Coding Girls Rome-USA, promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the American Embassy in Italy in collaboration with Girls Who Code, has reached its final phase. The project has revealed the enormous creative and collaborative potential of young Roman female students. Their enthusiasm and energy demonstrate how easily women can become interested in computer science and new professions, quickly developing the necessary e-skills.
After the coding labs held in various schools that involved 400 young women aged 15-20, the event moves to the Phyrtual Innovation Gym. The hackathon begins on Saturday morning at 9:30 am. This is a marathon programming event that will involve 90 Roman girls, who will have to use their reasoning, design, creativity and problem-solving skills to reach a common objective: produce videogames and other applications capable of attracting other young women to coding.
The girls, at their first hackathon, will be helped and supported by coaches from Girls who Code, young female students and researchers from Sapienza University and young makers from the first all-female Fab Lab thanks to Project Maker fashion (intelligent fashion and accessories).
During the afternoon (3- 5 pm), even younger girls aged 8-11 will arrive at the Innovation Gym for another coding lab. In parallel, from 2:30-5:00 pm, the “Makeymakey: let's create fun!” soft circuitry lab will be promoted as part of the Google for Entrepreneurs Week Italia. This laboratory is designed for 10-14 year-old female students who wish to develop their entrepreneurial skills.
Younger and older girls alike will work on Scratch, the free coding language developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the Media Lab del Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Scratch, in fact, allows students to create simple and fun interactive stories, games and animations and share them on-line.
The hackathon will continue on Sunday and the most original, efficient and innovative ideas will receive prizes.
Coding Girls Rome-USA is promoted as part of the Italian Presidency Semester of the European Union Council and for the European Code Week in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Roma Capitale, the Sapienza University Department of computer Science and Microsoft.
In order to overcome gender stereotypes and attract young women towards a digital career, Coding Girls Rome-USA provides young girls in primary and secondary school with the opportunity to experience new technology hands on and admire positive models. The students will be helped and guided throughout the week by two 26 year-old coaches from the American Girls Who Code Association, Ashley and Elizabeth, and eight students and researchers (aged 23-33) from the Sapienza University Department of Computer Science.
