With International Women’s Day just around the corner, we asked one of our female scientists, Varvara Asouti, some questions about “women in science/STEM”. Varvara leads Work Package 4 “Exascaling the REGALE pilots” in the REGALE project. The work in her work package aims to achieve exascale performance for the REGALE pilots, leveraging the capabilities of the REGALE architecture.
Can you explain in a few sentences what your work is about?
I am senior research scientist with the Parallel CFD & Optimization Unit (PCOpt) and the Lab of Thermal Turbomachines at the University of Athens‘ School of Mechanical Engineering. I’m involved in the development and programming of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based analysis and optimization methods. The latter include both stochastic methods based on evolutionary algorithms assisted by artificial intelligence and gradient-based methods assisted by the adjoint technique. All the aforementioned methods are applied to single and multi-disciplinary problems, including external and internal aerodynamics (aircrafts, cars, thermal and hydraulic turbomachines, etc.), aeroacoustics, aeroelastic, conjugate heat transfer problems etc.
How many female colleagues do you have in your team?
Two.
According to the UN women and girls represent only 35 per cent of STEM students today. What do you think is the reason for that?
In my opinion, this is mostly due to stereotypes and biases (even unconscious ones). These include negative stereotypes about girls’ and women’s abilities in science and mathematics, stereotypes that an engineering career is not suitable for a woman or stereotypes that women are not capable enough for such a demanding field as engineering.
What motivated you to pursue a career in STEM?
I have always had an interest and ability in maths, physics and related subjects, so a career in STEM was an easy and straightforward decision. The specific decision for an engineering career was mostly motivated by my interest in aerospace engineering.
Do you have any advice for young women and girls who are undecided whether STEM is the right field for them?
Ignore gender stereotypes and decide based on your skills and interests. For instance, good grades in mathematics, physics and computer science courses indicate that you have the necessary skills for a career in STEM.