The Library recently welcomed seventy Year 9 girls from 6 schools across Blackpool and Fleetwood into the Events space for an interactive morning trying out Virtual Reality headsets & creating motorised vehicles with robotics kits as part of a computing and cyber security outreach event, coordinated by colleagues in SCC and the Lancashire Cyber Foundry with introductions from Professor Wendy Robinson, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, and Pat Ryan and Wendy Parmley fromCyber Girls First.

The students then went on to be involved in a networking lunch with businesses and heard from one of the guests, the Lancaster alumna, Microsoft’s Marie Hamilton.

The girls were also involved in a tour of the University’s IsoLab, and a Cyber Lego activity, which saw them role-playing a cyber security game managing a business and taking decisions about whether to allocate resources to growing the business or protecting the business through investing in cyber security measures.

Pat Ryan from Cyber Girls First said: “This event was what we hope is the first of many visits by girls from Blackpool schools to Lancaster University to see the amazing facilities on their doorstep. Wendy Parmley and I hoped for a positive response from the girls, but nothing prepared us for the excitement the visit engendered. This was only made possible by the generous amount of time given by the lecturers and staff to make this event so successful.”