>> Announcer: From Santa Clara, California, It's theCUBE! Covering Technovation World Pitch Summit 2019. Brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media. Now, here's Sonia Tagare. >> Hi and welcome to theCUBE. I'm your host, Sonia Tagare, and we're here at the Oracle Agnews Campus in Santa Clara, California, covering Technovations World Pitch Summit 2019, a pitch competition in which girls from around the world develop mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. With us today, we have a Technovation executive, Devin Dillon, who is the Senior Director of Partnerships at Technovation, welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you. >> So, before we start, for people who don't know, can you tell us more about Technovation World Pitch? >> Sure, so Technovation World Pitch is sort of the culminating event of a program that we run for young girls around the world. So we invite girls to solve problems in their community. This year, we had over 7,000 girls from 57 countries participating. So lots of girls with lots of ideas. And then this World Pitch is the culmination of that. So it's a competition, and our winners from around the world are invited to come here and share their ideas. And a really exciting part is they get to meet all of their peers that are also working on solving problems and exploring technology, so it's a really great week. >> That's awesome, and can you tell us more about how you got involved in Technovation, and what your role is at the company? >> Sure, so I got involved in Technovation about seven years ago, the program was small. It had just gone international. I think our first year, we had less than 10 countries that were participating, but I really liked the idea of putting education online, accessible to anybody. Anyone can lead it, and solve a problem in their community, and learn a little bit as they were doing that. So that's how I got involved. And then, the program has grown, and we now have this big celebration event. So it looks different, but yeah, that's how I got involved. >> And can you tell me more about your role? >> Sure yes. So, I lead the program. So we have two programs at Technovation. We have Technovation Girls, which this World Summit is the celebrating event for, then we have Technovation Families, which is an educational program for our younger audience. It invites families to solve problems with AI. So my role is really to make sure that our programs are awesome, and helping people to learn. Our resources are good, and we're supporting our leaders around the world. So, our Technovation team never actually leads programs, we invite everyone from around the world to lead the programs, so we do a lot of work to make sure that the quality is there, and that the programs are having a great impact on the kids. >> Wow, and I recently heard that Iridescent became Technovation, so can you tell us more about that change, and why that decision was made? >> Yeah, I'm happy to. So, like I mentioned, we have two flagship programs. They previously had names that were pretty different and our organization was called Iridescent. And Technovation, it was this program, it was like a program that had gotten a lot of global scale and participants. So much so, that when we would say Iridescent, people would recognize us. So we changed our overall organization name to Technovation, and this program is now called Technovation Girls. We challenge girls to solve a problem in their community, using coding, and create a mobile app and a business plan, and then our other program, Technovation Families, challenges families to solve a problem using AI. >> And so I heard the girls had an amazing week. What was the schedule like, who did they get to meet? >> Sure, so it's a busy week. We have flown in girls from all over to be able to see a little bit of the Bay Area, to be able to meet each other, so we have lots of activities. We've had field trips to a lot of tech companies, so we were able to visit Uber, we were able to visit Autodesk, Google Ventures, where the girls are able to see and hear from different mentors in the industry, meet people that are working on technology, ask the questions, and then the other component is we invite the girls to connect with each other. It's a powerful moment where we have a lot of girls representing different cultures and different ideas, so we have fun things like dance parties and opportunities for them to get to know each other also. >> That sounds like a really bonding sleep over. >> Yeah, we try to create that atmosphere. Of course the girls can be shy, and they're coming maybe the first time to the United States. Many of them, English is their third or their fourth language, so it can be a little scary at first, but I think by today, they have been able to hopefully create some lasting friendships. >> That's amazing, and along with the friendships, for the people who do win, what kind of prizes do they get? >> Yeah, so we are giving away this year, over $50,000 worth of prizes. $30,000 of that is scholarships so the students can continue their education since they're young girls, they're able to sort of put that to their education how they would like, and then another option is that they can continue developing their idea. So the girls have crated a mobile app and a business plan, and so they're able to continue developing that if they would like to. >> And do they have mentors guiding them through that? >> Yes, and the exciting thing is, a lot of the mentors are here. So the way that the competition works, is that the girls are working on their idea for many months. They are creating an idea, they're coding, they're learning a lot of different things, they can be creating business plans, and the mentors are really there to support