A MURDER mystery, computer games and a virtual robot should be enough to pique the interest of most youngsters.

IBM certainly think so, as they laid on a programme of events designed to encourage schoolgirls to continue studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with a view to considering careers in IT.

Around 100 girls aged 12 to 13 attended the sessions at IBM’s development lab in Hursley, which ran from July 2 to July 5.

Split into teams so that no two girls from the same school worked together, the girls designed and marketed a brand new product in the field of data analytics, before presenting their idea to a panel of judges comprising IBM executives and Master Inventors.

Danny Mace, director at event sponsors, CICS Products, said: “All of the girls had great fun working together to solve the murder mystery challenge, as well as using their boundless creativity to invent new technologies in forensics."

The first winning team was Payette, featuring pupils from King Edward VI, Mountbatten, Highcliffe, Thornden and Upper Shirley High.

Their idea was Eyedentity, which centred on eye recognition for logging in to all social networking accounts, like Twitter and Facebook.

The other winning team was Garrett-Anderson with Think Safe, an ATM machine which can be accessed by reading your mind using sensors, rather than a pin number.

The group included pupils Carisbrooke, Regents Park, Hounsdown, Horndean and Ringwood.