While Australian women are underrepresented in STEM fields, that isn鈥檛 stopping women from excelling in tech startups, according to a new survey of Australian girl tech entrepreneurs.

The survey, conducted by , included qualitative responses from nearly 50 Australian girl tech entrepreneurs , which pointed to a host of barriers contributing to inequality in the industry

It found that while the government and various groups are working to make STEM education more accessible and suited to women, with women entrepreneurs聽 finding 鈥渓ateral鈥� ways to become involved with tech companies.

鈥淭he current generation of women are finding a lateral way to enter this men-dominated field, using their domain experience and leadership skills to solve problems with unique products,鈥� the study says.

鈥淭hey will be role models and, it is to be hoped, become mentors to other women with technical ideas to be realised.鈥�

Finding other ways into the tech industry

Only 19 per cent of the women entrepreneurs surveyed had a background in STEM, while only 4 per cent had a computer science background. In contrast, nearly half had a degree in business, commerce or economics.

The survey found the majority of women entrepreneurs are managing tech teams, with 50 per cent in outsourcing roles, 32 per cent finding a tech-based co-founder, and 14 per cent employing technical staff.

Founder and director of Alexandra Kinloch says you don鈥檛 need to have a background in STEM to be involved in a tech startup.

鈥淭here is a perception, or at least has been a perception in the past, that you needed to have technical skills in order to run a startup,鈥� Kinloch says.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe that is the case and not all startups require cutting edge technology. I believe that the number of women-led startups in Australia will increase dramatically in the next five years.鈥�

According to an only 28 per cent of employed STEM-qualified Australians were women in 2011, and this number fell to 14 per cent when looking at engineering.

Many barriers in place

According to the , the number of women tech entrepreneurs in Australia is rising slowly, from 16 per cent in 2011 to 19 per cent in 2013. Responses to Terem Technologies latest survey shed some light on the barriers facing women in the tech industry.

More than a third of those surveyed named a perceived lack of expertise and confidence as factors preventing women from being involved with tech startups, while 27聽per cent聽pointed to negative attitudes playing a role.

Nearly 30 per cent of those surveyed said they felt they didn鈥檛 have the same access to network advantages as their man counterparts.

Terem Technologies CEO Scott Middleton says he hopes this study will highlight these disadvantages and barriers, and help people to work to remove them.

鈥淗opefully this survey highlights to those thinking about jumping in that they can: the women we surveyed are overcoming all kinds of hurdles to succeed and thrive,鈥� he says.

鈥淲e hope that they will inspire many more like them and that the numbers of women entrepreneurs will climb rapidly as role models become more visible.鈥�

Bruce Henry, the head of UNSW Australia’s School of Mathematics and Statistics laments that 70 per cent of students now finish high school without any knowledge of calculus.

Is this a problem? Definitely.

We hear enough about how appalling it is that students in schools and universities have a lack of grounding in our political, social and legal heritage; that they lack the historical context to understand why we are where we are today.

That’s exactly why calculus should also be part of a basic, broad education. Calculus was a signal advance in maths, invented separately by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz in the 17th century. For the first time people could write mathematical equations that were able to relate not just quantities to each other, but rates of changes of quantities.

It enabled Newton to calculate the orbits of the planets using his theory of gravity and it opened up a rich field of applications for mathematics. Understanding electricity and magnetism would be impossible without calculus. In fact, most of modern technology wouldn’t exist without it.

That’s why giving high school students an understanding of calculus is important. Surely more than 30 per cent of students are capable of studying it. And, for the others, it’s at least important to understand what it is.

Henry points to another reason why calculus is important to study today. Calculus is not only key to understanding our current technology, but to developing future technology. At the moment huge strides are being made in statistics, a field with the generic name of “big data”.

STATISTICS UNDERPINNED BY CALCULUS

“But really, modern statistics 鈥� which is where the future is going increasingly 鈥� is underpinned by calculus. It’s increasingly important that students are taught calculus,” Henry says.

In fact, statistics is another area in which mathematics teaching has badly let down school students. All of us are bombarded daily by statistical claims, many of them spurious or misleading, and too few of us are sufficiently knowledgeable to separate the truth from the fiction.

