Smart Education in Ireland : Women in Computing: a career for team oriented creative people

Why is Computer Science such a great career choice for creative and team oriented people? Do you have to have done programming before if you want to study Computer Science? Do you have to be brilliant at Maths?

To answer these and other questions, the School of Computing in DIT recently hosted a one day ‘Women in Computing’ workshop for female transition year students. The event was an information session which aimed to lay out for the participants the career choices available to them in computer science, the subjects they need at Leaving Cert – and how they know whether pursuing computer science is right for them! The event also provided the participants with an opportunity to take part in activities such as how to design an app and learn about topics covered within a computer science degree such as data analytics, robotics and GIS.

Participants in the very lively event at DIT Kevin Street also got to hear from current students including an informal Q&A session with 2nd year students who provided first-hand accounts about studying Computer Science in DIT. Final year students Deirdre Corr and Sanita Tifentale also spoke about their experiences, and their winning projects at this year’s DIT Project Fair - a sleep apnoea detection system and a home device power consumption system.

​​The event, organised by Dr. Susan McKeever and Patricia O’Byrne from the School of Computing, was an all female event highlighting the continuing demand from within the tech industry for female computer science graduates. According to Dr. McKeever, “Whilst computer science graduates are always in high demand, female graduates are in even higher demand as people mistakenly view computer science as a male-centric career and thus the supply of female graduates has been dwindling. In Ireland in 2012, women made up 40 per cent of graduates in science, mathematics and computing, but only 18 per cent of computer science graduates were women. The event aimed to dispel many myths about computer science to the young female audience, and hopefully pique a future interest in Computing.”

The event was run in conjunction with Tech Week Ireland and was sponsored by Accenture. Aimee Carmody of Accenture Ireland attended the event and gave a talk about the career opportunities available to computer science graduates and her own experiences as a female in the technology sector.

Thanking the participants and speakers, Dr. McKeever said she hoped that the event would spark interest in computing amongst the participants and that many more young women would consider it as a great future career choice.

"Ireland is emerging the best place to study nowadays...many students are selecting Ireland because the country offers many good reasons which no other country till now offers", says Mr. Deepak, Education Manager, Career XL Services..

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