Inspiring the next generation of women to follow a career in computer programming
When Sophie Charlotte Keunecke was a young girl, she dreamt of being a princess. That changed when she realised there was a whole world of discovery awaiting her at school. There, Sophie Charlotte loved the robotics club, and by the time she was 12, she had already built her first robot. Four years later, she was running the club and supporting younger female students to learn how to programme. When she finished school, Sophie Charlotte decided to follow her passion and study mechatronics at university. It’s a choice that, according to her, still surprises many people. “They usually react by saying: ‘wow, as a woman ... that's cool’, but most of them think it's not normal. And I think it's a shame that it's not considered normal.”
At university Sophie Charlotte discovered Open Roberta, an online platform developed by German research institution Fraunhofer IAIS and supported by Google, to grant greater access for people to learn about programming. As part of her course, she used the platform to further enhance her programming skills. “Open Roberta definitely helped me learn more about advanced robot systems. It really opened my eyes because it presents complex situations in a simple way.” Sophie Charlotte now uses it to teach female students in schools about robotics, hoping to inspire them to follow a career path in programming. “It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl, what matters is what you want to achieve and what you are willing to do to get there,” she says. “Once you start learning about robots, you can't stop. And the best thing about it is that it enables you to achieve anything.”
It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl, what matters is what you want to achieve and what you are willing to do to get there.