Bidiversity

There will be 1.4 million computing jobs in the US by 2018, making IT among the fastest-growing job market in next decade and, if the current trend continues, the vast majority of these high-paying positions will be held by men. According to the National Center for Woman & Information Technology, women earned only 18% of all computer science degrees in 2008.

A unique technology competition is hoping to change that trend by inspiring more women to pursue a career in technology. The Imagine Cup is a worldwide event sponsored by Microsoft with more than 325,000 students representing more than 100 countries. This year’s final event will be held on July 8th in Warsaw, Poland, with two “all girl” teams are in contention to win:

• A team from Kuwait has designed software to allow physically disabled students to use a traditional computer with nothing more than a webcam.
• A team from Singapore developed a program to allow teachers to better communicate and share best practices in their native language.

As science, technology, energy and maths jobs become more prevalent, inspiring more women to choose careers in IT is about more than just parity; it’s also about innovation, competitiveness and workforce sustainability. Past women team members have gone on to start their own companies/serve in executive positions. Last year, a female team member from the Bulgarian team helped her team take their idea to the next level and now the Bulgarian government is deploying their software across the country.

Christina Ioannidis, the founder of Bidiversity and CEO of Aquitude states :

“It is commendable to encourage women into what are deemed as not ‘traditionally female’ industries. We neeed to break these gender-based stereotypes and embrace the benefits of innovation that gender, and culturally, diverse teams (and companies) foster.  The Imagine Cup is an excellent blueprint for doing just that.”

To learn more about the Imagine Cup, click here.