\tVerizon chief product development officer Nicola Palmer (pictured) argued the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) expected to be sparked by 5G won\u2019t reach its full potential without input from more women.<\/p>\n
At Qualcomm\u2019s recent Snapdragon Summit, Palmer told Mobile World Live 4IR could transform a wide range of verticals including industry, healthcare and education. But she warned \u201cit\u2019s not going to be as good as it could be if you don\u2019t have half the population\u2019s voice equally represented in making all these changes\u201d to fundamental technologies including networks and devices.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cAnd that\u2019s the best case scenario. Worst case scenario you\u2019re really going to see the bias and you\u2019re going to exclude some very important things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer said it is important for the technology industry to press on with gender diversity initiatives, flagging efforts to encourage young women as critical. She highlighted falling college graduation rates among females in STEM fields such as computer science as \u201ca problem of epic proportions\u201d, adding losses begin as early as middle school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all a matter of how do you reach the population and keep them on the track so they don\u2019t lose the interest and ability that they have,\u201d said Palmer.<\/p>\n
Qualcomm paid for travel to this conference. This article reflects honest reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Verizon chief product development officer Nicola Palmer (pictured) argued the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) expected …<\/p>\n
The post Verizon insists diversity key for 4IR success<\/a> appeared first on Mobile World Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n