WE HUB, WiDS (Women in Data Science), Stanford University and Mathworks to train 100 Girls in Data Science Field

WE HUB, India’s first and only state-led incubator by the Government of Telangana to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start-up, scale-up and accelerate with global market access, in collaboration with WiDS (Women in Data Science), Stanford University and Mathworks on-boarded eight schools aiming to upskill girl students. This seven-week programme will offer 100 girl students from the selected schools an opportunity to gain skills in data science field. This initiative by WE HUB aims at encouraging more girls to pursue STEM courses as well as understand the impact of data science in their career choice.

Among the eight schools selected for the programme – four are from Telangana – Sreenidhi International School, Chirec International School, Keystone International School and Oakridge International School – and one each from Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, and Assam – Stonehill International School, Foundation World School, Ascend International School and Delhi Public School, Guwahati, respectively. This programme initiated for girl students intends to improve education and career pathways in STEM through schools.

The programme was launched by Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB in the presence of Malcolm Nicolson, Head of School of Sreenidhi International School, Sanchita Raha, Principal of CHIREC International School, Srilakshmi Reddy, CEO of Keystone International School and Padmaja Ambaty from Oakridge International School.

Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB said, “WE HUB has implemented 23 programs so far since its inception, however the WiDS program implemented for 100 girl students across India is a new experience for us. Not just technical skills, the focus is on developing complimentary skills through creating a platform for cross border learning is what we are focussing on. Creating outcomes which are tangible is the key for this program.”

Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary ITE&C Department, Telangana, said “We are looking at this programme as a model which will be executed year on year on a larger scale and I wish the 100 students selected for the program make the best out of the platform and opportunity created by WE HUB, WiDS and Mathworks.”

“MathWorks is excited to work with WE HUB and the WiDS programme to create and deliver a curriculum that is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is tailored to address India specific challenges. The curriculum has a scalable structure, which will help it be adopted by other educational institutions in the future,” mentioned Viju Ravichandran, Education Technical Evangelist, MathWorks India

The schools will conduct aptitude tests using WE HUB's test format, and 12-13 girls will be selected from each school for rigorous training from WE HUB and Stanford's WiDS over the next seven weeks. Since data science can be applied to any industry, this program is designed to enhance the learning capabilities of the shortlisted 100 students regardless of their academic background.

The programme will also include a two-day workshop on January 7th and 8th, 2022 which will be attended by 24 teachers from the eight schools. Teachers and students will be trained by MathWorks, a company that offers mathematical computing software. On the final day of the programme, the ‘Girls in STEM’ conference will be conducted in Hyderabad.

Malcolm Nicolson, Head of School Sreenidhi International School, said, “Our school is looking forward to being associated with this WE HUB and this programme, as we focus on our students developing various learner profile attributes. We would like to move from local to global, and like our students to get hands-on experience with things which are so integral to Telangana.”

Srilakshmi Reddy, Founder and Director of Keystone International School said, “Being an engineer myself, throughout my journey, I have experienced that there's always a huge gap between children learn versus the real-life scenarios. More than ever, this generation will have to deal with complex, diverse, and very ambiguous situations once they step out into the world. Programmes like this, I feel, is a one step towards addressing these kinds of issues and solve complex problems in various sector.”

Sanchita Raha, Principal of CHIREC International School said, “By collaborating with the schools throughout India, and international institutes like Stanford University as well as entity like WE HUB we are giving this wonderful opportunity to girls to learn about data science, big data, even entrepreneurship etc. Through this we are helping them build their path starting from a young age and pushing them to take up science as a career option.”