At the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER), we collaborated with the Tenerife Island Council in organizing a series of sessions aimed at raising awareness among more than 30 boys and girls from 4th grade about the attractions offered by the fields of science and technology to awaken their curiosity in these disciplines of study.
The activity is part of the program of actions promoted by the island corporation on the occasion of the celebration of International Girls in ICT Day on April 27th, with the objective of contributing to reducing the gender digital gap. Also involved in this event are the Association of Women Developers (AdaLOveDev), the Computational Thinking Classroom of ULL, and the Cepsa Foundation.
During the sessions, the Second Vice President and Councilor for Presidency, Finance, and Modernization, Berta Pérez, the Delegate Councilor for Equality, Priscila de León, the Insular Director of Modernization, Daniel González, and the representative of the Cepsa Foundation in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, accompanied the boys and girls from Los Cristianos School in Arona, El Paso School in Icod de los Vinos, Santa María del Mar School in Santa Cruz, and La Verdellada School in La Laguna.
The sessions started in the Auditorium of the ITER Visitors Center, where the students from the participating educational centers were received and explained the importance of celebrating International Girls in ICT Day and the need to explore the world of ICT to spark their interest and contribute to reducing the gender digital gap.
The students participated in a demonstration by the Robotics Unit of ITER on data acquisition that can be obtained through a drone flight to assess the condition of the photovoltaic installations on the ITER buildings. Afterwards, they were explained how the state of the panels is visualized in the obtained thermal image, as done in the AIRCHK project.
They also visited the D-ALiX data center, the facility where all Internet services are provided, housing the TEIDE HPC supercomputer, as well as the equipment and server room of the Tenerife Island Council and several municipalities, connected to the entire island through the Tenerife Telecommunications Ring (AITT) optical fiber. In this facility, they had the opportunity to experience the operation of fiber optic-based communication systems and learn about the basic structure and the types of problems solved using supercomputing.
Researchers participating in the MACLAB-PV project were also involved in the activity as part of their awareness activities and their overall goal of promoting the participation of women and girls in science and research.
During the sessions, the boys and girls had the opportunity to chat with representatives from the AdaLoveDev association, where they were introduced to current and historical women role models in the fields of science and computer science, and explained some of the jobs that women can pursue in the technology sector.
Additionally, they participated in the “Who are you talking to? Human or Machine?” activity organized by the Computational Thinking Classroom of the University of La Laguna (ULL), aimed at explaining how Artificial Intelligence works.