them, to help them build a relationship with someone who's maybe in the tech industry, but also just someone to give encouragement and to help them work together on their problem. >> And have you seen an increase in participant in Technovation over the years? >> Yeah, so this year, like I mentioned, we had 7,000 participants, which is a large year for us. The past two years, we've had great growth, because the program is online, and it's freely accessible. We've really been able to see a lot of take up from different people around the world. >> What countries do you hope to reach to eventually? >> Yeah, good question. Well we had submissions from 57 countries this year, so you know, each year, the submissions kind of change. So we're growing in a lot of really exciting places, I always love to see ideas from all different areas of the world, so tonight, we have some great ideas represented from Nigeria, and Cambodia, and Bolivia, and Canada, like really right there, like lots of corners of the world, so it's always exciting to see. >> And like what criteria do finalists have to pass to make it to this stage? >> Yeah, good question. So they need to submit a lot of different things to be invited to the competition. So the girls really work on pitching their idea, because we know that if you have an idea, not just in technology, you need to be able to understand how to present it and develop you know a business plan, and how you want others to understand what you're doing. They have created a mobile app, so they've coded something. They've probably learned technology or some technology skills, and then, what are our other components. They like develop their idea. So a large part of it is really thinking of an idea, making it batter, developing an actual product, so. >> Wow, and how do you think Technovation is helping the overall girls in tech, women in tech community? >> Yeah, so we're hoping it could get girls interested. So our girls are young, but we really hope to spark an interest and get them involved in the community, hopefully, this is a step on their path. Maybe they will keep taking classes that are technology related, or maybe they'll make some friends that are into technology and form a community. Maybe they'll go to college for this. Maybe some of them will become computer scientists, or engineers, or someone in technology, so it's pretty open, we want to create problem solvers and problem solvers so a lot of different things in our world, including impact technology. >> And going off of that, are there any success stories that really stand out to you? >> Yeah, I'm trying to think of some girls from this year. I think what always stands out to me, from the girls, is that they aren't just building like a mobile app. A lot of them are collaborating with people in their community, with their governments, with different non-profits. So, one of the girls this year, she's working on opioid addiction, and she's been collaborating with a lot of researchers in different universities, she's been thinking about how to create a prototype. Another girl this year is working on supporting farmers and invasive species. So she's been working with different invasive species groups to understand how this program is affecting people, so I think it's always really fun to see how the girls are not just thinking about themselves, or collaborating just on their team, they're really thinking about their community and making an impact with different people and different groups. >> And how do you hope Technovations going to continue to improve and impact more girls? >> Well, I hope we continue to create girls that feel empowered to make the world better. Which you know, is idealistic, but I think that's power of education, is that you help people to think about how to make the world better at the end of the day, and I hope we're giving them those tools. Hope we continue giving them the tools to make their lives and their communities better. >> That's awesome, and thank you so much for being here. >> Devon: Sure, thank you so much. >> This is Devon Dillon, and I'm Sonia Tagare. Thanks for watching The Cube. Stay tuned for more. (upbeat funky music)

>> from Santa Clara, California It's the Cube covering techno ovation World Pitch Summit 2019 Brought to You by Silicon Angle Media Now here's Sonia to Gari >> Hi and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host, >> Sonia to Gari, and we're here at Oracle's >> Agnew's campus in Santa Clara, California covering techno vacations. World Pitch Summit 2019 a pitch competition in which girls from around the world developed mobile lapse in order to create positive change >> in the world with us. Today we have team >> powerful daisies from Brazil. Um, and their acts called safe tears. So their members are on a Toronado. Uh, Clara Patan. Um, Anna Julia Uh, Giacomelli um Emmanuel Amara Skin and Julie Carr Bio. Welcome to the Cuban. Congratulations on your being finalists. Thank you. So your app safe tears tell us more about that. >> So our APP is a suicide prevention app in which its user gets his own glass of blue feelings, where to use their ads or remove tears accordingly with his feelings. So if the user said they had tears any, they're happy they take theirs out. >> Wow, that's amazing. So can you tell us how someone would use Thea >> So let's say I'm set. So I go to the app and I at use. So add those as my 2% rise is the absolute send motivational messages to me like saying go talk to somebody over find help and also encouraging me to be to know, to get better. And if I'm happy, I take tourists out and I get messages like congratulating me too because I'm doing better. >> So is there like a graph of your improvement of how you feel some days you feel the other days >> we would like to implement