I want to introduce you to Franziska, Hasti, Ananya, Aisha & Phoebe from Team Pinchapoo, they are 13 years old and they are from Box Hill High School VIC.
These girls created a concept for a great app where you everyone of us can help the unprivileged in an easy way, being certain that the donation that you gave will be delivered.
Here is their app description:
Do you want to help the underprivileged but want an easy way to do so?
Do you want to ensure your money and goods are going to a good and trustworthy cause?
Then Pinchapoo app is for you! Pinchapoo is a charity which supports those who cannot afford toiletries and with the Pinchapoo app donating is only a few clicks away.
Screen shots for the prototype developed:
It’s simple, download the app for the Google play store and begin donating. The Pinchapoo application is an app built by students at Box Hill High School and includes all locations which accept donations, image taking features to share what you would like to donate and the capability of cash donations from your phone. If you want to make a difference the Pinchapoo app is for you!
All the ideas are mind blowing huh?! Stay tuned to meet the next team 🙂
What a year it has been for the Tech Girls Movement and it was capped off by a successful trip to Luxembourg in November on an invitation from the European Commission to their annual SME Assembly conference bringing together policy makers and entrepreneurs from across Europe (+ 3 Aussies!). We presented the Tech Girls Are Superheroes campaign and our youth entrepreneurship program (Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition) to Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg who hosted the conference.
On hearing about our invitation to Europe, Lili and her team of tech girls created a wearables light up superhero cape in the hope of giving it to the Grand Duchess. We left you in the last blog post hoping to meet the Grand Duchess.
So… Lili and I met the Grand Duchess for around 5 minutes. Lili gave her a copy of Tech Girls Are Superheroes and the wearables cape and the Grand Duchess asked “can I wear it?” In unison we replied, “YES!!!” And we have the pics courtesy of the European Commission to prove it!
Lili did a super job as Ambassador representing the Tech Girls Movement!
This is the before and after of meeting the Grand Duchess 🙂 Just a little excited!
Danielle and Lili convinced me to wear the cape to the opening reception – because after all the cape is brilliant and it deserved a wide audience! I was very proud to wear it. Everyone wanted to talk to the fun Aussies – we surely made a splash in Europe! 🙂
Thanks to Lili and Danielle for coming on this Tech Girls adventure with me!
Us Aussies certainly made our mark on European entrepreneurship!
Love this pic with Andre who invited us to the conference. He ran one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to. A huge task for 500+ delegates but a job very well done.
We met so many incredible people at the conference. Very inspiring and many friends made.
And finally, here’s an overview of the SME Assembly in Luxembourg. I spotted our TGM Ambassador 13yo Lili Scout 3 times – once at the reception at the European Investment Bank where she was invited on stage alongside the European Commission delegates, once on stage when she won the twitter competition, and once alongside Jewella and mum Danielle when it was announced that she won the tweet competition! 🙂
This is all very overwhelming so thank you to everyone who has supported the Tech Girls Movement over the past 2 years. I couldn’t do any of this without you. My successes with TGM are your successes. So be proud superheroes, time to kick it up a notch! Happy holidays and I look forward to the next exciting adventures in 2016! 🙂
Jenine / Jewella xx
Today I want to introduce you to Emma Yap, from Abbotsleigh Junior School.
Emma is 10 years old and is the NSW finalist of the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition. Emma joined the competition on her own with an amazing idea.
The app is called Emma’s Wagon and it will help parents to organise carpools and offer rides to school.
Carpooling helps reduce traffic and pollution and saves parents time, but scheduling rides can be difficult.This app makes it easy and safe for parents to organise carpools and offer rides to school or extracurricular activities. Parents can request and approve rides for their children, which are automatically scheduled and Google-mapped.
The app is safe for schools and community groups because use is restricted to administrator-approved groups. It encourages drivers to offer rides by measuring kilometres of travel saved and also the community impact on local traffic.
