Here come the IT girls

North East teenage girls will be discovering there is more to computing than games and gigabytes at a Teesside University event.

The Girls and Gadgets computing conference will see around 110 teenage girls, aged from 14 to 16, take part in an event designed to offer girls hands-on computing experience.

The girls will hear from inspirational speakers and take part in a range of activities designed to help them understand both the creative and technical skills involved in computing.

They will take part in a range of sessions including: >looking at computer networks and how we use them to communicate >how technology is used in magazines to manipulate images >e-journalism, which will see the girls interview conference guests then use their stories to create website content.

It’s the fourth time the University has hosted the conference, which offers the girls an opportunity to discover more about the vast array of careers in computing.

Promote computing as an interesting and challenging career path The aim of the conference is to promote computing as an interesting and challenging career path. It also gives the girls an opportunity to sample life at Teesside University and learn more about studying a wide range of computing-related subjects.

The girls will be coming to the University from schools across the Tees Valley, Durham and Northumberland areas.

Alison Brown, Senior Lecturer in Computing at the University, said: 'Although teenage girls are now using computers and the internet at rates similar to their male peers, they are ten times less likely to consider a technology related career.

'We hope to change this trend and to encourage more girls to consider a computer based career, whether in networks, animation, web development, mobile phone software or games development.'

Alison points to recent figures from the computer games industry which reveal only 4% of people employed in the games industry are women.

She added: 'There is still a significant imbalance in the numbers of women working in the field of computing, and businesses are keen to engage more women in the industry.'

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