About AIMS: Purpose and Goals
Women remain considerably underrepresented in many STEAM fields, particularly in computer science, engineering and physics. This is a question of educational equity, and it also means that research and technology lose perspectives, talent and potential for innovation. AIMS focuses on the transition into higher education and the first, often decisive, phases of study.
Research points to several barriers: difficulties in the transition to university, gaps in mathematical and IT foundations, a lack of female role models and the impostor phenomenon, the persistent feeling of not being good enough despite evident achievements. AIMS responds to these barriers with personalised, gender-sensitive mentoring that combines academic support with encouragement and orientation.
Guiding Principles
The AI Mentor accompanies female students as an active mentoring partner: it helps them set goals, develop learning strategies and deal with the challenges of their discipline. Three principles guide our work:
- STEAM as an integrated approach. We combine support in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the arts and ethical reflection, so that technical ability goes hand in hand with creativity and judgement.
- Ethics and data protection by design. Transparency about how the AI Mentor works and awareness of bias are part of its development from the outset. The system is designed to be self-hosted and GDPR-compliant, and its ethical framework is developed with the Center for Applied Ethics at Middle East Technical University.
- Sustainable and transferable. Open standards, SCORM compatibility and open-source tools ensure that the results remain usable beyond the end of the project and can be adopted by other universities.
Objectives at a Glance
- Strengthen the social integration and retention of women in STEAM
- Build digital competence and AI literacy
- Consolidate mathematical and IT foundations
- Address the impostor phenomenon and foster self-efficacy
- Provide individual, AI-supported guidance and career orientation
- Enable interdisciplinary, STEAM-based learning