POWER OF DATA AND WOMEN’S POTENTIAL – YOUNG BANGLADESHI WOMEN COMPETE TO CONQUER THE DATA WORLD

Bangladesh has recently witnessed a historic breakthrough in women’s empowerment through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) with its very first, one-of-a-kind nationwide all-women Datathon from 26th-28th January 2021 led by HerWILL – Women Inspired in Life and Leadership. It was a part of The Ada Lovelace Celebration 2021 organized by BdOSN. The Datathon was prefaced with Data Science workshops to teach the fundamentals of Data Science to help contestants succeed. 177 technology students from 21 districts and 27 Technical Universities of Bangladesh had participated in the workshops and the Datathon.

Was this a dream? Believe us, it surely was the dream of the founding team who wanted to bring such a sophisticated event to Bangladeshi girls and women. We look at the proud faces of these brilliant girls and we keep saying that the “sky is the limit” is an understatement. We were touched, honored, and simply awestruck by the hardworking, talented, and dedicated winners of the Datathon – Reeshoon, Fardifa, Tahiya, Nowshin, and Tasfia from Team Reinforced Noobs; Anisha, Priyeta, Adiba and Muntaka from Team Tessera; Rabeya, Tapotee, Purnata, and Adrita from Team DU Hurukka.

To echo Queen B, “who run the world? GIRLS.” This is true for all the winners here who have the potential to be the queens in the world of STEM. Reflecting on her experience, Tanzeem Haque, shared, “I am honored and blown away by the brilliance of the teams and for the opportunity to mentor them. The girls have every right and reason to be proud of themselves”. Now what exactly is HerWILL and what do we do here? In a nutshell, HerWILL – Women Inspired in Life and Leadership, is a US-based women’s empowerment social enterprise with the goal of achieving true gender equality by 2030 (UN SDG 5) through education, discussions, advocacy, and innovative technology. We walk the talk when we say that we value gender equality, women’s empowerment, cooperation, and collaborative success. We envision to create a world of equal opportunities where women have the freedom to reach their true potentials at every stage of life and career. With its multi-fold initiatives, HerWILL is working relentlessly to foster cross-cultural knowledge sharing and partnerships to build a one-stop-shop of resources to make women successful.