The Cabildo de Tenerife has celebrated today, April 28, the International Day of Girls in ICT, a robotics conference aimed at raising awareness among more than 30 boys and girls, between 6 and 9 years old, about the attractions offered by the study of the branches linked to science and technology and arouse their curiosity about these disciplines.
This activity is part of the actions promoted by the Presidency and Modernization area to help reduce the digital gender gap, which also includes an institutional motion promoted by the Socialist Group and which was approved this Wednesday, April 27, in the plenary Commission of the Presidency and Social Action.
The second vice president and Minister of the Presidency, Finance and Modernization, Berta Pérez, and the CEO of Equality, Priscila de León, participated in the day, accompanying the 32 boys and girls, from three centers in Guamasa, Arona and Guía de Isora, in the activities held at the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER).
Berta Pérez highlighted the importance of “expanding the presence of women in the ICT sector to meet the growing demand for professionals.” She pointed out that only 20 percent of ICT specialists in Spain are women, due, among other reasons, to the low rate of female students who graduate in some of the disciplines related to this field.
“An effort must be made to publicize the professional opportunities that technology studies provide, but also to break and overcome the gender stereotypes that discourage girls from studying technology and that are sometimes reinforced by the family and the school”, assured the counselor who highlighted the lack of a female reference in this field.
For her part, Priscila de León stressed the need to “increase the participation rate of women in the branches of science, as a way to move towards more inclusive societies and contribute to female empowerment, taking advantage of and making their talent available of the society”.
In this context, the insular director of Modernization, Daniel González, added that in the approved motion it is agreed to officially commemorate April 28, 2022 the International Day of Girls in ICT and reinforces the institution’s commitment to develop programs specific aimed at improving the interest of girls in ICT when choosing studies and as a professional opportunity, collected in the project Talentum Tenerife with the TalentumWoman and TalentumFirst programs, as well as any other program designed for this purpose.
Activities at ITER
The program of the robotics day included two main activities. In the first, the boys and girls visited the ITER Robotics Unit exhibition, in which technicians from the institute showed them some of its R&D projects, such as the Marysol courtesy robot or the Heliodron solar-powered plane,
Next, they visited the D-ALiX datacenter, the center from which all Internet services are provided, where the TEIDE HPC supercomputer is located, and the equipment and server room of both the Cabildo de Tenerife and several municipalities, which is connected with the entire island through the fiber optics of the Tenerife telecommunications ring (AITT).
