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Computer Weekly’s Women in UK Tech Rising Stars 2025 | Computer Weekly

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Computer Weekly’s Women in UK Tech Rising Stars 2025 | Computer Weekly


Role models are everywhere, and while Computer Weekly’s list of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech highlights the women at the top of their game in the technology sector, every woman in a tech or digital role has the potential to inspire someone else into the industry.

People across all levels in the tech sector need to be visible and accessible so people looking in on the industry, hoping for a tech role, can see the next steps they need to take, rather than only seeing those at the top who, although amazing, may make a tech role seem unobtainable to those at the beginning of their career.

With thousands of women leaving the technology sector each year, it’s increasingly important to encourage more women to enter the industry and create an inclusive culture of growth for those already in it.

Each year, alongside its top 50 women in UK tech and Hall of Fame, Computer Weekly showcases several Rising Stars, women the team and judges believe will feature in the top 50 in the future.

Several women, including the 2025 Most Influential Woman in UK Tech, Naomi Timperley, have featured on the Rising Stars list in the past.

This year’s Rising Stars are:

Agata Bendik, co-founder, Husk Ventures; co-founder, Radical Signals

Bendik has co-founded two companies this year: Radical Signals, a feminist media platform, and Husk Ventures, which aims to support those developing emerging technologies.

She is an adviser of PennPromise Ventures and, until summer 2025, was director of global network Venture Café.

Amy Low, chief executive, AbilityNet

Low has been chief executive of AbilityNet for a year and a half, a charity aimed at using technology to reduce barriers to inclusion in work, education and life.

She is also a community board member for the Digital Poverty Alliance, as well as an Inclusive Online Services subcommittee member at the Digital Inclusion Action Committee at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Auriol Stevens, global vice president, digital workplace practice, Kyndryl

Stevens has been global vice-president of digital workplace practice at Kyndryl for the past year, having held positions in the firm since 2022.

She is also a non-executive director for England Rugby and the Royal Navy, and is chair of the board of trustees at Tech She Can.

Bianca Walker, software engineer, Rabobank; volunteer, TLA Tech for Disability

Walker is a software engineer and blogger who advocates for mental health, and is currently a software engineer at Rabobank.

She is a volunteer for the Tech London Advocates Tech for Disability arm.

Christina Yan Zhang, CEO, Metaverse Institute

Christina Yan Zhang is a multi-award winner and is currently CEO at The Metaverse Institute.

She is an advisory council member to The Centre for Science Futures at the International Science Council and an Advisory Board Member on AI Economy at Economist Impact.

Gabi Mendelsohn Lewis, co-founder, Radiela

Mendelsohn Lewis is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Radiela, a firm using artificial intelligence to help scientific discoveries.

She is a mentor for Jumpstart and is a strategic adviser for the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation.

Jade Wilson, senior software engineer, Microsoft

Wilson has been at Microsoft for more than three years, originally joining as a software engineer II before becoming a senior software engineer in 2024.

She recently founded Incrify, a company that helps people learn DevOps.

Joanna Cavan, CEO, UK Telecoms Lab

Cavan began her role as CEO of UK Telecoms Lab in summer 2025 after many years in the civil service.

In the past, she has had roles such as director of strategy, policy, communications and compliance at GCHQ, strategy and delivery director for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and non-executive director of the UK Civil Service.

Marsha Quallo-Wright, Director of Technology Futures, GCHQ

Quallo-Wright has held many positions within government, including head of UKRI private office for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and head of resilience for the Government Office for Science.

Most recently, she became director of technology futures for GCHQ, after a two-year stint at the National Cyber Security Centre.

Molly Johnson-Jones, founder and CEO, Flexa Careers

Johnson-Jones founded data-led careers platform Flexa in 2020, where she is currently CEO. She is also a judge for the RAD Awards.

Naomi McGregor, founder, MoveTru

In 2020, McGregor founded MoveTru to develop wearables that allow real-time performance analysis.

In addition to being MoveTru’s CEO, she holds several roles at the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as being an ambassador for STEM Ambassadors.



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LG’s High-End Soundbar System Makes My Living Room Feel Like a Home Theater

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LG’s High-End Soundbar System Makes My Living Room Feel Like a Home Theater


Setup was relatively quick and painless. You just have to unbox four speakers, a soundbar, and a subwoofer, attach their power cables, and plug in everything. Pairing happens through the LG ThinQ app, which allows you to set up the Sound Suite system and tune it to exactly where you’re sitting in the room using your cell phone’s microphone.

You can also set up each speaker to play music and group it with any other LG smart speakers you might have around your home, like the more affordable $250 M5 bookshelf speaker, to create a whole-home system.

Once all the components were synced, I plugged the soundbar into the C5 OLED via HDMI, and was able to easily control everything via the TV remote’s volume and mute buttons. More in-depth settings had to happen in the app, but if you’re anything like me, this won’t become a regular chore. You’ll set it how you like it once and move on. While the pairing functionality with the LG TV was nice, it’s not required–the eARC port lets the Sound Suite work perfectly with any modern TV.

The bar itself runs the show, with a black-and-white display on the far left that shows your mode and volume, among other settings. In the center of the bar and below each speaker, an LED light strip that also shows you the volume when you change it, which is a nice touch.

Getting Musical

Photograph: Parker Hall

The sound of the LG Sound Suite is full and cinematic, thanks in no small part to the extra dedicated speakers. Most competitors lack front left and right, simply opting to use the soundbar for these channels. As such, the width and breadth of the soundstage were bigger than most competitors I’ve tried, with only Samsung’s flagship HW-Q990F as a real contender. Even the Samsung lacked the lower-frequency audio quality that these LG speakers provide.



