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My name is Dimitra Blana, I am a Biomedical Engineer and one of the curators of the new Aberdeen hub of One Healthtech.
As a female engineer, I am concerned about the lack of diversity in the technology sector. I noticed this early in my career: in my undergraduate Electrical and Computer Engineering programme I was one of 9 female students out of about 200. Since then, I have worked in many teams where I was the only woman.
Working in tech, and especially health tech, can be hugely rewarding. So I worry that women and other groups who are under-represented in the technology sector miss out on exciting and well-paid careers. But lack of diversity also affects the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence: it allows historical gender and other biases to propagate in new algorithms. As a result, health innovations do not benefit everyone in society equally.
I moved to Aberdeen in October 2019 and I am now a lecturer in the Aberdeen Centre for Health Data Science. This is a multidisciplinary and diverse group - for the first time I have more female than male colleagues! We have different backgrounds and experiences, but we share a goal: to improve health and health care for the local and wider community.
When we found out about One HealthTech, it felt like a perfect match for our vision and ethos. So we have decided to host the Aberdeen Hub, to help the local health technology sector thrive. If you are interested in joining us, please get in touch!