The under-representation of women in engineering is becoming a matter of concern as it has implications both for the women themselves and for the development of the digital economy sector. To address this issue, a girls hackathon and a mentorship program have been held at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) with the aim of bringing more women into computing. Questionnaires deployed after the event indicate that it was a powerful initiative to encourage girls to study engineering degrees and to increase the visibility of women in ICT.

We would like to thank all the members of GirlsInLab, the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Alquima, DIYBio Barcelona, electrònics.cat, Ricoh and all mentors for their support in the hackathon and mentorship. We also appreciate the financial and logistic support of the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Google, the Anita Borg Scholarship Alumni, the Institut Català de les Dones, Accenture, Eurecat and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme (MDM-2015-0502).