Abstract

In Mexico, just a little more than 30% of the scientist are women. One of the main reasons why girls decide not to study science is the shortage of female scientist models. This situation is a matter of concern for the CIO-OPTICA-SPIE student chapter. For that reason, we decided to create and organize an event particularly designed for high school women students interested in a STEM career. This event was launched as our main event for the International Day of Girls and Women in Science. Enthusiastic girls for STEM participated in conferences about the importance of women in science, experimented with optics and photonics, and visited laboratories such as biophotonics, optical metrology, vision optics, nanophotonics, and fiber optic sensors. This event has been organized for five editions since 2020 with the financial support of SPIE, OPTICA and CIO. Around 300 female high school students participated, who were highly impacted by this event.

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