[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt2kcb0XtWc[/embedyt]
When women works together hand in hand they can change the world. Robotics Association Of Nepal brings this concept into implementation by forming a team “Miss-Tech”. It has been initiated with a vision of encouraging women in technical field. It is a team of “women for women”.We are developing a platform for enthusiastic women in technology to share their technical knowledge so that they can make a difference in their communities. We provide different software and hardware related workshops for the students of different levels to teach courses related to coding, creating and computing. We believe that the fastest way to change the society is to mobilize the women of the society.
Our Vision:
Technical empowerment of women from women.
Our Mission:
To empower, connect and support women to advance their career in technology and engineering field.
Our Goals:
The main goal of Miss-Tech is to empower women in Nepal to achieve possibilities and transformation through technology and leadership.
It aims:
- to encourage girls and young women to choose technology as their careers.
- to provide platform of resources and opportunities for women.
- to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology.
Programs conducted by Miss Tech team:
“Go Girls” <Girls who Code>
Miss Tech 2016 :
Event details
The aim of our Miss-Tech 2016“Sparkle with Water” event (9th December) was to try and make girls to be able to develop a program (an interactive game) using real-life problems of what women are deprived of presenting it in a simple way to motivate themselves and the society, challenging them to think deeply and enabling them to work collaboratively.
It was divided into two categories :
- Splash
- Aquathon
Splash :
Scratch is a free visual programming language developed to help simplify the process of creating and programming animations, games, music, interactive stories and more. It is easy to learn and we can build programs for a computer immediately.Girls who were under 18 developed the pc games on Scratch.
More than 80 participants were given series of workshop divided into 3 series workshop as the opportunity to work with others, rather than on their own, can help an individual develop their interpersonal skills such as speaking and listening as well as team working skills such as leadership. Collaborating with others will help identify our own strengths and weaknesses and sharing and discussing ideas in groups can play a vital role in deepening our understanding of the subject. Participants were asked their group name and after then they entered to the game development process on scratch beginning based on water management theme.
Aquathon :
Arduino has been the brain of thousands of projects, from everyday objects to complex scientific instruments. After providing series of workshop about arduino, girls above 18 were able to develop an android app using MIT App inventor and control the arduino using the android app. They were provided with a theme based on water management. On the day of Dec 5 and 6 we conducted hackathon at Microsoft Innovation Center Nepal,there were 16 participants , where they were asked their group name and after the team formation of 4 they then entered to the app development process on MIT app inventor and developed hardware using arduino based on water management theme. There were 4 mentors and the whole Miss-Tech team to guide them to build the prototype.On the final day there were able to create the prototype. Several interesting projects were developed which were presented at the day of final event.
Finally on the day of the event both the participants from “Splash” and “Aquathon” came forward in a competition.At the beginning of the event, girls under 18 presented their pc games on scratch before the judges and the guests.And, then the girls above 18 presented their prototype before the judges and their guests.At the end , from both the categories winners were announced and rewarded for their hardwork.
From the “Splash” the team “Sum” secured the first position and “MS” secured first-runner up position. From the “Aquathon” the team “Elysian” secured the first position and “Saase” secured first-runner up position. The event was conducted successfully.
Girls can fly 1.0:
The aim of our Miss-Tech “Girls can fly” workshop (24th- 26th April) was to try and make girls to be able to assemble the parts of drone and be able to pilot the drone( flying the drone) deprived of presenting it in a simple way to motivate themselves and the society, challenging them to think deeply and enabling them to work collaboratively.
It was divided into three days :
Day 1: Introduction to drone and its hardware parts
Day 2: Assembling the hardware parts of drone
Day 3: Drone flight practice
Women Technopreneur under Girls in Tech program:
- Women Technopreneur ‘ skill based Knowledge Transfer training under Girls in Tech program where 60 participants from American Corner Kathmandu.
The description of trainings at AC’s : On 1st day , 21 participants were present in the 1st shift and they are divided into 10 teams,as the opportunity to work with others, rather than on their own, can help an individual develop their interpersonal skills such as speaking and listening as well as team working skills such as leadership. Collaborating with others will help identify our own strengths and weaknesses and sharing and discussing ideas in groups can play a vital role in deepening our understanding of a particular subject area. After Group Division, then they entered with game development process beginning with scratch programming. On 2nd day, app development through MIT App Inventor training was conducted. Participants played with various designing components and were able to use all the blocks in their program. It included changing graphics, adding sounds, using sensors, and using blocks for programming for making apps. At the end, they became familiar with the process of making an application for android phone and were assigned a task of making other different android apps. The hardware interfacing through Arduino training was on 3rd day. There were two shifts one shift with 21 participants and another shift with 27 participants. After completion of game development phase, the girls start to learn about the basic of hardware. They were taught from basics of arduino, their commands & syntax. Firstly, they were taught about LED polarity, how to give power supply and about program code to simply turn led off and on.A microcontroller board called Arduino Uno was used during training period.Using serial communication they further control led by giving certain commands like when they gave an ‘a’ character then it turns led on and when they give ‘b’ character then it turns ed off. Further, they learned about sensors and their implementation.Girls also learned about interaction between software and hardware. Similarly the application they built from MIT-INVENTOR was implemented in Arduino workshop.Using this app and with the help of Bluetooth module they automatically control led light. On 4th day, Social networking through BLOG training was conducted after the successful completion of 3 days workshop. Participants explored their willingness and creativity and hence they got to know, they can create a blog with the same creativity.They got to know about blog and vlog along with their characteristics. They created a blog website in which the content was their own creativity and simultaneously they were provided the knowledge on adsense account. Finally they made their Adsense account and came to know that they will be able to earn money through blogging. After the completion of the game development , android app development , hardware interfacing and blogging,participants began to learn about the Entrepreneurship on 5th day. They learned about the characteristics ,habits of entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs in Nepal. Also, they learned about women empowerment,public speaking and business skills. They used a business model canvas to create their business prototype which contained key components of business.By using blogging as a channel for the business ,in future,they can share the skills on scratch , mit app inventor and arduino , they have learnt in these four days. On the fifth day of the technical workshop,they were able to create their business using blog and share their skills and ideas to empower other women and became a true entrepreneur.
Further plans for 2018-2020:
Girls can fly 2.0:
Project SHE – “Strengthening Her Emotions” :
