Conceived in 2019, Catalyst Hack was designed and planned by four young Rolls-Royce engineers who aimed to “change the game for girls in STEM”, starting with a hackathon designed to hopefully be the first step to an ongoing initiative to close the STEM gender gap.
On 6th – 7th April 2019, 85 passionate and driven young female and non-binary people collaborated to create STEM-themed games in a successful weekend of learning, networking and creating at the Microsoft Reactor, London.
Over the space of about 30 hours, 17 teams formed, generated concepts, coded and marketed video games that aimed to inform young people about STEM, without being traditional "educational" games.
Teams were supported by informative workshops and experienced mentors. They took a break to quiz the Women in STEM Panel consisting of various inspiring women, including Caroline Gorski, the director of R2 Data Labs.