STEM Wana Trust is proud to be supporting our friends at Ada Lovelace Day and will be live streaming a breakfast showing of the official Ada Lovelace Day Live! event.

----

This year's Ada Lovelace Day will celebrated online, with our STEM cabaret streaming live via Facebook and YouTube.

The talks

The science of the human voice, Prof Sophie Scott

Why do we sound the way we do? How did voices evolve, and how do our brains control them? Prof Sophie Scott will explore the neuroscience of our voices.

Poo and power, Prof Priti Parikh

Prof Priti Parikh researches infrastructure solutions in resource-challenged settings. She will talk about gaps in infrastructure and what that means for marginalised communities, with a dash of comedy on the side.

How health tech is revolutionising patient care, Marcia Rankin-Smith

Data- and AI-driven health tech can significantly improve how patients engage with their care, empowering them to better understand their condition and how it can be managed. These new health tech solutions are also changing clinical practice for disease diagnosis and management for conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure, and can help reduce pressures on healthcare providers, eg by facilitating early discharge. So what is this health tech and how does it improve patient outcomes?

A bit more history of the candle, Fran Scott

In her work as a pyrotechnician, Fran has learnt to somewhat read fire (and it her!). In this talk she’ll delve into her favourite fire-based demonstrations which help reveal some of its glorious secrets. She’ll also draw from Michael Faraday’s lecture series, “The Chemical History of a Candle”, which he presented as part of the Royal Institution’s Christmas lectures for young people.

Maths is for everyone! Susan Okereke

Every student should leave school competent and confident in everyday maths but sadly, this is not the case for many students. It has become socially acceptable to say ‘I can’t do maths’ and this attitude is having a negative impact on our children, our economy and society as whole. This talk will highlight the crucial role maths teachers and parents play in improving this situation and in making the world a fairer place. Susan will share some ideas on how to support people (children and adults) to enjoy and feel more confident doing maths but the main aim of this talk is to encourage discussion, ideas, sharing and collaboration.

Energy transition: Sink or Swim? Yasmin Ali

Energy runs the world – heating and cooling homes, moving cars, and powering devices. These incredible technologies make life easier and safer, but they come at a price – greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels change the environment and climate. It is not all doom and gloom, awareness of the problem is on the rise and an energy transition is afoot, but will we sink or swim?

Stay curious, Aphra Le Levier-Bennett

After having the privilege of talking at Ada Lovelace Day Live in 2017 when she was 17 years old and studying her A-levels, Aphra is delighted to return to discuss where STEM has led her now after completing her Physics with Philosophy degree. Although she has taken a different route and now works in the creative industries, STEM helped nurture her curiosity and she hopes to share this message with others.

About our speakers

Professor Sophie Scott

Sophie Scott is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London, as well as a standup scientist working on the neurobiology of speech perception. She is interested in how our brains process all kinds of information from the voice, including emotion, and in individual differences in speech perception and plasticity in speech perception, as these are important factors for people with cochlear implants.

Prof Priti Parikh

Prof Priti Parikh is the founder director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. This centre researches locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions in low-middle income countries for human development and wellbeing.

Fran Scott

Fran Scott is an accomplished engineering presenter, maker and pyrotechnician who specialises in the use of physical demonstrations to explain seemingly complex scientific phenomena. Fran’s love of industrial engineering has taken centre stage with her programmes including Abandoned Engineering (Yesterday Channel/ Discovery), Massive Engineering Mistakes (Discovery) and The Department of Complaints (More4).

Susan Okereke

Susan Okereke is a maths teacher and communicator, who passionately believes that numeracy is an essential basic skill (like reading and writing) that everyone should be confident at. She challenges negative views of maths by creating and delivering maths content in a way that is accessible, memorable and confidence building. She also co-hosts the Maths Appeal Podcast with Bobby Seagull.

Yasmin Ali

Yasmin is a chartered chemical engineer in energy, working as a green hydrogen project developer. In addition to being an engineer, Yasmin is writing Power Up, an accessible book about global energy, due to be published in 2024. As an avid promoter of engineering, Yasmin has given many talks to students, teachers, parents, engineering professionals and members of the public. In recognition of her public engagement work, she has been awarded and shortlisted for multiple industry awards, including the 2020 Women’s Engineering Society’s top 50 female engineers in sustainability.

Aphra Le Levier-Bennett

Aphra works as an Editorial Assistant at a publishing house after graduating from the University of York with a Physics with Philosophy degree. After having spoken at Ada Lovelace Day Live in 2017 while completing her A - Levels, and being an avid member of the audience for years, she hasn't lost her curiosity for STEM subjects despite going down a different career path.

Marcia Rankin-Smith

Marcia is the Lead for Digital Consultancy at LenusHealth. She has 20 years of experience in IT/Digital, enjoying roles in both private and public sector, including media, sport, local and central government and the NHS. Although the roles have evolved along with the technology in use, a common theme among these positions has been ‘transformation’ and how technology could enable it and make experiences better for users. None truer than with her current role as the lead for digital consultancy at a digital health agency, who are helping to shape the evolution of remote patient monitoring through technology.

Previous roles have included strategy and transformation consultant at dxw, head of innovation at NHS.uk, head of digital transformation at Scottish Government, partnership director at Agilisys Ltd, senior product build specialist as The Press Association, venue technology manager at the Commonwealth Games Manchester 2002.

Marcia hold BSc Hons in IT and business management from the University of York. She is a mum to two young children, married and lives in York. Away from work she is a keen singer and learning photography.

Compère: Helen Arney

Writer, science presenter, geek songstress and ‘Voice of an Angle’ Helen Arney has appeared on TV, Radio and in theatres across the world with her unique mix of stand-up, songs and science. You might have seen her explaining physics while riding a rollercoaster for BBC2 Coast, electrifying Sandi Toksvig on QI, singing the periodic table on Channel 4, smashing a wine glass with the power of her voice live on Blue Peter, hosting ‘Outrageous Acts Of Science’ on Discovery Channel, or touring with science comedy phenomenon Festival of the Spoken Nerd. Photo by Steve Ullathorne.

Ada Lovelace Day is dependent on the generosity of its partners, volunteers and supporters for survival. We would like to thank Red Hat, SUSE, Digital Science, SchoolDash, The Information Lab's Data School, Software Impacts and dxw for their support this year.

Find out more about them on our website.