RU hosts tech festival for 400 girls
Reykjavik University hosts Girls in ICT in 2016
Girls in ICT
Reykjavik University, SKY (The Icelandic Computer Association) and SI (Federation of Icelandic Industries) organised the annual Girls in ICT day at RU recently. Around 400 girls from the East of Iceland and the greater Reykjavik area visited RU and nearly 20 tech companies. The aim is to interest girls in technology studies and jobs within the sector, to introduce them to industry role-models, break down stereotypes and show them the versatility inherent in this field of study.
"Don't let the job title fool you"
Before heading to various workshops in RU, musician and actress Salka Sol Eyfeld, spoke to the girls. She gave a short speech about stereotypes, for instance masculine job titles. "Much of the job titles out there suggest that these are jobs for guys. But we must not let that fool us! Even though to you those words have a male connotation it is not only men who are capable of having these roles. Maybe this is part of the reason why fewer girls apply for study programmes and jobs in IT."
Salka Sol Eyfeld, musician and actress, gave the girls a pep-talk
Computer games, bone density and a number of tech companies
The girls attended various workshops taught by RU professors and /sys/tur, the associaton for women in computer studies at RU. The subjects ranged from computer game structure, artificial social intelligence, the density of chicken bones and measuring brainwaves. After the workshops, buses took the participants to various tech companies such as Advania, Alcoa, CCP, GreenQloud, Islandsbanki, Landsvirkjun, LS Retail, Marel, Mentor, NOVOMATIC Lottery Solutions, Meniga, Microsoft, Opin Kerfi, ORF Liftaekni, Plain Vanilla, Qlik, Siminn and Tempo Software.
One of the companies the girls visited was CCP games, creators of EVE Online
An international day
The event was hosted by RU for the third time this year. The „Girls in ICT Day“ is celebrated around Europe and is sponsored by ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and the European Union and the EU's Digital Agenda.
