Computer science as a compulsory elective only makes sense if the lessons are well done and the subject is taught in an exciting way. In some cases, students are left behind in STEM subjects and then a “can’t, don’t want” aversion develops. **How can we get more girls interested in computer science at school? We asked female students and talked to Jola and Lilian about their motivation for STEM subjects.
At the Döhrnstrasse elementary school, we show how children can be introduced to programming in elementary school. At the same time, we are promoting our young talent, as Sarah (15) and Kaja (18) teach the course. It is important to us to arouse interest and motivation for computer science topics in boys and girls alike. Role models are particularly important in this context, and who are better role models than girls who are also not yet that old and can share their enthusiasm for the subject?
“You don’t need to be a lawyer or a cryptographer to work in security.” Last Thursday we met to talk about Information Security again. This time we focused on an important aspect when designing secure systems: the user experience. This evening was a cooperation between the Kompetenzzentrum Usability and moinworld. It supports small and medium-sized companies in designing digital technologies in such a way that they can be used easily and experienced positively, funded by the federal ministry for economic affairs and energy (BMWi)
Can you briefly introduce yourself? I’m Erik, engineer and once studied mechatronics. This has absolutely nothing to do with programming per se, but it is not unusual for programmers. In the meantime, I have made the experience that maybe 30-40% of programmers have ever studied computer science. As it is after the study, you try out one or the other job and with me it happened that I programmed more and more.
“moinworld’s commitment to women in IT is something I want to support. Earlier in my engineering career, I didn’t feel the need for mutual support among women. Maybe I wasn’t aware of a need at the time. But ever since I started working in IT, it has been an issue for me.” Laura, can you introduce yourself? I’ve been a software developer for about a year now and before that I actually worked in a completely different industry.
“As a woman in IT I was always the minority, wherever I went and worked. I had so many teams in which I even was the only woman. It feels quite good to have a lot of women either working or interested in IT with whom you can share experiences with.” Who are you? What do we need to know about you? I’m Asli Aladag and I currently work as a product owner at MOIA in Hamburg for 2 and a half years where I am taking care of two operational core products.
“For me, seeing someone’s confidence grow, and helping someone to feel empowered to go for their dream job is really awesome.” Who are you? What do we need to know about you? Hi, my name is Emily and I am from England. I relocated from London to Hamburg in 2017. I’ve been working in tech for four years now; for the first three years I worked in software implementation. During this phase of my career, I decided I wanted to challenge myself so I did a stretch program within marketing.
“what I haven’t seen until now (at least not very often) are mentoring-programs for young women. I wanted to be part of that process. „Be the change you want to see in the world“, right?” Who are you? What do we need to know about you? Wow, what a difficult question. You always think you know the answer and then someone puts this question right in front of you ;) I would say, I’m an all-rounder, in my private life as well as in my professional life.
Can you introduce yourself to us? Hi, I’m Dafni, I am a data scientist with a background in biology and computational neuroscience. I come from Greece but I’ve been living in Germany for nine years, the last five I’ve spent in Hamburg. Why and how did you learn programming? Since high school I was really intrigued by computers and I liked interacting with them. Of course, 20 years back it was all quite different, think of DOS for games, Windows95 and DSL internet connection.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us something about your professional career? I am currently working as a data scientist at the Otto Group and develop machine learning solutions for the group companies with a wide range of use cases. I started with a dual study of applied computer science in Stuttgart together with IBM. In the various practical assignments, I noticed that I particularly enjoy working with data.
DE