PROJECT · 2017
A programme designed to bring girls into technology
2nd place in Itaipu Parquetec's internal Inovadores Sustentáveis, 2017.
Overview
In 2017, Itaipu Parquetec ran Inovadores Sustentáveis ("Sustainable Innovators"), an internal innovation contest in which cross-area teams designed sustainability proposals mapped to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Representing Territorial Development, I helped design Project Ada: a programme to spark girls' interest in technology, built on the principle of equity from the very first contact.
The problem
Women are under-represented in technology, from the classroom to the workplace. The figures the team gathered: around 20% of IT professionals were women (PNAD); at Unioeste's Computer Science course, only 11 of 60 admitted students were women (2014, 2016 and 2017), and 79% of female students dropped out in the first year; at Latinoware 2017, 16 of 110 speakers were women; and in PTI's own IT area, only 5 of 46 people were women in technical roles, plus 3 in administrative.
What I did
A holiday-camp programme in two five-day editions (July and December) for girls aged 6 to 12: playful and electronic games teaching basic programming and logical reasoning, cardboard robotics, and stories of women in tech. For every girl enrolled, a place opened for a boy, to build equity from the first contact. Mapped to SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality).