Bringing girls closer to science with SATW mentoring

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Institutional Communication Service

13 March 2023

It all started with a meeting at EPFL, where the third mentoring programme was launched, offering girls aged 13-16 an exciting insight into tech careers, thus inspiring them towards STEM disciplines. Monica Landoni, a professor at USI Faculty of Informatics, and Sandra Mitrovic, a postdoctoral researcher at the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA USI-SUPSI), also join the programme.

The programme is managed by TecLadies, the national support organisation of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, and since 2023 has also involved the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. The first to participate were 13 girls (aged 13 to 16) supported by as many volunteer mentors.

TecLadies, under the auspices of the SATW, organised all the meetings, from welcome to closing. Each month there is a new proposal to which the girls are invited and which is included in the portfolio that the participants will present on 3 June at the end of the experience.

Each mentor is encouraged to invite their mentee to visit their workplace.

"The event held at USI on 1 March 2023 was born out of a desire to present the research of our Faculty of Informatics to my mentee, who is in junior high," explains Monica Landoni. "We thought it might also interest the other girls, so we extended the invitation. We hope they visit us full of curiosity and become passionate about what we do!"

 

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