From November 10, 2024 to November 12, 2024, six students, Dr. Gatti, and Ms. Guilmet attended the eighth annual Girls Advancing in STEM (GAINS) Conference hosted by Greenwich Academy at Carnegie Mellon University. The three-day conference enabled hundreds of participants from across the country to explore complex and nuanced STEM topics through presentations, tours, “tech talks,” and career mixers.
The conference began with a keynote address by Dr. Katelyn Breivik, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon’s McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics. She discussed her research, in which she investigates combining theoretical models with gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations to elucidate the physical processes that determine binary star evolution.
The remaining two days consisted of collaborative mixers and interactive workshops at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh’s neighboring campuses. First, students discussed the value of networking and developed sample questions for the following career mixer. Later, students split into groups for “STEM Tours” and visited the Duolingo headquarters, the University of Pittsburgh’s Sports Medicine Research Lab, and the Allegheny Observatory.
Final tours and “tech talks” concluded the 2024 Conference and provided attendees with opportunities to watch presentations and engage with female pioneers in STEM. Highlights included learning about machine learning’s ability to discover catalysts, viewing Carnegie Mellon’s robot orchestra, and touring a physics X-ray lab.
Each component of the 2024 GAINS Conference invigorated the participants. From networking opportunities to exploring niche, interdisciplinary topics and research paths, young women in STEM left the conference inspired.