Category: 2016

Do you want to: 

A: inspire and empower the next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs?

B: help build technology for social good?

C: give back to the community?

Then you are in the right place and WE NEED YOU!

REGISTER HERE

Calling all women who would like to mentor a team of school girls for 12 weeks in the 2016 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero! 

On the 11th of April, our national competition kicks off again and we expect 500+ girls to register! We need 150+ female mentors who have a passion for building technology and helping educate our next generation. Your commitment will require you to meet with your allocated team for one hour per week for 12 weeks online and guide them through the program. Note: you do not have to know how to build an app, instead we ask you to guide your team/s to find the information they need. You can read the student and mentor workbook here.

Key dates are here.

If your organisation would like to formally associate with the competition, more details are here. We’d love to talk to you!

Guys interested in mentoring, sorry but we are only taking female mentors this year but we would love to have you as a judge! Please send us a message to volunteer.

Calling all Australian schoolgirls

Are you the next tech girl superhero?

Join us and find out!

Our program kicks off on the 11th of April, so get your team together and register today so that we can match you up with one of our awesome superhero mentors and you can learn how to be a brilliant tech entrepreneur!

Register here

 

Find the student workbook here so you can get started today.

Check out last year’s winners and finalists here, and watch their youtube pitches here.

In this pic you can see our amazing superhero Jacquie (aka Babelbish) who works for Facebook mentoring her team in Sydney.

We are very excited to partner with Magformers Australia who have just returned from the Australian Toy Association’s annual gala dinner where the MAGFORMERS Creative Set was awarded the prestigious Educational Product of the Year Award for 2016!

If you haven’t yet seen the fantastic STEM toy, find us with our kit on our upcoming Makerspace roadshow with the Independent Schools Association or you can buy one here. Congrats team!

 

 

We had an amazing launch of Tech Girls Are Superheroes 2 hosted by Google in Sydney for International Womens Day! Thank you to the fun crowd for joining us.

A highlight was bringing in the Winners and Finalists of the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero – we all had lunch among the Googlers in the lunch room with a view of Sydney Harbour! Team Pawsout, Vocabulary Voyagers and Emma’s Wagon joined us and later showed off their apps to the audience.

The MC of the day was Alan Noble, Head of Engineering for Australia and New Zealand. Professional pics to come but you can see Jewella’s slides here.

On International Womens Day, Sally-Ann Williams, Engineering Community and Outreach Manager for Google Australia announced that together we will get one book into every school library in 2016!

Here’s Sally-Ann’s message that will go to schools…

Technology doesn’t stand still. Neither do careers, or the skills that we need for the jobs of the future. As few as nine years ago there were no Android or iOS developers – because there were no smartphones! Self-driving cars were just a dream. And 3-D printing of prosthetics wasn’t even imaginable. Yet today, all those these sectors are thriving and likely to supply many of tomorrow’s jobs.

Women have been at the core of computer science since the very beginning, but it’s unlikely if you asked any girls in our schools today to name any female computer scientists that they would be able to.  That’s why it’s important for us to celebrate women in our industry and shine a spotlight on the achievements of women all around the world, and their contributions to society. 

Currently women in computer science make up around 18% of the workforce in Australia.  Yet we know that 75% of all future jobs will require STEM skills and the vast majority of them technical skills like computer science.  2015 application and offer stats show that out of all the applications by women to study at university only 3% of applications were for IT.  

We need to shine a light on women in the industry as an example and role model for the women to come.  That’s why we are delighted to be partnering with the Tech Girls Movement to inspire and equip more young women to pursue a path to a career in technology. It’s exciting to see what is possible if you just provide the inspiration and pathway.  When we come together to support a movement like this, we equip and inspire future generations of women to lead in our industry.  

We encourage you to share your free copy of Tech Girls are Superheros by placing it in the library and letting the girls in your school know that it’s there.  We hope you’ll also encourage your teachers and girls to get involved by participating in the search for the next tech girl superhero program – a free immersive program on entrepreneurship & technology for girls.  Find out more at http://www.techgirlsmovement.org/superherosearch

Help us inspire the next generation to change the world!

Sorry if you missed the awesome cupcakes! 🙂

It is with much excitement that we announce the second book in the Tech Girls Are Superheroes series to be launched in 2 weeks time on the 8th of March, International Womens Day!

Building on the success of the original Tech Girls Are Superheroes book launched 2 years ago, with 20 000 free copies distributed in the past 2 years, it is time to keep the momentum going with this new exciting book!

We bring you a new series of superheroes including Gnostika, Thrivia, Cythena and Outrage to name a few, with some surprise visits in the book from some of the original superheroes including Jewella, Dixi, Babelbish, Team QUT and Team Microsoft. We are very excited to bring you stories by Enthusiastica, alter ego Sara Price, winner of the 2014 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero with her app Positive Penguins (20 000 copies sold at 12 years old!). You can also read the adventures of Team Pawsout from St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, winners of the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero with their app that matches teenagers with dogs that need walking in their local community.

The 2016 book features the stories of 27 women in science and technology careers and their superhero avatars, such as Queensland-based scientists Mathilde Desselle, aka Dynazap, and Dr Maggie Hardy, aka Serendipita, uncovering precious molecules from a secret lab to develop tomorrow’s new medications and food solutions. Our partners Gemma and Valeria at Diverse City Careers are also featured alongside superheroes from Australia, Hong Kong, the UK, Denmark, Norway, France, the United States, and Switzerland! 

Team Google have joined our sisterhood, and they are hosting the launch of the new book at Google HQ in Sydney on the 8th of March. With 20 000 more books on the way, we can’t wait for you to read the continuing adventures of the Tech Girl Superheroes!

Stay tuned for more info 🙂

 

Calling all tech girls!

You are invited to join the global Techovation app pitch challenge.

Entries are now open and the top 10 finalists win an all expenses paid trip to San Francisco to pitch their idea on the 10th of July this year. Finalists also get a tour of tech companies in Silicon Valley!

How exciting! 🙂

The Technovation team in the US would particularly like to invite all teams who participated in the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero to enter – so let’s show the world what us tech girls in Australia can do!  Last year there were NO entries in the global competition from Australia so this year, why don’t we show them that we on the other side of the world can compete with the most brilliant of minds and ideas. We would love to help get finalists to the US in July!

The easy part is, if you have already developed your prototype you can simply enter it into the competition in its current form before the 21st of April to go into the competition.

Register here: http://www.technovationchallenge.org/get-started/

As the Tech Girls Movement are regional ambassadors for the program, let us know if we can help you in any way.

GOOD LUCK TECH GIRL SUPERHEROES! 🙂

We are so very excited to partner with Diverse City Careers in 2016! DCC is a unique kind of company. Firstly, both co-founders Gemma Lloyd and Valeria Ignatieva come from a tech background. Who better to find you your next awesome tech job!

DCC is a niche job site: they only advertise jobs at Australia’s top companies, who are all committed to creating ideal workplaces for women. Gemma and Valeria Ignatieva’s passion is obvious when you meet them, they really want to encourage and support more females to choose the technology industry as a career path. With females forming only 30% of the ICT workforce, and 10% of computer science graduates in Australia, they advocate that there is much work needed to be done to increase female workforce participation.

This is why DCC is “extremely excited about partnering with Tech Girls are Superheroes” and vice versa! It’s a match made in heaven 🙂 In the words of DCC, “studies have shown that stereotypes about the IT industry being for males starts at primary school age, Tech Girls are Superheroes is a fantastic initiative that aims to break this stereotype”.

Head over to their website to find out how they help women progress their careers through events, webinars, special campaigns and free resources. Visit www.diversecitycareers.com for more information.

While you are there, check out their latest job listings. You next big challenge might be there waiting for you! 🙂

Team Class act created a better way for you to remember everything that you need to take to school. Is it sports day? Just check the Class Act app. Teachers can interact with students to give them a reminder about homework.

Here is the app description:

Class Act is our app. This is a perfect mobile app for school students to remind them what events are on at school. The app includes a calendar for notifications, a profile page, and you can send teachers a message and make a free account. From the teacher’s point of view they can help students throughout the year with reminders and homework.

Their pitch video is really cool. Take a look:

This app would make going to school a lot easier. You will never forget about what clothes to wear or forget a homework. Is a really cool idea.

They also created a demo video:

Amazing what these girls can do! The team ranged in age from 8 years old! 🙂

Stay connected to meet the next team who were the winners of the Jewella’s Prize.

 

 

Until today we’ve met the winning Team Pawsout and two finalists Emma’s Wagon and Pinchapoo Team. Today we are going to meet four amazing girls.

I want to introduce you to Alice, Teale, Kira and Delaney and they are from St Mary’s Anglican Girls School WA and our Western Australian finalists! Their app is called Vocabulary Voyager and it was created to help you improve your spelling ability.

So here is a description about the app that the girls created:

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. Designed for students from year two to six, Vocabulary Voyager offers a range of preset spelling lists based on the Australian curriculum and NAPLAN tests as well as enabling you to insert your own words. The app includes more challenging lists in order to expand your vocabulary. With enjoyable mini games and quirky pirates, build a foundation to aid in literacy at a secondary school level.

Check it out the screen shots of the prototype created:

And here is the amazing pitch video:

Stay tuned for our next featured team.