As you already know, there have been hundreds of books and articles published in recent years about the barriers that many women face when pursuing an education and then a career in what collectively is call the STEM disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. As their TED programs clearly indicate, these women are trailblazers who are inspiring a new generation of girls to follow their lead and change the ratio in STEM. Briefly:

Fei-Fei Li: How we’re teaching computers to understand pictures (17:58)

When a very young child looks at a picture, she can identify simple elements: “cat,” “book,” “chair.” Now, computers are getting smart enough to do that too. What’s next? In a thrilling talk, computer vision expert Fei-Fei Li describes the state of the art — including the database of 15 million photos her team built to “teach” a computer to understand pictures — and the key insights yet to come.

Jedidah Isler: How I fell in love with quasars, blazars and our incredible universe (4:19)

Jedidah Isler first fell in love with the night sky as a little girl. Now she’s an astrophysicist who studies supermassive hyperactive black holes. In a charming talk, she takes us trillions of kilometers from Earth to introduce us to objects that can be 1 to 10 billion times the mass of the sun — and which shoot powerful jet streams of particles in our direction.

Hannah Fry: The mathematics of love (16:56)

Finding the right mate is no cakewalk — but is it even mathematically likely? In a charming talk, mathematician Hannah Fry shows patterns in how we look for love, and gives her top three tips (verified by math!) for finding that special someone.

Keren Elazari: Hackers: the Internet’s immune system (16:39)

The beauty of hackers, says cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, is that they force us to evolve and improve. Yes, some hackers are bad guys, but many are working to fight government corruption and advocate for our rights. By exposing vulnerabilities, they push the Internet to become stronger and healthier, wielding their power to create a better world

Nadine Burke Harris: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime (15:59)

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

Bonnie Bassler: How bacteria “talk” (18:14)

Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria “talk” to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry — and our understanding of ourselves.

Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach (5:27)

Imagine a set of electronics as easy to play with as Legos. TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir introduces littleBits, a set of simple, interchangeable blocks that make programming as simple and important a part of creativity as snapping blocks together.

Nancy Kanwisher: A neural portrait of the human mind (17:40)

Brain imaging pioneer Nancy Kanwisher, who uses fMRI scans to see activity in brain regions (often her own), shares what she and her colleagues have learned: The brain is made up of both highly specialized components and general-purpose “machinery.” Another surprise: There’s so much left to learn.

Margaret Gould Stewart: How giant websites design for you (and a billion others, too) 12:56

Facebook’s “like” and “share” buttons are seen 22 billion times a day, making them some of the most-viewed design elements ever created. Margaret Gould Stewart, Facebook’s director of product design, outlines three rules for design at such a massive scale—one so big that the tiniest of tweaks can cause global outrage, but also so large that the subtlest of improvements can positively impact the lives of many.

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Cynthia Breazeal: The rise of personal robots (14:04)

Cynthia Breazeal wonders: Why can we use robots on Mars, but not in our living rooms? The key, she says, is in training robots to interact with people. Now she dreams up and builds robots that teach, learn — and play. Watch for amazing demo footage of a new interactive game for kids.

Jennifer Golbeck: The curly fry conundrum: Why social media “likes” say more than you might think (9:55)

Do you like curly fries? Have you Liked them on Facebook? Watch this talk to find out the surprising things Facebook (and others) can guess about you from your random Likes and Shares. Computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck explains how this came about, how some applications of the technology are not so cute — and why she thinks we should return the control of information to its rightful owners.

Here is a direct link to all 11 TED programs.

If you are or know of a young woman aspiring for — or now preparing for — an education and career in one of the four STEM disciplines, I highly recommend Rachel Swaby’s Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World, now available in a paperbound edition sold by Amazon for only $11.40.