Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a worldwide celebration of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Across Edinburgh there are a number of events to mark the day.

Edinburgh Napier University is hosting a public lecture this evening at its Craiglockhart Campus. The speaker is Professor Caroline Wilkinson, Director of the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University. Caroline will discuss her varied career and how it has combined science with a number of disciplines including art, forensics, computing and anatomy.  She will also make the case for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM). This event is chaired by Dr Sandra Cairncross, Assistant Principal at Edinburgh Napier University and Chair of Equate Scotland. I will be giving the vote of thanks and chairing the Q&A session following Caroline’s talk.

Earlier in the day at Edinburgh Napier we are hosting computing workshops for school girls (S1-S3) and their teachers. These are on forensics and physical computing. Those who attend the workshops will also be staying on afterwards for Caroline Wilkinson’s public lecture this evening.

The University of Edinburgh has a full day of celebrations planned in its main library. This morning there are presentations from guest speakers and technology activities. These are followed in the afternoon by a Wikipedia edit-a-thon dedicated to improving the quality of Wikipedia articles related to Women in STEM.

Over at Heriot Watt University this evening Professor Judy Robertson of the University of Edinburgh is delivering a talk entitled ‘Gender equality: have we fixed it yet?’. Heriot Watt is also hosting an exhibition this week to showcase the career paths of mid-career female academics, many of whom are balancing their careers with family responsibilities.

These are all independent events presented as part of the worldwide celebration of Ada Lovelace Day. Follow Ada Lovelace Day on Twitter: @findingada, hashtag #ald16.