Last month London’s The Copper Box Arena at the Olympic Park transformed into a city of science and technology exploration for students. TeenTech organizes events across England and Ireland to inspire tomorrow’s innovators by bringing to life the variety of opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Five hundred students from forty-two schools across London spent the day immersed in hands-on activities. Two hundred professionals, including a team of Symantec volunteers, shared real life challenges and experiences of STEM careers. It was an opportunity to bring the students’ curriculum to life but also to introduce career paths that they may not have known even existed. Students could design their own mobile apps, interact with Watson, IBM’s artificially intelligent computer, or see 3D mapping technology in action.
Here at Symantec - we believe in giving something back - taking responsibility for educating and contributing to the development of a better society, creating a safer place for people, businesses and governments. Participating at TeenTech is one way that Symantec can contribute to building a brighter future.
We hosted several 25 minute breakout sessions for the students to learn about the vulnerabilities of the internet and password security. This took the form of a “Cyber Spies” challenge which involved the children witnessing a “packet capture” – an extract of what the “bad guys” might listen to when two friends are using a non-secure instant messaging service to communicate. The children’s challenge was to use the information in this conversation to guess a password to a Facebook account. We also had them do a treasure hunt on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to find public personal information. To add some friendly competition the children were pitched against each other to see who could complete the task the quickest.
The day was a rewarding experience for everyone that was involved. We know how important Corporate Responsibility is for a company's public persona, but it’s much more than that - we do it because we care about educating the next generations. These young people are the generations that will become our leaders, educators, healers and innovators.
To learn more about Symantec’s commitment to Your Information, visit us here.
Michelle Davies is Symantec's Senior Principal Marketing Specialist UK&I