I walked into the Tec de Monterrey’s impressive Centro de Congresos and found it buzzing with excitement. At 26 stands around the perimeter of the hall, groups of teen-age girls were holding enthusiastic discussions with visitors like me who had come to watch the 2017 Technovation “finals” for Mexico.
All I knew was that Technovation was part of a worldwide program aimed at getting girls interested in information technology. To find out more, I walked over to a stand under a big sign reading Vialitat. Here I found Mariana del Carmen Ramírez, who told me that Vialitat is “a smartphone app which gives people information about Mexican driving regulations, for the purpose of avoiding corruption and police abuse.”
If you have been stopped by a traffic cop and accused of breaking a law, Ramírez explained, you could open Vialitat on your phone and instantly find a menu offering you information on the alleged offense. You could also find out how much the fine is if you’ve broken the law. In case things don’t go your way, the app shows you how to report abuse or solicitation of a bribe. And if things really go bad and the car is towed, there is a button to help get it out of the corralón (car pound).
Wandering among the booths I found girls who had developed apps to help you deal with just about any problem imaginable.
“My Eco Pal,” for example, scans the bar code of a product and helps you earn money from whatever trash is left over after you’ve used the item. Another program called “4Girls” helps women keep track of their period.
At 11:30 a.m. the stands emptied as everyone filed into two huge lecture halls to listen to each team of girls pitch their application. A panel of judges then asked questions – some of them quite tough – and at the end they and the audience voted for the best app.
When it was all over, the winners were “Hitch,” which helps students benefit from ride-sharing to and from their school, and “Tuik,” which allows you to help the homeless receive food from participating restaurants, showing you where your donation went and what impact it had on the recipients.
After the event, I spoke to the coordinator, Maria Makarova. I asked her how she got involved in this program.
“Technovation is a completely free international entrepreneurship program started about seven years ago by a U.S. non-profit organization called Iridescent,” she said. “Over three months, teams of girls work together with mentors for at least 50 hours to imagine, design and develop mobile applications. Neither the students, teachers or mentors need programming experience. Finally, they pitch their ‘startup’ businesses to judges. Since 2010, more than 10,000 girls from 78 countries have been involved.”
Makarova continued: “As for me, I participated as a mentor in California. Then, after living in Mexico for a few years, I thought I should do something better with my time, so I decided to bring the program here because – as in many places – girls imagine that technology is something they cannot do.”
Four years ago, the program began in Guadalajara and today it has expanded to Mexico City, Colima, Aguascalientes and Monterrey.
“The incredible thing is that everyone is a volunteer, including me,” Makarova said. “It’s amazing how much energy you get from people who are passionate about opening the doors of technology to girls.”
The mentors play a key role in the learning process. These are usually professionals in the tech industry or in marketing and graphic design. Each mentor meets with her team once a week for about two hours.
“Last year, a team from Guadalajara led by a girl named Lilia Lobato won this event locally and went on to win at the highest international level,” Makarova said. “Lilia’s idea is very cool. It’s a cell phone app called Ool (meaning volunteer in Mayan) which connects volunteers with non-profit organizations. So, if some group wants to plant trees in a certain place, they can find people eager to volunteer their time. People with the app might say, ‘I wonder what’s going on this Saturday?’ and consult Ool, to find a number of choices. As for rewards, the organizer of an event can give people who showed up ‘virtual diamonds.’ Then the volunteer can go to a coffee shop and trade those diamonds for a real cup of coffee. It’s an awesome idea but it needs a database behind it. She and her team are working on that.”
What do Mexican participants think about the Technovation experience? I asked some of the winners what they had learned.
Said Melissa Sarahi Garcia: “Maybe the question should be, ‘What didn’t you learn.’ That’s because we learned so much. For example, how to do a market survey, how to program an application, the problems of street people, the problems of migrants, all about bank fees, and much more.
“We learned to work as a team and to do things we never imagined we could do,” said Adriana Ibarra, whose app connects people who need blood transfusions with others willing to give blood. “Our project brought together everything we had been planning to work on in the future, in the fields of medicine, electronics and administration.”
“I learned teamwork,” contributed Camelot Ramírez, “and to solve a problem in a way that could really make a difference in the world.”
“I discovered that team work is essential for any project to be successful, because this taps the abilities of every member,” said Monserrat Mariana Martínez. “It made me secure about the career I want to study, which is engineering. Now I know that I can do it.”
For most of these girls, this was their first experience with programming. The Technovation format has turned what could be a boring school subject into something meaningful and challenging educators should take note.
“Girls discover they can be problem solvers instead of problem observers,” Makarova concluded.
This, I think, is what real education is all about. Bravo to Technovation and their local sponsors Oracle, Intel and NXP.