The app is free to use and supported by in-app community advertisements.
Here is the the pitch video for the app:
And here is some screenshots of the app:
Amazing huh?
Stay tuned for more posts about the other finalists in the competition.
With so many inspiring women in tech, there are many stories to tell. Every day we create new histories about amazing women involved with technology. Today I want to talk about Lili Scout.
Lili Scout is a 13-year-old Entrepreneur and is an Ambassador for the Tech Girls Movement. Her mission is to inspire a generation of leaders using a modern approach and by setting an example herself.
Lili started her first business with her brother when she was 10 years old, selling cupcakes and cookies at the local market.
In 2014, her mobile app concept “IdeallyNow” came 2nd at Startup Weekend Sunshine Coast out of 14 adult teams and Lili won the Best Pitch Award.
Lili lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and she works with Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen to inspire young girls to build apps and tech products that will change the world. Every year, the Tech Girls Movement runs a competition called Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero. In 2015, over 130 girls from across Australia participated – building apps for to solve a social problem in their local community.
When Lili knew she was going to be attending the 2015 SME Assembly in Luxembourg, she quickly pulled together a tech girls team and worked passionately over 3 weeks on her first ever wearables project. Lili and her fellow Tech Girls prototyped, coded and sewed to come up with a very special gift – a light-up technology cape – fit for a Duchess!!
Lili will have the cape to present as a gift for the Duchess if she is permitted to do so. A big congratulations to Lili for being an inspiring tech girl and for being a role model for other girls. Here are some photos of Lili and her team of tech girls creating the cape for the Duchess.
Ok, so how cool was the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero?!
We had many entries in the competition and all of the ideas were amazing and inspiring. Unfortunately only one team could be the winner even though there were many top contenders! The national winning team was Pawsout from St. Aidans Anglican Girls School in Brisbane, Queensland. A huge congratulations to Georgia, Robyn, Emmaline & Jessica.
These amazing girls created an app connecting dog owners with dog walkers. It encourages young people to spend more time outdoors and exercise by searching for dogs in their area to earn points for every walk they do. Points can be redeemed for prizes.
Here is the team pitch video, explaining what is the app and how it works:
Here is the screenshots of the app created:
How amazing is this app, huh?
The entries we received for the competition are the reason we at the Tech Girls Movement keep going. We love providing all girls with an opportunity to be creative, and technology, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is naturally creative so we see the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero as a fantastic way to apply these skills. We hope that by participating in our competition, more and more girls will be interested in building their own technology futures. Because every day we have more technology involved in our lives and women should are a necessary part of this evolution.
Here’s a team photo at the showcase:
Can’t wait to see the next part of your adventure, tech girls 🙂
ON A RAINY SUNDAY AFTERNOON (8.11.15), THE TECH GIRLS ARE SUPERHEROES SHOWCASE EVENT, LED BY DR. JENINE BEEKHUYZEN (AKA JEWELLA), TOOK PLACE AT QUT THE CUBE IN BRISBANE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE HONOURABLE LEEANNE ENOCH, QUEENSLAND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE AND INNOVATION AND A MYRIAD OF TECH LEADERS OF THE FUTURE, TEACHERS AND PARENTS. THERE WAS A BUZZ IN THE AIR! YOU CAN SEE THE SLIDES HERE
TEAMS PAWSOUT
GEORGIA, ROBYN, EMMALINE & JESSICA
ST. AIDANS
ANGLICAN GIRLS SCHOOL
[insert above] Team Pawsout with Minister Enoch and Jewella
Pawsout is an app connecting dog owners with dog walkers. It encourages young people to spend more time outdoors and exercise by searching for dogs in their area to earn points for every walk they do. Points can be redeemed for prizes.
CONGRATULATIONS ALSO TO OUR STATE FINALISTS
NSW – TEAM EMMA’S WAGON
EMMA – ABBOTSLEIGH JUNIOR SCHOOL
Carpooling helps reduce traffic and pollution and saves parents time, but scheduling rides can be difficult. This app makes it easy and safe for parents to organise carpools and offer rides to school or extracurricular activities.
