Marianella Chamorro-Koc knows how important different perspectives are to innovation and success.
The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) industrial design lecturer has co-created a pain metric device for paediatric care that the state’s health department is implementing as a touch point for nurses when assessing children in emergency rooms.
The device is similar to an iPad and can be used by children to indicate the level of pain they are in.
Dr Chamorro-Koc said different ways of looking at problems, including from a female point of view, were vital.
On Saturday the seventh International Day of Women and Girls in Science will be marked.
It was established by the United Nations General Assembly to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls.
QUT’s STEM the Tide project found women made up less than a quarter of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, despite the fact that 75 per cent of future careers will require some level of STEM literacy.
Dr Chamorro-Koc said the day was important because low female participation rates in science careers were not due to a lack of interest but a lack of exposure.
“My personal [professional journey] is one of many examples of how women can enjoy a career in science and technology,” she said.
“I started in design and had to do a unit in engineering, but I couldn’t conceive using design to create something engineering-related.
“But now my friends call me an engineer artist.
“Those technology-driven projects are still more male-dominated but there are many ways in which you can develop careers.
“Women don’t have to be engineers or astronomers — you can be something interesting [and still use] science.”
Applying technology to create a device that is used in the female-heavy health industry was important for Dr Chamorro-Koc.
She relished working on delivering something useful where is was most needed.
“In my work, I see a very real issue with research focusing on men, disadvantaging women,” Dr Chamorro-Koc.
“To improve these statistics, we need to include more scientific research about women, conducted by women.
“It’s about different perspectives, backgrounds, cultures — these all lead to different ideas.
“Healthcare is traditionally, and continues to be, an area where most professional staff are female.
“When we apply tech into health solutions, we really need that input from a female perspective.
“How can we innovate tech in a way that’s supportive for people?”
Building in Silicon Valley
Tammy Bryant Butow first used the internet back in 1996 as a 12-year-old and “immediately knew the internet was the future and wanted to be involved in building it”.
She is now revolutionising digital reliability for companies including Gremlin, NAB and Apple through her work as a chaos engineer, which involves solving tech problems for businesses from behind the scenes.
“There were no girls building the internet, which made me want to study computer science at uni,” Ms Bryant Butow said.
“I built my first database in grade eight in Australia and [eventually my career] took me to Silicone Valley, where I lead a team with millions of customers.
“The people I’ve met are amazing.
“I’ve got to work with people who built Netflix, Facebook — it’s so inspiring when you get to work with those people.
“I’ve got to travel the world, too — to places like Paris, Sweden, London.
“In tech, you can travel a lot, work remotely — you’re not stuck in an office and it’s always changing and evolving.”
But back when Ms Bryant Butow’s passion was starting to grow, she would have relished having more women to talk to about coding skills with and someone to mentor her.
She is the founder of Girl Geek Academy, a global movement that aims to teach one million women technology skills by 2025.
“When I was at university, there really wasn’t a good parity at all,” Ms Bryant Butow said.
“I would attend academic events, like hack-a-thons, and in a whole amphitheatre of attendees, I would be one of a handful of women.
“Positive change is in motion — since 2015 female enrolment in STEM programs has increased by two per cent and women holding key management roles has increased by five per cent, but I’d still love to see more girls and women getting involved.”