Bridging the STEM divide: AI hackathon helps young women excel in computer science

Computer science? That's boy stuff. Or so 15-year-old Hesme believed when she switched schools in 10th grade. 'I thought I'd be terrible at it,' she says. Her former school in Durban, on the coast of South Africa, didn't offer comprehensive science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) classes.

But when she moved to Curro Heritage House High School in Morningside, Durban, STEM classes were going to be a regular part of the curriculum. She was nervous about that -but when her brother dared her to take a computer science elective, she accepted the challenge to prove him wrong.

To her amazement, she loved it. 'It became my passion,' she says now, in her final year of high school. As the only girl in the class, at first she felt intimidated but ended up thriving. And when the call came out to try out for an all-girls artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon, she immediately began writing the required motivational letter to apply.

'I was just sitting in class, writing, and all my passion came out,' she says. When chosen to be on a five-girl team representing South Africa, she was ecstatic.

Today, Hesme is developing her own AI-based app to help people like herself - diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum - to better cope when interacting with the world. She plans to get a higher-level certificate in AI next year before going on to study computer science at university.

And she was thrilled when her team won second place in the first all-girls edition of Microsoft's Imagine Cup Junior virtual AI hackathon held in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in celebration of International Women's Day.

'AI captured my heart over that weekend,' says Hesme, whose team competed against 16 others from 11 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Business as usual doesn't give equal opportunities to girls

The gender gap in education is serious. More than 130 million girls were already being denied education before COVID-19 hit. And as schools around the world closed, UNESCO estimated that 11 million additional girls are at risk of never going back to school.

This could mean a big step back after years of slow-but-steady progress towards gender equality. It also puts young girls at risk of adolescent pregnancy, early and forced marriages and gender-based violence. Even before COVID-19, the rate of change wasn't fast enough, according to Justine Sass, chief of the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO. UNESCO partnered with Microsoft on the hackathon under UNESCO's Global Education Coalition's Gender Flagship which unites more than 70 institutions from the United Nations, civil society, academia and the private sector to help minimize the effects of COVID-19 on education and gender equality.

UNESCO believes curtailing girls' education ultimately impacts the entire world. In an era when jobs increasingly require digital skills, educating girls can boost local and regional economies and fight poverty. But it's not happening fast enough.

'Last year was the 25^th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration,' says Sass, referring to the U.N. declaration of ensuring equality for women around the world. 'If we continue at this rate, we won't get every girl into primary school until 2050.'

And still, two-thirds of the illiterate adults in the world are women, she says.

'It's been the same proportion since 2000, so we're not making progress in that area,' says Sass.