Little hackers make it big

Virtual Hacker School: IT experts from Lufthansa Group share their know-how with children in online sessions

Last year, the first Hacker School at Lufthansa Group, as part of a cooperation between Lufthansa Industry Solutions and the Hacker School, was very successful. Since this year help alliance is also supporting this project. With IT Kickstart for Young People, young people can develop and expand their understanding of digital skills regardless of their gender or socio-economic background, strengthen their self-confidence and actively shape the digital future.

Despite the ongoing crisis, the next Hacker School session was just around the corner, but this time it was held virtually. This means that IT-savvy colleagues from the Lufthansa Group passed on their knowledge to children (aged 11-18) in online workshops to get them excited about IT and develop new ideas together. The topics varied: IT security, Big Data, artificial intelligence, Python, development of computer games, IoT and Java and much more.

“When we were asked if we wanted to offer our workshop online, I was initially skeptical if it would work. Now I can say it does.”

– Theresa Tran, Data Scientist at Lufthansa Industry Solutions

The workshops were led by two experts (Inspirers) in tandem and were aimed at 10 children. The courses lasted four hours twice, with one part consisting of knowledge transfer and the other part of practical work – i.e. self-programming, tinkering and development. With laptop, webcam and lots of curiosity, the kids immersed themselves in the world of IT and perhaps developed a new professional perspective along the way. A great example of the perspectives that can arise for the kids are Julie and Felix, who already took part in a hacker school in Raunheim last year and this year already led a course themselves as “Junior Inspirer” alongside Mojgan Kowsari.

The feedback from the participants and inspirers was very enthusiastic, so that we are already looking forward to the next virtual Hacker School. Special thanks to all colleagues who invested their free time to fill the courses with life as Inspirers!

Deutschland, IT-Kickstart für Jugendliche, Hackerschool — What do a bell pepper and an apple have to do with artificial intelligence? IT experts Theresa Tran and Julian Gimbel from Lufthansa Industry Solutions have explored this connection in virtual workshops with children.

“For over a year I have been supporting the Hacker School as an Inspirer – and it’s always great fun. My first Hacker School was an on-site event in Raunheim. At that time I developed a concept for an AI workshop together with my colleague Julian Gimbel. Within two afternoons the participants built their own image recognition system. It was up to them what they taught the computer. One group had the idea to let it differentiate women and men, another one good and bad weather. When we were asked if we wanted to offer our workshop online, I was initially skeptical if it would work. Now I can say it does,” says Theresa Tran, Data Scientist at Lufthansa Industry Solutions.