Back Ana Freire wins 2019 Ada Byron ‘Joven’ (young) award

Ana Freire wins 2019 Ada Byron ‘Joven’ (young) award

An engineer and PhD in Computer Science, a researcher and teacher at the School of Engineering, director of the Centre for Sustainability Studies and founder of the Wisibilízalas international competition, on 16 May she is to receive the prize awarded by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto with the goal of promoting women’s careers in the field of technological research and development.

08.05.2019

Imatge inicial

The 2019 Ada Byron ‘Joven’ (young) Award for Women in Technology, awarded by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto in order to promote women’s careers in the field of technological research and development, has gone to Ana María Freire Veiga, an engineer and PhD in Computer Science, a researcher and teacher at the School of Engineering of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF, director of the UPF Centre for Sustainability Studies and founder of the Wisibilízalas international competition.

“Professionally, a prize is always a good indicator that your work is being acknowledged and valued by other institutions, and this is the best motivation for making further progress”

For Freire, “this award is a big personal boost and a professional reward. On a personal level, it is an honour to receive such a prestigious award as this, and join the club of such outstanding women as Concha Monjo, Núria Oliver, Regina Llopis, Asunción Gómez, María Ángeles Martín and Montserrat Meya. Professionally, a prize is always a good indicator that your work is being acknowledged and valued by other institutions, and this is the best motivation for making further progress”.

At the age of thirty-six, Freire has signed more than 40 scientific publications, has filed three patents, and her work has amassed international awards including the Google Anita Borg Scholarship; Big Data Talent Award, and the Artificial Intelligence Woman Spell Check As You Type Challenge. She was included in the magazine Business Insider among the 23 young Spaniards called to lead the technological revolution of the future.

She is to receive the award on 16 May at the opening of ForoTech, a meeting for dissemination and discussion of the latest trends in various technological fields, organized by the University of Deusto’s Faculty of Engineering.

About the Ada Byron award

The State-wide Ada Byron Women in Technology award was instituted by the University of Deusto’s Faculty of Engineering to promote women’s careers in the field of technological research and development, to give prestige to the importance of technology in all walks of life, and for social development, as well as to value the work and successes that achieving these tasks and studies by women have contributed to humanity.

“Undoubtedly, this award especially works towards breaking the gender stereotypes associated with working in technology. There is a great need for initiatives to make the role of women in technology visible, with contemporary examples who can be related to, and this award has been a great example of this since its first edition in 2014”, Freire affirms.

The awards, endowed with 3,000 and 1,000 euros according to the category, are sponsored by Microsoft, the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, IK4 and Emakunde-Instituto Vasco de la Mujer, as well as of Innobasque and Basque BioCluster.

Over a hundred candidates

For this, the sixth edition, the jury received and evaluated some 112 candidates, increasing on last year’s participation, which is most noteworthy. All candidates are working professionals between 36 and 67 years of age and between 24 and 36 for the ‘Joven’ (young) award, and come from both academia and the world of business. 82% of the candidates live in provincial capitals and metropolitan areas (35% between Madrid and Barcelona).

72% of the candidates’ university qualifications are Engineering degrees, 25% of them are in Computer Engineering, 19% in Telecommunications, and the rest in Electronic, Industrial and Chemical Engineering. Regarding the study of Sciences, Chemical Sciences (7%), Mathematics (5%) and Physics (5%) stand out. 60% of the candidates are doctors, the most common doctorates, being Computing, Telecommunications, Physics and Chemistry, in that order.

Multimedia

Categories:

SDG - Sustainable Development Goals:

Els ODS a la UPF

Contact

For more information

News published by:

Communication Office