Demystifying AI and widening participation to celebrate International Women’s Day • City St George's, University of London

Department of Computer Science at City St George’s hosts day for Year 7 and 8 students from Camden School for Girls and Parliament Hill School.

By City St George's Press Office (City St George's Press Office), Published Thursday, 10^th April 2025 (Updated Saturday, 13^th September 2025)

On Wednesday 5 March, staff from the Department of Computer Science, School of Science & Technology, City St George’s, University of London hosted a day of ‘demystifying’ artificial intelligence for Year 7 and 8 students.

The students from Camden School for Girls and Parliament Hill School were treated to an interactive day of talks, energy breaks, question and answers and activities to engage them with what it means to be a computer scientist; who decides to become a computer scientist and what burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI) means for society and ultimately, how AI works

Highlights

Dr Marjahan Begum, Lecturer in Computer Science
Siley Malakbaba, BSc Computer Science
Mariyahbanu Memon, computer science student
Paula Suarez Rodriguez, computer science student
Yr 7 and Yr 8 students from Camden School for Girls and Parliament Hill School
(right) Dr Giacomo Tarroni, Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence spoke, (left) Dr Michael Akintunde, Lecturer in Computer Science

The event was led by Dr Marjahan Begum and Dr Ferheen Ayaz, both lecturers in Computer Science at the Department of Computer Science, City St George’s.

Dr Begum is a learning scientist with a focus on computer science education and higher education research.

Dr Ayaz's research work has included energy-efficient solutions for electric vehicle charging, Multimodal AI-based Security for the Internet of Things (IoT), and environmental sustainability using IoT and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The students and their teachers received a welcome talk by Siley Malakbaba, who in January graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from the School, and was the ceremony’s student speaker.

Siley talked to the students about her route into computer science, and led all those gathered in some energy exercises.

Current computer science students Paula Suarez Rodriguez and Mariyahbanu Memon then shared their stories, including how they come to study at the Department and what they had been studying. They led an ice breaker session with the students to find out to what they knew about AI and how they would like to interact with it.

It was then time for academic staff from the School to introduce themselves, their areas of expertise and how they got to doing what they do with a brief outline of their career journeys.

Dr Ferheen Ayaz spoke about the use of AI in her electric vehicle charging work. Dr Giacomo Tarroni, Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence spoke about his research using AI in medical imaging. Lecturer, Dr Michael Akintunde, asked whether we can guarantee that AI is safe and trustworthy. Data scientist, Sandamali Yashodhara Wickramasinghe, who is currently completing her PhD at the School in ‘explainable AI’, spoke about what it means.

Dr Mirela Reljan-Delaney, Lecturer in Computer Science, and whose research explores innovative methods for amplifying underrepresented voices in active travel discourse, also spoke with the students and supported the final lab session later in the day.

Highlights

his led into a panel session with the academics where the students could ask further questions and discuss what they felt was important about computer science in society today, including what the challenges could be, including by the fast pace of change in technologies using AI.

After a break for lunch, the afternoon session resumed with an ‘AI unplugged’ activity in which the students completed tasks which simulated how AI decision-making works, but without the use of computers. The task was facilitated by the computer science staff and students present.

The final part of the day was a lab activity, where the students used computers to implement some of the computer science lessons shared with them by staff, who were led by Dr Michael Akintunde.

Reflecting on the event Dr Marjahan Begum said:

The ‘AI divide’ is becoming a reality. Women and minoritieswill be disproportionately affected by it, and we must do all inour capacity to reverse the trends towards it. Throughinteractive activities, our event aimed to build these youngwomen’s confidence in their understanding of the keyconcepts that lie under the hood of AI technologies already inuse.

Jenny Man, teacher of Computer Science at Camden School for Girls said:

It was wonderful to attend the Demystifying AI event whichwas superbly organised by Marjahan and Farheen. The daywas well structured with a range of activities including lookingat Ngrams, a panel discussion and most importantly for ourstudents, the opportunity to see and speak to students at CitySt George’s studying Computer Science, that were bothfemale and from diverse backgrounds, but also the fact thatthis was also the case for teaching staff there. The eventenabled students to see that a career in computing is bothattainable and something they can aspire to.

Joysy John MBE, Computer Science Consultant, Parliament Hill School said:

The ’Demystifying AI' event, organised in collaboration withthe university's Computer Science department, provided ourstudents with hands-on experience, career inspiration, andinteractive AI workshops. Students learned about core AIconcepts, including large language models, decision trees,and pattern recognition, through engaging activities such astext prediction and an AI unplugged activity.

“The trip not only broadened their understanding of AI, butalso inspired them to consider future careers in STEM fields. Itwas fantastic to experience such a diverse range of rolemodels sharing their insights on AI, and inspiring thestudents to believe that they can also make a positivedifference to society by using AI for good.

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