Bloomsbury Hack Day
Information on outreach work by the department of Computer Science and Information Systems at Birkbeck.
The inaugural "Bloomsbury Hack Day" on July 16th saw children from three schools participate in a programme of lab-based activities designed and guided by three top London universities located in Bloomsbury. Pupils from UCL Academy, Watford Grammar School for Boys and Townley Grammar School (Girls) learned about programming during the hands-on activities.
Bloomsbury Hack Day, was hosted by Birkbeck (University of London), University College London (UCL) and the Institute of Education (IOE).
There was a tailored lecture for the children to attend, exploring computer science as an area for careers to develop into the future. As one of the world’s top cities for technology, London is a bright prospect for the future of many of these children, with companies looking to recruit highly-skilled tech employees.
The collaboration between top academics from IOE, UCL and Birkbeck, was founded on a desire to enthuse more children to participate with computer science. As we increasingly see digital literacy entering schools’ curricula, there is still a perceived gender bias in technology careers.
Bloomsbury Hack Day is proud to encourage both girls and boys to develop their programming skills, whilst promoting heavily the principles of the Athena Swan Charter for women in science.
Please watch our video from the event on YouTube.
Further information on courses in the department of Computer Science and Information Systems.