14 October 2021
Bilbao Campus
Elena García Armada and Jordina Torrents Barrena have been awarded with the 2021 Ada Byron Prizes for Women Technologist (senior and junior categories, respectively), organised by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Deusto.
Elena García Armada has a degree in Industrial Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She is currently leading a research group at the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas). She is also Founder and President of MarsiBionics, a recognized Technology-Based Company with a high impact on the development of disruptive technologies for the health sector. Its activity focuses on the development of lower limb exoskeletons for medical and industrial applications. She is the author of more than 100 publications, including journal articles, and books. She received numerous awards and recognitions by prestigious institutions. Elena García represents Spanish science in important committees, and thus is a member of the jury of the Princess of Asturias Awards for Scientific and Technical Research, a member of the Jury of the National Technology Transfer Award and, a member of the Strategic Committee of the Women and Engineering program of the Royal Academy of Engineering, among others.
Jordina Torrents Barrena received her Phd in Computer Systems Technical Engineering in the field of artificial intelligence, deep learning and medical imaging at the Pompeu Fabra University. Previously she obtained her first Master Degree in Computer Engineering: Computer Security and Intelligent Systems at Universitat Rovira i Virgili and a second Master Degree in Computer Vision at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Jordina was also awarded with the prestigious Google Women Techmakers scholarship in 2017. She currently works in the Big Data & Analytics department of HP Inc. - Large Format Printing (Barcelona), leading the artificial intelligence and machine learning group. She also teaches at the Open University of Catalonia.
The Ada Byron Award was created by the University of Deusto’s Engineering Faculty with the aim of encouraging women's vocations in the field of technological research and development; to enhance the importance of technology in all areas of life and for social development, as well as to give value to the work and achievements that the performance of these tasks and studies by women have contributed to humanity.
The award is sponsored by Microsoft, as well as the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, IK4 and Emakunde-Basque Women's Institute. It counts with the collaboration of Innobasque and Basque HealthCluster.
Up to today, the Prize has been awarded to: Montserrat Meya, expert in artificial intelligence and automatic translation; Asunción Gómez, researcher in the so-called "semantic technologies"; Nuria Oliver, Director of R&D Telefonica, Regina Llopis Rivas, PhD in Mathematics Applied to Artificial Intelligence from the University of California Berkeley (United States), María Ángeles Martín Prats, Senior Lecturer at the University of Seville in the Engineering department Electronics, Concepción Alicia Monje Micheret, researcher in Robotics and professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid and Laura María Lechuga Gómez, Graduate in Chemical Sciences and coordinator of one of the European projects for the study of COVID-19. The winners of the Young Ada Byron award have been Ana Freire, Engineer and PhD in Computer Science, Researcher and teacher at the School of Engineering of the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) and Susana Ladra González, PhD in Computer Science and Graduated in Mathematics.
In 2019, the award ceremony opened a new chapter in four countries (Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia). The University of Deusto aims, in the medium term, to expand the Prize to other countries in Europe and Latin America, and in the long term to award it at an international level.
The award ceremony of the VIII edition of the Ada Byron Award for Women Technologist 2021 will take place on October 14 in the presence of the distinguished jury and the Mayor of Bilbao, Juan María Aburto.
This award aims to reward and make visible the excellent career of current female technologists, who have their reference in women scientists and technologists who have been contributing for centuries in different scientific disciplines.
For more information about the award, please consult this page.