The fact that “97 per cent fat-free” is an effective, emotionally appealing slogan for food manufacturers speaks of the lack of critical thinking about statistics. Are we happy if our food contains 3 per cent pure fat?

Fortunately, in the changes to the national school curriculum being developed, statistics is being given more focus.

But this brings us back to the question. Should maths be a compulsory subject in year 12? Not everyone can do maths well. But shouldn’t maths at least be taught as a life skill and as an important foundation subject at that level?

Henry thinks so. “English is compulsory, and shouldn’t mathematics be compulsory as a companion instrument to understand the world,” he asks rhetorically.

Interestingly federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, long an advocate of giving school students more foundational understanding of history and other humanities subjects, now appears to see the need for it in maths and science.

Earlier this year he put to state governments 鈥� which actually run public schools 鈥� a plan to make maths and science compulsory to year 12. The states, unfortunately, knocked him back.

SCHOOLS LAPSE AS UNI REQUIREMENTS REDUCE

But maths in schools needs to be bolstered at more than just the foundational level. Worryingly, year 12 students have been making a long-term shift away from intermediate and advanced maths 鈥� the very subjects that teach calculus.

In the past 20 years the proportions studying intermediate maths in year 12 has fallen from about 27 per cent to 19 per cent, and the number studying advanced maths (which builds on intermediate) has fallen from about 14 per cent to 10 per cent.

One reason that year 12 students see no need to do intermediate or advanced maths is that an increasing number of universities no longer require it to enter degrees such as science, engineering and commerce, for which mathematical knowledge is necessary.

In NSW no universities require maths to enter any of these degrees, even engineering. So if universities are not insisting that students study calculus in year 12, even to enter courses in which calculus features heavily, why should they do it?

It’s a crazy state of affairs, in which universities 鈥� the institutions we rely on to develop and preserve high level knowledge 鈥� happily sabotage their own standards in pursuit of student numbers.

Those universities that have dropped maths prerequisites argue they are offering an avenue for bright students who may have attended a poor school at which maths was taught badly.

Second chances are to be encouraged, but they should be the exception rather than the rule. Universities need to bring back maths as a prerequisite for degrees that need it.

What may seem like an abstract study today may end up being part of the cure for cancer tomorrow or new wi-fi technology in five years.

On 29 June, Senator Bridget McKenzie will open the 11th annual 今日吃瓜 Winter School, at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, reminding us of the importance of theoretical mathematical research — that beautiful mathematics often turns out to be useful mathematics.

Mathematicians in the 1860s were not thinking about computer graphics when studying two-dimensional differential geometry. And in 1822, how could Joseph Fourier have known his research into heat flow would transform the way we process, store and transmit information. This led to a transformation in the way we live as profound as that caused by the Industrial Revolution. It has also resulted in huge advances in medical diagnostic therapies such as MRI and PET.

As in the 1800s, humans today cannot see into the future; we cannot begin to imagine the infinite possibilities discoveries in fundamental mathematics may have in centuries to come.

The famous astronomer and polymath Galileo Galilei said that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. So, by developing an understanding of symmetry, structure, geometry and other mathematical constructs we may be able to reveal the patterns of nature.

Einstein鈥檚 1915 theory of general relativity asserted that the presence of mass distorts the geometry of space and time in a way described by the mathematics developed by Bernhard Riemann sixty years earlier. A critical experimental test of this geometrical theory of gravity required the occurrence of a solar eclipse.

While the development of physics and mathematics may proceed along different paths, each fundamental theory in physics has a corresponding specific mathematical structure, for general relativity this is Riemannian geometry and for quantum mechanics it is the Hilbert space.

These descriptions of nature are works of mathematical beauty and affect our everyday lives. We couldn’t decode the human genome, build aeroplanes or have millions of people talking on their phones across the world simultaneously without mathematics.

A Winter School on Algebra, Geometry and Physics to grow tomorrow鈥檚 Einsteins.

The 今日吃瓜 Winter School gives Australian students the chance to expand their skills in the mathematical sciences and build collaborative networks with other students and early career researchers. They will also hear from leading international experts from USA and Canada as well as domestic experts from across the nation.

