Girlsday 2018

The Research Training Group Energy State Data attaches great importance to equal opportunities for women and men in research. This goes hand in hand with corresponding activities at the annual Girls' Day, where schoolgirls gain insights into professional fields that are traditionally dominated by men. These include computer science, engineering and maths in particular.
At this year's Girls' Day on 26 April 2018, we were able to convince 10 girls of the attractiveness of a university education in computer science and business informatics. In addition to our graduates Rebecca Schwerdt and Philipp Staudt, representatives of the Research Centre for Information Technology (FZI) and the Karlsruhe Design & Decision Labs (KD2 Lab) were also involved in a corresponding workshop.

The two-hour event kicked off in the FZI's House of Living Labs. Tanja Zylowski, a research associate, gave an insight into the various areas in which computer science can be applied in practice. One focus was on the topic of energy. The girls were able to discover the various components of an energy management system and also play around a little on the consoles themselves.

The second part of the workshop took place in the KD2 Lab. In addition to a short tour of the lab, the programme included a large Q&A session at the end, during which the girls were able to ask our graduates questions. In particular, the diversity of STEM degree programmes was discussed and prejudices against mathematical and scientific research areas were broken down.

The Girls' Day was a success, as it was last year, which is why we will be organising the workshop again next year.