Shining a spotlight on women in sensing
The NSSN was delighted to host the first event in a new series aimed at shining a spotlight on women in sensing at Macquarie University this week.
The Women in Sensing series focuses both on women in sensing – the researchers, entrepreneurs, founders and leaders driving innovation in smart sensing; and on sensing for women – sensing technologies that respond to the particular needs of women.
The inaugural meeting in the series focussed on FemTech and interrogated the opportunities and challenges in this growing space addressing the complex health issues faced by women.
“FemTech includes the research, ideas and devices that are making the lives of women everywhere better, helping them to take control of their own health, and helping to address some of the gender disparities in healthcare” said Dr Jill Freyne, NSSN Board Member and CSIRO Deputy Chief Scientist.
“Collaboration that not only draws together universities, industry and government but which fundamentally puts women at the centre of technological innovation will lead to better health, social and economic outcomes for women” said Dr Freyne.
NSSN Board Member and CSIRO Deputy Chief Scientist, Dr Jill Freyne
Prof. Lucy Marshall, incoming Executive Dean of Science & Engineering at Macquarie University opened the event
The event was opened by Professor Lucy Marshall, outgoing Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Engineering at UNSW and incoming Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Macquarie University. The opening address was followed by an expert panel of women researchers and entrepreneurs including:
Allira Hudson-Gofers, Principal and Practice Group Leader - Engineering and ICT Patents, Spruson & Ferguson (moderator)
Dr Aleisha Davis, Chief Clinical Officer, The Shepherd Centre
Professor Bamini Gopinath, Cochlear Chair in Hearing and Health and Professor, Macquarie University Hearing
Dr Noushin Nasiri, Head of the NanoTech Laboratory, Macquarie University & NSSN Ambassador
Dr Rowena Mobbs, Specialist Clinician - Neurologist, Macquarie University Clinical Associates, Centre for Ageing, Cognition, and Wellbeing
Dr Marlien Varnfield, Principal Research Scientist and Group Leader, CSIRO
Dr Melina Georgousakis, Founder, Franklin Wome
The engaging panel discussion touched on a range of issues impacting FemTech.
“Women are very well represented across the health industry but are not necessarily the ones leading research programs or start-ups” said Melina Georgeousakis, Founder of Franklin Women. “We have no problem getting women into health but not so well supporting their career development. We have a responsibility as a sector to look at the issue through a gendered lens to see why women aren’t getting more opportunities.”
NSSN Ambassador and Head of the NanoTech Laboratory at Macquarie University, Dr Noushin Nasiri posed that the solution lies in education.
“Despite our advances, we are still far from equal. In 2021, only 16% of Australian engineering students are female and only 12% of engineers in the workplace are women” said Dr Nasiri. “Quite simply, there are not enough female entrepreneurs and innovators in the world. The whole system needs to be changed from the very early stages to encourage and support more women in tech innovation.”
Dr Nasiri continued, “Technology is often not designed with women in mind. It is often designed for human use but too often that user is a man.” The panel agreed that if more women were involved and consulted in the technological innovation process the user experience for females would be considerably improved.
The NSSN Women in Sensing series will be a regular feature of the NSSN calendar moving forward, with plans for a second event in November.