Girls in Science is a non-profit organisation who we have worked with over the last year to create a dynamic event that took place this week. This was hosted by Santander at their brand new headquarters at Unity Place. Ten other local schools joined the conference, which focussed on ‘Outside the Box’.
Lakechia Jeanne introduced our keynote speaker, Radhika Srinivasan who shared her career journey. As a passionate artist and devotee of fashion, Radhika created an amazing chrome breast plate. After showcasing her designs on various social platforms, this was picked up by Beyonce and her team and Radhika attended one of her gigs, meeting both Beyonce and Taylor Swift. Radhika studied Mechanical Engineering at university, and whilst there had a number of hospital appointments and encounters.
She became aware of how PPE was disposed of and the environmental implications , and so endeavoured to design sustainable products for the medical industry. After a spell as a Stockbroker, she started her company, Ecotextura. Radhika spoke about finding fulfilment through work and balancing different goals and interests.
Two of our Year 12 students, Mia and Tiya hosted a panel discussion with leaders from GlaxoSmithKline, Santander and MK:U. Mia and Tiya asked the delegates questions on AI, start ups and apprenticeships. With CEOs and over 150 students in the audience, both girls were excellent; calm and articulate and coped brilliantly with a last minute change of speaker!
There was an interactive AI workshops for our Year 10 and 12 students to enjoy, where we increased our knowledge of AI Literacy and Rule Based AI. Further panelists included delegates from Impellam and AstraZeneca, both of which spoke passionately about Apprenticeships and shared their opinions on the decreasing value of university degrees. The final Fireside Chat was with George Williamson, the CEO of HMGCC, who spoke about the opportunities in the organisation and the soft skills of teamwork and problem solving that are needed. He reminded us that after leaving Bletchley Park, Alan Turing went to HMGCC and designed the first secure speech encryption system.
This was a fantastic event which we are proud to have jointly hosted. Our students were buzzing afterwards and thoroughly enjoyed the varied talks and activities …. even though we felt we were robbed of the doughnuts award!!
Categories: Academic Year 10 Year 12
