Digital girls: rock IT on

4/23/2018

Europe, Lithuania, Santaka Valley KTU Science, Technology and Business Centre, K. Baršausko gatvė, Kaunas, Lithuania

The event “DIGITAL GIRLS: rock IT on” was held on 24th of April in Santaka Valley (K. Barsauskas str. 59, Kaunas, 1st hall). It was organized by Smart Tech Academy and KTU Faculty of Informatics to celebrate international “Girls in ICT day” which up to today have connected over 160 countries. The main goal of the event “DIGITAL GIRLS: rock IT on” was to encourage young girls to consider pursuing career in ICT and to show them that ICT offers way more broader opportunities than it is usually assumed.    

140 girls from 9 to 11 grades have participated in the event where they were able to discuss career opportunities, stereotypes, motivation and fears in ICT sector from lecturers, young entrepreneurs, leaders in ICT and high-tech companies, students and pupils who already have great achievements in ICT. The event was broadcasted live and girls from all over Lithuania, who cannot attend the event were able to join live stream. The record of the panel discussion is placed in “YouTube” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1JkdKpuYWo) and in digitalgirls.lt . It is currently accessible for everyone.

Speakers of the event also solemnly signed a memorandum of “DIGITAL GIRLS: rock IT on” by which committed to motivating students to share their experience in ICT field with girls who are still studying in the school and are trying to decide what career path they should choose.

After the discussion, girls participated in the interactive quiz and six winners were awarded with prizes established by our partners. Later on, girls were invited to participate in the best photo contest and register for workshops.

There were four workshops: Virtual and augmented reality laboratory in which girls saw the process of game creation and tried different simulations with AR and VR tools. Design laboratory with the designer K. Lekeckas who is the establisher of the fashion house “Harmman”. Girls went on the excursion to see how the clothes are made and got to know why ICT is needed in the design sector. Later on, draw the sketches, participated in the discussion. On the excursion to “Teltonika”, girls were able to discuss with the employees who are working with the Internet of Things about the career opportunities, specificity of the job and many other interesting topics. In the laboratory of the soldering girls were able to solder mini traffic lights and take them home. Also, girls were discussing the application of this skill, the whole robots market and the future of the service sector.