About

In a joint effort, Norwegian Open AI Lab (NAIL) and the Norwegian Research Center for AI Innovation (NorwAI) has taken the initiative to establish a mentoring program for female students within AI. The intention is to increase the number of female students pursuing careers in tech-positions both in academia, the institute sector and in the industry. Starting spring 2022, this is a pilot project, and will be evaluated after one year. We anticipate female students with different expectations and career goals to sign up for this mentorship program, and we have therefor welcomed mentors from a wide range of levels in the different organizations. With basis in personal descriptions and preferences we will then match mentee with mentor.

The project organized a meet-and-greet kickoff on April 28 in Trondheim, with seminar and dinner.  

The mentors

We have recruted role models among our partner companies, in different positions: 

• Leaders in the industry
• Engineers and technical leaders in the industry
• Post docs
• Associate professors/professors

The mentoring aims to connect students with women and men that are already established in the work force and that can answer questions on career planning and starting working life.

The expectations to the mentors are the following:

• The mentors are expected to mentor maximum two students each over a period of one year
• Mentors should invite the mentee(s) to meet physically (or digitally if necessary) minimum 3 times during this year.
• The mentors and mentees can meet at the offices of the mentor, at a café or visit a relevant work site.
• In addition, the project group from NorwAI and NAIL will arrange some joint seminars/meetings throughout the period.

The mentees

The mentees have been recruited among female NTNU students studying at one of the relevant programs:

• Informatics
• Cybernetics and Robotics
• Electronic System Design and Innovation
• Communication Technology and Digital Security
• Computer Science
• Industrial Economy

FEMAIS, the mentorship initiative for female AI students was kicked-off on April 28th

FEMAIS is a pilot mentoring scheme for female AI students at NTNU, that was initiated by NorwAI and the Norwegian Open AI Lab. Experienced professionals from our partners joined as mentors for the 15 students who applied to participate. On April 28th we organized the kick-off in Trondheim.

2022-05-30