Australian ‘Superstars of STEM’ aim to encourage female enrolment

Women eschew mathematics, according to stereotype, because they do not feel safe with numbers. Katie Buchhorn uses numbers to help keep women safe.

The Melbourne-based mathematician monitors and analyses the “correlates” of women’s safety – including social norms, education levels, proximity to conflict zones and access to bank accounts and mobile phones – across more than 40 Indo-Pacific countries.

“By tracking changes over time, we enhance our understanding of the progress that’s been made and the persistent challenges,” said Dr Buchhorn, a data scientist with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women, based at Monash University.

“My qualitative research colleagues provide context. They advise me what to look at and why it might be important. I provide quantitative analysis. I look at the correlates between factors and the feasibility of using datasets so that we can really understand.”

The job, which began two months after she completed a PhD in applied Bayesian statistics at Queensland University of Technology, is the latest instalment in a lifelong love affair with maths. Dr Buchhorn has given a TEDx Talk on “how mathematics helps humankind” and authored a book, Wondrous Worlds, that traces the adventures of a “curious mathematician”.

Her own adventure began in childhood. “My granddad was one of four brothers who all came first in the state for mathematics. As a young kid, I’d tell him: ‘Granddad, I got 98 out of 100 in my maths exam.’ He’d look at me and smirk: ‘Where’d you lose the two marks?’”

Now Dr Buchhorn is among 60 new “Superstars of STEM” named by science minister Ed Husic on 11 December. Backed by federal funding of A$7 million (£3.5 million), the inductees will train as advocates for women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Mr Husic said the programme included media training, mentoring and networking for female and non-binary STEM experts. The 210 participants to date had “inspired” more than 80,000 students at about 480 high schools.

“These superstars show young Australians that STEM careers can take them anywhere, from studying cold-water species beneath Antarctic waters to gazing into outer space, and everything in between,” the minister said.

The scheme’s initiator, Science and Technology Australia, said opportunities in STEM were projected to grow more than twice as quickly as other careers. “The Superstars of STEM will play a vital role in inspiring young people into those science and technology careers,” said programme manager Sandra Gardam. “We know it’s really hard to be what you can’t see.”

Gender equality in higher education: how to overcome key challenges

Dr Buchhorn, whose PhD involved optimising data collection to gauge river water quality, said her techniques could be applied across “multiple disciplines and multiple contexts” – particularly following the “big data boom” a decade ago.

“We have so much data that we don’t know what to do with it. The question becomes, how do we extract meaning out of this proliferation of data?”

She contended that women’s antipathy to mathematics was more about “disinterest” than fear. But having been one of just two women in a 60-strong team of financial analysts, she acknowledged the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry.

“It feels a bit like you’re swimming against the current. My message to women is to look upstream, because this kind of work is pretty amazing. It’s the era of mathematics now. The future belongs to those who can create tools that will be widely used and adapted.

“I’m particularly talking about artificial intelligence. Biases already exist in our data. There is a real need for the creators of technology to be a diverse group so that we do not embed those biases into our systems.”

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