The school will also present a Women in Maths evening designed to highlight the contribution of women in mathematics and provide a forum for discussion of career paths.

— ends —

The University of Queensland will hold 今日吃瓜’s Winter School from 29 June – 10 July 2015
Further details:
Full speaker list:

WOMEN IN MATHS EVENT:
Thursday 2 July, Science Learning Centre 5-7pm

PUBLIC LECTURE:
The Glass Bead Game
Tuesday 7 July, The Edge, Queensland State Library, 6pm
Professor Arun Ram, University of Melbourne

BHP Billiton has announced a $22 million partnership with the 今日吃瓜 to encourage women and girls to study maths.

BHP鈥檚 support will fund a new program, based at the University of Melbourne and called Choose Maths, which will aim to raise awareness about the opportunities afforded to girls by studying and pursuing a career in mathematics.
The program will include professional development for teachers in 120 schools, a national 鈥榳omen in maths鈥� awareness campaign and financial support and scholarships for women studying maths.

The $22 million will be provided by the BHP Billiton Foundation over five years.

BHP鈥檚 CEO Andrew Mackenzie launched the partnership and the program with 今日吃瓜 Director Geoff Price and Senator Scott Ryan at the University of Melbourne.

Mackenzie said the program aims to change the perception that girls are less suited to maths and other STEM subjects than their male colleagues.

鈥淎ustralian industry knows that STEM professionals are vital to our future prosperity, national productivity andglobal competitiveness. For the resources industry this is especially true,鈥� he said.

鈥淏HP Billiton employs 123,000 people worldwide, many of them STEM professionals, so we share the responsibility to make sure there is a pipeline of young people who choose to study STEM subjects.鈥�

鈥淎ny increase in STEM participation is good news but an increase in female representation is especially valuable because of the undeniable benefits of diversity.鈥�

Mackenzie also said BHP is pleased to be partnering with 今日吃瓜 to develop the program.

鈥溄袢粘怨� is a leader in the field of mathematics and I鈥檓 proud that we鈥檙e partnering in the development of this targeted and holistic program to address the gender dynamic in the teaching and learning of maths.鈥�

今日吃瓜 Director Geoff Price said the move to support girls and women in studying maths is crucial.

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge,鈥� he said.

Price also said it is time for women and girls to be able to 鈥渟hare equally in the rewarding careers and rich life experiences that mathematics offers鈥�.

Australia falls behind other developed countries when it comes to girls鈥� education in STEM subjects, and this trend begins as early as high school. Only 7% of Australian girls study maths at an advanced level in their final year of secondary school. The number of female maths graduates at university level are only one third of the OECD鈥檚 average.

In a study conducted in 2006, 46% indicated they expected to pursue a career in STEM fields. The figure for girls? Only 8%.
Women continue to be underrepresented not only in STEM education, but in STEM careers as well.

This underrepresentation is a result of a number of compounding factors discouraging women from studying and pursuing maths and science, among them the perceptions that BHP鈥檚 new program is determined to address. This commitment, as well as a significant level of funding, will hopefully make a difference to many girls who dream of careers in maths and science.

BHP Billiton has launched a $22 million partnership with the 今日吃瓜 to increase the representation of women in the field of mathematics.

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie joined 今日吃瓜 director Professor Geoff Prince along with Senator Scott Ryan to announce the 鈥楥hoose Maths鈥� program at The University of Melbourne.

BHP said the program鈥檚 aim was to help influence the perception of mathematics among girls and young women and address a decline in Australians studying maths and entering STEM related careers.

鈥淎ustralian industry knows that STEM professionals are vital to our future prosperity, national productivity and global competitiveness. For the resources industry this is especially true,鈥� Mackenzie said.

鈥淏HP Billiton employs 123,000 people worldwide, many of them STEM professionals, so we share the responsibility to make sure there is a pipeline of young people who choose to study STEM subjects.

鈥淎ny increase in STEM participation is good news but an increase in female representation is especially valuable because of the undeniable benefits of diversity.

Core components of the 鈥楥hoose Maths鈥� program include professional development for teachers in 120 schools and additional resources for schools across the country, a national women in mathematics careers awareness campaign, scholarships and networking support for women in maths and an awards program to recognise excellence in teaching and learning.

