Partner since 2021, Ekinops is proud to once again sponsor the Ada Lovelace challenge to encourage young girls to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. For this new 2024 edition, the event is expanding: the first edition took place on February 16 and 17 in Lannion, the second in Quimper on March 15 and 16, and the departmental final will be held on May 29 in Lannion. Altogether, 83 high school girls competed in this team programming competition.
Dedicated to promoting diversity in the scientific and technical field, Israa Alnazer, PhD and R&D Engineer at Ekinops, immediately agreed to take part in the 2024 edition, sharing her knowledge and experience with these young high school girls.
She shares with us her experience as a mentor at the Lannion edition:
"I didn't know there was such a challenge for high school girls, but I was surprised and delighted to discover the existence of this competition organized by l'École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (ENSSAT), as I always wanted to be introduced to the field of programming before entering university. I feel that this challenge opens up new horizons for high school girls, helping them to discover what coding is all about, the importance of time management, task sharing, assigning tasks to the most appropriate person based on their knowledge and experience and of course the importance of work presentation.
I was delighted to take part in this event and represent Ekinops, which I feel is a company that encourages the recruitment of women in technology, making it a company that welcomes diversity.
I was very pleased to see so many girls in such an enthusiastic atmosphere, displaying mixed feelings of joy and fear, which reminded me of my participation in such competitions during my university days.
To young girls who like to delve into the world of technical sciences, I like to remind them that in the world of technology, innovation has no gender. You just need to be motivated, passionate and curious to succeed and bring a unique point of view to the table. My advice is to keep studying, no matter how hard it is - the effort will pay off in the long run - and do the job that you love."
Photo credit: Ouest France
