Media

Girls4Tech: HKU engineering and social sciences student-led event
to inspire secondary school girls to pursue opportunities in technology

01 Mar 2016

HKU President Professor Peter Mathieson takes a 360 degree selfie with over a hundred of participants.

More than 110 bright young students of secondary 2 and 3 from 17 local secondary schools gathered at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on February 27, 2016 for the student-led event “Girls4Tech” to learn about careers in the tech industry and engage in hands-on coding exercises. Organized by The HKU Journal of Technology (TecHKU) formed by a group of students from the Faculties of Engineering and Social Sciences, HKU, this event aims to nurture computational thinking in secondary school girls and to create rippling impact on their perusal of related subjects for HKDSE and career path.

Featured speakers of Girls4Tech 2016 included HKU President Professor Peter Mathieson, Head of Marketing at Lenovo Hong Kong and Macau Belinda Lin, Head of Technology and Entrepreneurship at The Women’s Foundation Daisy Jiang, Student-turned-instructor at BSD Academy Gabo Tse and Developer Experience & Business Development Director at Microsoft HK Joelle Woo.

At the one-day workshop, participants were engaged in a series of activities involving computing concepts such as coding, encryption, and sorting. In his opening speech, Professor Peter Mathieson encouraged young girls to challenge stereotypes and embrace new opportunities that our society has to offer in traditionally male-dominated sectors, including research, technology and computer science.  “Technology is fundamentally about problem solving, and there’s no gender-specific environment to that,” he said. A number of distinguished women tech leaders also shared on their career development journeys. Starting from March, participants will also be visiting tech giants such as Lenovo, Microsoft (Hong Kong), IBM, and Google to gain valuable insights into the world of tech.

Media enquiries:
Undergraduate student, Founder and Consultant of TecHKU Mr Vikay Narayen at tel 6314 0013 or email vikay@hku.hk

Participants learn about basic computing concepts such as coding, encryption, and sorting through interactive games.

Girls take part in a hands-on workshop to understand the architecture of a website and tried coding for themselves.

Girls take part in a hands-on workshop to understand the architecture of a website and tried coding for themselves.