Female Fulbright student at top university in Singapore: Still prejudice against women in technology industry

Lan Khanh believes there are still some prejudices against women in the technology industry - Photo: NVCC

At one of the top four universities in Singapore, Lan Khanh has interesting experiences about the parallel between technology and community development, as well as opportunities for women in the technology field today.

Using technology to save time for people

* What was special about Lan Khanh's exchange semester in Singapore during the past time?

- Not only the lectures in class, I learned in Singapore, technology is really applied everywhere, optimizing the experience as well as the living standards of the people and anyone who sets foot in Singapore.

Right from the moment of entry, Singapore has an automatic passport scanner and facial recognition machine, then saves it to the system. The whole process does not require any human workers. Just small changes thanks to the help of technology show me why people here save a lot of time and do many other things.

My exchange program in Singapore is Biomedical and Healthcare Engineering.

The special thing here is that in just the first month, I had many field trips to public hospitals in Singapore. I was able to directly observe the technologies applied in the hospital, for example, scanning and 3D printing technology to simulate human body parts that can be used to support the surgical process.

The application of technology and engineering in the medical environment helps reduce the workload of doctors, thereby having time for more patients and making more accurate diagnoses with the help of computers.

* What projects will Lan Khanh implement or have ideas from the exchange period in Singapore?

- I have a lot of ideas from the many things I learned in Singapore. But I think if I want to make it feasible, I am willing to find and join organizations that are also implementing those ideas instead of starting a completely new one.

I am also currently working on a project related to the field I am interested in, which is the application of engineering technology to medicine - applying Deep Learning to research, monitoring electrocardiograms, and separating fetal electrocardiogram waves from the mother's womb. Possible applications in this field are automatic detection of early abnormalities in the electrocardiogram or prioritization in emergency care.

In this project, I had support in Signal Processing from Professor Truong Trung Kien at Fulbright, and in Deep Learning from Professor Lim Kwan Hui at my exchange school SUTD (Singapore University of Technology and Design). In addition, I also had guidance with a group at UCI (University of California, Irvines) from his connection.

Lan Khanh (second from left) during an exchange trip in Singapore - Photo: NVCC

"The stereotype that the tech industry is not for women"

* According to Lan Khanh, what are the current advantages and challenges for female students studying technology and engineering?

- I think every market needs gender balance, especially in this industry, so I see the general trend is that most developed or developing countries have many opportunities for female students to study technology and engineering, both in study and work.

In my experience, teamwork is essential to develop a large technical project. So in addition to technical knowledge, communication skills are also very important, and this will also be the strength of female students.

As for the challenges, there are still many prejudices that this industry is not for women, thus unintentionally creating barriers for women to have less opportunities to access technology.

I also used to feel self-conscious and afraid to pursue this field. Because I felt I was not good enough compared to those who had been exposed to technology since childhood.

But after going through the projects, I feel that besides technical skills, there are many other skills needed in a team. I can also promote my other strengths while improving my technical knowledge.

And in fact, regardless of gender, if you feel insecure, the only way is to try to learn so that you can develop and become more confident. Or simply start doing it to see if you are capable or suitable for it.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nu-sinh-fulbright-tai-dai-hoc-top-dau-singapore-van-con-dinh-kien-nu-gioi-nganh-cong-nghe-20240308142400037.htm