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‘The Last Airbender’ Leaked Online. Some Fans Say Paramount Deserves the Fallout

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‘The Last Airbender’ Leaked Online. Some Fans Say Paramount Deserves the Fallout


The online leak of a full version of Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender—a highly anticipated animated film in a multimedia fantasy franchise—has divided passionate fans while upsetting those who spent years working on the film.

The leaks began on X late on Saturday night, about six months before Aang was scheduled to premiere on Paramount+. User @ImStillDissin posted two short clips from the film. “Nickelodeon accidentally emailed me the entire Avatar aang movie,” he claimed. He also threatened to stream the entire movie if Paramount didn’t release an official trailer, and he posted a still from the movie’s end credits, revealing previously undisclosed voice-over cast and roles. The media from @ImStillDissin’s posts were later hit with copyright strikes and removed.

But within 48 hours, links to download the full movie appeared on 4chan and X, where some users also directly streamed the film. Across the web, fans said they had successfully pirated and watched what appeared to be a nearly finished and “beautiful” animated film.

While some argued that Paramount deserved to be punished because of certain creative and marketing decisions around the movie, others noted what a blow the leak was to the animators and production crew. A number of those team members took to social media to convey their sadness and frustration.

“We worked on the aang movie for years with the expectation that’d [sic] we’d get to celebrate all of our hard work in theaters. Just to see people unceremoniously leak the film and pass our shots around on twitter like candy,” animator Julia Schoel wrote Tuesday on X.

The user behind @ImStillDissin, who would not reveal his real name due to fear of legal repercussions, tells WIRED that he obtained the movie almost by chance and did not expect his posts to set off such a crisis in the entertainment world. “When I posted those clips I was purely trolling,” he says. “I was expecting a day of clout farming at best, not for the whole thing to blow up like this.”

(While WIRED has done its due diligence in verifying that the person speaking to us was behind the @ImStillDissin X account, we acknowledge that the hacking community is known to troll.)

According to @ImStillDissin, a screen-grabbed version of Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender was circulating among people he knew from his days in the hacking community, one of whom shared it with him. “Broadly speaking, the supply chain for movies and TV is rife with insecure companies and vendors and lax checks,” he claims. He notes that two different SpongeBob SquarePants movies leaked months before their release dates in 2024. “Someone on 4chan who wasn’t happy at me drip-feeding stuff posted a copy of a draft script [of the new Avatar film] from like two years back,” says @ImStillDissin.

Neither Nickelodeon nor its parent company Paramount have confirmed a hack had taken place, nor have they issued a statement on the matter. They also did not respond to requests for comment.

Originally announced in 2021, Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender marked the first production for Avatar Studios, a division of Nickelodeon’s animation department.

Some people felt justified in pirating and sharing the movie due to the recasting of voice actors. Last year, during a Reddit AMA, casting director Jenny Jue wrote that the voice cast from the Avatar TV show that aired on Nickelodeon in the 2000s was not returning due to efforts to “match actors’ ethnic/racial background to the characters they’re portraying.”



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NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon

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NASA Wants to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon


Having demonstrated that it has the operational capability to transport humans safely to the moon and back, the United States is moving on to its next major aim: It wants nuclear reactors in orbit and on the lunar surface by 2030. For such a feat, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will have to work in conjunction with the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.

In a post on X, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) unveiled a document with new guidelines for federal agencies to establish the space nuclear technology road map for the coming years. This, they say, will ensure “US space superiority.”

At present, space instruments use solar power to operate. However, this is considered impractical for more complex purposes. Although technically there is always sunlight, the power is intermittent and almost always requires bulky batteries to store it.

Reactors produce fairly continuous energy for years through nuclear fission. They can also be used for so-called nuclear electric propulsion. Continuous output makes them the most viable option for lunar base subsistence, but they can also allow spacecraft to undertake long or complex missions without worrying about depleting a limited supply of chemical fuel.

Nuclear technology, in short, makes it possible to go farther, with more payload, for longer, and with fewer constraints.

According to the memorandum, the US goal is to put a medium-power reactor in orbit by 2028, with a variant designed for nuclear electric propulsion, and a first functional large reactor on the surface of the moon by 2030. To achieve this, both NASA and the Pentagon will develop energy technologies in parallel, using the current strategy of competition among contractors.

The reactors will have to be modular and scalable, and will have to include applications for both future life on the moon and space propulsion. For its part, the DOE will have to ensure that these projects have the fuel, infrastructure, and safety features necessary to achieve their objectives. In addition, the agency will evaluate whether the industry has the capacity to produce up to four reactors in five years.

The plan contemplates technologies that produce at least 20 kilowatts of electricity (kWe) for three years in orbit and at least five years on the lunar surface. In the meantime, they should have a design capable of raising power to 100 kWe. The first designs should arrive within a year.

Finally, the order tasks the OSTP with creating a road map for the initiative, noting obstacles and recommendations for addressing them.

“Nuclear power in space will give us the sustained electricity, heating, and propulsion essential to a permanent presence on the moon, Mars, and beyond,” OSTP posted. For his part, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman posted, “The time has come for America to get underway on nuclear power in space.” The message was followed by an emoji of a US flag.

The plan provides a common framework for each agency to work within. In the background, the race for space infrastructure is evidence of technological competition with China, which is also seeking advanced energy capabilities for the moon.

This story originally appeared in WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.



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