11,000 Girls Compete in International Mobile App Challenge

Girls from all over the United States and the world are competing in the Technovation Challenge, a global effort by STEM education nonprofit Iridescent, which has invited girls ages 10-18 to learn and apply technology to try to solve problems in their communities.

This year, 11,000 girls from around the world worked in teams of one to five to build mobile applications and address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which are internationally agreed upon objectives. In conjunction with U.N. Women, their projects were required to address at least one issue within the SDG focus areas: quality education, poverty elimination, good health and well-being, climate action, peace and justice or gender equality.

More than 2,000 mentors supported the app-building teams, including 85 Google Made with Code volunteers. In addition to learning about tech, the girls used professional-style business planning to launch these apps.

Twelve teams of finalists will be flown to Silicon Valley, Aug. 7-11, where they will pitch their ideas for seed funding and scholarships. The effort is sponsored by Google’s Made with Code, a project launched in June 2014 to inspire teen girls around the world to take their first steps in code and to see it as a vehicle to pursue their aspirations.