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A letter from the editor
In 2014, experts across Asia Pacifc recognized a troubling trend —
a growing number of female students were turning their backs on
science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects.
At the time, female enrollments in system engineering degrees
in Australia were less than 2%, leaving young women ill-prepared
for the technology-driven jobs of the future.
This issue resonated with me, both as a mother of a young daughter
and as the regional marketing lead for Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) in Asia Pacifc and Japan at Cisco. One of the pillars of Cisco’s
CSR strategy is the Cisco Networking Academy that provides a
technical curriculum to educational institutions across the globe.
I knew we could leverage this platform to help create a new level
of interest for young girls to see that a career in IT was a world
of opportunity. Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, passion and a
determination to make a difference,
I created the Women Rock-IT program
Now in its sixth year the program has to-date reached in excess of 1.7 million young people in 200 countries.
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The program was launched in 2014 across Asia Pacifc and due to
its success went global in 2018. The series aims to motivate young
women to consider STEM subjects to ensure they are prepared for
tomorrow's best job opportunities.
We designed the format of the program to ensure it was both a fun
and engaging experience for our audience, whilst also showcasing
how leading technology was enabling the experience. Our speakers
come from a wide range of industries and sectors with a common
theme, the role technology plays in their career success.
Come and join us. Meet the women using technology to forge
careers, think creatively and solve global problems. You never
know, one day it could be you!
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Emma Reid
Editor in Chief
01
Who’s who
Stories of amazing women doing amazing things.
02
Girls in tech
Learn about tech and be prepared for tomorrow's best jobs.
03
Engage!
Get involved. Run an event. Learn new Tech Skills. Volunteer or mentor today!
04
Resources
Discover more! You'll want to bookmark these.
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03
Stories of amazing women doing amazing things.
Women Rock-IT motivates young women to consider STEM subjects by hearing directly from inspirational female role models through a live, interactive TV broadcast which can be viewed on-campus, in-person or virtually.
Young women are exposed to opportunities STEM skills bring to their future. Hear from successful female social entrepreneurs to corporate executives. Access free enrollment into Cisco Networking Academy.
Social entrepreneurs
using tech to solve
global problems.
We also meet the winner of the Inaugural Global Problem Solver
Challenge who invented Voz Box, an affordable and wearable device
that can give a voice to 4.5 million people with cerebral palsy and
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who cannot speak.
When Mary Elizabeth was 18 years old, she spent a year in the Andes
mountains in Ecuador, volunteering at an orphanage for people
with disabilities. She noticed the residents with cerebral
palsy were sitting quietly by the windows and that they could
benefit from a device that could help them communicate.
To give a voice to the voiceless, Mary Elizabeth created the Voz Box,
a multilingual system that has two parts—a sensor and a device,
which can be visually based, auditory based, or both.
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The surprising role
technology plays,
in helping people.
NextDrop was born, when Anu undertook a Uni research project in India. Anu was struck that a large part of everyday life in India was spent waiting for water delivery.
NextDrop uses IoT technology and crowd sourced data to create
algorithms to improve urban water distribution across emerging
markets. Urban residents can get a text message an hour before
water arrives, if water supply is cancelled, or if there is a
contamination or low pressure present in the pipe network.
For residents in urban India, the text message is crucial as it
alerts them when water begins to flow from the municipal
water tap nearby, and allows them to make use of that
information to store and get water.
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Global problem solvers who
are guardians of our planet
And we meet the Founder of Farm from a Box, who addresses
hunger and poverty in vulnerable rural communities globally
using an ecosystem of smart farming technologies.
By 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow by
more than two billion people. Half will be born in Sub-Saharan
Africa, and another 30 percent in South and Southeast Asia.
Those regions are also where the effects of climate change
are expected to hit hardest.
An estimated 70% of the world’s food comes from small rural farms,
no bigger than an average of two acres. Despite the increase in
large-scale industrialized farms, small rural farms
are still the backbone of our global food supply,
and they are also often the most vulnerable to the effects
of climate change.
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Global problem solvers who
are guardians of our planet.
Hailing from Chicago, Erin works for TaroWorks a social enterprise
that provides an advanced mobile data platform to help organisations
enhance data collection. Erin provides technical and professional
services to TaroWorks clients.
