What happens when you give middle school girls access to technical resources, a mentorship network, and a platform to showcase their work?
They build inventions, devices, robots, wearables, and apps that can, quite literally, change the world.
Each year, ProjectCSGIRLS, a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the tech gender gap by encouraging middle school girls to pursue computer science and technology, holds a national computer science competition for middle school girls. The challenge is simple. Build something using computer science and technology that can help solve an imminent social problem under one of three themes - global health, a safer world, and intelligent technology.
The 2016 competition drew over 600 entrants from 35 states, and the top 30 finalist teams were invited to DC for the ProjectCSGIRLS National Gala, a two-day event of learning, collaboration, networking, and supporting each other. Panels of female tech experts, workshops centered on the concept of “tech for good,” frisbee bonding, and a ballroom event headlined by keynotes were all part of the package.
And then came the finalist presentations. Each finalist team was required to present a 2-5 minute pitch of their project on stage to the 200-person audience. And as finalist after finalist presented their prototypes, programs, and apps, jaws in the audience dropped lower, eyes opened wider, and the collective whispering grew louder. Family members were floored, technical professionals were amazed by the level of technical complexity these girls were able to convey and comprehend, keynote speakers clapped as loud as they could, and teachers beamed.
The 2016 ProjectCSGIRLS National Finalists at the National Gala.
And that’s just it - girls are innately curious, innovative, and creative. Research has shown that girls gravitate towards careers or projects through which they can make a difference, and by giving them the tools and platform to make this difference with technology, we can amplify their voices, their stories, and their thirst to make the word a better place.
See how 30 of these young changemakers are using tech to change the world and making their voices heard on issues that matter to them - all while breaking every stereotype surrounding girls in tech.
Registration for the 2017 ProjectCSGIRLS is now open and closes February 15th - encourage the young changemaker in your life to register today!
1. Emma Yang, The Brearley School (New York), 7th Grade
Emma developed Timeless, a simple and easy-to-use app for Alzheimer’s patients to remember events, stay connected and engaged with friends and family, and recognize people through automatic facial recognition technology using the phone’s camera. After Emma’s grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Emma realized that she could use technology to help her grandmother remain connected with her loved ones and bridge the disconnect that often alienates Alzheimer’s patients. Emma’s app consists of an update stream from family and friends, a “today” event calendar to remind the patient of her activities for the day, a photo catalog of the patient’s family and friends labeled with names and relationships to help the patient connect faces to names, and a feature that uses the camera to automatically recognize a loved one.
2. Elea Vander Burgh and Bohuen Tong, Talbert Middle School (California), 6th Grade
Elea and Bohuen prototyped Connect Charms, a tech wearable that will build a safer world for children using fun and trendy emoji push buttons, pre-programmed to say phrases on a comfortable, 3D-printed or fabric band. Using Connect Charms, they hope non-verbal kids will be able to express themselves at the push of a button. They see their technology as helping to create a safer, friendlier world by helping non-verbal kids “speak” their needs.
3. Anusha Ghosh, Challenger Shawnee (California), 8th Grade
Anusha built a portable and low cost device for detecting diabetic retinopathy, a disease that arises as a side effect of both Type I and Type II diabetes and which affects 126.6 million adults! Her innovative invention consists of a 3D-printed device that can attach to a smartphone to capture an image of the retina, as well as a program to process the image of the retina and automatically identify microaneurysms in order to detect diabetic retinopathy.
4. Lindsey Rose Berry, Shiloh Middle School (Illinois), 8th Grade
Lindsey developed an engaging computer game to help autistic kids register the emotions of others. S.T.E.E.R, which stands for Something to Enhance Emotional Recognition, is a game in which users engage with 11 different emotions - happiness, sadness, frustration, silliness, boredom, upset, confusion, disgust, embarrassment, anger, and fear. As the game progresses, she hopes kids will become better acquainted with each of these emotions and translate them into the real world.
5. Rose Schnabel, International School of Indiana (Indiana), 8th Grade
Rose developed the Emergency Thrombocyte Applicator (ETA) as a solution to the issue of hemorrhage. The ETA consists of two main components: a piston syringe filled with artificially created platelets and fibrin, and a computer algorithm used to determine the number of platelets needed. She thus hopes her invention will aid in preventing rapid blood loss.
6. Baheen Huzan, Rosa International Middle School (New Jersey), 8th Grade
Baheen modeled, prototyped, and built a comprehensive air quality sensor to allow users to both measure air quality and also track the source and direction of the air pollution. Her sensor consists of multiple components, which together measure levels of dust, gas, temperature, humidity, and wind, that are connected to circuit boards and use Particle cloud storage to consolidate readings. Because Baheen’s comprehensive sensor, compared to a suite of industrial sensors, is by far less expensive and more portable, she hopes it can be used in developing countries with high levels of air pollution.