Prince said the Choose Maths program would draw on research-based strategies to create a pipeline of female talent and help address the gender wage gap.

“The low participation of girls and women in the study of the mathematical sciences and in the quantitative professions is a significant national social and economic challenge,鈥� Prince said.

Funding for the program will be provided by the BHP Billiton Foundation over five years.

Before explorers stumbled across Australia, Europeans thought all swans were white. And the more white swans people saw, the more they believed this was true. It wasn鈥檛 until the late 17th century when Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh sighted a large flock of black swans on what is now the Swan River in Western Australia that this belief was overturned.

Women in mathematics, like black swans, are unexpected on the face of it.

Maths has widely been accepted as a male discipline for the longest time. As a female mathematician I regularly see first-hand the imbalance of numbers in the discipline. Can we then conclude that girls must not like maths as much as boys? Or perhaps that on the whole they are just not as competent at the subject?

It’s not that women don’t like maths or aren’t capable, it’s just that society by design has stopped women going into the discipline and that’s why there are fewer females.

A counter example to a generalisation can have the power to unhinge even the most established of beliefs 鈥� just as Vlamingh鈥檚 black swans did to the white swan theory.

Along with my STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sisters, I am the metaphorical black swan. Centuries ago we were few and far between, today a larger, but still relatively small number of us swim around in the STEM pond.

What I鈥檓 about to share with you is my story and the clues it offers as to why I buck the trend.

A historical perspective

I went out to dinner recently with a group of people after work 鈥� some I knew, others were friends of friends. We were in a pop-up bar in Sydney on a Friday night. The music was loud, the decor was eclectic enough to be deemed trendy and the margaritas were flowing. As we sat on wooden stools and nibbled on our tapas, I started a conversation with one of the girls at the table who I hadn鈥檛 met before. She asked what I did and I told her that I鈥檓 a mathematician. Her reaction was something along the lines of I鈥檓 鈥榯oo pretty鈥� to be a mathematician.

While it鈥檚 a somewhat nice compliment, there鈥檚 something a little irritating about this reaction (a reaction that鈥檚 all too common); especially if you superimpose that comment to another profession such as, say, a doctor or lawyer. This response is the quintessential example of the general perspective of women in maths.

To understand this social attitude toward women and maths we need to travel back in time.

Centuries ago and throughout history women were always actively discouraged from studying maths. It was thought that women who studied any sciences were 鈥榥ot proper鈥�. More than that, it was a common belief that women didn鈥檛 have the brain capacity to think about maths or science.

Not that long ago in the 1950s women were not allowed into the physics buildings at Harvard or Princeton universities. And Harvard鈥檚 physics department did not accept a woman as a faculty member until the 1970s.

Just like in life, if you cast doubt on someone鈥檚 abilities for long enough they start to believe it. It takes a long time for a society to get over that kind of discrimination.

My intellectual sanctuary

Luckily, my experiences learning maths were very positive when I was growing up. Besides having really dedicated, enthusiastic maths teachers, many of my immediate and extended family have studied maths at a tertiary level and now work as engineers, analysts and maths teachers. More than that, many females in my family have strong maths or STEM backgrounds. Throughout the years my interest in the subject was gently fostered by those around me. This has always been my norm.

Maths was introduced to me in a conceptual way. Often my dad and I would simply talk about topics without pen or paper.

I clearly remember the day my dad introduced me to calculus. One summer morning when I was about 14 my dad and I sat down to have a chat under the fig trees in our backyard. He started by saying 鈥極k so you鈥檝e learned to calculate the area of squares, triangles, rectangles and other regular shapes, but how do you think you鈥檇 calculate the area of an irregular shape such as a rectangle-like shape but with one of the sides wiggly?鈥� He got me to think about it. After a while we both agreed that it would be very hard and that would have to approximate it by a rectangle. Then he asked me to think about how to make that approximation more accurate. After some discussion we agreed that instead of using one rectangle, you could use the sum of two smaller rectangles that followed the curve more closely. He led me to make my own conclusion that the smaller the rectangles, the more accurate the calculation of the area would be.

