Communications of the ACM
Vancouver Coding Camp Seeks Young Women
The Be Like Ada coding boot camp seeks to inspire more women to pursue coding in engineering and computer science.
Credit: Rob Newell
Be Like Ada is a Vancouver, Canada-based eight-hour coding boot camp for 500 young girls designed to inspire more women to pursue coding in engineering and computer science.
Just 27 percent of university students in mathematics, computer science, and information sciences are women, reported Statistics Canada in 2009. Be Like Ada's organizers would like that number to be closer to 50 percent female engineering undergraduates, transforming Canada into a technological innovator that can compete globally.
"I don't believe we can make the best products, the best companies, the best organizations if we only have 50 percent of the minds at the table," says Be Like Ada co-organizer Sandra Wear. She hopes having all female participants at the event could help them make friends more easily and create a comfortable atmosphere for experimentation, making mistakes, and discovery. "Coding is as important as reading and writing," Wear says. "Girls can do this like anyone else."
Mathtoons' Jessica Weeres cites a pronounced lack of female role models in the coding world, while Wear says in recent years a more positive image of coders has been presented by media. Wear conceives of an online coding community for girls, with the possibility of a Canada-wide deployment.
From Vancouver Courier
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