BRAC University Computer Club (BUCC) partnered with Women Techmakers Bangladesh (WTM) and the ICT Division of the Government of Bangladesh to organize an event at BRAC University (BRACU) as part of the International Women’s Day Celebrations. The event was held on March 22, 2017 at GDLN Center, BRAC University. Professor Haider Ali, Adviser, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), BRACU, Dr. Khalilur Rahman, Associate Professor, CSE, BRACU, Sadia Hamid Kazi, Assistant Professor, CSE, BRACU, Rakhshanda Rukham, Lead, Women Techmakers Bangladesh, Meherun Faruque, Project Manager of QuintilesIMS, Nilim Ahsan, CEO of Userhub, Annajiat Alim Rasel, Lecturer, Undergraduate Course Coordinator, CSE, BRACU & Advisor of BUCC and Aniqua Nusrat Zereen, Lecturer, CSE BRACU were present in the event. The event was anchored by Nuzhat Khan, the BRAC University Lead of WTM.
The program started with an inspiring speech by Prof. Haider Ali. He encouraged the audience to not let gender be a barrier to success and take advantage of the numerous opportunities available for women. Then Sadia Hamid Kazi gave a motivational speech to inspire the audience. She compared the involvement of women in the IT sectors of USA and Bangladesh and concluded that Bangladeshi women were much more involved in the IT sector when compared to their US counterparts.
Rakhshanda Rukham then spoke to the audience and thanked BRAC University for supporting WTM Bangladesh in celebrating IWD. She gave a short introduction of WTM Bangladesh. Founded in 2004, the missions of WTM Bangladesh are increasing visibility, community, and resources for women in technology. Ms. Rakshanda highlighted WTM Bangladesh’s contribution amongst the girls in the rural areas and informed the audience that their work has already reached more than 10,000 girls. WTM Bangladesh is willing to provide as much support as possible to help girls who wanted to work on projects, she concluded. A quiz session was then held where the audience took part and won prizes.
After that, Meherun Faruque shared her experiences as a female student of BRAC University. Being the only female CSE student in her batch, she was happy with the subsequent increase in the number of female students studying engineering at BRACU and asked the audience to encourage more women to pursue engineering careers. Ms. Meherun then shared experiences of her successful professional career and discussed the challenges faced by women in the corporate world.
This was followed by a speech by Nilim Ahsan, who talked about her career. She started her career in 2001 by serving to Arena Multimedia. Ms. Nilim started freelancing in 2004, then she started her virtual company called Coders and Designers and then in 2012 she started Userhub with her partners. She suggested to the audience for not taking freelancing as profession. Because of there is no opportunity of learning in freelancing. She stated that freelancing can be a part time option for anyone. After that she answered some questions of audience. She concluded her speech by encouraging her audience for start working for gaining knowledge from their student life.
After that Rakhshanda Rukham shared her personal career experiences and she suggested audience to use Google plus and LinkedIn more than other social medias because in corporate life LinkedIn will be beneficial for them. She encouraged audience for making projects and participating in contest. After that she invited one of WISTEM (Women In STEM) Bangladesh fellow, Mashiat Lamisa who is working on a project for sharing her project theme towards the audience. Mashiat explained that her project is an android app called CYBE and it will give technical and mental support to the victim of cyber harassment.
In the last session of the event the faculty member of BRAC University CSE Department, Dr. Khalilur Rahman talked about the barriers of girls and he claimed that there is very less participation of girls in technical sectors. Moreover, he stated that boys and girls got the equal brain so girls should participate with courage in technical side. Then Monamy Islam, Assistant Director of PR Department of BUCC, gave a short explanation of her project which is currently used by the HR department of BRAC NGO for training their stuffs about the ethics and culture of BRAC. After that Md. Monirujjaman Moon talked about his project NOUKABAICH.
At the end of the event Annajiat Alim Rasel talked about the opportunities for girls like Grace Hopper Scholarship, Anita Borg Institute for women in STEM. He also encouraged girls to utilize those opportunities as much as possible. The event concluded with the speech of the faculty member of BRAC University CSE department, Aniqua Nusrat Zereen. She shared her experiences of student life, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) along with her professional life.
Contribution of Md. Asif Bin Khaled, Md. Imrul Kaesh, Sadman Sakib Nadvi, Surariya Rahman, Monirujjaman Moon, Leonard Michael, Sara Tasnim, Mushfiqur Rahman, Ahmed Bin Sabit, Md. Arman Hossain, Mahfuza Humayra Mohona, Monamy Islam, Annur Majid Sabin and Shakib Mahmud Dipto was remarkable for the success of the event. The event was successfully ended with refreshment and photo session. It was a great initiative by Women Techmakers Bangladesh and BUCC jointly to celebrate International Women's Day Celebration 2016 in such a wonderful manner.