In the last few years, several initiatives based on extracurricular activities have been organized in many countries around the world, with the aim to reduce the digital gender gap in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields. Among them, the Digital Girls summer camp, organized every year since 2014 by two Italian universities with the aim to attract female students to ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) disciplines, represents quite a unique initiative for its characteristics of long-duration (3–4 entire weeks) and complete gratuitousness for the participants. The COVID-19 emergency imposed severe changes to such activities, that had to be modified and carried out in the online mode as a consequence of social distancing. However, on one hand, the general lack of high-quality evaluations of these initiatives hinders the possibility to understand the actual impact of extracurricular activities on the future academic choices of the participants. On the other hand, the availability of data collected over different editions of Digital Girls has allowed us to analyze the summer camp impact and to evaluate the pros and cons of in-presence and online activities. The main contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we present an overview of existing experiences, at the national (Italian) and international levels, to increase female participation in integrated STEM and ICT fields. Second, we analyze how summer camp participation can influence girls’ future academic choices, with specific attention to ICT-related disciplines. In particular, the collection of a significant amount of data through anonymous surveys conducted before and after the camp activities over the two editions allowed us to evidence the different impacts of in-presence and online extracurricular activities.

In recent years, despite the growth of initiatives aimed at improving the gender gap in STEM disciplines, the numberof girls choosing academic and professional paths in fields such as computer science (CS) remains limited. To counteract thisphenomenon, initiatives like the Digital Girls Summer Camp, which has been running for over ten years for girls about tomake university choices, offer practical and engaging experiences designed to spark interest in technological subjects.Through activities such as programming and video game design on advanced platforms like Unreal Engine, participantsacquire technical skills and confidence in their abilities, supported by female educators and mentors who serve as rolemodels. The camp follows a gradual learning approach, starting with simple concepts and progressing to complex projects,thus stimulating the participants’ interest. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of the most recent editions of theinitiative by using a qualitative and quantitative approach to evaluate how the girls change their perception of theirtechnological abilities and interest in CS. Through the submission of pre- and post-camp questionnaires, it is possible to assessthe increase in interest in STEM careers, as well as analyze the perception of the figure of the computer scientist before andafter the camp experience. The work describes how participation in the camp has significantly contributed to shiftingperceptions toward computer science, showcasing how hands-on experience and exposure to positive role models cantransform the image of the computer scientist, inspiring participants to view it as an inclusive and dynamic profession.

The utilization of Web-based interactive analytical tools in the research field is on the rise. Languages like Python and R are becoming widely adopted for analysis due to their extensive libraries and - mainly in the Python case - thanks to a relatively smooth learning curve for data analysis purposes. Consequently, tools like Jupyter Notebook have become the de facto standard for data analysis. These tools offer numerous benefits, such as a browser-based interface, reproducible workflows, and integration of text, code, and results in one document, making them attractive even to non-computer scientists. However, they face challenges in sharing and real-time collaboration, which both the Jupyter community and commercial solutions are addressing. Based on feedback from our researchers and experiences in multidisciplinary fields, our research aimed to integrate the Jupyter Notebook into a broader online file storage system for an enriched research workflow. Specifically, we developed an open-source application for Nextcloud called NextPyter. The application integrates Jupyter Notebook within the Nextcloud platform using Docker technology, enhancing friendly utilization and real-time collaboration.

In the last few years, workforce with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) competencies has proved to be crucial for countries' innovative capacity and global competitiveness. Yet women are vastly underrepresented in STEM and, in particular, in ICT and computer science fields, both among workers and degree holders: this gap hinders the possibility for ICT employment to be strengthened and for women to take advantage of career opportunities, thus perpetuating gender inequalities in these disciplines. To counteract these effects and attract girls towards ICT-related fields of study and careers, several initiatives have been organised all around the world, such as summer camps and dedicated extracurricular activities. However, these initiatives are usually not supported by proper evaluation tools allowing researchers and practitioners to understand the actual benefits of the carried-out activities on girls' competencies and future attitudes. In this paper, we propose an evaluation tool for extracurricular activities aimed at reducing the gender gap in ICT. The proposed tool aims at capturing both a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation, including an Implicit Association Test (IAT) along with a more traditional questionnaire consisting of thematic sections designed to analyse various aspects of the activities' impact on girls. The tool has been applied in the context of two summer camps related to national and international projects aimed at attracting girls towards computer science and STEM disciplines: the ‘Digital Girls’ project, organised since 2014 by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in collaboration with other universities and local institutions, and the “STEM for Future” Erasmus+ project. Based on the results obtained by the summer camp case studies, we discuss some critical elements that can hinder the efficacy of the evaluation tool, giving suggestions to overcome these potential issues.