The Ada Scotland Festival is back for the fifth consecutive year, championing gender balance in tech and computing, while providing inspiration for young people to build a more diverse workforce in the tech sector.

This year’s festival runs from the 1st to 11th October with events across Scotland, with new features to look out for including an Industry Buddy network for university students led by Barclays, a capture the flag contest, and tech blogs from Barclays Software Engineers on coding languages.

Things will kick off with the Tech for Living in Space Lesson, organised with Tech She Can to give primary school pupils an inside glimpse of life in space, and the role technology plays in helping astronauts stay healthy, connected, and entertained in zero-gravity.

On Wednesday, 2nd October, older students can get an interactive lesson in genAI technology, with Tech She Can’s Tech for Gen AI Lesson, showcasing the role AI technology plays in our lives, how it can be used for good and how it might develop, as well as the kind of careers genAI might open up.

Students can also try their hand at codebreaking, with an online Cracking Cryptography session on the 9th, while undergraduate students can have a go at the Unleash Your Inner Hacker event, designed for students eager to explore cybersecurity.

For those looking for something different, there’ll be a two-day games design jam from 9th October, involving students from Digital Interaction Design at DJCAD and Game Design at Abertay University, which will demystify the game design process.

Teachers will get a chance to sharpen their own skills, with events to introduce new  learning tools for the classroom, and a workshop designed to help teachers harness the power of data for student support and lesson planning.

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Those already working in the tech industry will get the chance to hear what’s happening now at the Employer Roundtable Breakfast, where Scottish tech employers will discuss allyship and microaggressions, and what these mean for those in the technology community.

Discussions around inclusion, networking, and care in the industry will be picked up again throughout the festival, including at a Gender Minorities in STEM event, hosted by Equate Scotland and Napier University, and a Building Habits of Self-Compassion workshop on the 3rd.