>> From Santa Clara, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, it's theCUBE! Covering Technovation's World Pitch 2018. Now, here's Sonia Tagare. >> Hi, welcome back, I'm Sonia Tagare, here with theCUBE in Santa Clara, California, covering Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, a pitch competition in which girls develop mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. This week, 12 finalist teams are competing for their chance to win the coveted gold or silver scholarships. With us today, from our very own Cupertino, California, we have team FemStem with: Harini Arumugam, Eesha Ramkumar, and Ria Doshi, welcome. (together) - Thank you! >> So, your app, Alleviate, tell us more about that. >> So our app helps people with autism overcome the challenges they face in their daily life. We specialize in interaction skills and helping them relax in overwhelming situations. >> That's awesome, so how does it work? How would a user use it? >> So, I think the first thing you see is the sign up and login page, where a user can either signup saying they're verbal or non-verbal, meaning they can use their voice or can't, and our app personalizes our feature based on that. >> Awesome. >> So, one of the aspects of our app is actually a relaxation feature, and a lot of people with autism, they struggled with anxiety and being-- they're very hyper-sensitive in overwhelming situations, so we do provide meditative tracks, relaxing music, and an interactive reading simulator for them. >> So our other feature is interaction, and so we split it for both non-verbal and verbal individuals. So for non-verbal individuals, the app verbally asks a question, and they must select yes or no in response to that question. And for verbal users we actually use speech recognition to have them respond to the app, and we, take that input and compare it to the image, so. >> Sounds like this could help a lot of people. >> Yeah. (all laugh excitedly) >> Why did you guys decide to make it in the first place? >> So in our school we actually have a really big special education system, and as a result, we've grown up with a lot of kids with autism, and we have first hand experience to struggles that they face in our classroom, and a lot of the times, they receive negative attention because of it, and we wanted to do something about this issue, because we felt that this was not only something that affected our school, but also a global issue, in fact people around the world, so we thought by, with this project, we would really be impacting peoples lives. >> That's awesome. So what made you decide to join Technovation? >> So I think, there was a Technovation club at our school, and actually, I didn't Eesha or Harini before Technovation, so we all signed up for the club because we thought it was really interesting and at the first club meeting we kind of looked at each other and we were like hey, do you want to be a team? And so that's kind of how our Technovation journey started. >> That's awesome. So why did you choose the name FemStem? (laughing) - Well, we're all females, and that's kind of what Technovation is about, empowering females and, I mean, to speak to this, I think we're all like so passionate about STEM and, just combining them, we played around with the words a little bit, that's FemStem. >> That's awesome. So how do you think Technovation is helping the overall girls in tech conversation in the community? >> I think that Technovation gives us a lot of confidence, you know, we're new to the whole app building, that kind of structure. And being able to see something that we do have an impact, I think that confidence is really what girls should be looking out for. >> Yeah, and definitely, since none of us knew app development before coming into Technovation, it really gave us the opportunity to explore, create something that helped our community and actually have an impact on the world through technology. >> I was looking to add, so on a general level, I think that one of the biggest issues of today is that girls who are young age have little to no exposure in the STEM field, and I think Technovation really helps them develop and interest in STEM, and develop the confidence they need; and the ability to ask questions and receive help, so I think that's something that Technovation's really done for all of us. >> That's great, so you definitely encourage other girls-- >> Yes, definitely, yeah. >> That's awesome, and what's the best thing that's been happening in the competition so far? >> We've gotten to meet a lot of people around the world, that's the coolest thing that I can ask for. It doesn't happen like on a normal day, so I think this is really something that we've all been looking forward to. >> And speaking to our Technovation journey, we actually got to collaborate with students. Our app focus is on kids with autism, and we got to meet individuals as part of our special education community, and that's kind of when we saw our impact, and it kind of clicked for us that this is actually making a difference, and that's, that's like, it was an unbelievable experience. >> And it was great to see actually that our app had an impact on these kids, and getting recommendation from our director of para education at our school, who actually recommended our app to different districts in our school because of the impact it had on the kids, which is really nice. >> So where do you see this app in five years, if you can get the funding? >> If we get the funding, definitely we're going to add more features, like facial recognition features, and allowing people with autism to perform emotions that they've practiced. We will also produce a go to market strategy where we actually beta test our app on more kids, outside of our special education community, to ensure it has the impact that we really need to have. >> Congratulations on everything, and good luck for your pitch tomorrow! (all together) - Thank you! >> We're here at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, stay tuned for more. (bubbly music)