Karina Gibert and Núria Castell, Doctors in computer science from the UPC, awarded the Ada Byron prize.

UPC and FIB professor, and director of IDEAI-UPC, Karina Gibert Oliveras, and retired doctor and professor from UPC, Núria Castell Ariño, have received the #AdaByron award from the Colexio Profesional de Enxeñaría en Informática de Galicia (CPEIG), for making visible and promoting the presence of women in the technological world. The award is dedicated to Ada Byron, for being considered the first computer programmer in history.

The Ada Byron prize was awarded for the first time in 2012, and is one of the categories of the prizes awarded by the CPEIG during the Noite da Enxeñaría en Informática de Galicia, which are awarded annually with the aim of giving visibility to female participation at all levels of technology: as users, entrepreneurs, innovation managers, researchers and leaders in the new technology sector.

In 2021, the engineer and doctor in computer science Ana Freire received it for her contribution in the application of artificial intelligence to social good, and in 2020 it was received by computer science specialist Sabela Ramos, who works for Google research. Gibert and Castell will collect the distinction at the gala of the XIV Noite d'Enxeñaría en Informática, to be held on 1 July in Santiago.

Karina Gibert is a professor at the UPC, and director of the Intelligent Date Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAI-UPC) research centre. She has a degree in computer science from the Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona where she has been teaching for more than thirty years. She is well aware of the gender gap in the field of computing and technology in general. As vice-dean of the Official College of Computer Engineering of Catalonia (COEINF), in 2018 she founded the COEINF gender commission, dones COEINF, of which she is president. She is also a founding member of the gender chapter of the Catalan Association of Artificial Intelligence, and co-ambassador of the Women in Data Science of Stanford university in Barcelona.

Núria Castell, retired professor from the UPC, was one of the first graduating classes in computer science from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and received her doctorate from the UPC in 1989. She has led projects in the field of gender such as the +NoiesTIC project and collaborated in the europeuH2020 Gender Equality project in Engineering through Communication and Commitment (GECCO) that has received several awards. She currently participates in mentoring programs aimed at primary school students of the Inspira STEAM program created by the University of Deusto, and in the UPC Aquí STEAM program, and advises research projects from a gender perspective.

This award is a recognition of the intense work that both have carried out for female vocations in technology, and especially in computer engineering, and to eliminate the gender gap in technological studies.

CPEIG Website