“You are powerful and you can capture the world.” Technovation Armenia-2018 prize winners are known
In recent years, in Armenia mobile applications has been actively developing with games and educational programs, being designed not only for the local market, but also for foreign users. But the most important thing is that many of these applications are created by the schoolchildren, and “Technovation Armenia” competition greatly contributes to it.
Technovation is the world’s largest technology entrepreneurship competition for 10-18-aged girls. The goal of the project is to encourage and empower young girls to become innovators and leaders in their communities by solving their community problems through entrepreneurship and technological knowledge. Armenia is participating in this program for the second year. For the first time in 2017, we had a successful story, the “One Step-ahead” girls’ team from the Karbi village school received the main prize in its “Armenian Sign Language” supplement and was invited to the Silicon Valley International Award, where she won the People’s Choice Award.
The solemn ceremony of summarizing and awarding the “Technovation Armenia 2018” competition this year took place on June 7th. It was organized by the National Institute of Education and the Women and Information Society NGO.
398 schoolchildren, 94 mentors participated in the “Technovation Armenia 2018” program, 90 teams were formed, 49 teams came to the final stage, 16 of them from Yerevan and 33 from the regions. The 49 teams participating in the Technovation-Armenia 2018 competition presented their mobile applications to the jury on May 11th, 17th and 18th, and the winners were determined online. The winners became four senior and three junior teams. They received a ticket to participate in the international stage, which will be held online until June 17th.
Narine Abazyan, Regional Ambassador of “Technovation Armenia 2018” program, noted that the winning teams presented a number of applications related to tourism development in communities, solving transport problems and teaching English language among schoolchildren. Schoolchildren also created a mobile app that allows autism children to communicate more easily with people.
Ruzanna Stepanian, Head of Information Technologies at the National Institute of Education, highlighted the importance of holding such competitions in schools, saying that this year when the first time this program was organized, there were serious doubts that it would succeed. However, the victory of the “One Step-ahead” team of girls from Karbi community in Aragatsotn province showed that school girls can have serious success not only at home but also beyond the borders of the country.
She is particularly inspired by the fact that girls in Armenia are interested in information technologies and moreover, they are aiming to connect their future with this sphere from their young age.
Ruzanna Stepanyan noted that girls learn not only to create mobile applications, but also to gain self-confidence. “Naturally, at first, they do not even imagine that they will have results, but when you teach them, I say you are powerful, you can capture the world, they believe in it. We need to tell the children that they can and will have far more results, “she said.
The team from Yerevan’s 142 high school has introduced a Learning mobile application designed to study English. The girl-created app won the Armenian contest. The girls acknowledge that they never thought they could write a mobile app, moreover, win. After this victory, they hope they will win at the international stage.
The girls’ group tells that their goal was to write a program for children aged 8-11 that would allow children to easily learn a foreign language. “We wrote a program that consists of games. Children can easily master the English language through games. That is, they will play and learn, “they said.
They will not stop there: they decided that they will continue. “We also try to develop the second version. Everyone will benefit from this app. If the first option is for beginners, the second option will be for a higher level of English, “said Anahit.
The latter also said that these courses had a great significance for professional orientation. “I have already decided that I will become a developer. They see my future in the field of information technology. ”
It should be noted that “Technovation Armenia 2018” is funded by the European Union in cooperation with the AGBU Civil Society Program. The contest is sponsored and supported by the Union of Employers of Information and Communication Technology, UN Armenia, Synopsys Armenia, Unicomp Company, American University of Armenia.
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