The  IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group of the Student Branch of the University of Thessaly in Lamia in collaboration with the IEEE Greece Section Women in Engineering Affinity Group and other Affinity Groups of our country invites you to its first event of 2022! It will take place on Thursday, March 10th at 17:15 (Athens Greece time) via the Microsoft Teams (Ms. Teams) platform.

This webinar is based on women scientists and the discrimination they face in their careers. Our event will mainly have a narrative character which will be followed by a discussion with our guest speakers (Mrs. Karali (Katia) Aikaterini and Mrs. Arvaniti Koutsiana (Femia) Efthymia ), and the audience in order to share and listen to everyone’s experiences!

Link to join the meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/…/19…/conversations… (or use the code: tpeavub )
Login instructions as a guest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9yvoX9dCMU…

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us!

Speech 1

Title: “From Biomedical Informatics in the center of Greece to Global IT in the center of Europe”

Abstract: How different yet similar can these two setups be? Join me in a retrospective journey of how the little steps, crossroads, and obstacles shaped my career path and unfolded different passions and interests. Let’s have an interactive (and unfiltered) discussion on how the engineering and IT industries have now been accelerating towards equality and inclusion, what to expect in the near future and how YOU can play a major role in establishing excellent role models for future generations. Help me motivate you and unfold the great big world of IT and women in IT, with a Q&A!

Short Bio: Efthymia (Femia) Arvaniti Koutsiana is a Global IT Project Manager at Hilti Group, an organization with more than 30.000 committed employees around the world. She completed her Bachelor’s studies in Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Thessaly in Lamia, Greece, where she has introduced to the exciting world of IEEE and the start of her volunteering journey. In parallel with her studies, she took on various roles at the sectional, regional, and global IEEE level, focusing mostly on IEEE Student and Educational Activities, where she was elected to chair the Region 8 Student Activity Committee for the 2017-2018 term. Through her volunteerism, Efthymia recognized her passion for technological projects and leadership, which worked as a trigger for pursuing her postgraduate studies at the University of Liechtenstein, where she graduated with an MSc in Information Systems and Business Process Management. During her MSc, she worked on real industry projects with companies and corporations from Liechtenstein and surrounding countries, where she also learned about Hilti, its caring culture, and innovative tools and services they develop and offer to the construction world. Efthymia was positively exposed to numerous learning opportunities on how R&D, Information Systems, and IT departments are enabling business and support companies in their strategic growth, putting the puzzle pieces of her BSc and MSc studies, alongside her IEEE experiences together. Since 2017, she started her career with Hilti as an intern in Global IT and then was promoted to the role of IT Project Manager a few months later. Since then, she has been continuously learning and growing in the roles of IT Project Manager as well as Scrum Master and Agile Coach, where she manages various projects with teams in a global and multicultural setup, delivering reliable and quality solutions for both employees and Hilti customers. She is one of the (now) many women in the Engineering and IT industry, contributing to a sustainable, modern, and innovative future.

Speech 2

Title: “A journey from medicine to biotechnology”

Abstract: She will talk about her journey starting from medical school in basic and translational research to biotechnology, difficult decisions, and most important steps. She will refer to changes in technology and how the fusion of scientific disciplines has contributed to successes unimaginable a few years ago. Most of the talk will be devoted to questions and dialogue.

Short Bio: Katia Karali is a medical researcher and graduate of the Medical School of the University of Athens. She did postgraduate training in the USA, atCedars Sinai Medical Center/UCLA, NICHD/NIH Children’s Hospital (BCH), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and specialization in Clinical Molecular Genetics, Harvard Genetics Program. She was Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, BCH, HMS, Research Director at IIBEAA, Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute, HMS.  She focused on basic and translational research and the main focus of research in her laboratory was the stress response through corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) and how it is associated with the development of inflammatory diseases, with emphasis on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She also described the role of CRH in human pregnancy and specifically in preterm birth, as well as in the differentiation of stem cells into neural tissue cells. 6 years ago she took up the position of EVP for Research at Emulate, an HMS technoblast, as responsible for the development of new models for the study of human diseases based on the pioneering organ-on-chip technology, a technology at the crossroads of biology and engineering. About 2 years ago she took over the direction of the biology group at the Regeneron Genetics Center, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which aims to develop new drugs based on findings from whole genome sequencing of large population series. She has taught in many undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Greece, the USA, and Europe has been funded by international and national programs and has trained many graduate students and postdocs.