06/04/2018
The BCS Lovelace Colloquium celebrates women in computer science, tech, and other related fields. During my Masters I decided to submit the poster I created for my Bioinformatics Summer project (2017). I had already previously submitted an abstract based on my undergraduate dissertation: web design from the year previous.
My abstract was accepted and rather than creating a new poster, I used the previous one I created but improved/updated it based on my new knowledge of the subject. The 2017 conference was held in Aberystwyth whilst this year's conference was being held in Sheffield. I have only ever visited a few cities/towns in the UK so I was both excited and anxious.
Firstly, please remember to regularly update your GPS Satnav systems when traveling somewhere new as the travel from Aberystwyth to Sheffield wasn't the easiest - the travel back was even more difficult.
I left Aberystwyth a little after 2pm and with travel expecting to be ~4 hours long, I instead arrived in Sheffield at 7pm because of traffic. The social activities started at 6pm so unfortunately I had missed [most of] the treasure hunt. With some encouragement, I decided to join the group a little after 8pm, where I ate some lovely food, met some people, and enjoyed a social evening in a new city! I saw a Tram for the first time, which I nicknamed, "pavement train" - I only wish I had an excuse to travel on one.
The evening social was such a nervous experience but also such a great achievement: I met students from Aberdeen, Bath, and even fellow Aberystwyth students. I sat next to a group of students playing Jenga, with one participant having great skill: taking two blocks off at the same time.
Around 9:30pm, many students were tired after the long day, so we went back to the travel lodge, where I relaxed for an hour or two then slept in such a comfy bed. I woke up at 7:30am the next day, left the lodge at 9am to leisurely stroll over to the venue, whilst enjoying the sights of the town. At the venue I got my name sticker - that I intend on safe-keeping on my laptop! I also recieved a bold set of colourful Google sunglasses. The conference talks were held at a lovely lecture theatre which seemed like it was inside an old church. A variety of talks about careers and fields of study.
The key-note speaker, Tanja Lichtensteiger, gave an amazing talk about her background, career, and upbringing. I enjoyed that she mentioned her hobbies and the dedication.
There were other great talks too, unfortunately I don't have any links to those who spoke but you may find them on the BCS Lovelace Twitter account. There was a wonderful panel at the end with inspiring women in tech: various questions were asked with answers being well thought-out. I appreciated the effort in responses the panel members provided, they were superb insights to the different type of jobs, experience, and opinions women have in the tech industry.
The poster presentation was an amazing and fun experience! I spoke to people about their posters, some came up to discuss mine. I met some truly great students at the event with their well-designed posters, in addition to speaking to different companies, where I gained some freebies! I spoke to Amazon, Bloomberg, and more. When it was time to leave, I decided to head straight to bed as I wanted to take the car journey early...little did I know the car ride ended up being 6+ hours.
Before travelling back, I spent around 2 hours sightseeing in Sheffield. I saw a beautiful fountain, "Peace Gardens"; walked through an urban glasshouse, "Winter Garden"; and admired the Cathedrals. I observed that Sheffield had it's own "Walk of Fame" and explored an art gallery, "Millennium Gallery".
I would like to thank all those who organised the event, and all those who attended - it was lovely to meet a wide range of students! The event was amazing! Sheffield University has a lovely campus in such a lovely town - will hopefully visit again!
This event is a great first conference for undergraduates: you can meet fellow students who are studying similar topics or even studying very different subject areas. The wide variety of individuals who attended are such an inspiration and hard-working people - they have motivated me to pursue more in my career.
If you struggle with some ice-breakers: ask a fellow student about their university, what is the city like, what is their degree, what they plan to do after graduating? Discuss their poster, do you know the topic or even perhaps you appreciate how they designed it. Ask about their interests, in general or in tech. People aren't as scary as you may think, many are shy.
Finally, I would like to recommend, "The Street Food Chef", in Sheffield: they do amazing burritos!
bioinformatics summer project blog post which poster was based on
poster presented at the conference
Tanja Lichtensteiger Twitter account of the key-note speaker
BCS Lovelace Twitter account
my tweet after exploring Sheffield
Lovelace album Hannah Dee's photos