As they complete their Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the Milan Polytechnic, Claudia Chiroli and Cristian Giannetti have accepted the challenge of becoming coaches for Coding Girls, the programme conceived by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to support gender equality in scientific and technological sectors and incentivise the participation of young women on the job market.. The “hybrid” alliance involves the United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy, Embassy of the Netherlands, Compagnia - San Paolo, Microsoft, ENI and a network of 32 academic partners, including the Milan Polytechnic.
Claudia and Cristian worked with various classes at the G. Marconi and A. Volta Schools in Milan, helping them to develop a website integrated with artificial intelligence applications.
"We often hear about gender inequality, especially in the scientific and technological world. The lack of diversity is a problem for all of society, as entire categories are overlooked whilst trying to find solutions to tomorrow’s problems. This experience as a coach with Coding Girls allows me to concretely due something to promote gender equality, especially after the setback it suffered last year,” explains Cristian to Alberto Manieri, Project Manager at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
"Coding Girls has taught me to relate with younger students. At the beginning, the idea of having to manage a class of thirty students on my own worried me, but then I saw that – given the content of the course – the presentation could be organised organically in a crescendo,” explains Claudia, who does not conceal the difficulties she encountered. "I thought that high school students would have been automatically interested in coding and technological subjects, so I was a bit perplexed at the outset about their lack of interest. This however revealed the different dynamics in different schools: some students were very interested, while others required greater stimuli. Following a mini survey on after school activities, I discovered that students following a languages programme had no intention of every choosing a scientific or technological major at university. So, I mentioned the vast range of technological applications underway, from the West to South Eastern Asia, addressing technology and gender equality, hoping to interest them. The experience was very educational!”
The Milan Polytechnic has currently opened registration for the new academic year, publishing the programme and a collection of videos on their degrees, services, entrance examinations, tuition fees and scholarships, local branches, student associations, school presentations and the EnginHERing Polimi Project (gender gap).
Moreover, the PoliMi webpage dedicated to orientation allows prospective students to register for orientation meetings. The next meeting will be held on Friday, March 26 at 5 pm on EnginHERing: Becoming a (Female) Engineer.
On February 23, PoliMi dedicated an entire event to gender equality for students on the Coding Girls Programme. The meeting was opened Silvia Barattieri, Head of Unit for Equal Opportunities at PoliMi, who introduced a lesson on technical bias held by Mara Tanelli, followed by Monica Vitali.
"Human beings transfer gender stereotypes typical of our society in technology. We must learn new words to describe the world, but also redefine their meaning, explained Prof. Tanelli in her lesson.
