Beautiful Patterns was launched in 2017 as a joint initiative between MIT in the U.S. and Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. Its main purpose is to inspire more female high school students to pursue university degrees in STEM fields, with a particular focus on engineering. The original mission of narrowing the gender gap in professional fields has remained a priority in all iterations of the program. The initiative continues to emphasize that in many Latin American countries and developing economies, a significant portion of human capital-primarily women-remains untapped at the academic and professional levels. Over time, Beautiful Patterns has been delivered both in-person and virtually, with the online format becoming essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, the program has reached more than 7000 participants, mostly from Mexico, across at least 11 cities annually and 16 countries virtually. Additionally, about 1,600 female engineering students have contributed to organizing and teaching at the bootcamp. For the 2023 and 2024 editions at the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus in Aguascalientes, special efforts were made to ensure the participation of female high school students from highly marginalized areas. These participants came from communities where limited future prospects, such as prostitution or domestic confinement, are prevalent due to drug addiction and family breakdowns. By using AI to analyze the impact of the bootcamp on our participants-drawing from exit surveys and other tracking tools-we, as organizers, will be able to make better decisions regarding the program's logistics and implementation. Although the participants were selected based on their level of interest and academic performance, which were optimal, the correlations between socioeconomic variables and the educational background of the participants' parents remain crucial factors in determining whether these young women choose to pursue engineering degrees, as shown by our AI-driven analysis. This aspect is important given the diversity and amount of efforts directed towards STEM in K-12 education. Considering the significance of parental education in influencing high school students' decisions or perceptions about engineering, several of these efforts should be rethought to include parents or even develop activities specifically aimed at them. Without this consideration, much of what is done to attract new talent to engineering, particularly women, will likely be destined to fail.
