On April 10, 2013, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., eight distinguished speakers from Switzerland and the United States spoke about ways to promote the participation of women in STEM fields and shared their experience as role models for the future. The conference, entitled "Women Inspire Innovation", focused on motivation from various angles in order to engage all women in different fields of the sciences. The overarching political theme of the evening was the Obama Administration's goal of increasing the participation of women in STEM fields. It was concluded that female actors are still underrepresented in both the U.S. and the Swiss innovation systems, leading to a suboptimal allocation of human resources and lost productivity. It was unanimously agreed that this is a team effort and both men and women must proactively cooperate to create opportunities.
This portion of the conference features Jamie Paik, Head of the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), who gives a talk entitled the "Soft Robotics Challenge."
The Embassy of Switzerland and The Global Women's Leadership Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is proud to contribute to a multicultural dialogue on shattering glass ceilings, overcoming challenges and bridging the gender gap in innovation.
