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Interest, perseverance, and the courage to forge their own path help female students and graduates of Brno University of Technology succeed in the world of information and communication technologies. Their stories show that the path to ICT doesn’t have to be predetermined and that it’s possible to find your way into technology at any time. While studying presents challenges, it also offers the opportunity to find your own direction and become part of a field that is shaping the future. Three students and three graduates describe their journey into the field and share their experiences with studying and working.BUT introduces high school girls to the field of ICT through activities such as the IT Summer School for Girls. | Author: Václav Koníček
International Day of Girls in ICT, which falls on April 23, draws attention to gender disparities in access to information and communication technologies. It reminds us that girls and young women have a place in the digital future not only as users, but also as creators and experts. At BUT, young women most frequently encounter ICT at the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies (FEEC). Among them are students Anna Jílková, Eliška Jordánková, and Marie Cmíralová, and graduates Kateřina Fořtová, Gabriela Nečasová, and Kateřina Vrána, who shared their experiences.
Some girls develop an interest in information and communication technologies at a very young age—especially if someone in their family works in the field. But not all of them get into technology that early. For many girls, it is their exposure to programming in high school that proves decisive and in some cases, chance also plays a role.
Anna Jílková, a student of Telecommunications and Information Systems , was never interested in the humanities and was always drawn more to technology. “In my sophomore year of high school, when we had to choose our elective courses, I decided to first look into where I wanted to go to college. FEEC was a pretty clear choice for me,” Anna explains. Eliška Jordánková, a Bioengineering student , has a similar experience, as IT runs in her family. “My dad is an IT expert, and with my older brother, computers were a part of our home. From playing games, I naturally became interested in how they’re made, which led me to my first forays into programming and the basics of HTML and JavaScript,” she describes.FEEC student Marie Cmíralová got into technology through her dad. | Author: Courtesy of FEEC
Marie Cmíralová also got into technology through her dad. “I always really enjoyed watching my dad work when he was fixing something. We liked going to technical museums, and I was happy that I finally knew how some things work,” says the student of Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics, who is actively involved in the SFS FEEC student association and is also an ambassador for the program.
Kateřina Fořtová had a different experience; she currently works as a back-end programmer for the Seznam.cz search engine. She didn’t decide to study at FIT until the end of high school, when a friend introduced her to the C++ programming language. “I’m not the type who dabbled in electronics in high school. I didn’t learn to program until I got to FIT,” says the young developer.
Gabriela Nečasová took an even longer path to IT; she focused on music at a high school with an arts program. But she was interested in technology. “I wanted to know why a computer works the way it does, what’s inside it, and what lies behind it,” explains the FIT graduate, who now works as a senior technical writer at Red Hat and also works at the FIT Institute of Intelligent Systems. FIT Graduate Kateřina Fořtová decided to pursue a degree in IT toward the end of high school, when a friend introduced her to the C++ programming language. | Author: Martin Horný
The transition from high school to a technical university is often challenging in itself. Moreover, if female students come from a non-technical background and find themselves in a predominantly male environment, it can be a significant personal challenge.
Eliška Jordánková, who attended a technically oriented high school after elementary school, did not face this problem. “I received a solid foundation in ICT there, particularly in programming, which helped me a lot later when I was studying at the university,” she says. She views her studies at BUT positively, especially due to their practical focus, which she says also makes them demanding. “The biggest challenge for me is processing extensive measurement reports, which requires a lot of time and energy beyond class hours,” Eliška notes.
The transition to university was a bit of a “shock” for Kateřina Vrána, who wasn’t drawn to technology from a young age and only got into programming in high school. “I went to a high school where there were mostly girls, and now it was suddenly the complete opposite,” describes the FIT graduate, who now works as a machine learning engineer and AI coordinator at Tescan. She describes her time as a student as a constant feeling of nervousness. “There were always deadlines looming, and you just had to figure out how to deal with them. But in the end, it was always enough to put in the time, and somehow it all worked out,” adds Kateřina.According to FIT graduate Kateřina Vrána, no one should let gender or other prejudices hold them back. | Author: Courtesy of Kateřina Vrána
For Kateřina Fořtová, too, the beginning was a challenge. “The first years of study are demanding, work is done mainly in the C programming language, and certain courses in particular require intensive preparation.” According to her, things only turned around at the end of her sophomore and junior years, when she found topics that interested her. Anna Jílková also confirms the importance of the topics. “There’s a big difference between learning something you enjoy and something you don’t. The examples usually made sense to me, but the theory was harder, and I sometimes had to force myself to just sit down and work through it,” Anna explains, adding that it’s especially important not to compare yourself to anyone else.
