Breaking Barriers: Why Representation Matters in Tech and Science The IEEE/ACM CHASE 2025 Revelation
The Harmful Side of "These Things Aren't for Me" It's never as complicated as we think, and why representation matters. Attending the IEEE/ACM CHASE 2025 conference on connected health peeled away a veil of naivety for me. As someone from Africa, I used to read about these people who publish papers and attend such conferences, thinking they were geniuses, next-level humans who knew things we didn't or operated on a level close to alien super-geniuses. But one thing attending this week's event showed me was that they are just people like you and me, doing the same things you did in class for your undergraduate, high school, or PhD. The only difference is they show up. Sitting in that room, I realized something, and I'm going to speak from a Black African perspective. I had never understood what they meant when they said representation matters, but I understand it more than ever now. The room was filled mainly with Asian people and a few whites. Now, we all ...