Female scientists hoping to beat an app-building world record at Google
Apple’s WWDC keynote was noteworthy for a lot of reasons, but one of those was the fact it featured women presenting on stage for the first time. Usually at such events it’s a male-only affair. The tech industry is still dominated by (mostly white) men, and when women make an appearance it generates headlines -- which is both sad and a little crazy.
On Saturday (June 13) an all-female group of IT experts, engineers and scientists will take over the Google Campus at the heart of London’s Tech City in a bid to not only break a Guinness World Record, but also to challenge preconceptions.
Led by Brunel University London lecturer Dr Lela Koulouri and UCL academic Dr Sue Black, the 'App-a-thon' will involve teaching thousands of kids across the UK how to build smartphone apps.
According to Dr Koulouri, "While we aim to break the Guinness World Record for people learning to code mobile apps at the same time, the main objective is to change perceptions. By having people learn from female trainers, we’ll demonstrate to young girls and boys that IT careers can be fun and that female scientists are not geeks or freaks but absolutely normal women".
The App-a-thon is organized by the British Computer Society, and the Chartered Institute for IT. Further details from http://www.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/54172