Ada Workshop, which is jointly organized by School of Information Science and Technology (SIST), USTC and Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), concluded successfully at West Campus on December 23. Ada Workshop, whose name originates from Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet George Byron and also the world’s first programmer, aims at inspiring USTC girl students to gain a better career life at an era of Internet, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence. The workshop consists of three parts, namely keynote speech, topic discussion, and technology seminar. MSRA Vice President PAN Tianyou, Senior Principal Researcher XIE Xing, Principle Researcher LUO Chong, and some other MSRA guests, along with three female vice professors from SIST and School of Computer Science and Technology, USTC, attended the workshop, exchanging ideas with USTC girl students.

Dr. PAN Tianyou gave a keynote speech entitled “Right Time and Right Place”. He pointed out in his speech that it is critical that females break through prejudice and grab their own chances so as to embrace the Spring of programming history.

During the topic discussion session, Prof. CHEN Xuejin , Prof. TIAN Xinmei, Prof. XU Linli, Dr. LUO Chong, and Dr. LIANG Jieran shared their experiences and opinions on female seizing career opportunities in science and technology fields.

Later at the technology seminar, four female guests introduced their current research work and future outlooks. At last, Dr. PAN recommended Microsoft Innovation Institute and explained some detailed backgrounds of the Institute, including joint cultivation PhD program between MSRA and USTC.