Hyderabad: WE-Hub, the Government of Telangana’s first and only State-led incubator to foster and promote women’s entrepreneurship, on Thursday, launched its second cohort of the ‘Girls in STE(A)M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)’ program. Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB, said: “In the four years of WE Hub’s work, we have noticed that the number of women entering into technological entrepreneurship is minimal. This has led us to strategize for a mechanism that addresses the strong need for cultivating STE(A)M skills and mindset among young girls, thereby creating pathways to ensure gender parity.”
We Hub designed the eight-week program to enable girls aged 13-17 to choose and explore entrepreneurship through STE(A)M skills. The students will get hands-on learning in robotics, 3D Designs and Printing, Ham radio, Automation, Pixels to Picture, Aero Modelling, and Data Sciences. 600 students from 20 schools are part of this cohort. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary to the Government of Telangana, said: “Women make up nearly 43 percent of the total graduates in STE(A)M, but constitute just 14 percent of scientists, engineers, and technologists in research development institutions and universities, highlighting a gap between women’s education and careers. Therefore, it is imperative to work towards breaking gender stereotypes through early engagement of students and broaden the funnel for women to choose technology.”
He further added: “The Girls in STE(A)M program of WE HUB is a means to create an inclusive economy when it comes to technology and drive innovation across all disciplines.”
With the ‘Girls in STE(A)M’ program, the endeavor is to increase the influence and profile of women in STE(A)M, attain their potential to become future leaders, and uncover Tech CEOs. We look forward to nurturing confidence and competence in this sector and developing capabilities such as critical thinking and problem-solving, creativity and systems thinking, and social skills and teamwork amongst selected students.” As part of the first cohort of the ‘GIRL IN STE(A) M’ program, We Hub, in collaboration with Women in Data Science of Stanford University and Mathworks, equipped 100 female students across three states in India to apply the principles of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence to solve real-world problems. In addition, 19 faculty members across 6 International schools across India were trained as a part of the Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop. The cohort saw 73 percent of students develop projects and successfully demonstrate those before eminent personalities across industry and academia.
Over the past four years, WE-HUB has been actively working towards enabling Women-led start-ups across sectors to scale and accelerate through global market access. Till now, WE-HUB has incubated 238 technology-enabled start-ups by Women founders.
