The annual DevelopHER Awards – created to recognise women in tech – was once again a great success and the team at Coderus is proud to have been a part of such a well-received event.
At Coderus we are committed to making working in technology more accessible for everyone. We work with a range of organisations and education providers to make that happen, including schools. colleges and universities across the region, the Suffolk Creative Computing Club, and SyncDevelopHER, which was founded in 2013 to promote gender equality in the technology industry in East Anglia.
The DevelopHER Awards is an annual not for profit awards’ ceremony, launched in 2015 by SyncDevelopHER’s founder, Vickie Allen. Raising the profile of women in technology, the event aims to create female role models to inspire the next generation to become developers, technicians, project managers, testers and digital experts. An aim we support wholeheartedly at Coderus.
Having attended the inaugural ceremony in 2015, we were excited to sponsor the event in 2016, and just as delighted to be involved in the action again for the 2017 Innovation Award.
This, the third annual awards ceremony and celebration, was held on 29th November 2017 at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Finalists in the Innovation category included Eleni Antoniadou, Claire Bromley and Gabriela Gallegos Garrido, all of whom are amazing role models for women in tech.
While the competition was fierce, one clear winner shone through and, for her natural talent and abilities in the design of mobile robotics, we were pleased to recognise Gabriela as the 2017 Innovation award winner.
Speaking just after the event, Peter Lee, Business Development, Marketing and PR at Coderus, said: “Women are under-represented in the tech sector and East Anglia falls way behind the national average, which in our view is a disgrace.
“We recognise the importance of celebrating the women in tech who do so much to inspire future developers, testers and digital experts, encouraging more females to pursue careers in the sector within our region. Growing significantly each year, the DevelopHER Awards is a great way to bring inspiration to the fore and we are delighted to be involved with Vickie and the team.”
As a growing company, at Coderus we are delighted to receive applications from developers and testers regardless of gender and we regularly offer placements, internships and job positions to women. To find out more about working with Coderus and the positions available now, visit our careers’ page.
This year saw the third consecutive running for the annual DevelopHER Awards held at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The event hosted by award founder Vickie Allen saw women from apprentices to entrepreneurs crowned in 14 categories and encompassing the whole of East Anglia’s tech industry.
The awards this year had almost 200 nominations with Google and Amazon as its sponsors and welcoming a crowd of 250 businesses, startups and entrepreneurs in the industry. Keynote speaker Juliana Meyer from SupaPass, who won the DevelopHER Award last year, gave an inspirational talk about her journey as a woman in tech.
Our ambition is to promote strong role models to inspire the next generation of women to consider a career in technology. Our aim is to strengthen career opportunities for women alongside the development of successful technology companies in areas of our region highlighted for their digital tech strength by TechNation.
Vickie Allen, Sync DevelopHER Founder
We decided to sponsor the Innovation Award as we had just kicked off our own software design project with the America’s Cup Challenge and was at the forefront of what the Innovation Award and our core values stood for.
Mark Thomas, Founder CEO of Coderus
Having supported the awards since the very beginning back in 2015, Coderus CEO, Mark Thomas leapt at the chance of not only sponsoring the Innovation Award but also being one of the main judges for the category alongside Machine Learning Scientist, Dr Catherine Breslin.
Mark was very impressed when he was first introduced to his fellow judge, especially when it came to discussing how she is currently working on future iterations of Alexa and became the perfect pair to judge the Innovation Award, with Mark being a successful Founder and CEO of Coderus and long term supporter of the DevelopHER Awards.
The Runners Up
Claire Bromley
Mark and Catherine both agreed that Claire has great potential and was a huge contender for the category. They were very impressed with her work at Playstation HQ and role as an Associate Producer at Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. Beginning her career as a QA at Sony, she now has experience working on several PS4 games with mobile integration for Sony XDev and helping to open up the platform to new audience demographics by producing titles in the PlayLink series.
Eleni Antoniadou
Both judges were very impressed with Eleni’s background as a multidisciplinary researcher in the fields of Regenerative Medicine and Bioastronautics. Eleni has conducted many clinical trials in multiple biotech companies and hospitals in the USA and UK and performed experimental research for NASA’s Mars Exploration Lab.
The Winner
Gabriela Gallegos Garrido
It was a tough call but in the end, a joint decision was made for the winner to be Gabriela! Judges Mark Thomas and Catherine Breslin were both really impressed with Gabriela’s innovative work and innate passion for robotics. With over 12 years of experience, she designed and prototyped numerous robots, ranging from robotic arms to fully autonomous vehicles.
Not only this but she also designed and implemented a novel algorithm for SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) and used it to build a robot that could map its surroundings and determine its location in real-time.
In her current role as a Research Fellow at the London South Bank Innovation Centre, she designs mobile robots that inspect weld lines in ship hulls and similar structures. This is a highly challenging task that requires robots that can climb vertical walls, navigate uneven surfaces, and work for extended periods of time while communicating the results of inspections wirelessly.
