Julia Guerrero Viu, a student at the University of Zaragoza, has been the winner of the award for the best academic record, in the fourth edition of the WONNOW Awards, provided with 10,000 euros and access to a mentoring program. In this same call, ten university students have been recognized, including Leonor Alcalá, also from the University of Zaragoza.
Julia Guerrero (Zaragoza) has a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Zaragoza and a Master's degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence from the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg (Germany). Since last October, she has been doing her doctorate in the Graphics & Imaging Lab research group of the Engineering Research Institute of Aragon (I3A).
With the WONNOW Awards, CaixaBank and Microsoft reward the best scientific and technical university degree students in Spain. With them, they want to promote diversity and the presence of women in the field of technology and science and encourage other young women to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). They include a cash prize of 10,000 euros for the student with the best academic record and 10 paid scholarships to work for six months at CaixaBank, as well as access to a Microsoft mentoring programme.
Julia Guerrero Viu, who was awarded for the best academic record, will use those 10,000 euros for the promotion and visibility of women in the world of Engineering with the organization of different scientific dissemination activities with schoolchildren. Her goal is to raise awareness among girls to study technical degrees and to eliminate "the stereotypes that exist around STEM careers", as she explains.
She liked Mathematics and, finally, she decided to study Computer Engineering, where she also realized the professional opportunities that existed, nowadays. However, she remembers that in her degree "I was the only woman attending to some of the classes”. Now, she has the opportunity to help break that trend, "close role models are necessary for the girls not to discard from the beginning such studies, and I would like to show them how much they can enjoy that job”, she says.
In this edition of the WONNOW Awards, 723 students from 65 Spanish universities have participated. In the four editions held, more than 1.700 students have applied. To select the winners, their academic record and their personal, educational, professional and social trajectory have been assessed.
The University of Zaragoza is the only entity that has two students awarded these prizes. In addition to Julia Guerrero, the work of Leonor Alcalá (Teruel) has been recognized. He finished last year the degree in Environmental Sciences at the Huesca Campus of the Aragonese public university. There she received the prize from the Higher Polytechnic School and Caja Ingenieros to the outstanding student for her academic record and for her involvement in university life. His curricular internships were carried out at the Center for Rural Bioeconomy in Teruel; and within the Unizar International Cooperation Internship program, she has worked on water management and biodiversity conservation in Esmeralda (Ecuador).
Now, she is immersed in her doctorate in the Graphics & Imaging Lab research group, it is still early to define her future, but she admits that she would not mind dedicating herself to research and teaching.
