Another year gone and another exhilarating twelve months ahead! Here at Girls Into Coding, we’re more motivated than ever to bring tech education that’s fun, engaging, and genuinely impactful to girls across our communities.
Engaging girls in STEM activities is about more than redressing the continuing gender imbalance in technology, engineering, and adjacent industries. It’s about creating a generation of innovators excited about taking on the challenges of a changing world. Grassroots organisations like Girls Into Coding have such a vital part to play in that. Take a look at what we achieved in 2023 and what 2024 has in store for our team and our expanding community of girls in tech!
Reaching and Impacting More Girls Than Ever
What we do: Girls Into Coding (GIC) hosts hands-on events that give girls from a range of backgrounds unprecedented access to coding education, robotics, engineering, physical computing, design, 3D printing, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
This year, we’ve reached more girls than ever, enabling them to:
- See their potential
- Develop a sense of belonging in tech settings
- Gain awareness of women and girls in tech and engineering making meaningful impacts
- Experience the awe and wonder of successfully completing a range of hands-on projects, for example, building, wiring, programming, and debugging a robot, and then witnessing it springing into action as a result of their efforts
- Be empowered to pursue further tech opportunities and to consider STEM education & careers
Currently, only 26% of the UK’s technology workforce is made up of women. GIC attendees could be the key to changing that statistic. Our founder, Avye, is in the same age range as girls who come to GIC events. They get to see and be inspired by someone just like them, immersed joyfully in the world of tech.
Showcasing Relevant and Meaningful Technologies
We know that, as a grassroots organisation, we have a responsibility to teach girls about technology that could make a real difference to their lives and the lives of their community members. Climate change, waste challenges, and economic concerns are all issues that have, in part, technological solutions. Environmental technology, in particular, is a fast-growing field that requires innovators at all levels.
That’s why our themed events in 2023 have focused on the environment and sustainability, and why, as we move into 2024, we’ll be exploring these concepts more deeply—more on that below! Check out these projects we introduced in 2023.
Air Quality Pavilion
Avye’s award-winning Air Quality Pavilion has inspired a new hands-on project for 2023. Attendees get to build a scaled-down, automated version of the concept. They use coding to create the ability to monitor and respond to CO2 levels, helping improve internal air quality. Girls at these events get to explore using stepper motors, servos, sensors, and micro:bits.
Automated Harvesting Machine
AgriTech is another booming market, and one we all need—after all, everyone has to eat! These events give girls a glimpse into the skills that might help give them a career in this field. At this event, girls build and code a machine that detects when “electronic” fruit is ripe, and automatically harvests it. The activity uses a Raspberry Pi Pico, and a variety of motors, sensors, and engineered parts.
Improved Renewable Energy Workshop
This workshop is a constantly developing event that provides girls with opportunities to generate different types of renewable energy. They also get to feed a range of electricity sources to a central grid web service, powering up scaled-down working models of concept homes.
The Girls Into Coding 3-Day Bootcamp
The 2023 Bootcamp took place over three days at the Central Research Laboratory site. This facility houses multiple tech start-ups, workshops, plus innovative equipment that the girls got to see in action. Attendees engaged with our thrilling hands-on workshops exploring all our topics from coding to physical computing and so much more. Avye introduced CAD/CAM to her Bootcamp activity for the first time, empowering girls to design and laser-cut robotic components.
All Bootcamp attendees contributed to GIC’s Community Voice on climate change. We saw brilliant, inspiring insights and ideas about promoting sustainability, mitigating climate change, and technology’s role in a greener future.
Big thanks to Plus X Innovation for partnering with us and we look forward to next year’s Bootcamp at their new location.
Empowerment, Encouragement, Engagement
Girls who see people just like them succeeding have a much greater chance of achieving their goals. That’s why we proudly present inspiring talks from women in tech who were once aspiring girls in tech or STEM themselves.
