Tanya Howden is the Digital Education Programme Manager for the Innovation Centre at Heart of Midlothian FC.

Originally from the Highlands, she is a Computer Science graduate from Heriot-Watt University where she took her first steps as a mentor for other women and girls in technology through lab helping and co-founding the Women@CS group at the university. Since graduating, she has stepped into STEM education, working to show young people from all backgrounds how exciting and creative these subjects are whilst breaking some of the stereotypes held by young people, especially girls, about these industries.

She joined Edinburgh based start-up, Robotical, who are the creators of Marty the Robot – an eye-brow wiggling, walking, and dancing robot that brings coding to life and supports students with exploring the world of technology.

Meanwhile, Tanya was volunteering outside of work to run code clubs around Edinburgh to continue to spread the word to young people about how creative and exciting coding and engineering is. Through this voluntary work, she met the team at Heart of Midlothian FC who were looking to set up an Innovation Centre, that is the only one of its kind in the UK, with the aim to provide digital education classes for young people and families in the underprivileged community of Gorgie to learn vital skills for any future. She then went on to join the team full-time to manage the digital education classes using sport and football as a magnet to attract young people to try out coding for the first time and explore how they could use their interests to create using technology for good.