Researchers From MIT Lincoln Lab Speak at Girls Who Code Club Event
The world has become increasingly dependent on computers over the last few decades and the need for young computer scientists has never been higher. To answer this call, Rivers’ Girls Who Code club invited two women from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory to talk about their work, their field, and how they put their coding knowledge to work in their everyday lives.
Researchers Kate Thurmer and Heather Grebe addressed a standing-room-only crowd of Rivers students during Tuesday’s lunch period in an event sponsored by the Girls Who Code club. This club, led by senior Nazeli Hagen ’17 and science faculty member Theresa Riedl, began with the intention of teaching coding to interested students but has evolved to become a way to raise awareness of opportunities for women in computer science and coding.
“Bringing in speakers gives us an opportunity to build enthusiasm around coding,” Mrs. Riedl said. “We’re planning a few more events for the spring such as Puzzle Day, which is an event Harvard puts on where students attempt to solve challenging puzzles that force you to think about things in different ways – which is really at the core of how coding is used.”
In the days since the event, Mrs. Riedl has heard positive feedback from both students and faculty who were impressed by the breadth of projects the women from MIT were working on and curious about how important a role coding will play in the world going forward.
"One of the most common questions I have heard is ‘will everyone have to know about coding?’ and my answer to that is yes,” Mrs. Riedl said. “Many people predict that all jobs, no matter the level, will eventually require some knowledge of coding and computer programming, so getting an early start on learning those skills will only become more important as we move in that direction."
To answer the call for more computer science opportunities, Mrs. Riedl will be implementing three trimester electives next year, which will complement the existing yearlong Honors Computer Science course. These classes – Computer Programming: Foundations, App Development, and Game Design – will give students opportunities to learn about different programming languages, elements of application development, and – in the case of the Game Design course – will call on students to use interdisciplinary thinking to create the art elements of computer programs and video games.
In the case of Nazeli, she found a passion for programming in the Honors Computer Science course and parlayed that interest into a summer internship at Jackpine Technologies in Maynard last summer. Click here to read about Nazeli’s experience at Jackpine in her Summer Internship Journal.
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