Double debut in Naples for the new programme that brings girls closer to STEAM
Last Friday, 14 November, the Coding Girls Power Up project officially kicked off in Naples, a city that continues to be a fertile ground for energy, innovation and a desire to learn. Promoted by Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS and Micron Foundation, part of the Micron Technology group, the programme aims to reduce the gender gap in STEAM disciplines with a practical and inclusive approach that allows girls – and their peers – to experiment with the technologies of the future. This is a fundamental objective when you consider that, according to UNESCO, less than 30% of researchers globally are women, with even lower percentages in the fields of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Italy is no exception, and it is precisely this awareness that has given rise to Coding Girls Power Up, in synergy with the national initiative Coding Girls & Women, supported by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, with Notice 2/2024 [see the news item Coding Girls Power Up with Micron Foundation ].
The first activities took place in two schools in the city, which embarked on the programme with enthusiasm and participation: at the Ferdinando Russo comprehensive school in Pianura, historically a point of reference for the neighbourhood and the entire area, the second-year secondary school students welcomed the meeting with curiosity and vitality. Guided by trainer Luigi Di Giovanni, they began to explore the concepts of artificial intelligence and machine learning in a practical and stimulating way. During the workshop, organised in small groups, they created models capable of recognising images and gestures with Teachable Machine, and then integrated them into visual and narrative projects. There were plenty of questions: “How does the machine understand what I'm showing it?” and “Can AI learn on its own, like people do?”. These questions, although simple in appearance, stimulated deep reflection on machine learning and sparked a constant and participatory dialogue among all the students, who were always ready to share their observations and curiosities with their teachers.
At the same time, a group of students from the Tito Lucrezio Caro scientific high school inaugurated the course for secondary schools, together with our trainer Elia Mengozzi. In this first meeting, the focus was on a broader understanding of the “AI phenomenon”: the girls explored the basics of artificial intelligence, the elements that define it and the two major approaches that have marked the history of the discipline, from symbolic “rule-based” AI to connectionist systems that “learn” from data. Through concrete examples and practical exercises, the students discovered how Large Language Models such as ChatGPT work, which simply predict the next word based on context, and why data, just like a “piece of the world” shown to a child, can generate bias if it is incomplete or unrepresentative. This first event allowed the students to recognise both the potential of AI and the responsibility that comes with teaching it.
Friday was just the starting point: starting next week, the Coding Girls Power Up project will continue with new events in Campania and Lombardy, involving other classes and expanding a network that has already demonstrated the great vitality of the programme in collaboration with the Micron Foundation, and which embodies the spirit of this initiative by focusing on the growth, discovery and empowerment of the younger generation.
See you at the next meetings!
The story is by Elisabetta Gramatica, project officer