Her background is in technology consulting and she has a BS
in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
Launched by the Grameen Foundation in 2013, TaroWorks has now
reached more than 90 social enterprises and nonprofit organizations
across 30+ countries, supporting over 200,000 micro-entrepreneurs
and improving the lives of over 3 million people living in poverty.
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Social entrepreneurs
using tech to solve
global problems.
We meet Kathy, a fearless young technology entrepreneur, who has
launched a series of companies in different industries.
One of her startups is called ai.Law, a machine-learning company that created both a
robotic divorce lawyer called Lily and a robotic visa and immigration
lawyer called Mike.
Kathy Gong has now co-founded a new company, WafaGames,
which is striving to create a first of its kind, real-time strategy
(RTS) for mobile games.
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Women discovering new
ways of story telling with
technology
Zoe has spent her career working in gender advocacy,
as an artist with survivors of domestic
violence. She now runs She’s A Crowd,
which harnesses the power of technology to ensure women’s stories
are used to address the data gap in gender-based violence.
These stories are geotagged and timestamped, then aggregated
at the back end into reports that are used to inform the design
of safer cities. The data is being used by universities to understand
their students’ experiences of sexual assault on campus,
to design safer transport stations; and by property developers
to design the safest new suburbs.
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Social entrepreneurs using
blockchain technology
to save millions of children.
Today, more than a billion people around the world lack the most
basic of human rights: recognized personhood. Critically, this represents a real danger for the most vulnerable: children, women and
migrants who have been uprooted and are fleeing poverty, violence
and war. Without proof of their existence, children and adults are
subject to a perpetual cycle of vulnerability and violence.
Mariana founded the World Identity Network (WIN) to create a
blockchain-based digital identity system to help fight childtrafcking around the world.
Child trafficking is one of the most common and reprehensible human rights abuses.
Blockchain technology is a powerful way to address the
problem and potentially save millions of children
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04
High school girls
on a fast track
to a new ear of learning.
Women Rock-IT sessions show how women have
used technology to forge careers, think creatively and solve
global problems. Speakers come from a wide range of industries,
sharing how they innovate like technologists, think like entrepreneurs
and act as social change agents.
Our audience are exposed to the opportunities STEM skills
can bring to their future, get to hear from successful female role
models and have access to free enrollment into Cisco Networking Academy.
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The surprising role
technology plays in
helping the planet.
A 3D printer played a critical role in world-frst surgery on a moon
bear at Animals Asia’s Chengdu Bear Rescue Centre, reviving hopes
that a lame bear, Claudia, will walk again.
Dr. Alane Cahalane, a highly-skilled super-vet with an engineering
background, used the help of a 3D printer, to successfully insert a
titanium plate and screws to repair a fracture in Claudia’s elbow.
The ground-breaking surgery was possible after a 3D model of the
fractured region was developed to plan the surgery. The humeral
condyle is surrounded by layers of thick muscle and although Alane
could see the shape in a 2D radiograph, the angles of drilling and
approach using a 3D model was more accurate.
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Women discovering new
ways of story telling with
technology.
Dr. Catherine Ball is a highflying scientist behind world-leading
drone research. She flew a human-sized drone hundreds of
kilometres to track turtle habitats off the West Australian Coast,
spotting endangered animals not seen in years.
Drones save lives each year and companies and organizations
around the world are already fnding innovative ways to use
drones, from those that carry defbrillators to those that act as
remotely-piloted helicopters during bushfre responses
Emergency responders are using drones as part of search-andrescue missions, traversing terrain unreachable through traditional
response efforts. Despite these advances, though, the drone
industry faces one glaring problem — the lack of gender diversity
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Harnessing the power of
technology for a better world.
Jude’s career has always been in gaming while
striving to align her passion for making a positive impact. As the Founder and CEO of Playmob, Jude combines gaming techniques to help corporations
achieve pre-defined charitable goals.
This is done through educating players through ‘playable-ads’ in
media space within mobile games, while giving a percentage of campaign
spend to causes aligned with the topic. Enabling 2.1 billion gamers
to learn about global issues, take action and help someone in need.
Jude has envisioned gaming to be part of the
solution for solving some of the world’s most pressing issues.
To date, Playmob has reached more than 170 million gamers and
raised more than $1.2M for charity, all by asking players to take
actions in the virtual world that make an impact that make an impact in the real world.
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Entrepreneurs developing
the next generation of global
problem solvers.
