The proportion of women in STEM disciplines is growing. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 36 per cent of first-year students in the 2024 academic year were women, which is an all-time high. Similar trends are evident in vocational training. Here, too, the number of new trainees in STEM professions is rising, although it remains low at 12 per cent. While the trend is encouraging, there is still much work to be done. To achieve greater diversity in computer science, we need initiatives that stimulate curiosity from an early stage in the educational process. The Easter Camp at TU Darmstadt, organised by the DFKI and the Department of Computer Science, has been offering such opportunities to interested female students for several years. It is aimed at female students interested in digital topics who want to try new things and gain their first experiences in science.
Thirty female students participated in the programme this year, spending three days at TU Darmstadt learning about various aspects of computer science. The programme consisted of hands-on workshops in which the students could actively participate. In the 'Code in Action: Microcontroller Programming for Beginners! ', participants worked with real code and microcontroller boards. The 'Tracking Down Fake News – Become a News Detective! ' workshop focused on identifying fake news in the media and on social media. Creativity was the main focus of the “Generative Art: Become a Digital Artist', where participants used the online tool p5.js to program shapes, colours and animations in a playful way. The workshop 'A Journey Through Cryptography' focused on the science of encrypting information, while 'LEGO Robots – Introduction to the World of Robotics' centred on programming small robots. These workshops gave the students a diverse insight into the broad field of computer science and allowed them to contribute their own ideas.
Even outside of the workshops, the camp aims to give students an insight into academic life. During a campus scavenger hunt, participants explored the university, familiarised themselves with the facilities, and gained an initial impression of student life and academic work.
At the closing event, the students were able to show their parents what they had learnt and developed during the programme. The enthusiasm on both sides demonstrates that engaging activities can successfully spark interest in STEM fields at an early age, hopefully contributing to greater diversity in the long term.