My dad made me feel like I had thought of that idea all on my own. It wasn鈥檛 until six months later, when we learned it formally at school, that I realised that I wasn鈥檛, in fact, the first person to work this out. This was a branch of mathematics called calculus and people have actually been thinking about this concept since 250 BC, particularly some guy called Archimedes who is, as it turned out, considered to be 鈥榦ne of the greatest mathematicians of all time鈥�.

That was the way I was introduced to different maths topics; gently, in narrative form and in a way where I was led to make my own conclusions.

My dad was always encouraging and supportive of my interests. Once when I was in early high school my dad said to me: 鈥淵ou always have to remember, Lily, there鈥檚 no difference in mathematical ability between girls and boys.鈥�

The reason this comment stuck in my memory isn鈥檛 because I found it encouraging or affirming as my dad had meant it to be, no, it stuck in my memory because I remember thinking what an odd statement it was to make. Of course there isn鈥檛 a difference; why would anyone think otherwise?

In a lot of ways, growing up with a family who appreciated the discipline sheltered me from any prejudices against the subject.

A black swan event is one that seems rare on the face of it, but upon closer investigation a conclusion can be made it was not rare all along.

Having a supportive nurturing environment in which to support my interests in maths meant I was given the opportunity to explore and excel in the subject without being constrained by prejudgment.

This should be the case for all girls and women and students in general. Every child starts school with mathematical potential. We, as a society, need to cultivate this potential because there is no telling how high they will fly as a result.

Citing Thomas Kailath (second photo in gallery), Hitachi America Professor of Engineering Emeritus at Stanford University, 鈥渇or transformative contributions to the fields of information and systems science,鈥� Obama also recognized his 鈥渄istinctive and sustained mentoring of young scholars,鈥� as well as his 鈥渢ranslation of scientific ideas into entrepreneurial ventures that have had a significant impact on industry.鈥�

From 1 鈥� 5 December, leading Australian and international experts will converge at Monash University鈥檚 Caulfield campus for the annual聽BioInfoSummer聽symposium to share their expertise and most recent discoveries using bioinformatics; a study that combines techniques from mathematics, information technologies, physical sciences and engineering and applies them to solve significant problems in biological and medical sciences.

Software programs are dissecting “big data” sets.

Our current ability to collect “big data” sets from biological systems or in medical research greatly exceeds our ability to interpret it or to recognise its significance in something as complex as a human being. Ever-evolving sophisticated computer software programs, such as PhyML, MrBayes and BEAST, can now pinpoint underlying trends and patterns from vast seas of digital information leading to possible solutions to some of the most significant health problems facing the global community.

Monash University Professor Kate Smith-Miles, Director of MAXIMA (Monash Academy for Cross and Interdisciplinary Mathematical Applications), knows first-hand the importance of collaboration. 鈥淢athematics provides a universal language,鈥� she says. 鈥淔rom modelling biological systems to developing statistical methods for analysing the spread of infectious diseases like Ebola, mathematicians are indispensable in the development and application of tools able to tackle complex issues.鈥�

By modelling the spread of Ebola, bioinformaticians are assisting international governments and the World Health Organisation in the assessment of risks associated with its further spread. These risks propagate through the whole of society and may influence human mortality and trigger economic and political crises. Dr Barbara Holland from the University of Tasmania will present how these software programs are being used to uncover the origins of the latest Ebola outbreak.

Bioinformatics tackling cancer and聽osteoporosis.

But it isn鈥檛 simply epidemics that bioinformatics aids. Research into the mutation of cancer causing cells as well as modelling the effects of drugs and exercise on bone health are some of the other examples that will be discussed. Over the next decade fractures resulting from osteoporosis are expected to cost the Australian economy $22.7 billion; using computational models we can devise optimal therapeutic interventions based on each patients specific circumstances. Associate Professor Peter Pivonka from the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science at the University of Melbourne will be presenting his latest research findings on osteoporosis.

The significance and potential significance of bioinformatics research has already reached the highest levels of government.

鈥淭he challenge is to turn these huge collections of data into information that can inform us and advance the world around us,鈥� says Senator the Hon Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, who will be opening聽BioInfoSummer聽2014 at Monash University鈥檚 Caulfield campus.