As well as learning from the best in the business, these girls gain so much by learning from each other. The benefits of peer-to-peer learning can’t be overstated. Ayesha, Emily, and Zoe are all GIC attendees who have seized opportunities to deliver presentations & lightning talks at our events. Ayesha is 13 and has used GIC as a platform to develop and speak on her passion for robotics and coding. Emily is 11 and already presenting her tech journey to others, including representing her school at a science fair. Zoe is another 13-year-old gold who enjoys many traditionally male-dominated activities, from football to gaming to STEM. Zoe has shared her coding journey and, importantly, how it connects to many other aspects of life.
We also nurture the GIC Community Voice: A diverse group of young people involved in shaping the direction, content, development, and delivery of the GIC programme. This includes workshop formats and themes, kits and resources, and even testing aspects to influence design decisions. Because of this, the Community Voice directly impacts how budgets are allocated and other major decisions within our organization.
Our girls are empowered to be the core of our group, and we encourage a culture of belief that they’re never too young for their voices to be valued.
Impacting the Wider Community
Another way Girls Into Coding impacts budding engineers and scientists is by going into schools and showcasing hands-on ways to create and innovate. This year, we collaborated with Whitefield High School and Brent Cross Shopping Centre to bring robotics, 3D VR, and more to girls hungry for tech and STEM education—and fun!
We also had the honour of presenting the Girls Into Coding Mission at the Department of Education. Aiza, one of our attendees, shared the inspiring impact our programme has had on her personal journey, and we hope this goes on to inspire many others.
GIC have also collaborated with Tech She Can, joined the Good Market Global community, and been endorsed by SEWF as a People and Planet First Verified Organisation.
GIC Awards and Recognition
It’s wonderful to be recognised for our work in the community. We’ve achieved so much in 2023, including Avye becoming an Official Judge for the Global Youth Awards. Here’s just a snapshot of some other awards and achievements this year:
- Highly Commended – Women’s Champion -Social Enterprise Awards 2023
- Winner of The Royal Academy of Engineering Excellence Awards 2023 for Outstanding Pupil
- Included on Computing Rising Stars 30 by Computing, a list of the UK’s most talented young tech professionals in 2023
- Finalist in the Students category of Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards
- Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award 2023
- The Big Issue Changemaker for 2023 – Education
In Further Development for 2024
Expect more in-depth AI workshops in 2024. AI and ML-based technologies are advancing fast and are already a critical part of the healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing industries. It’s increasingly important that young people understand the impact AI already has on their lives and how this may change in the future.
We’re also keen to get our girls involved in projects exploring the concept of a circular economy. Reducing waste, repairing, decreasing plastic usage, and using technology for good: These are all ways that young innovators can become the changemakers of the future.
2024 Goals—Bigger, Better, More!
GIC mission: Girls Into Coding aims to engage at least 10,000 girls every year through meaningful hands-on workshop opportunities, inspiring talks and content. This contributes towards redressing the tech gender gap in tech and, ultimately, encourages girls to consider STEM education and careers.
In 2024 we want to:
- Design/develop more kits and themed events around climate change and sustainability
- Develop additional hands-on robotics workshops including IoT, AI, and Kinematics
- Deliver more 3-day Bootcamps
- Develop GIC senior/experienced girls & post-14-year-old GIC community members to become mentors and workshop facilitators
- Engage more partners and corporations looking to improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) standings by supporting grassroots organisations
- Get more girls than ever excited about tech
We want to say a massive thank you to all our mentors, guest speakers, sponsors, partners, and supporters, who enable GIC to do what we do.
Finally, thank you to all the parents/carers and especially the girls who attend our events, contribute to the Community Voice, and keep inspiring us every day!
Here at Girls Into Coding, we’re constantly exploring the design thinking process and encouraging our attendees to find new ways to innovate. We help inspire the girls in tech of today to become the women in tech of tomorrow! Find out more about our peer-led FREE events here
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