Reflection of Alice & Eve 2024
Alice & Eve is an annual celebration dedicated to highlighting the achievements of women in computing. It's inspired by the BCS Lovelace Colloquium, and first launched in 2020.
The fifth edition of this workshop was hosted by Universiteit Leiden and brought together 124 participants from 16 universities, 8 companies, and 7 government or research institutes.
1. Keynote Talks: Insights into the Future of Computing
This year’s Alice & Eve featured six half-hour keynote presentations, each providing unique insights into contemporary computing topics:
Suzan Verberne (Leiden University) - The Role of Truth in Large Language Models Professor Suzan Verberne discussed challenges in mitigating misinformation and bias within large language models, exploring methods to measure these issues and offering insights into responsible AI research.
Niki van Stein (Leiden University) - Explainable Artificial Intelligence: Identifying the Dimensions that Matter Dr. Niki van Stein explored the critical role of transparency in AI, emphasizing applications in fields like predictive maintenance and design optimization, and introduced novel approaches in explainable AI (XAI).
Antonia Affinito (University of Twente) - Growing Up Digital: Risks in Mobile Application Usage Dr. Antonia Affinito highlighted the risks that digital natives face with mobile app usage, especially regarding data privacy and exposure to cyber threats, bringing attention to children’s digital safety.
Gabriele Keller (University of Utrecht) - Professor Gabriele Keller gave a wonderful speech entitled A Pragmatic Approach to Verified Compilation.
Katja Tuma (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) - Gender in Security Decision Making: Research and Impact Dr. Katja Tuma examined the influence of gender in technical security decisions, discussing the importance of diversity and inclusion efforts within cybersecurity.
Anna Wilbik (University of Maastricht) - Professor Anna Wilbik gave a fascinating talk on Federated Learning: Hype or Trend? which gave us a special insight into Federated Learning.
2. Panel Discussion: Ethics in Computing
The day concluded with an insightful panel discussion on “Ethics in Computing: How Can We Design Algorithms That Are More Fair, Transparent, and Explainable?” The panel, featuring Francien Dechesne (Leiden University), Christine Utz (Radboud University), and Hugo Jonker (Open University), led a lively discussion about creating ethical algorithms and ensuring fairness in machine learning models.
3. Poster Competition: Celebrating Fresh Ideas
The poster competition was another highlight of Alice & Eve, with 32 submissions showcasing innovative ideas from emerging researchers. This year’s winners were:
Ailsa Robertson - Your Cryptography Will Be Broken – Act Now!
Krist Shingjergji - Sense the Classroom: AI-Supported Synchronous Online Education for a Resilient New Normal
Each winner received a €400 prize, recognizing their outstanding contributions to the future of computing.
4. Sponsors and Industry Talks
Special thanks to our sponsors, VEReniging Software Engineering Nederland, ASCI, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, BetterBe, SIDN, DuckDB, and NXP Semiconductors. We were honored to have industry talks from DuckDB and SIDN Labs. Tania Bogatsch from DuckDB presented on “Art in Industry,” Giovane Moura from SIDN Labs discussed “Characterizing Phishing Attacks at ccTLD Scale.”
5. Organizers & Volunteers: The Heart of the Event
The organizing team is from Leiden University: Lu Cao, Olga Gadyatskaya, Eleftheria Makri, and Shuang Sun.
This event would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of our volunteer team: Parisa Mapar, Rui Li, Sumiran Mehra, Irina-Mona Epure, Guorui Lu, and Ana Cristina Arcos.
A big thank-you also goes out to our fantastic support team: Anne-Marie Alleblas, Arie Benschop and Abdeljalil El Boujadayni, for all their support in organizing the event, and for their hard work and enthusiasm in ensuring a successful event.
