That’s rhythm 'n' blues, New Orleans style, courtesy of coding. Yes, coding. So what exactly is coding?
"Coding is a way of programming so there’s different languages in computer sciences such as Javascript or Python or…etc and coding is just like the actual writing out of like all the program."
In short, codes tell the computer what to do.
“That’s was Allen Toussaint that we just heard”
Xiao Xiao, an MIT PhD student created the code for her piano to play on its own and she’s showing off her work to some visiting high schoolers taking part in a Girls Who Code summer camp., which was created to close the gender gap in technology. It was founded back in 2012 and Girls Who Code has grown rapidly. This year, there are about 1200 girls in camps across the country. In Massachusetts, about 120 girls are participating at companies like Akamai Technologies in Cambridge.
“It’s like a really fun experience”
It’s fun but not easy. Girls like Ketaki Pawar commit their entire summer to learn computer programming and presentation skills and they’re paired with volunteer mentors who help with their career goals.
“My goal is to ultimately be a really good software engineer and I hope to work at Google or Microsoft”
And it’s called Girls Who Code for a reason, men outnumber women 5 to 1 in the industry right now.
“I feel like it’s really frustrating because I feel like girls can do just as much as guys”
Girls Who Code’s COO, Solomar Steplight, says it starts in school.
“Over time, particularly when you get to middle school and high school, you start to notice that there’s more and more boys in the Math and Science classes”
So far, Solomar and his team have been very successful, 90% of the girls who participated in camps last year went on to major or minor in computer science.
