I am interested in computers and coding so in July 2014 I attended a “Hackathon” that was run by an organisation called ‘Stemettes’. The event brought girls together with industry experts to design computer games and learn new coding skills.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first arrived, but everyone was very friendly and there were lots of computers for us to work on. I was surprised to see that Winton Capital, who sponsored the day, had also provided lots of great food and a table tennis table for us to use during the breaks.
We were sorted in to groups based on our level of knowledge and then helped with coding and designing games. It was really good fun. The people who were helping us work in technology companies. One of them was from Disney and one was a female coder who was working on a doctorate in computer science. I designed a game called ‘Bounce’. When it was chosen as the winning design I had to present it to the room and show everyone how it worked.
If you are interested in computers and would like to learn new coding skills Stemettes run workshops and ‘hackathons’ all over the country. They also have a mentoring service where older girls can be paired with women in industry to help with work experience and careers advice.
You can look them up at: www.stemettes.org.uk or follow them on Twitter: @stemettes
Lara Mallin 8C
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first arrived, but everyone was very friendly and there were lots of computers for us to work on. I was surprised to see that Winton Capital, who sponsored the day, had also provided lots of great food and a table tennis table for us to use during the breaks.
We were sorted in to groups based on our level of knowledge and then helped with coding and designing games. It was really good fun. The people who were helping us work in technology companies. One of them was from Disney and one was a female coder who was working on a doctorate in computer science. I designed a game called ‘Bounce’. When it was chosen as the winning design I had to present it to the room and show everyone how it worked.
If you are interested in computers and would like to learn new coding skills Stemettes run workshops and ‘hackathons’ all over the country. They also have a mentoring service where older girls can be paired with women in industry to help with work experience and careers advice.
You can look them up at: www.stemettes.org.uk or follow them on Twitter: @stemettes
Lara Mallin 8C
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