DESCRIPTION OF PRE-UNIVERSITY CODING WORKSHOPS RECRUITING FOR DIVERSITY
Given the need to increase diversity in technical fields, the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary created an out-of-school coding workshop for pre-university students, now known as “Schulich Ignite.” Five of these innovative and hands-on workshops have been run since 2017 with the objective of increasing diversity in science and engineering. Since its inception, over 400 people have participated as mentees or mentors. In this paper, we describe the program as it started in 2017 and the four iterations it has gone through with focus on the recruitment techniques, organization, program delivery, and outcomes. We look at enrollment, exposure, and diversity in the program. From the preliminary results, we propose areas of future research for delivering and researching pre-university engineering workshops.