This article by Camille Hall was originally published on Medium. A collection of voices from fellow black female engineers and my own experiences prompted me to write this, it is with my hope that it is well received. This article is intended to be presented as an informational and practical offering of guidance for those who are working alongside a black female engineer within a male-dominated industry. Written with love by a black female software engineer. In some spaces being a woman is enough of a hurdle to combat. Insert
In 2017, Iris Nevins decided to leave her job as a teacher in Florida to attend a bootcamp in the Bay Area – but it was not without its struggles. On a Go-fund Me page – where she asked for support – she said: “I began learning how to code through online tutorials, and 7 months later, I quit my job as an 8th-grade history teacher, left my organization, and moved to the Bay Area to attend a coding BootCamp. “Making such a transition is very costly as I had
The Black community has long played a profound role in shaping the world as we know it today and although they haven’t always been rewarded for it – they have been in this business for a long time. For example – did you know that more than 90 percent of the microphones used today, including those in phones and cameras, use technology co-invented by Dr. James E. West? Microphones Mr. West, a Black man who was also was appointed president-elect of the Acoustical Society of America in 1997, started his long
To succeed – you need the right tools, and people of color trailblazing in the tech and engineering space are giving back to their communities by creating initiatives to help further propel those looking to step foot into the sector. One such techie is Asia Sharif, a self-taught Junior Software Engineer, Blockchain Developer, and Co-Founder of TechNewbies, an educational technology platform. From a non-technical background, she went into technology in January 2021 as she’s always been fascinated by the world, particularly technology and its implications for the future. Ms. Sharif
A Black-owned startup providing non-intrusive audio ads within mobile games has just raised $14M in its series A round. Makers Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round. Also participating in the fundraising was the Sequoia Scout Program and Google. The total investment for AudioMob to date is now at $16 million. From kicking off in 2020, founders Christian Facey, CEO, and Wilfrid Obeng, CTO, have seen recent client successes with artists including Ed Sheeran and Nas alongside brands like Intel, Jeep, and KitKat who all saw relative metric achievements
A new initiative from the Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation hopes to help Black start-up owners navigate starting a small firm, with a new program providing training and grants of $3,000 for 25 Augusta area entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurship training program already has several business owners hoping to participate. The 25 initial participants will go through four weeks of training and six weeks of coaching, learning everything from record-keeping and insurance to marketing and risk management. According to Yahoo, it’s funded with $125,000 from Bank of America, partnering with the Greater Augusta
Like many industries, the tech sector still has some way to go in addressing diversity and bias issues and although there has been some progress with big companies like Google creating initatives specifically for minority communities – the work shouldn’t and doesn’t stop there. After diverse intake in companies – what roles are they being given, the salary disparity once in the role, the treatment among colleagues and the handling of racism allegations. We’ve heard countless of stories of Black employees and their allies being sidelined for speaking out against
Viral tweets of missing Black children, police brutality and misconduct have continued to dominate this year, with some posts leading to re-opened police investigations and discoveries. But it’s widely known that there is a huge disparity when it comes to media coverage on issues impacting minorities. This problem has been raised countless times and it’s one that James Samuel, founder of Anjel, knows far too well. In an interview over a Zoom call, the father of two boys told POCIT that he’d struggled to get attention from mainstream reporters and
Engineers have paved the way toward advances in all sciences. For example, it’s nearly impossible to imagine how we would have survived the Covid-19 lockdown without online delivery, Zoom, and of course, software’s influence on testing and vaccine distribution. But there is no doubt that the industry still has a long way to go for inclusivity both in the UK and the US. Black History Month is an annual celebration of the men, women, and essential events in the history of Black people. It takes place throughout October in the UK but in February
The UK Black Business Show aims to bring together the best Black start-ups in the country through exhibitions, workshops, interactive panels, and seminars. It’s known to be Europe’s biggest Black-Owned Business show of the year with 4,000 annual attendees, and it’s retaking place on October 30th this year. We’ve broken down everything you need to know before the event What is it exactly? According to its website, this event will enable personal, professional, and corporate development through business exhibitions, deep-dive workshops, interactive panels, and seminars delivered by industry pioneers. To
