A team of S2 girls from St. Kentigerns Academy (pictured) are celebrating winning a national data science competition, beating off competition from over 200 applicants in 65 teams from 23 local authorities across Scotland.
They picked up their £1,500 prize at a special Women in Data Science event in Edinburgh yesterday. The event aims to bring together women data scientists and school girls to showcase what a data career looks like, and inspire the female data leaders of the future. It was part of DataFest19, the UK’s first two-week festival of data innovation.
Finalists participated in four workshops run by Mudano, JP Morgan, Seric Systems, and ENUSEC, Cyber Academy and Curious Frank SBRC.
Jonathan Summers (pictured), Chief Strategy Officer at Mudano who sponsored the event said: “Congratulations to the girls of St Kentigern’s Academy. They, and all the other schools at WiDS and DataFest19 yesterday, were brilliant ambassadors for the future of Data Science. St Kentigern’s really embody one of the key themes from the event – be brave. We can’t wait to see what they make of the next opportunity. An event may have ended at DataFest but a movement just began.”
Toni Scullion (pictured), Computing Science teacher and founder of dressCode, said: “It was an amazing event that left the girls inspired! What made this event really special was that it was true collaboration of industry and education, a bridge that needs to be strengthened. I cannot thank The Data Lab enough for believing in the Turing’s Testers and giving them the opportunity and platform to work in collaboration with their Women in Data Science event. Mudano’s investment to run a similar event of its kind next year is wonderful. It is great to see a company investing in the future and hopefully bringing a greater awareness of the tech sector to the next generation of girls.”