Free, two days, no code required: BridgeSTEAM puts 14-to-16-year-old girls inside the PwC Experience Centre

The gender split in a hackathon room is decided years before the hackathon. BridgeSTEAM returns to Nicosia on 14–15 November 2026 at the PwC Experience Centre, organised by the Girls in STEAM Academy — a non-profit initiative of the Be an Ally Foundation — for its sixth year.

Who, what it costs, and the deadline. Girls aged 14 to 16 from anywhere in Cyprus. Participation is free, no previous coding experience is required, and applications close on 4 November 2026 through the Academy's online form.

The two days. Hands-on coding and digital-skills workshops — the BridgeSTEAM format spans programming, robotics and artificial intelligence — sit alongside career-guidance sessions on the educational and professional routes into the sector, delivered by a qualified trainer. Participants also hear directly from women working in STEAM professions about their studies, their career decisions and the day-to-day reality of the job, and take part in an educational workshop on the UN Sustainable Development Goals that frames technology as something pointed at a social problem rather than an end in itself. The organisers are explicit that communication, teamwork and confidence carry as much weight as the technical content.

The numbers behind it. The Academy says it has supported more than 3,200 girls since 2021. Alumnae have gone on to international programmes including TechGirls in the United States, and to job-shadowing placements with Cypriot employers — which is the part that distinguishes a pipeline programme from a nice weekend.

Where else it runs. BridgeSTEAM has cycled through Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia; the most recent Limassol edition ran in September 2026, and a Larnaca edition is scheduled for December 2026 for the same age group, with dates still to be announced.

Why it belongs next to the competitive listings. Cyprus is running an unusually dense autumn of builds — DevFest Cyprus on 31 October, SkillsCyprus 29–31 October, NASA Space Apps in Limassol on 14–15 November, Unicorn Pitches on 24 November, Competen.CY and BoC Fintech 7.0 at the end of the month. Who turns up to those is a function of who was handed a keyboard at fourteen and told they were expected to use it. This is that handover, it is free, and it has a 4 November deadline.

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