7. Sruthi Kurada and Kristen Su, Advanced Math and Science Academy and Lloyd G. Blanchard Middle School (Massachusetts), 6th Grade
Sruthi and Kristen built “Belts for the Blind,” an innovative belt to aid blind or visually impaired individuals. When a blind or visually impaired person wears this smart belt, it will alert them if they are about to bump into something. It acts as a guide, and can be used in place of a guide dog or white cane. Sruthi and Kristen tested their product with blind individuals at the Lowell Association for the Blind (LAB), and the director of the organization noted that the product was a great success.
8. Shreeya Arora, Meyzeek Middle School (Kentucky), 7th Grade
Shreeya developed an app and website to increase the number of first responders at a natural disaster site quickly and more efficiently than a corresponding manual process. The mobile app, Tracking Our Heroes, using geocoding and geolocation, allows emergency managers to immediately alert nearby registered first responders and invite them to help at natural disasters. She hopes her project will decrease emergency response time, leading to a safer world.
9. Isabela Perdomo, Norman S. Edelcup/Sunny Isles Beach K-8 (Florida), 7th Grade
Isabela developed a cost effective and environmentally friendly device to reduce barnacle growth on marine vessels using a set of piezoelectric speakers and plexi-glass. Her hope is that this device will provide a better solution and alternative to stemming barnacle growth than current methods that use environmentally toxic and expensive fouling pain that damages the boat's engine.
10. Simrithaa Karunakaran, Quimby Oak Middle School (California), 8th Grade
Simrithaa developed the Drowning Alert System, a device that sounds an alarm and sends a text message to the user’s phone when submersion into water for over 10 seconds has occurred. She believes her invention, built with an Arduino Uno microcontroller board, a Geeetech GPRS shield, and a breadboard, can prevent deaths caused by drowning, detect water leakage, and can be used to check water contamination.
11. Hari Bhimaraju, Kennedy Middle School (California), 7th Grade
Hari developed a medicine management system that aims to solve the problem of those living with vision loss who are unable to read drug container labels and package inserts. Her system involves inexpensive passive RFID tags that can be attached to any medicine bottle and an RFID reading device she developed that can, through an iPhone app, read out the name, expiration date, and safety information about the medicine. She hopes her project will not only help the visually impaired, but also those with Alzheimer's and chronic conditions live a safer and healthier life.
12. Anoushka Shrivastava, William Hopkins Jr. High School (California), 7th Grade
Anoushka developed the Hemiplegic Drawing Application (HDA), a tool that lets hemiplegic individuals who are partially paralyzed draw on their touchscreen devices to regain hand mobility and independence. She hopes her app will help hemiplegic individuals better recover from stroke through a motivating and engaging activity that supplements their exercise routines.
13. Anne Li, Alekhya Pidugu, and Hetvi Shah, Lisa Academy West (Arkansas), 8th Grade
Anne, Alekhya, and Hetvi developed Baymax, a diagnostic app created using the flowcharts from the American Medical Association Family Medical Guide and written in C#, to give users without immediate access to medical facilities or specialized physicians a better tool to match their symptoms to an accurate diagnosis.
14. Pajaka Lakshmin and Aiko Lozar, Aviara Oaks Middle School (California), 7th Grade
Pajaka and Aiko designed Explosive Sensing Paint (ESP), a nanopaint, or coating, comprised of chemical nanosensor arrays of Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNT) connected to a device that wirelessly transmits the sensor data to a computer program to determine the identity of the chemical being sensed. The team hopes that ESP can predict and prevent possible terrorist danger by detecting and identifying chemical explosives within indoor settings.
15. Manaal Shareh, Dishita Sen, and Isabella Chaves, Windemere Ranch Middle School (California), 8th Grade
Manaal, Dishita, and Isabella developed the "Translation Earpiece," an earpiece connected to a smartphone app that dials the number of a “Help Center” when translation is required. Upon dialing, an expert will direct the user to a person who can speak the appropriate language, allowing for an easy-to-use translation experience.
16. Kavya Muralidhar, Rice Middle School (Texas), 8th Grade
Kavya created an alarm system to help parents remember babies leave unattended in hot/cold car seats that can automatically contact the police when a baby is left unattended on a dangerous car seat. Using Little Bits, Kavya developed a system that measures the temperature of a car seat, detects when enough pressure is being applied to indicate the presence of a child in the seat, and sends a text to the parent when the child is left unattended.
17. Sofiya Lysenko, Abington Junior High School (Pennsylvania), 8th Grade
Sofiya used the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio to analyze rhesus monkey data for mutations associated with the Zika virus, and then wrote a machine learning algorithm to predict how the virus would mutate before the mutation occurred. Sofiya hopes that her program will help researchers working on developing new vaccines for Zika.
18. Sara Shankar, A&M Consolidated Middle School (Texas), 8th Grade
Sara used MIT App Inventor to design and build an app to provide users with several common snacks and different exercises to burn off calories. As someone passionate about nutrition and reducing obesity, Sara wanted to build an app to help students live healthier lifestyles by providing them with more options to eat and exercise.
