Calling all girl computer coders: the world needs you
Camp for high school girls aims to combat stereotypes about coding and encourage more to study computer science. Those who try it find it empowering
The group of high school girls sat before a potted plant with wires running down the sides. India Bhalla-Ladd, 15, fiddled with a button on the broadboard, a pegboard for electronic devices. With each press, a different plant type appeared on a black-and-white screen - veggie, flower, and the one she eventually landed on: succulent.
That morning, in a classroom at Georgetown University in Washington, the toggling device for their project was acting up. They had to troubleshoot a plant.
"We find if you're missing a semicolon or a comma, the whole thing won't work," says India, a junior at National Cathedral School, referring to the code for their plant-managing device, Plantech.
The concept is simple, and genius, really: if your plant needs watering, Plantech will alert you. It works the same way for temperature and sunlight. An LED indicator flashes on, telling you that the plant requires your attention. Eventually, the girls hope it will make watering house plants as simple as sending a text message from work.
"Every person has, at one point, forgotten to water their plant," says 17-year-old Sara Berrios, a senior at Westfield High School in Chantilly, in the US state of Virginia.
The group's idea sprouted from a seven-week Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Programme, a camp that aims to combat stereotypes about computer coders and to encourage high school girls to pursue computer science education. During July and August, about 60 students attended the camp, sponsored by BSA (the Software Alliance), Lockheed Martin and the university. Girls Who Code, a not-for-profit scheme, seeks to increase the number of women in technology.
