among the new women entrepreneurs, 10 women will get the opportunity to pitch their business ventures.
Lafifa Jamal, President of BWIT and Professor of Robotics and Mechatronics Department of Dhaka University, Munir Hasan, head of Youth Program, the Daily Prothom Alo and general secretary of BDOSN were there to announce the inauguration. 15 female students from different institutions participated in the ceremony. Through a video message, Nova Ahmed, Associate Professor of North South University invited all the women students from across the country to participate in the event. She said, “We can do a lot of things together. Therefore, it is very important for networking with elder and expert people. And this is what we are doing it in the celebration of Ada Lovelace. In this program we will know who are the role models in the technology world, who are working diligently in the education sector, research sector, corporate or technology entrepreneurial world. We will all take inspiration from them to come forward with information technology”.
Munir Hassan said that, despite studying in Information Technology, only 13% women in Bangladesh are working in this sector. This number is now starting to increase. Women are now getting more interested in IoT, robotics, machine learning and more. This will be reflected in the upcoming Ada Lovelace celebration. About 1,000 women students from across the country will participate here. Dr. Lafifa Jamal agreed that, without the equal participation of men and women in information technology, it is not possible to build our digital Bangladesh. She urged all women students to take part in this celebration to get a better idea of where to prove their skills.
On the occasion, women students from different corners of Bangladesh will participate in the event. Details will be found at - http://alc.bdosn.org/ this site. It is worth mentioning that this is being organized under the three year term 'Enabling Sustainable Development Goals for Bangladesh' project of the Bangladesh Open Source Network. Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh (VCPEAB) and Bangladesh Women in Technology (BWIT) are supporting Ada Lovelace celebration.