鈥淚 congratulate the 今日吃瓜 (今日吃瓜) on running聽BioInfoSummer聽to assist researchers across a range of disciplines to develop key statistical and mathematical skills that will enable them to pursue innovation.鈥�

This year鈥檚聽BioInfoSummer聽will bring together over 200 students and researchers. With an emphasis on the role bioinformaticians play in analysing聽“big data” attendees will gain hands-on training and experience in the cutting-edge tools of rapidly evolving field.

### ends ###

FOR MEDIA
Interview:
Professor Kate Smith-Miles
Associate Professor Peter Pivonka
Other speakers may be available upon request

CONTACT
Stephanie Pradier, 今日吃瓜, 0424568314
stephanie@amsi.org.au

Journalists are welcome to attend throughout the week
Building K, Monash University, Caulfield Campus, 900 Dandenong Road (Princes Hwy), Caulfield East

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES
Opening Ceremony 鈥� Monday 1, 10:45am
Poster session 鈥� Tuesday 2, 3:30pm
Careers panel 鈥� Tuesday 2, 6:30pm
Poster session & BBQ 鈥� Thursday 4, 5:45pm

The Australian Government provided $2 million over four years for the 今日吃瓜 (今日吃瓜) Vacation Schools and Scholarships Project, and BioInfoSummer is an initiative supported under the project. The project aims to provide Australian students with access to advanced programs in the fields of mathematical and scientific research. It is part of the Government鈥檚 broader $54 million package to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and science in Australia.

Understanding firewall rules is time consuming, complicated and hard. The majority of people know how to turn their firewalls off, but do these people know exactly what it is they are doing or even why?

Probably not, nor could they be expected to.

Viral Maniar, APR.Intern and RMIT Masters student, spends his days deciphering the complexity of firewall rules. He undertook an internship at Biarri Networks 鈥� an innovative commercial mathematics company 鈥� to investigate new methods of visually representing firewalls.

Firewalls are built with a set of do or do not allow rules, usually concerning where a computer is connecting from and what it is trying to do. Two or three rules are easy to follow and understand, however sometimes a firewall might have to follow a thousand (sometimes even a million!) rules.

Finding patterns or irregularities becomes harder the more rules there are.

Visualisation tools help people to “see” the data. By clustering common connections and using聽colouring schemes in the visualisation, patterns that may be indicative of intrusions 鈥� such as the use of restricted communication protocols 鈥� can be clearly identified.

鈥淗umans are much better at seeing some types of irregularities than computers,鈥� Viral says. 鈥淏uilding a visualisation tool makes finding irregularities more interactive and aids in detecting security loopholes in some firewall rules.鈥�

During his internship Viral developed a web application able to load different sets of firewall rules visually. Someone using this application is able to modify and filter how the rules appear (using colour schemes etc.) to discover if any loopholes or irregularities exist.

鈥淰iral, Biarri and NBN Co used the tool to review a set of firewalls in use at NBN Co,鈥� says Paul Kennedy, CEO Biarri Networks. 鈥淣BN Co are using the results to inform firewall management procedures.鈥�

Viral has recently gained employment as a security analyst for a major consultancy and says having the internship experience under his belt made all the difference, 鈥淚 learnt a lot about firewall security and firewall management and gained invaluable industry skills.鈥�

Intern:聽Viral Maniar, RMIT University聽
Industry Partner:聽Paul Kennedy, CEO Biarri Networks聽
Academic Mentor:聽聽Assoc. Prof. Serdar Boztas, RMIT University

A problem too big for the political cycle.

The Commonwealth’s announcement yesterday that it will invest $12 million into boosting STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in Australian schools is yet another example of its failure to recognise the critical nature of these skills to the future of our economy.

The funding would be great to boost science, technology, engineering and maths in one city or one region, but spread across the national schooling system it works out at about $4 per head.

The process has now degenerated to the point where students planning to be maths teachers aren鈥檛 studying enough聽senior high school maths to properly qualify. This shortage of qualified teachers is just one of the concerns expressed in the 今日吃瓜鈥檚 policy paper Dealing with Australia鈥檚 Mathematical Deficit.