LocationsMarking International Girls in ICT Day
Girls Are Coding the Rhythm of New Technologies
May 16, 2025
UNDP Serbia / Jelena Babić
The last Thursday of April is a special day when girls around the world are reminded just how fun, creative – and theirs – technology can be. In Serbia, International Girls in ICT Day is traditionally celebrated at the Center for the Promotion of Science, a space for learning, playing, and inspiration, where it’s okay to ask questions, make mistakes, and experiment. This year, in the spirit of the STEAM approach, which combines science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, thirty girls had the opportunity to express their creativity through coding in the workshop “Programming Music.”
Maja Milović, a student at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, showed them how music and code go hand in hand. She emphasized the importance of girls having support to express themselves in the ICT sector. “I think it’s important that girls know they are accepted. That they belong here and should nurture their interests, even if they’re not typical. And they can be. This is becoming more and more normal,” Maja said.
UNDP Serbia / Jelena Babić
Using the programming language Chuck, designed for sound synthesis and audio signal processing, the girls connected code and creativity. “It’s a programming language that’s great for experiments like these. It’s intuitive enough that the participants can already choose a song and translate it into a simple melody that a computer can play,” Maja explained.
While some girls were learning how to translate a song into code, others, perhaps for the first time, felt what it’s like to be empowered by knowledge. “I like that we’re free to play with ideas and create music through programming. We have room to explore on our own,” said Sofija, a seventh-grade student. Sofija and her peer Teodora also attended the Summer School of Programming organized by Petlja, and they applied the knowledge gained there in this workshop. Events like these, they added, can help encourage girls. “People often think that boys are better at programming, but workshops like this show that’s not true,” Teodora pointed out.
UNDP Serbia / Jelena Babić
For Nina, another seventh-grader, music programming brought together her two hobbies – music and composing. “Today I got to compose part of the chorus of a song I’m writing, and now I’m trying to translate it into notes for the left hand on the piano,” she said. She hadn’t encountered much programming in school, but she quickly realized how technology could support her future: “I think tools like this can help in careers like music, because everything we’re doing now with these programs can later be applied – in recording, editing music, in studios.” Still, she adds what she sees as the most important part: “I think we’ll always have something unique that a robot can’t replace – our creativity.”
UNDP Serbia / Jelena Babić
What united all the girls that day at the Center for the Promotion of Science wasn’t just a love for technology – but a sense that they belong. Hana, a sixth-grade student, confirms this: “I think anyone can be into programming, if they love it. Today we saw successful women – trainers, photographers, teachers, programmers... And that gave me the feeling that we can do it too,” Hana said, smiling and adding that she’s a better coder than all the boys in her class.
UNDP Serbia / Jelena Babić
That’s why this day matters – it reminds girls, their parents, teachers, and society as a whole, that girls deserve an equal chance to learn about and work with new technologies, if that’s what they choose.
The “Programming Music” educational workshop was organized as part of the project “Building Key Computing Competencies – Towards the Workforce of the Future,” implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Petlja Foundation, with support from the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
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