[ECSS 2024] Presentations of the Workshop on "Cultivating Diversity: Integrating Inclusiveness into Informatics Education" (29 October 2024)

Workshop Chairs: •Dympna O'Sullivan, TU Dublin •Simona Motogna, Babeş-Bolyai University Supported by IE's Ethics and Diversity & Inclusion Working Group 20th European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS 2024) “Cultivating Diversity: Integrating Inclusive Design into Informatics Education” Workshop 29 October 2024 Towards a Framework of Inclusive Software Design Process and Practices Inclusion4EU partners • TU Dublin (Lead), Informatics Europe, Telecom Sud Paris, Mälardalen University, SAP, St John of God Community Services. Inclusion4EU - Aim •To create tools and resources to enable computer science lecturers and industry practitioners incorporate human-centred inclusive software design into their teaching and work practices •Considering diverse users in software design not only leads to a better product but also fosters a more inclusive, fair, and innovative technological landscape. Motivation •Digital inclusion is underpinned by legislation •Legal mandate •Existing legislation and the forthcoming EU Accessibility Act •Accessibility is included as a transversal competence in the EU eCompetence Framework for ICT Professionals •Higher education and industry need to respond Inclusion4EU Project Phases •Phase 1: Explore and Understand •Phase 2: Co-Design for Active Inclusion •Phase 3: Training programmes for academics and industry practitioners •All project outputs hosted on the project platform Inclusion4EU – Co-Design for Inclusion in Software Development Design (ascnet.ie) Inclusion4EU: European Survey •Existing Competencies in the Teaching of Inclusive Design in Informatics programmes •Responses from 48 European Higher Education Institutions •Results are a comprehensive insight into teaching practices for Inclusive Design in Informatics programmes •Will inform the development of new curricula and learning resources as part of the Inclusion4EU project Inclusion4EU: European Survey •Twenty-three countries were represented among the 48 respondents that took part in this survey Does your institution teach Inclusive Design as part of any Informatics or related programmes? Yes: 24, No 24 When inclusive design is taught •Over 90% of the respondents rate the teaching of Inclusive design as either being “Important” or “Very Important •People teaching Inclusive design come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with many coming from multiple disciplines Recommendations •Engagement with Diverse Communities •People with diverse needs, and organisations that aid them, should be invited to give guest lectures and collaborate with students on building more inclusive technology solutions •Training •Staff at all levels of the organisation should be encouraged to participate in training about inclusion and accessibility. Survey Report •Link to the full survey here: •Research – Inclusion4EU Conclusion •The Inclusion4EU project is developing a repository of practical resources for academics and industry practitioners to incorporate into their practice •Reports, case studies, validated interventions •Recorded and tested tacit knowledge gained from real life co-design experiences •Collection of methods successfully applied and validated by real users •Please feel free to use any of our resources: Resources – Inclusion4EU (ascnet.ie) Acknowledgements •This work is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. DISCLAIMER: The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Contact Us •https://ascnet.ie/inclusion4eu-website/ •[email protected] •@Inclusion4EU Legacy of EUGAIN COST Action Prof.PhD. Simona Motogna Diversity and Inclusion Working Group Chair •Oct 2020 -> Oct 2024 •initiated by WIRE group of IE •39 countries •Over 160 contributors How EUGAIN can help you? ➢Reports / Best practices Downloadable from https://eugain.eu/ How EUGAIN can help you? ➢Policy recommendations Downloadable from https://eugain.eu/ Universities Schools Public Administration Private Sector How EUGAIN can help you? ➢ Encourage women presence in Informatics in the department / schools … Downloadable from https://eugain.eu/ INFRASTRUCTURE ■Computational Power ■Open Science tools ■Resources ■Datasets ■Methods ■Technologies ■Training Materials COMMUNITY BUILDING ■Researcher communities ■Industries and PA involvement ■Connecting side projects ■Connecting to other realities GUIDELINES ■Ethical aspects ■Legal Aspects ■Open Science SoBigData RI Overview Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Vertical contexts fostering tangible progress towards grand societal challenges Research Spaces Societal Debates and Misinformation Analysis Health Studies Demography, Economy and Finance 2.0 Societal and Industrial Impact of Next-Gen. Internet & beyond 5G Networks Sustainable Cities for Citizens Pervasive Intelligence in Cyber-Physical Systems for Future Society Social Impact of AI and explainable machine learning Disaster response and recovery Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Transnational access GRANTS FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, RESEARCHERS AND STUDENTS FOR VISITING OUR NODES CONTINUOUS OPEN CALLS ■Funding for a short-term scientific mission (2 weeks to 2 months) is available up to 5000 euros per participant (to cover the cost of daily subsistence, accommodation, and economy flights/train). ■The goal is to provide researchers and professionals with access to big data computing platforms, big social data resources, and cutting-edge computational methods. ■Results will be part of the SoBigData Catalogue and the experience reported in the Blog section TNA http://www.sobigdata.eu/transnational-access Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Virtual Access SoBigData Catalogue ■Methods, ■Libraries, ■Applications, ■Data SoBigData Lab ■Jupyter Hub ■Data Space ■Execute an Experiment Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta SoBigData RI initiatives for inclusion Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta SoBigData RI Objectives Promoting diversity and inclusion in data science. The aims are: ■Raise awareness about data science job opportunities, focusing on women in STEM fields ■Plan dedicated initiatives to map under-represented categories ■Address positive actions at diverse levels of the education path (high school, undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students) Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta SoBigData Award for Diversity and Inclusion It aims at promoting a more diverse participation to computer and data science events sponsoring the registration for selected data science conferences for: ■Individuals that identify with a minority group, following the European Commission’s definition. ■Individuals who are either PhD students or have obtained their PhD and are Early Career Researchers. Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Two female awardees @ ECML PKDD in Turin, one PhD student and the other early career researcher, originally from India but studying in the US Two male awardees at the International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics in Greece belonging to a minority ethnic group in Nepal. Colorful Seminars series: Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion ■UNIPI initiative to boost diversity representation, bridging equity gaps for marginalized groups ■Invite diverse international experts to conduct seminars on SoBigData.it topics, fostering inclusive participation in computer and data science events. ■The seminars are hosted by the Department of Computer Science (also with streaming) or exclusively online Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Organization of events For scientific communities ■PD4DS&ML-2023 | Promoting Diversity in Data Science and ML for Msc and PhD programs at Sapienza –2023 ■fAIrness for more inclusive algorithms @ EDGE-glbt.it ■Awareness Panel on Ethical aspects of data science ■Second International Conference on Gender Equality and AI Involving schools ■SoBigData Training @ High-School ■Soccer Data Challenge @ Sport Festival, Trento 2019 ■Pinkamp Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Women career in the Italian university Analysis of the gender equality among researchers in the University panorama in Italy ■Time series on the research staff of the Universities over time disaggregated by positions. ■Percentage distribution of the research staff according to their role and gender among years ⇒ Leaking Pipeline Using the data from the CINECA database of research personnel we constructed a simple dashboard for helping in visualizing the Italian situation. Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Modern ICT-based society is de facto designed and shaped by men ■ employment in STEM is definitely male-dominated: women accounting for only 24% of science and engineering professionals and only 15% of science and engineering associate professionals ■With current trends, gender parity in Computer Science authorship will be reached around 2200 L. L. Wang, G. Stanovsky, L. Weihs, and O. Etzioni, “Gender trends in computer science authorship”, Communications of the ACM, 64 (2021) 78-84. 76 85 24 15 PROFESSIONALS ASSOC PROF Male Female European Parliament, Encouraging STEM studies for the labour market, 2015 Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Student expectations on science careers, by sub-field of study, out of those who choose science careers, 15year-olds Distribution of female students enrolled in higher education by field of study (does this dichotomy really exist?) Human centered Technology/system centered Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta ICT women in movies: typically a little ”wierd” and/or ”losers” Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Virtuous chain (circle) family and society favor the interest of girls in ICT and their engagement in ICT studies education professionals prepare girls for ICT careers the scientific/technology community not only avoids prejudicial discrimination against women but clearly acknowledges the beneficial role of women in a multigender design/research processes Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Explicit actions at all levels are necessary to realize the vision SOCIETAL LEVEL EDUCATIONAL LEVEL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Explicit actions at all levels are necessary to realize the vision SOCIETAL LEVEL EDUCATIONAL LEVEL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY After the “career dolls” and the “Barbie Inspiring Women Series”, the “Women of Science” initiative is part of the more general Dream Gap Project: “Imagining she can be anything is just the beginning. Actually, seeing that she can, makes all the difference” Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Explicit actions at all levels are necessary to realize the vision SOCIETAL LEVEL EDUCATIONAL LEVEL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta PinKamP Completely free UNIVAQ initiative for high schools girls (16-17 years old) passionate about digital tech, exploring computer science, information engineering, and math. Target Audience: ■Creative and motivated girls ■Interested in digital technologies ■Eager to explore computer science, information engineering, and mathematics Project Purpose: ■Introduce girls to the disciplines of the digital society ■Overcome gender stereotypes ■Remove barriers and prejudices ■Showcase women's role in shaping future tech via creativity and problem-solving. Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta To work on vocational aspects and personal appropriation of technology LEARNING SIDE we single out a number of selected diverse example technological platforms representative of the ICT realm and explore them within a multidisciplinary approach touching related subjects and methods VOCATIONAL SIDE the activities of ”Pinkampers” are focused on building and telling a story: girls are stimulated to use the assigned technological platform to invent and enact a “story” that creatively encompasses and interprets the learned technological contents, working in team in a final contest, each team is required to make a short presentation illustrating the story and demonstrating the acquired abilities Challenges •harmonizing short time and ample overview •setting up a gender-balanced curriculum taking account of girls’ personal interests, to help increase girls’ interest in ICT Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta Initiatives like PinKamP help them to prove that they can effectively succeed Barbie “science dolls” help girls to see that they can be anything Design principles, approaches, and methodologies explicitly stating the crucial role of women in the production of technology could make an even bigger difference, making girls feel “waited for” Framing the problem • The PinKamP initiative • The scientific community role •Conclusions Diversity & Inclusion in Education Workshop @ECSS2024, 28-30 October 2024, Malta It is not a question of ability; it is rather a question of empowerment and self-determination; it is a question of rights, the right to take a place in the world believing it is correct. In other words, we need to act a cultural revolution [email protected] www.sobigdata.eu SoBigData.eu receives funding from the European Union’s grant agreements No. 654024, 871042 and 101079043. Is also funded by the National Recovery and Resilient Programme for the Central Hub: “SoBigData.it” Coordinator: Roberto Trasarti Management team: Valerio Grossi and Michela Natilli Communication team: Daniele Fadda, Katia Genovali, Beatrice Rapisarda Institute of Information Science and Technologies (ISTI), National Research Council (CNR), Pisa, Italy Inclusion4EU Co-design workshop What is co-design? Co-design is a participatory approach to designing solutions where all users are involved directly in the design process. In co-design, you are the designer! Introduce the concept – not replace 2 Let’s try some co-design together! 3 Step 1 5 minutes to explore Try to use the devices as you would usually do! (Or as you think they work) 4 Step 2 20 minutes to write down your opinions about it 5 Visual Version 6 Step 3 Nominate one member of your group to share the findings with the rest of the teams 7