Tech pioneers at 5G Forum: women leaders leading the way and inspiring young girls

• A total of 15 leading women in the technology industry, including university professors, senior managers of multinationals and heads of departments of operators and technology companies, will send a message of inspiration to future generations.
• The last day of the eighth edition of the 5G Forum, the second virtual one, will be entirely dedicated to female talent.
• The Cartuja Auditorium -managed by Yventu- will host the three face-to-face sessions on Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 May. Subsequently, the final two days will be held in online format on Thursday May 15 and Friday May 16.

Women represent 36% of the student body in STEM degrees, while in general they represent 56% of those enrolled in Spanish universities. These are the most recent data available from the CYD Ranking. By fields of knowledge, this percentage drops to 14% in Computer Engineering, 17% in Mechanical Engineering and 19% in Electrical Engineering.

Despite these data, some green shoots have emerged. In fields such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the presence of women has grown from 13% to 17% in the last five years. Other disciplines such as Biology (62%), Chemistry (55%) and Architecture (50%), however, do have a greater presence of women.

Why does this happen? One of the causes on which many experts, professionals in the sector and university teachers agree is the lack of information and pre-university training on STEM careers. “There are cultural and social factors that keep girls away from STEM from an early age,” says María José Escalona, professor in the Department of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of Seville, one of the female leaders in the sector who will participate in the last day of the 5G Forum, the second virtual one, which will focus on female talent.

A total of 15 leading women in the technology industry, including university professors, senior managers of multinationals and heads of departments of operators and technology companies, will present their educational and professional career that has led them to become great leaders of the most important companies in the technology field.

All of them will share an inspiring message to the new generations of women. To those young women and girls who may think that a STEM career is not for them, but may have a different vision after listening to the testimony of these women leaders in the technology industry.

Participants will include Araceli Gª Cuartango, CEO of Axión and Lineox; Leonor Ostos, Manager of Innovation and Strategic Projects at Telefónica; Fini Irles, Director of Engineering for Spain at Vodafone; Myriam Leal, KAM in the AAPP department at MasOrange; and Noelia López, Solution Marketing Manager for Intelligent Networks at Ericsson.

Also Alicia Izquierdo, Councilor for Innovation and Digitalization of the City of Malaga; Maura Outeiral, Director of Business Development at Gsertel; Elena Puigrefagut, Project Manager at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU); Carmen Pérez, Head of Technology Projects at the RTVE Archive; Inés Sanz, Manager of Space Capacity Engineering at Hispasat; and Virginia Teixeira, Chief Systems Architect EMEAR at Cisco Systems.

Closing the day will be Susana Carillo, New Netwotk Business Opportunities of Endesa Distribución Eléctrica; Patricia Tejado, Director of Digital Public Services of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions; Luisa Bastero, Sales Director of Viavi Solutions; and María José Escalona, Professor of the Department of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of Seville.

Seville will become the epicenter of 5G and 6G technology from May 12 to 16 with the celebration of the eighth edition of the 5G Forum, an event already consolidated as a reference for 5G and 6G in Spain and Europe. The Cartuja Auditorium -managed by Yventu-, located in the Cartuja Science and Technology Park, will host the three face-to-face sessions (Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14), while on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 the two virtual sessions will be held in online format.

All conferences will be available for on-demand viewing through ‘The Observatory’, the digital platform of Medina Media Events, where each conference will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, free of charge.

The eighth edition of the 5G Forum is organized by Medina Media Events and has the support of Orange, Telefónica, DIGI, Netmetrix, Huawei, ZTE, GMV, NTT DATA, HPE – Aruba Networking, Vicomtech, Gradiant, i2CAT, OpenNebula, Ayscom, Keysight, Teltronic, Datatronics, Oracle, University of Málaga, Axión, Wavecontrol, Nokia, Rohde & Schwarz, Hispasat, Circet, Iplus|F, Dihbu, SAPEC, Gsertel, Kenmei, Ingenalia, AIFunded, Opossum, AEVAC and Secmotic, among others.