Meet Vanessa Tostado, Ashley Davis and Margarita Tenisi, & Rose Valencia of East Palo Alto. Self-dubbed the “EPA Chica Squad,” three Eastside Prep sophomores and one Sequoia High School freshman competed in the Technovation Challenge, a global competition that uses online curriculum to guide teams of middle school and high school girls through the process of developing mobile-phone application. The Chica Squad created an Android app called “Tag It” that allows users to take a picture of graffiti, vandalism or trash in their neighborhood, tag its location and create an “event” to get it cleaned up. They placed in the top 20 worldwide and in the top 5 from of the Bay Area. What got them started? They watched a video in Computer Science class that showed how very few girls enter the field of engineering. They rapped their story at Connect13, showed their video, and answered questions. Very cool!
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2013