Hong Kong’s engineering future is female: Python training with Bloomberg Startup

Inspiring the next generation of female engineers and technologists in Asia comes naturally to Vicky Cheung. She’s a leader and volunteer instructor at Bloomberg Startup, the firm’s global education initiative that promotes training and digital literacy opportunities for young women around the world.

Cheung is a Bloomberg Startup mentor with local partner The Women’s Foundation (TWF), one of the city’s most well-regarded NGOs. She bases her approach to leading workshops on firsthand experience, as a native Cantonese speaker and graduate of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

“In Hong Kong culture, girls are directed more to art or law,” says Cheung, who remembers how her peers ended up studying history, humanities, and liberal arts at university. “No one was encouraging us to go into computer science. My classmates taking math were a minority, but now girls are more interested in STEM.”

Expanding diversity and inclusion (D&I) in local schools and advancing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics — or STEAM with the added dimension of the Arts) in Hong Kong was the jumping-off point for a Girls Go Tech bootcamp that Vicky and nine other Best of Bloomberg volunteers hosted earlier this year for 16 high school students.

Designing programs to initiate young women in coding isn’t new territory for Bloomberg volunteers in Hong Kong; the Information Systems Group (Infosys), for example, ran coding experiences in the C# programming language with Girls Go Tech students last year.

What’s new for Vicky and her Desktop Build Group colleague James Barrett, who collaborated to create a breakout game and handbooks for the teens, was building content from scratch to teach a different programming language: Python.

“Bloomberg is developing new tech in Python for data analysis,” says Cheung. “A lot of people in the company are learning it without necessarily being an engineer.” Python is a priority at Bloomberg, since its simple syntax of human language-like commands and code readability has made it the most popular introductory programming language. Demonstrating Python’s user-friendly interface and appeal, half of this year’s Startup Bloomberg volunteers working with the girls on programming tasks for the spring workshop don’t have a technical or developer background.

Upending the myths and preconceptions of coders and programmers was another takeaway lesson at the event.

“James wanted to break through the stereotype of engineers working alone,” says Debby Chu from Bloomberg’s Corporate Philanthropy team, which manages the regional Girls Go Tech partnership and program. “He raised a point of demonstrating this to the group, breaking through the typical Hong Kong-style education.”

The biggest indicators of success for TWF is found in the level of engagement the students, weighted with the competitive pressure of a heavy school workload, displayed. This high level of engagement is rare relative to other coding workshops, according to the nonprofit’s feedback and surveys.

“Having the girls show up at our office and taking the class is a measure of success. They are investing time, feedback, and taking a break for it, so the interest is clear — and we’ll use that to develop the structure and content now that we’ve just done the first one,” says Cheung.

Word of mouth is the primary way to attract more participants for coding classes, as well as speed mentoring, company visits, interschool competitions, and circuitry workshops. The Python workshop’s curriculum, developed by the Bloomberg team, will also be distributed on the web to computer science and subject-related teachers across Hong Kong through TWF’s online continuing education platform built for the Girls Go Tech community. It features self-learning modules and prizes for coding and circuitry is poised to engage over 1,000 student alumni who have gone through the Girls Go Tech program.

For Cheung and Chu, continuing relationships with Girls Go Tech and TWF are key to their goal of inspiring future engineers and developers.

Since 2017, Bloomberg Startup mentors in Hong Kong have volunteered with Girls Go Tech programs for more than 760 hours. They are among the 3,650 Bloomberg employees who have contributed worldwide.

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