VIC – TEAM PINCHAPOO
FRANZISKA, HASTI, ANANYA, AISHA & PHOEBE – BOX HILL STATE HIGH SCHOOL
Do you want to help the underprivileged but want an easy way to do so? Do you want to ensure your money and goods are going to a good and trustworthy cause? Then Pinchapoo app is for you!
WA – TEAM VOCABULARY VOYAGERS
ALICE, TEALE, KIRA, DELANEY – ST MARY’S ANGLICAN GIRLS’ SCHOOL
Improve your spelling ability and expand your vocabulary with Vocabulary Voyager! You can practice as well as learn new words and their spellings in a fun, digital environment on your smart device.
HIGHLY COMMENDED PRIZES
JEWELLA’S PRIZE AWARDED TO TEAM GREEN THUMB – MIA, SOPHIE, SOINA, MOUNICA, MADELEINE & SARAH – MLC SCHOOL NSW
Our app teaches little kids how to look after their carbon footprint and environment. Our educational game has our main character as a bunny, which represents the innocence and fragility of the world. Your aim is to collect as many green thumbs as possible and if you do die it’s from wasting energy.
TEAM CLASS ACT – ISOBEL, ELOISE, IMOGEN, SOPHIE – NORTHBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL NSW
Our app reminds school students what events are on at school, including a calendar for notifications, a profile page, and you can send teachers a message and make a free account. Teachers can help students throughout the year with reminders and homework.
BARCODA – SHANNON, ISABELLA, SOPHIE AND MOLLY – CLAYFIELD COLLEGE QLD
Our app makes it easier for adolescents and young adults to find part-time employment through providing them with a simple and organised app to approach job searching.
QLD – PIN POINT – GEORGIA, MADELEINE, HANNAH – CLAYFIELD COLLEGE
Our app makes it easier for adolescents and young adults to find part-time employment through providing them with a simple and organised app to approach job searching.
Here are Team Barcoda and Team Pinpoint from Clayfield College – the Highly Commended Award includes an exclusive 3D printed superhero ring (by Jewella) and a Samsung tablet!
It was a superbly fun and inspiring day and congrats to all entrants in the competition, and to everyone who helped along the way including the teachers, mentors and judges. We could not have such a great program without you.
Cannot wait to see your entries in the 2016 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero! Build your own future, techgirls 🙂
Thank you also to our sponsors and partners, you make all of this possible! Thanks in particular to our sponsors from NAB, QUT, Microsoft & WIT who came along on the day to celebrate. Google also thanks for flying in our finalists! Contact us to help support our program in 2016.
The last few months have been such a fabulous journey for me as a social entrepreneur, and for all the techgirls, coaches and mentors (and judges!) who have participated in the program.
Earlier this year, 140 girls set out in 32 teams across 4 states of Australia to compete in the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero. The goal: to use technology to make the world a better place. The activity was not so much about the competition per se, but a fun rivalry and conscious choice to create social change through technology. It is this that I am most proud of in all of the tech girls who participated. You are all awesome and inspiring 🙂
From July to September the teams, matched with a mentor who they met for up to one hour per week online, worked through a 12-week program to first define a problem and a possible solution, and then build the solution in MIT’s free AppInventor or another tool of choice. On the 30th of September 2015, 22 teams submitted their entries via email and YouTube. The app pitches and demo videos can be seen here: www.techgirlsmovement.org/video-pitches/
I am excited to announce the state finalists of the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girls Superhero!
Congratulations to all teams who participated. You will all receive 2 prize packs to your school so please look out for them (one from me and one from Google). I will be sending feedback for each of your entries from the judges in the next week with tips on how to improve your app – I hope you will consider joining us again in the 2016 competition to grow your idea further (flyer is here).
