In celebration of International Women’s Day, Teens in AI runs annual, distributed Global Techathons inspiring teens aged 12 to18
London, UK, 23 January 2024 – Teens in AI, an initiative focused on inspiring teens to explore a future in tech and AI through collaborative, hands-on learning experiences, announces the launch of its fourth annual International Women’s Day Global Techathon campaign running from February to April 2024. Sharing a common goal with its valued Partners it aims to leverage technology to build an equitable world where every individual has an equal chance to unlock their potential, fostering innovation and generating positive societal change.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Teens in AI runs annual, distributed Global Techathons inspiring teens aged 12 to18 to come together to collaboratively solve a real-world problem through the use of AI and Data Science for social good. This hackathon-style programme is a virtual hybrid event, with challenges centred around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Teens in AI Founder and CEO, Elena Sinel, adds: “Addressing the disparities relating to diversity and representation that currently exist within the AI and tech industries is crucial to ensure a future that reflects a diversity of voices and eliminates existing biases. Our goal is to equip teens from diverse backgrounds with skills early on, exposing them to technology’s potential for social good. Embracing equity is imperative now more than ever, especially for girls. ‘Inspiring Inclusion’ is at the heart of what we do.”
For over a century, International Women’s Day has been celebrated, serving as a profound source of inspiration for Teens in AI’s IWD campaign, especially so this year with its 2024 campaign theme, ‘Inspire Inclusion’. This sentiment seamlessly reinforces a core tenet of the Teens in AI mission, actively shaping an inclusive AI ecosystem through the provision of essential elements such as AI literacy, education, and awareness initiatives.
The principle of Inclusion by Design lies at the heart of this mission. The Global Gender Gap Report 2023** from the World Economic Forum highlights a stark reality: only 29.2% of STEM roles are occupied by women, with a similar percentage observed for those in AI. AI is “roughly 4 percentage points higher than it was in 2016” indicating that growth in this sector was “progressing very slowly”, underscoring the urgency to address and rectify this disparity in the sector.
The IWD2024 Global Techathon will see participants come together from more than 75 locations around the world from the UK, Europe and the USA, to India, Egypt, Azerbaijan to Argentina, Mongolia and Australia! They will immerse themselves in a challenging, hands-on tech experience that allows them to explore careers in AI, data science and design thinking; and learn how these emerging fields intersect with other industries.
This year, Teens in AI is set to expand its IWD programme of events, kicking off with Inspiration Week in February and its inaugural Bootcamp later in the month (coinciding with ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’); two Global Techathon Weekends in March (aligning with ‘International Women’s Day’); and in April, a Virtual Panel and Networking event, concluding the programme on 25 April 2024 with the International Demo Day (coinciding with ‘International Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day’).
For more details visit https://www.teensinai.com/global-techathon/.
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** World Economic Forum Report: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/
Another interesting Report: McKinsey Report: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion
About Teens in AI
Launched in 2018 at the United Nations AI for Good Global Summit, Teens in AI is a social impact-driven initiative that inspires teens to explore a future in tech and AI through collaborative, hands-on learning experiences. Since its inception, Teens in AI has been instrumental in guiding over 15,000 young minds across 60 countries, leading initiatives that resonate with UN Sustainable Development Goals. It provides teens, aged 12 to 18, the platform and knowledge to create AI solutions with societal benefit at their core. They believe in harnessing technology to create a fair world where everyone has equal opportunity to maximise their potential. By encouraging diverse perspectives, Teens in AI acts as a catalyst for change, inspiring the next generation of responsible leaders, innovators, and technologists from all walks of life to shape the world of tomorrow.
For more information please contact:
Media enquiries: Bev Chislett, Head of Marketing, Teens in AI [email protected]
