It’s one of the questions I take home from Piossasco, where on Wednesday, November 11th, I presented “Changing the Shape of the Table” at the University of the Third Age. Is it still worthwhile to graduate in computer science from university?
Two intense hours of discussion with an audience of women and men who brought their work and life experiences to the discussion.
We started with AI as a tool and moved on to discuss the choices its use entails. If a system can write code, what skills do we need to understand if that code works, if it solves the right problem, and what consequences it might have?
It’s a question that concerns the future of work and education.
Someone mentioned female programmers they’d met in their careers, in some cases better than their male colleagues. From those stories, we returned to the data, which shows how the presence of women and men in computer science is still unbalanced.
This is precisely the point that interests me: if the skills are there, what continues to make these paths and the places where decisions are made less accessible to women?
In Pistoia, I discussed it with students studying computer science. In Piossasco, we arrived at this point through the memories and questions of people from other generations.
It’s the journey I hoped for with the book: meeting different audiences and seeing how the conversation changes as the experiences of those participating change.
Thanks to the University of the Third Age of Piossasco for the invitation and to those who participated with questions, memories, and observations.
I was also pleased to see that several people chose to take the book home with them. After two hours of discussion, it’s a nice way to continue the conversation.
