Celebrating a Year of Computer Science Outreach: 2024–2025
This year UCL Computer Science Outreach reached 2,500+ students, 55+ schools and ran 30+ events, inspiring the next generation through hackathons, summer schools, and community projects.
The Computer Science outreach team is dedicated to expanding opportunities, broadening participation, and inspiring the next generation of computer scientists.
While it’s difficult to capture all of the year’s successes, some highlights stand out:
- Our first all-girls hackathon: A milestone event that brought together enthusiastic young innovators. The winners went on to join our Summer School, continuing their journey in computing with us.
- Rae Harbird Day: Building on the success of our flagship event, we welcomed over 200 students to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Rae Harbird – a much-loved member of the UCL Computer Science community and former Academic Outreach Lead.
- Showcasing innovation in Tech for Good: Students were invited to engage with the brilliant projects of undergraduates in Professor Dean Mohamedally’s Tech for Good Lab, culminating in a special visit from Tom Ball, creator of the Micro:bit.
- Hands-on Systems Engineering for IoT: Students worked on their own Internet of Things projects, applying systems engineering in a practical and creative context.
- Our Summer School: Another epic week of discovery, coding, and collaboration that continues to be a cornerstone of our outreach programme.
Beyond our headline events, we remain committed to supporting our local community. This year, we proudly partnered with the London AI Centre, joined the Camden Primary Schools Careers Fair, and supported Thinking Black initiatives. We also hosted the Computing at Schools Sixth Form Conference, bringing this important event back for the first time in over a decade.
These achievements reflect our core mission: to make computing accessible to as many people as possible. From schools to community groups, and from hackathons to conferences, our outreach work is all about creating pathways into the exciting world of computer science.
Looking ahead:
If you are a school who is interested in working with us in the 2025–2026 academic year, please fill in our registration form. We’d love to collaborate with you!
