Travel: Third Workshop for Women in Computational Topology

This award will support the participation of US-based participants at the Third Workshop for Women in Computational Topology (WinCompTop 3) to be held at the Bernoulli Center at the EPFL Lausanne in Switzerland from July 17–21, 2023. WinCompTop 3 is a workshop that facilitates the formation of new and lasting research collaborations between junior and senior women working in the field of computational topology, a field that seeks to identify underlying patterns and mathematical structure in data from areas ranging from medical imaging to networks of sensor arrays. This workshop is designed to grow the network of women active in this field by providing both research opportunities and a unique environment for mentoring, collaboration, and cohort building. This type of event is critical, since despite numerous initiatives and undeniable progress over the past few decades, gender imbalance in mathematics and computer science remains significant. In particular, mathematics and computer science are two of three disciplines with the lowest percentage of women attaining PhDs, according to recent data collected by the National Science Foundation. There is considerable evidence that conferences and workshops, such as WinCompTop, geared toward women can and do make a significant impact, and participants report that they see strong benefits from these workshops, which support collaborations, broaden contacts, and raise visibility in the greater mathematical community. The WinCompTop 3 workshop fits under the broad umbrella of Research Collaboration Conferences for Women, which the Association for Women in Mathematics encourages and supports. The majority of the time at the workshop will be spent tackling open problems in small working groups headed by established leaders in the field. The schedule consists of long blocks of time for the working groups to do research. At two or more points during the week, all participants will convene and one member from each group will provide a brief summary of their team's progress. In addition, there will be a poster session for graduate students and early-career participants, as well as other crucial networking and mentoring opportunities between women at different points in their career as well as between peer colleagues. These relationships will foster a supportive and community-oriented atmosphere that is ideal for generating professional connections and collaborations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.