We organised another highly successful Girls into Electronics in July. Over the three days, attendees of the virtual course sponsored by onsemi had the opportunity to learn from female engineers and interns working at Electronics companies, as well as female lecturers and students at UKESF partner universities. They took part in discussions and Q&A sessions, in addition to gaining hands-on experience of microcontrollers and problem solving with the Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino.

Of the Year 12 attendees, 25% were of an ethnic minority and 80% were from state schools. Feedback was very positive, with 85% stating that the course had persuaded them to seriously consider studying Engineering at university, and 80% saying that their interest in Engineering in general had increased after completing the course. 85% of attendees would recommend the course.

The content of the course scored an impressive average of 84% approval, with the most highly rated sessions being ‘Using Electronics to Solve Real-World Problems’ and the Q&A with graduated female UKESF Scholars. In their written feedback, attendees praised the variety of activities that kept them engaged throughout each day, as well as how inspiring they found hearing about the experiences of female engineers.

“I am thankful for everyone who spoke on the course, the people who supported us and the kit provided to us as I learnt a lot from it! It was a refreshing experience and has really made me consider studying Electronics at university.”

“I’d just like to thank everybody involved in this course. I honestly would have never thought of Electronics as something that I could do without this. Thank you so much!”

“I would like to say thank you to all the staff and guest speakers as they were really supportive all along the course and the speeches were really thought-provoking!”

Below are two videos of sessions included in this year’s course. The first is a presentation by Dr Sohini Dasgupta, Principal Design Engineer at onsemi:

The second video features Dr Sohini Dasgupta in discussion with Eleftheria Safarika (UKESF Scholar sponsored by onsemi):

Girls into Electronics 2021 was organised with help from university partners Aston University and Royal Holloway and with support from The Smallpeice Trust.