Well done, you did an amazing job!
2014: Now is a good time to reflect on last year’s competition. 18 girls participated; this has grown to 140 this year. Sara Price won last year and has been featured in a number of news articles. Help her spread the great word of her app Positive Penguins.
I’m so excited about our technology futures 🙂 Thank you for beginning to create your own future.
Welcome to the Tech Girls sisterhood 🙂 Jenine (aka Jewella)
As you may know, one way I’ve been trying to inspire girls into #STEM is through being a digital humanitarian and getting involved in crisis/crowd mapping through using open street maps. The concept was coined by Patrick Meier during the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 – if you haven’t seen his TED talks you are missing out! Watch them here and here. He is truly inspiring and he has changed my view of the world and how I can help.
The main concept is that you don’t have to get on a plane to go around the world to help in natural and man-made disasters such as the recent devastating earthquakes in Nepal. You can help save lives in real time by simply using your web browser. The work you do from your couch can help the UN and the Red Cross to get timely aid to those that need it. See our previous post here and get involved today!
I was so crazy happy to not only hear Patrick talk in person recently at the Pivotal Youth Summit in Brisbane hosted by the Qld department of Science and Innovation, but I presented on the same program and when we met, he was excited about Tech Girls Are Superheroes!
What caught my attention most in Patrick’s presentation is that he has mobilised 3000 #digitaljedis (as he calls them (I love it!)) across the world. His most active crowd mapper is a 12-year-old Japanese boy, and 80% of his 3000 digital volunteers are female! That is in stark contrast to the number of women in tech – see the recent Australian Deloitte Digital Pulse report. I’m so super inspired by Patrick’s ongoing work. Let’s work together and change the world!
Here’s the obligatory selfie of the awesome school holiday crowd at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
Last Sunday (it was early!) Jewella facilitated a 3-hour Club Kidpreneur workshop at Stretton College teaching 12-year-olds to be technology entrepreneurs. It was so much fun! This was held before the community cabinet meeting – the Premier was talking to the local community. The event was launched by the Minister for Science and Innovation, the Honourable Leanne Enoch. Oh and Leanne asked for one of our cool tees! 🙂
We had 16 girls and 4 boys who worked either individually or in teams to create a business with a name, a logo, an idea and a product. After spending some time creating products, the participants were excited to go home and make more products ready to be sold the following week at school for charity at the Jeans for Genes day. How cool is this logo for the Hot Meows?
Then all of the budding entrepreneurs officially “launched” their business in front of parents with their rockets. It’s official – go entrepreneurs! I look forward to buying your products and services in the future! 🙂
It has been some time since I’ve posted, not because there has been no action but because I’ve been super busy doing awesome things!
Most importantly I want to talk about the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero which is now in its 7th week. We have more than 130 girls registered from all over Australia, matched with 25+ mentors who are kindly offering up their time to walk the teams through to building an app. This is an increase of more than 100 girls from last year! Teams will pitch their app on YouTube on the 30th of September along with submitting a short business plan.
This week we are excited to announce that the winning national team will win a 6-week virtual internship with tech entrepreneurs B&D Consultants! See the flyer here
The reason the competition is important is because “the demand for ICT workers in Australia is forecast to increase by 100,000 workers over six years” (Deloitte Access Economics Report 2015). One of the main findings of this report is important to note:
“Not only do Australian students need to be digitally literate, but they are also required to be capable in building digital solutions for the problems of the future”.
Many of our school children are not digitally literate. This is a significant concern. “Based on the proficiency levels identified in the NAP, a little more than 60% of Year 6 and 10 students reached or exceeded the proficient standard for ICT literacy in 2011 (Chart 3.1) “
This is why the Search for the Next Tech Superhero and the work of the Tech Girls Movement is so important. It provides school girls with hands on skills to build a business and a technology product, providing them with confidence and networks to create their own futures. Read more about the competition in our Financial Review article.
