The kick-off meeting of the HeadStart Project took place on March 14th and 15th, 2024. All partners (Wide & Co – Luxembourg, Inspiring Girls Portugal, EUEI – Denmark and Momentum – Ireland) were at the meeting, which took place at the recently opened Crew Digital Creative Hub in Galway.
The HeadStart project aims to empower young women to tackle the AI gender gap through targeted education and mentorship. Our project will equip young women and youth educators with the essential skills and resources for a future in AI. We will directly engage four primary groups: young women, youth educators, youth-focused organisations, and AI education stakeholders. Our multi-faceted approach will foster skills, build communities, and drive systemic change in AI gender representation.
Day one was spent getting to know each other, as it was our first time meeting each other, and we also had a chance to learn more about the organisations involved in the project. In the afternoon we were lucky to be given a tour of the CREW hub and to meet some actors already working in the digital field (Animation, filming, VR etc). It is wonderful to see support and facilities being dedicated to this sector.
As a team building activity, we later checked out the world of Virtual Reality (VR) ourselves and took part in a virtual escape room experience. Of course, since it was the lead up to St. Patrick’s Day, we had to check out a local Irish pub and taste Galway’s finest culinary offerings.
Day two of the meeting concentrated on the project management side of things. Having newcomers to Erasmus+ (Inspiring Girls) we at Momentum strive to support and guide them along with our other experienced partners. Women supporting women is the essence of this project and it starts from within the HeadStart team.
The HeadStart project has four main activities and at this stage of the project we were eager to commence work on the Visual Resource Showcase: here we will be curating a series of 12 interviews featuring accomplished women in AI. Momentum is leading this Work Package and a large segment of the meeting focused on our work plan and methodology. The entire consortium delved into the best approaches and practicalities. We aim to use impactful storytelling to feature accomplished women either working in or leveraging AI professionally. Designed to both enlighten and inspire young women considering careers in AI, these videos make the field understandable and relatable while presenting a variety of career paths and challenging gender norms.
Watch this space for more updates from this exciting project.