A visionary superstar moves up to mentor, physics pro shares her STEM strategy, and Flinders computer science spinout takes out serious tech award in the US.
From superstar to super mentor
The 2019 Superstars of STEM mentors were announced on 3 May, with Professor Justine Smith among the 60 women chosen from a range of sectors to mentor the current intake of Superstars of STEM.
The Superstars of STEM project, an initiative of Science and Technology Australia, aims to inspire women into careers in science by raising the profile of current world-class female researchers and clinicians across the nation.
It does this by empowering women achievers working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields with the skills, opportunities and networks to become public role models.
Each participant is carefully matched to mentor for one-on-one support to guide them through their media, social media and stage presence.
The 60 women come from a range of industries, sectors and backgrounds.
Professor Smith made the cut to participate in the inaugural program in 2017, as a ‘superstar’, selected for her life-changing work which famously includes being among the team that first reported post-Ebola uveitis was associated with persistence of a live virus inside the eye.
YourAmigo has all the answers
Internet search engine company YourAmigo, which spun out of computer science research work at Flinders University, has won a leading business technology award in the USA with its e-tail product YourAnswer.
Retailers voted for the YourAnswer ‘voice shopping’ system as ‘Most Exciting Tech Award’ at the annual Worldwide Business Research presentations in California last month.
Chief executive Rahmon Coupe and Director of Customer Engagement John Palek accepted the inaugural award, saying the YourAnswer solution gives online retailers the technology to offer website visitors the “ultimate mobile shopping solution”.
“We have been developing some amazing, new proprietary technologies to produce this game-changing product,” Mr Coupe says.
“The trademark Real Intelligence Engine goes beyond AI (artificial intelligence), with the ability to understand spoken language just like a sales associate would.
“We added to this a voice recognition capability, and a unique display that allows a large number of items to be shown on a small screen.
“So mobile shoppers can ask for something like, ‘show me all the red dresses under $50 size 8‘, and that’s exactly what they get, all in a unique catwalk view.”
The technology has underpinned results including quantum jumps in mobile website performance, with YourAnswer Voice Shopping Experience users staying on the website more than two times longer, viewing 1.5x more pages, and converting 190% higher compared to other visitors on the site.
Flinders Professor David Powers, who sits on the advisory board at YourAmigo Pty Ltd, says the successful spinout company is building on its customer base which has included Sony, Dell, Reebok, The Home Shopping Network and General Motors.
“The success of YourAmigo, a world leader in organic search optimisation and deep web search, is built on patented technology developed at Flinders’ Artificial Intelligence and Language Technologies research group,” says David Powers, Professor of Computer Science and Cognitive Science at Flinders University.
“YourAnswer reflects our growing push to incorporate speech, vision and real understanding into mobile and web technologies.”
“After expanding overseas from its Adelaide base, the company has built a clientele of Fortune 500 companies and won a number of grants and industry awards. Even Yahoo has praised its search capabilities.”
Industry experts have likened voice shopping to the history of mobile commerce – where there was low usage early on, but then the uptake trajectory rapid.
Some analysts are predicting that 50% of all searches will be voice searches within the next two years, and Forrester Research has forecast that by next year smartphones will influence 42% of all purchases (offline and online).
STEM expertise branches out
Associate Professor Maria Parappilly was invited to share her efforts and those of the Flinders University STEM Women Branching Out group at the first event for the Australian Academy of Science’s Women in Stem Decadal Plan.
The Academy’s Decadal plans are ten-year strategic plans that exist to assess current knowledge in a specific science discipline, identify and prioritise the most important questions for the next decade, and outline strategies for their achievement.
Aiming to provide a vision and opportunities that will maximise the representation of girls and women in STEM, the Women in Stem Decadal Plan kicked off with a ‘Pathways to Equity in STEM’ event as the first step – gathering collaborators to share current activities.
The event was held on 3 April 2019, with Professor Parappilly speaking at the first session that revealed several strategies and programs taking place in Australia across academia, education and industry to tackler gender equity in STEM.
Those interested in the progress of the Plan including outcomes from the inaugural activity and opportunities to contribute, can read more on the Australian Academy of Science’s website.