Dr Hannah Dee founder of the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium has been awarded an MBE in the King's birthday honours list in recognition of her services to ‘Technology and to Women in the Information Technology Sector.’
Dr Dee, a senior lecturer in computer science at Aberystwyth University, has over 20 years experience in teaching and research. With a PhD in AI from the University of Leeds she founded the Lovelace Colloquium in 2008 (whilst a researcher at the University of Leeds) and has been involved as chair or deputy chair every year since.
The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day conference for women and non-binary students of Computing and related subjects. It aims to support and encourage women and non-binary students, and provide a forum for undergraduate and masters students to share their ideas and network.
The event includes talks from women in computing, both from academia and industry along with informal (networking) advice about careers in computing from women and non-binary people’s perspectives. Held in a different location around the country every year, it provides an opportunity for students to discuss their own work in the form of a poster contest, with cash prizes provided by industry sponsors.
Dr Dee said: “I am extremely proud to have my contribution recognised in this way. The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium has grown into an inspirational gathering with an amazing team behind it. We bring together the best women and non-binary students in the UK every year, and every year they give me hope for the future of tech. It has been a privilege to have met so many talented student participants over the last 17 years."
Gillian Arnold FBCS – past President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and former chair of BCSWomen, said: “Hannah is a brilliant role model and this award is thoroughly deserved for the fantastic work she does in encouraging and supporting women in tech.
For you
Be part of something bigger, join BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
We are extremely proud of her for creating the Lovelace Colloquium, being consistent over the last 17 years and for demonstrating via this unique event that anyone who trains in tech has an exciting career ahead of them.
The prestigious annual one-day conference offers an amazing opportunity for women and non-binary students to share their ideas, network, socialise and hear talks from women in academia and industry.
More about Dr Hannah Dee
She is a women in computing activist and was on the committee of BCSWomen for 17 years, involved in the Appathon world record attempt, various workshops for kids and families, women returner workshops, and the AI accelerator programme. She has various awards (including BCS meritorious service award, Computer Weekly women in tech hall of fame, and a Suffrage Science award). An information security and data modelling teacher, she is interested in diversity in all guises, student attitudes towards computer science, information security, bias in AI, and the impact of AI on study and on the computing profession.
Hannah is co-author of: Women in Tech - A practical guide to increasing gender diversity and inclusion
More about the Lovelace Colloquium
The colloquium was the first event in the UK for women computing undergraduates, and remains the biggest event not tied to a specific employer. The centrepiece of the day is a poster contest for students to present their own work, and in 2024 we had 160 finalists across 4 contests (1st/foundation year, 2nd year, final year and MSc). We opened up to students studying taught MSc courses early on and have had a separate prize for MSc students from 2012 onwards. Since the start we have tried to make the colloquium as inclusive as possible, covering travel for student finalists through industry or university sponsorship. In our first year we had over 70 registered attendees, this year we had over 300. We move around the country, and in 2025 will be hosted by the University of Glasgow.