According to Marie Cmíralová, the key is not to be afraid, to give it a try, and to ask questions. “I also felt like I wasn’t cut out for it. But it’s great to step out of your comfort zone, not be afraid, and give it a try,” the student emphasizes.
Studying ICT doesn’t lead in just one or two directions. Information and communication technologies at BUT permeate a wide range of fields—from hardware and mathematics through medicine to machine learning. Every girl can find a subfield where she feels most comfortable, gradually specialize in it and develop her skills to the highest level.
For Kateřina Vrána, impact was the most important factor when choosing her specialization. She chose machine learning, which allows her to track real-world results. “Whether in the field of medicine, where we have the opportunity to streamline medical care, or in the field of 2D and 3D data, which has applications in science or quality control,” the graduate explains. Although Tescan currently focuses more on electron microscopy, Kateřina continues to closely follow the field of medical data processing. Eliška Jordánková from FEEC is primarily interested in the use of data analysis in sports. | Author: Courtesy of Eliška Jordánková
The prospect of a direct impact, as well as a connection to her passion for sports, also drew Eliška Jordánková to engineering when she discovered that she could study sports technologies at BUT. Today, she specializes in data analysis and machine learning. “My main interest is the use of data analysis in sports – I believe that objective data can provide athletes with valuable feedback and help them improve their performance,” says Eliška.
According to female students and graduates of BUT, the prerequisites for studying computer science are not necessarily a matter of innate talent, but above all determination, courage, tenacity, and hard work. Although they see that ICT is still sometimes perceived as a “male” field, they believe that these prejudices are gradually fading.
Kateřina Vrána, for example, has encountered such prejudices, though she says they tended to come from laypeople outside the academic environment. “Everyone has a greater or lesser aptitude for something; I don’t think IT is an exception in this regard. But no one should let themselves be held back by gender or other prejudices if they are interested in a particular field and want to pursue it,” the graduate emphasizes.
Anna Jílková, on the other hand, was encouraged by those around her to pursue a career in teaching. “The argument was that I’d have afternoons off and could spend time with my children. But in technical fields, many positions are opening up that allow for at least partial work from home, and with a reduced workload, it’s possible to balance work with family life.” According to her, determination is key. “If you have a goal and pursue it, you’ll make it. And if something doesn’t work out, that’s just part of the process,” Anna admits.FIT Graduate Gabriela Nečasová currently works as a technical writer at Red Hat. | Author: Martin Horný
Gabriela Nečasová also sees determination as a key and universal prerequisite for studying and working in ICT. “I dare say this, of course, only from my own experience – it was precisely my determination that got me where I am today.” She believes that prejudices exist in all fields. “They often revolve around the idea that a certain role is exclusively male or female, but I think things are improving,” the graduate notes. Kateřina Fořtová also views gender issues in IT rather positively. “I have to say that I’ve never encountered any prejudices like ‘IT is for boys’. At Seznam, I’m the only girl on the search engine team. Women tend to work in research or data analytics. But I’ve fit right in with the team anyway,” she says with satisfaction.
“If ICT appeals to you even a little, give it a chance,” Marie Cmíralová advises high school girls. She also points out that girls today have plenty of opportunities to get acquainted with the field, for example through courses, workshops, or summer schools. “That’s exactly where you can overcome your shyness, gain a basic overview, meet great people in the field, and discover that there are an incredible number of paths you can take in IT,” Marie concludes. Thanks to initiatives such as TogetHERin tech, girls can discover ICT at BUT at secondary school level. | Author: Václav Koníček
BUT introduces girls to the field through activities such as Summer IT School for Girls or TogetHER in tech and Plant Wellbeing, a summer school for girls in the form of a day camp. Here, future developers and programmers can “get hands-on” with technology and meet current students and graduates. In this way, the university has long supported the openness of technical fields and demonstrates that information and communication technologies can be a natural choice for girls.
The stories of BUT students and graduates demonstrate that the path to ICT is neither uniform nor predetermined. What matters most is the desire to learn, persevere, and find one’s own direction. It is precisely this diversity of experiences and perspectives that drives the field forward.