“We’re talking about everyone in the community being able to participate, get a great education, and go on to have a great career.” Emma Davidson (third from Left). Photo: Jamie Kidston ANU.
Representatives of the ANU and tech sector gathered at the university this week to launch the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity in Australian Technology Education (IDEATE) program.
The program aims to bring together members of the tech sector and academics to discuss how to better represent diversity in the industry, attract new talent to the sector, and address other challenges, such as talent retention.
Former MLA Emma Davidson, appointed the program director of IDEATE, said it was an exciting opportunity that targets the whole community.
“We’re talking about women in computing and engineering, we’re also talking about LGBTQI people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students … people with disability, from regional, rural and remote backgrounds, low socioeconomic status, people who are neurodivergent,” she said.
“We’re talking about everyone in the community being able to participate, get a great education and go on to have a great career.”
Member Sally-Ann Williams, CEO of Cicada Innovations and former chair of the Federal Government’s Pathway to Diversity in STEM review, is passionate when she describes the challenges.
She wants to see real change emerge from the program.
“One of the failures that I see in industry … is around transparency. Historically, if you look globally, there’s been a great number of slogans about we love women, we love Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” she said.
“We’ve got all of these programs, but when you look underneath the policies, do they have the policy and the governance structures inside the organisations to back up those claims?”
“We’ve got all of these programs, but when you look underneath the policies, do they have the policy and the governance structures inside the organisations to back up those claims?” said Sally-Ann Williams (left). Photo: Jamie Kidston ANU.
The announcement by the university is timely given the United States has ramped up efforts to influence university research internationally.
The ANU is one of several universities that have had research agreements suspended by the US government, in what the Group of Eight has described as political interference.
Committee members were careful in their responses to questions about the impacts the US will have on diversity programs. But Professor Tony Hosking, Director of the ANU School of Computing, said tech can’t afford blind spots.
“Even in the US, there are organisations that are continuing to work to broaden the participation of activity in the tech space. Technology companies themselves need a diverse workforce,” he said.
“So it’s actually a business imperative to be able to deliver things that people will be able to use safely and securely and comfortably.”
The university’s Birch Building was an appropriate venue for the launch, with halls lined with technology-themed artworks inspired by feminism, inclusion and social critique.
The commission lined up in front of a piece of indigenous artwork by Paul Girrawah House. Ms Davidson said the piece was chosen carefully for the meeting.
“What this is telling everyone who comes into this room is that this is part of our normal way of doing business,” she said.
“This is how we solve problems together: we want to bring everyone into the room.”
The Random Excuse Generator sculpture by Henry Hoke. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
One of the most striking pieces at the top of the building is the Random Excuse Generator, a satirical art piece from the 1950s by Henry Hoke. It allows users to generate ‘platitudes’, ‘bulldust’, and in an emergency, to shift the blame.
It’s a piece that will undoubtedly carry strong symbolism for the proceedings and its participants as they decide on the actions they will take to generate the change they are eager to discuss in the coming months.
