Women AT GECCO

Summary

The Women@GECCO workshop series started in 2013 as a venue in which accomplished women researchers welcome and support other women in evolutionary computation (EC). Over the years, the workshop has become a venue where students and junior researchers from different under-represented cohorts in EC interact in an informal setting with established women researchers and the general GECCO community, to share our experience as researchers and discuss various issues related to fostering and balancing one's professional and social life, as well as on inserting oneself in the EC community.

The workshop plays an important role at GECCO and, particularly in a year that is challenging our professional and personal life, the Women@GECCO workshop will have a virtual format as an instance to connect ourselves as a community.

Program

• Welcome
• Mini talks: advice on how to balancing life through the global health crisis
  • Mental Health Matters.
    Suzanne Skeete, Inspirational Woman of the Year 2018, Managing Director of Tappy Twins, Teenline, TT Training Academy and Founder of the Courageous Kids Awards.
  • COVID-19 and Posttraumatic Growth - the creative power of destruction.
    Katarzyna Wawer Dziedzia, Clinical Psychologist, Birmingham, UK
• Invited Talks
  • Mathematical Programming strengthening Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms
    Adriana Lara-López , Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico
    Dr. Adriana Lara is a Full-Time Professor with the Physics and Mathematics School (ESFM) at the IPN in México City. Her current research interests include Multiobjective Optimization, Bio-inspired algorithms, Memetic techniques, Hybrid Algorithms, and Data Analysis. Her research work has received the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation Outstanding Paper Award (twice) for 2010 and 2012. She also received the 2010 Engineering Award granted by the Mexico City's Science and Technology Institute (ICyTDF), and the Ph.D. dissertation award by SMIA and ANIEI. Also the best student paper award at GECCO 2010. She is part of the faculty of graduate and undergraduate programs ESFM at the IPN.
    She received the B.Sc. degree in Physics and Mathematics from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico (IPN), in Mexico City; the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Sciences from Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV-IPN), in Mexico City, in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
  • My path to supporting decision makers in finding the best compromise
    Kaisa Miettinen, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
    Kaisa Miettinen is Professor of Industrial Optimization at the University ofJyvaskyla. Her research interests include theory, methods, applications and software of nonlinear multiobjective optimization including interactive and evolutionary approaches. She heads the Research Group onMultiobjective Optimization and is the director of the thematic research area called Decision Analytics utilizing Causal Models and Multiobjective Optimization (DEMO, www.jyu.fi/demo). She has authored over 170 refereed journals, proceedings and collection papers, edited 14 proceedings,collections and special issues and written a monograph on Nonlinear Multiobjective Optimization. She is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Section of Science and has served as the President of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM).
  • Ask me anything
    Una-May O’Reilly, Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab, MIT
    Una-May O’Reilly is one of the founders of the Women in Evolutionary Computation group at GECCO. She has assumed several roles in the different versions of the conference and was the General Chair of GECCO 2005. Una-May completed her undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Calgary (1985), and her MCS (1990) and Ph.D. (1995) in Computer Science at Carleton University. Her Ph.D. dissertation was one of the world’s first on the AI topic of Genetic Programming. She joined MIT as a member of the Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1998 and currently is the leader of ALFA Group at MIT-CSAIL. She is the author of over 100 academic papers. Recently, ACM SIG-EVO elected Una-May for Career Recognition for Scientific Meri, she received the EvoStar Award for Outstanding Achievements in Evolutionary Computation in Europe in 2013, and was recognized by Nature Research journals for outstanding contributions in peer review.
• Women@GECCO meets pub quiz

Organizers

• Elizabeth Wanner, Aston University, UK
• Leslie Pérez Cacéres, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile