Thanks to ACM-W I got the invaluable chance of attending Gecco 2021.

Even though the conference was online only, I really had a blast and cherished every second. Having the opportunity to attend fascinating paper presentations and tutorials in the field of Evolutionary Computation has really been eye-opening to me. Not only have I learnt a lot by listening to great researchers present their work, but I also found countless sources of inspiration for possible future research directions.

The most exciting part of the conference was when I got to present a paper I co-authored at a Workshop. What I loved the most was how people were so supportive and genuinely interested and asked thought-provoking questions that gave me ideas for future works.

I am really thankful to ACM-W for granting me this unique opportunity: attending this conference reinforced my passion for research and helped me decide to try to pursue a career in academia.