{"id":1427,"date":"2024-09-05T09:07:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/?page_id=1427"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:55:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:55:48","slug":"invited-speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/invited-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Invited speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Keynote Speakers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Felienne Hermans<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-6\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3118\" src=\"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/felicienne-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/felicienne-1.png 936w, https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/felicienne-1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/felicienne-1-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-6\">\n<h4>Short Bio<\/h4>\n<p>Felienne Hermans is a professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also works as a high-school CS teacher one day a week at Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer.<\/p>\n<p>Felienne is the creator of the Hedy programming language, a gradual and multi-lingual programming language designed for teaching and author of the book &#8220;The Programmer&#8217;s Brain&#8221; a book that helps programmers understand how their brain works and how to use it more effectively. In 2021, Felienne was awarded the Dutch Prize for ICT research.<\/p>\n<p>She writes for Dutch newspaper Volkskrant every month and writes a weekly newsletter on computer science, AI and many other things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<h4>Keynote Title<\/h4>\n<p>TBD<\/p>\n<h4>Abstract<\/h4>\n<p>Some progress has been made over the last decades to increase women\u2019s participation in science, but in how far has scientific practice changed to accommodate women\u2019s lives, practices, and interests? Has there, in other words, been shifts in the epistemological core of science? In this talk Felienne Hermans, professor of Computer Science Education, will present a history of feminist epistemology and examine the changes in science through that lens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3><strong>Nelly Bencomo<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-6\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-05-at-08.57.44.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-05-at-08.57.44.jpeg 1254w, https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-05-at-08.57.44-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-05-at-08.57.44-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-05-at-08.57.44-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-6\">\n<h4>Short Bio<\/h4>\n<p>I exploit the interdisciplinary aspects of software engineering, which encompass both technical and human concerns, while developing techniques for intelligent, autonomous, and highly distributed systems. I am an Associate Professor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.durham.ac.uk\/departments\/academic\/computer-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CS Department<\/a> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.durham.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Durham University<\/a>. Earlier, I was a Senior Lecturer (equiv. Associate Professor) in the Computer Science Department at Aston University. From September 2020 I am the PI of the EPSRC Twenty20Insight research project. In 2019 I was granted the Leverhulme Fellowship &#8220;QuantUn: quantification of uncertainty using Bayesian surprises.&#8221; Before, I was a Marie Curie Fellow at INRIA Paris &#8211; Roquencourt. The Marie Curie project is called Requirements-aware Systems (nickname: Requirements@run.time). Before, that I was a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster University (UK) where I also got my PhD.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<h4>Keynote Title<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"color: #864ec5;\"><strong><em>More Than Data: Women\u2019s Health, AI, and the Decisions that Shape Us<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Abstract<\/h4>\n<p>Behind every dataset, every model, and every recommendation lies something deeply human: a decision. In women\u2019s health, these decisions are often complex, uncertain, and deeply personal. But they are not only made in clinics, they are also made in careers, in moments of doubt, and in the paths we choose to follow.<\/p>\n<p>In this keynote, I will reflect on my journey as a woman in computing, weaving together my work on AI for women\u2019s health with the personal decisions that have shaped my own path. From navigating uncertainty in research to making life choices without clear answers, I will explore how decision-making connects our professional and personal worlds.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than focusing only on algorithms, this talk asks a broader question: what does it mean to design systems that support real decisions, when life itself does not come with ground truth? I will share lessons from both science and experience, highlighting the importance of voice, context, and trust, not only in AI, but in how we move through the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keynote Speakers Felienne Hermans Short Bio Felienne Hermans is a professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also works as a high-school CS teacher one day a week at Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer. Felienne is the creator of the Hedy programming language, a gradual and multi-lingual programming language designed for teaching and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1427","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":80,"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1427\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womencourage.acm.org\/2026\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}