19. Shishira Somashekar, Triangle Math and Science Academy (North Carolina), 6th Grade
Shishira built a device to prevent bike-related head and facial injuries by ensuring that the user’s helmet is correctly fastened at all times. Her device, which consists of an Arduino Uno microcontroller and force-sensitive resistor to measure if the user is wearing a helmet, uses audio and visual warnings (via Piezo and LED sensors) to signal the user if they are incorrectly wearing the helmet. She hopes her device will decrease the number of traumatic brain injuries and facial injuries incurred by children and teens as a result of unsafe bike riding.
20. Christine Emanuelli, Erin Hines, Clara Mendoza, Mount Hebron Middle School (New Jersey), 7th Grade
Christine, Erin, and Clara built a prototype for a machine to harness the energy produced by earthquakes and use it to generate electricity. Concerned about the environmental hazards of using fossil fuels for energy production, Christine, Erin, and Clara sought to develop an innovative device to use an alternative source of energy and slow global warming.
21. Sofia Tomov, Homeschool (Tennessee), 7th Grade
Sofia used bioinformatics and parallel programming techniques to investigate the question of variable response to common prescription drugs. Her algorithm and research yielded several genetic mutations that could be responsible for determining which drugs an individual will respond to. Her work could have major consequences for pushing forward personalized medicine research, and for making sure patients are prescribed effective treatment.
22. Anvitha Addanki, Galvin Middle School (Massachusetts), 8th Grade
Anvitha developed a wearable device that can be worn as a bracelet, necklace, or watch to assist individuals with Alzheimer's and ALS. Her device, called “Smart Neuron,” consists of an inbuilt camera, a location tracking feature, and suit of sensors (touch, humidity, temperature, flame/gas, tilt/gyro) to monitor the patient’s environment. She hopes her device can assist active caregivers of the patient by allowing caregivers to remotely monitor the patient as they wear the device and go about their everyday life, saving medical costs and improving the patient’s quality of life.
23. Varsha Vasudevan, Meadow Park Middle School (Oregon), 7th Grade
Varsha developed a new set of software tools for automatic speech recognition. Her system improves on currently available ones, and she hopes that her project can have a wide range of applications: from disease detection to faster and more effective voice-based security systems.
24. Arushi Mantri, Stoller Middle School (Oregon), 6th Grade
Arushi’s project focused on stylometry and authorship attribution. She used machine learning to develop a tool to automatically authenticate students’ handwriting. She hopes her software will help fill the need for a tool that can be used by teachers to reliably and automatically determine when students turn in any material that is not their own.
25. Lillian Petersen, Los Alamos Middle School (New Mexico), 8th Grade
Lillian created a website with a dynamic map of the world to show how measurements at each weather station in the world are changing. She hopes her project can improve education and awareness regarding climate change, and will allow students, educators, and professional to track means and extremes of various temperature measures in specific regions and areas throughout the world.
26. Anya Anand, ACCESS Academy (Oregon), 8th Grade
Anya developed an environmentally friendly “Smart Shower” to decrease wastage of excess water. Her prototype decreases the amount of water used during each shower, tracks the amount of water used, and connects to an app to allow users to easily track water usage from their phone.
27. Shreeya Ravi and Safalta Shukla, Sherwood Middle School (Massachusetts), 6th Grade
Shreeya and Safalta designed and built an app called HOP (hunger and obesity prevention) that will help motivate individuals with obesity to lose weight for the sake for feeding hungry children living in this world. Their app allows those with obesity to donate food to children in need, while at the same time providing them with diet and exercise recommendations to help them lead a healthier life.
28. Ankita Somalwar and Anoushka Deshmukh, J. Michael Lunsford Middle School and Rocky Run Middle School (Virginia), 8th Grade
Ankita and Anoushka created a Google Hangouts bot to help stop the cyberbullying that occurs over the popular messaging app. The bot detects negative words, sends a message to the cyberbully alerting them of their choice of words, and providing them with a message explaining why their actions can have a negative impact. In this way, Ankita and Anoushka hope their bot can help decrease the number of instances of cyberbullying and make the world a safer place for kids to communicate and interact with each other.
29. Avani Agrawal, Preeti Nagalamadaka, and Anvitha Veeragandham, Marshall Middle School, Advanced Math and Science Academy, and Chenery Middle School (Massachusetts), 8th Grade
Avani, Preeti, and Anvitha built an app called OnMyMind to support teenagers with mental illnesses. Their app includes a chat forum for individuals to interact with and support each other, games and puzzles to ensure that users maintain an active mind, a journal component to give users a space for reflection and self-analysis, and music to soothe and calm users. They hope that their app will function as a support tool for both patients and caregivers.
30. Meghna Rao, Rashi Kejriwal, Pooja Nambir, Patapsco Middle School (Maryland), 8th Grade
Meghna, Rashi, and Pooja created an app to improve the time it takes for disease diagnosis. Their app prompts users to create a daily log and write about their physical and/or mental feelings, pains, and general wellness. After a period of time, the app then analyzes the information that you have entered and detects a pattern or symptoms that can be linked to a disease that you could potentially have, thus improving early disease detection and allow users to dynamically monitor any ongoing symptoms.