• jessicathompson00@gmail.com
  • March 24, 2016

Machine learning is one of the fastest growing areas of computer science research. In spite of the wide reach of machine learning and the variety of theory and applications it covers, the percentage of female researchers is lower than in many other areas of computer science. Most women working in machine learning rarely get the chance to interact with other female researchers, making it easy to feel isolated and hard to find role models.

The annual Women in Machine Learning (WiML) Workshop is our flagship event. This day-long technical workshop gives female faculty, research scientists, and graduate students in the machine learning community an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas and learn from each other. Underrepresented minorities and undergraduates interested in machine learning research are encouraged to attend. A History of WiML poster was created in 2015 to celebrate the 10th workshop. In 2016, WiML was profiled in the Fast.Co article: The Women Changing The Face of AI, and the 2016 edition of the workshop was reviewed in Computer Vision News. WiML Workshop’s growth from 2006 to 2018 was described in the AI Index 2018 Annual Report. WiML has been featured in several Talking Machines episodes, including:

If you have any WiML media mentions to contribute to this page please contact us at info@wimlworkshop.org

Professional and technical

The workshop consists of technical talks and posters as well as opportunities for mentoring and networking.

Open to all genders

We welcome folks of all genders; however, any formal presentations (posters, talks) are made by women.

Positive and productive

We strive to create an atmosphere in which participants feel comfortable to engage in technical and career-related conversations.

History of WiML Workshop

Now in its 14th year (as of 2019), WiML would like to acknowledge the efforts of previous workshop organizers and faculty advisors whose efforts made WiML into what it is today:

  • WiML workshop was started in 2006 by Hanna Wallach, Jenn Wortman, and Lisa Wainer, with faculty advisor Amy Greenwald. Website
  • 2007 workshop organizers: Hila Becker and Bethany Leffler. Faculty advisor Lise Getoor. Website
  • 2008 workshop organizers: Luiza Antonie, Anna Koop, and Jo-Anne Ting. Faculty advisor Joelle Pineau. Website
  • 2009 workshop organizers: Finale Doshi, Inmar Givoni, and Farheen Omar. Faculty advisor Daphne Koller. Website
  • 2010 workshop organizers: Diane Oyen, En-Shiun Annie Lee, and Kate Saenko. Faculty advisor Marie desJardins. Website
  • 2011 workshop organizers: Nevena Lazic, Monica Babes-Vroman, Rongjing Xiang. Faculty advisor Hanna Wallach.
  • 2012 workshop organizers: Tamara Broderick, Minmin Chen, Pallika Kanani, and Tejaswini Narayanan. Faculty advisor Raquel Urtasun.
  • 2013 workshop organizers: Jennifer Healey, Katie Kinnaird, Zornitsa Kozareva, Talieh S. Tabatabaei, Sonia Todorova
  • 2014 workshop organizers: Allison Chaney, Marzyeh Ghassemi, Sarah Brown, and Jessica Thompson.
  • 2015 workshop organizers: Abbie Jacobs, Kate Niehaus, Svitlana Volkova, Maithra Raghu, Ramya Ramakrishnan. Website
  • 2016 workshop organizers: Diana Cai, Deborah Hanus, Sarah Tan, Isabel Valera, Rose Yu. Website
  • 2017 workshop organizers: Genna Gliner, Ehi Nosakhare, Maja Rudolph, Danielle Belgrave, Negar Rostamzadeh. Website
  • 2018 workshop organizers: Aude Hofleitner, Audrey Durand, Nyalleng Moorosi, Sarah Poole, Amy Zhang. Website
  • 2019 workshop organizers: Michela Paganini, Sarah Aerni, Forough Poursabzi Sangdeh, Nezihe Merve Gürel, Bahare Fatemi. Website

If you see any errors or omissions on this page please contact us at info@wimlworkshop.org

  • 2016 WiML Workshop participant

    “The best day of the year” … My personal highlight of the workshop was the mentorship roundtable program … So there I was, sitting next to people whose papers I’ve read and who I admire for their work … It was a unique and inspiring experience.

    — https://www.rsipvision.com/ComputerVisionNews-2017January/#36

  • 2014 WiML Workshop participant

    I loved the technical talks – I thought the program was very well-balanced. I also really appreciated that the poster session was so open — I had researchers (i.e., men and women who weren’t presenting posters) to engage with about my work.

  • 2011 WiML Workshop participant

    “I had never attended NIPS before so meeting people the first day through WiML made the rest of the conference less intimidating. It was comforting having familiar faces in the crowd, especially other students who often looked as lost as I did. By the end of the conference I had made a number of WiML friends who I hope to see again at future NIPS.”

  • 2015 WiML Workshop participant

    I liked the overall opportunity to meet other women in machine learning, both socially and academically. The overall atmosphere was very supportive.

Copyright © Women in Machine Learning 2019