Ayesha Khanna is a Singapore-based data science and
technology expert of 15 years. As a serial entrepreneur, Ayesha
has founded ADDO AI, an artifcial intelligence (AI) and data science
lab, and coding school ‘21C Girls’ which educates girls in creative problem-solving using coding, helping spawn the next generation of tech-minded millennials.
Ayesha was also the Co-Founder and Director of the Hybrid Reality
Institute, a research and advisory group focused on emerging
technologies and their policy and economic consequences.
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03
ENGAGE
Find out how you can get involved
by clicking on a persona.
Meet Sarah.
A Cisco Networking
Academy instructor
Meet Amelia.
A high school teacher
Meet Bhavna.
A Cisco employee
Here are some ways you
can get involved!
Planning a Women Rock-IT event on campus is a great way to create a new level of interest for young women (and men too!) to see that a career in IT is a world of opportunity.
Here is a guide to help you with general instructions on how to run a Women Rock-IT event on campus. We have provided best practice examples on how to use these events to recruit new students into NetAcad courses.
Host an event
on campus ![]()
Best practice
example ![]()
Watch ![]()
on-demand
Best practice
on-campus: India
Academies across India use the Women Rock-IT (WRI)
program as a business development opportunity to recruit new students into Cisco Networking Academy courses.
To be successful, our Academy partners set a standard
criteria:
- 50% of students attending the event are new students to Cisco
Networking Academy courses. Invite students from surrounding
high schools and colleges, or those who aren’t familiar with the
tech industry.
- Promote the career ready courses during the event. Directly after
the event, aim to enroll 90% of your Women Rock-IT audience in
a course.
- Track student enrollments and ensure that 90% of those that
enroll complete the course within 4 months.
- If you need help to track students completing a course, please
contact your local Cisco NetAcad contact.
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Host an Event on Campus
01 Register.
Register for a Women Rock-IT event to receive details on how to join.
02 Book a venue.
Ensure the venue has the equipment needed (projectors, cables,
mic, monitor, PC, etc.)
03 Promote.
To find social media banners to promote the event go to the
‘Promote tab’ on the Women Rock-IT. Create your own
Facebook event to generate interest
04 Invite.
Invite surrounding colleges, high schools, students, parents and
coworkers to register for the event.
05 Set a criteria.
Set a goal. Invite 50% new students. Have 90% of
your audience sign up for a course directly after the
event. Follow up within 4 months to ensure
students have completed the course.
06 Contact.
If you need any information relating to this program, please contact your local NetAcad contact or email us at womenrock-it@external.cisco.com.
07 Promote speakers.
Announce your upcoming guest speakers with teasers leading
up to your event.
08 During event.
During the event, share the live broadcast on your social media
channels.
09 Take photos.
Take photos of the venue, your speakers, and audience turnout.
Note how many students attended and give them a certifcate of
participation.
11 Share resources.
Share our website and resources. All of our speakers write a blog.
Post these and spark conversation for further education.
Here are some ways you
can get involved!
Planning a Women Rock-IT event on campus is a great way
to create a new level of interest for young women (and men too!)
to see that a career in IT is a world of opportunity.
Here is a guide
to help you along the way, with general instructors on how to run
our Women Rock-IT live TV broadcasts on-campus to best practices
shared by our Cisco Networking Academy partners who use these broadcasts to recruit new students into Cisco Networking Academy courses.
Host an event
on campus ![]()
Global Problem
Solver Animated
Series ![]()
Resources ![]()
Here are some ways you
can get involved!
As a Cisco employee, you can help young women spark an interest
in tech careers by visiting your local high school.
Motivate them to consider STEM subjects by airing our Women Rock-IT events and by sharing your own career journey.
Our events are a great way for girls to hear directly from inspirational female role models.
Hold an event in the classroom, school canteen or auditorium.
You can also use our library of past sessions.
On your way out the door, share the student and parent infographic with the school’s career advisor.
Host a Cisco
TV Event ![]()
Volunteer w/
Time2Give ![]()
Watch ![]()
on-demand
Volunteer with Time2Give
Host or promote Women Rock-IT
events at a local high school
Share your own
career journey
Global Problem Solver
Animated series
Play a live Women Rock-IT event
or play on-demand library
Offer free course enrollment with
Cisco Networking Academy
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