PENANG Women and Family Development, Gender Inclusiveness and Non-Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Chong Eng has called on women to venture into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.
“Women’s participation in STEM fields is only 30% as of today. We need more women to strive and venture into STEM. I believe that women have to work at the frontier of STEM.
“We want to apply gender inclusiveness to all levels of decision-making. When men and women work together, things can be seen from a wider perspective,” she said during her opening speech at the ‘Women in Zcience’ (WIZ) programme held at Tech Dome Penang today.
She said that many women had made enormous contribution in the field of STEM.
The Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) and Tech Dome Penang jointly organised the WIZ programme, with the support of Intel for the third time.
The two-day event drew some 700 students from nine schools and a college in Penang. Among the science workshops lined up for the participants were ‘Tello Drone Scratch Programming Workshop’, ‘Robot Golfer’,’Introduction of Artificial Intellingence’, ‘Digital Futures Programme’, ‘TRIZ’, ‘Young Engineers: Engineering is fun!’ and ‘FUN-damentals of Engineering’.
Keynote speaker and IT expert Chong Chye Neo, who was formerly from IBM, said that most jobs would be taken over by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation in the future.
“It is vital to equip yourself with future skills as that is the way forward.
Tech Dome Penang chief executive officer Dr Khong Yoon Loong said students who could master both science and arts would have the extra advantage.
Meanwhile, Tech Dome Penang is also offering the STEM Nurturing Intensified Program – SNIP to students in which they need to meet certain criteria to participate.
For more details, visit http://www.techdomepenang.org/ or call 04-262 6663 or 04-251 9915.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud