Girls4Tech @HKU 2014

Last September 13, a one-day workshop called Girls4Tech was held on campus. The aim of this initiative was to expose secondary school girls to coding and its potential uses, and to spur interest in pursuing computer science and related fields. The event was jointly organized by TecHKU and First Code Academy, a school that nurtures future tech leaders by teaching children how to code even at an early age. Girls4Tech was also held in partnership with the HKU Faculty of Engineering, the Computer Science Association, ENS, HKUSU and The Women’s Foundation.

Fifty girls from various secondary schools across Hong Kong solved logic puzzles and decrypted messages as a warm up before the afternoon’s coding session. AppInventor, an open-source web application developed by MIT, was used to introduce basic concepts such as if-else statements and loops. With AppInventor, participants were able to create simple Android apps in under 3 hours.

Ms. Joey Lam and Ms. Michelle Sun, both established figures in the field of technology, were the keynote speakers.

Ms. Joey Lam is the Deputy Government Chief Information Officer (Policy and Community) of the HKSAR government. She is an advocate of ICT development in Hong Kong, open data and women in tech.

Ms. Michelle Sun, on the other hand, is a former investment banker from Goldman Sachs who eventually decided to pursue tech entrepreneurship. After working at startups like Bump Technologies and Buffer, she decided to establish First Code Academy with the aim of empowering the youth to become creators of technology. She and her team led the afternoon coding workshop for the participants.