dead in your future. But right now, in this version of the app that is not available >> OK, well, yeah, that would be a great thing, Thio. So how did you come up with this idea? >> So in our community, there was a lot of suicide cases and off course with friends and family, and it was something that really needed more help. So we went Thio lecture about suicide, and the woman said that we are like a glass of water. We we feel that up and then one day all the water gets out and then somebody you know tries to suicide themselves. So we wanted this person to thio like realize that she's getting wars so she can find help before anything bad happens. >> And I know that sometimes giving advice to someone who's depressed can be very tricky. And you have to make sure saying the right thing. So how did you find out what kind of advice to give in your app? >> Yeah, we had help over school psychologist. So she was there with those the whole time we were developing and she helped us do Every single message is that the absense to the person is, you know, viewed by >> her And have you seen has anyone used the app and has felt better? Any success stories >> they're hesitant to launch, But we did tested it and people really liked it and thought that they would use it. >> That's amazing. So how >> did you all meet and why did >> you decide to join techno vacation? >> So we were from the same school from different classes where we're from the same school. So we met there and our teacher showed us the documentary code girl and their inspired us to join techno vacation because we thought it would be a cool experience. >> And so how detective ation help you achieve your goals and make your act better. >> So without techno vacation, of course, we couldn't be here and get all this experience in learning's to improve our app. So it's helping a lot. >> And, um, can you tell us more specifically like, what skills have you learned from Tekken? Ovation. >> Like programming, big public speaking and about business. We learn a lot like doing the business plan about marketing and publicity and all that. And I heard you >> guys had an amazing week this week. You went to whoever you saw Golden Gate Bridge. Can you tell us more? About what? The highlights of the wiki pad? >> Yeah, we went to Webber, of course. And we talked to people there. He was amazing. Talk to employees and see how is life there. And also we went to the Golden Bridge and we crossed the bridge. It was a Bahar, you know, we're not used to exercising. Right? And last night we had a dance party. What? She was really fun and we got to interact with people from all over the world and it was amazing. >> That's so great. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I'm so looking forward to seeing your app in the APP store one day. And congratulations. And good luck for the pitch tonight. >> Thank you so much. This has been team >> powerful daisies from Brazil. This'd the Cube. We'll see you next time.

>> from Santa Clara, California It's the Cube covering techno ovation World Pitch Summit 2019 Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media. Now here's Sonia to Gari. >> Hi. And welcome to the Cube. I'm your host, Sonia to Gari and we're hearing oracles Agnew's campus in Santa Clara, California covering techno vacations world its Summit 2019 a pitch competition in which girls from around the world developed mobile lapse in order to create positive change in the world with us. Today we have team tech witches from India with a nun. You Grover said in there. Um, when she got the other, um, and Anushka Sharma. Welcome to the Cube. And congratulations on being finalists. Thank you. So your app is called May 3. Can you tell us more about that? >> Yeah. App is an android application which connects old age homes with orphanages so that senior citizens can spend time with orphan children on individuals like you and I and everyone else can volunteer and donate to old age homes and orphanages through our app. >> Okay. And so how would someone used the Afghanis? Oh, go through Step by step >> s O as an individual. If you log into the app usually do lis. So if you press on connect, you could either press on connect to an old age home or connect to. And often it's so. For instance, I want to connect to an old age home. I press that button I would see a list off old age homes. On that list is a list of organizations that have signed up on the APP. So I press on their arranged on the order off proximity to my location. So I pressed on. Whichever one I want is a view, and then I see all of their details. I could contact them, connect to them by messaging them, calling them up, viewing their website or even navigating to their location using who will maps. Then I could also press on, see what donations they require and see exactly what they need. For instance, if an organization requires clothes or blankets, I would be able to view that on donate accordingly. Okay, >> so it's not just introducing older people to orphans, it's it's more about like, just like what can we do as a society to like donate to exactly >> on as the administrator? Often old days home, you can connect to an orphanage on organized meetings between senior citizens on children so they can spend time together and have fun activities. For instance, we have already conducted two activities in which people mingo together on the children were singing songs and they were even, you know, sharing stories. They were dancing together. It was really heartwarming. >> Wow. And do you have any other success stories from what's happened so far? >> So yeah said the two meetings that have been conducted already were huge successes in our opinion. So we had children from an often it's called cyber ball creep are going to an old age home on dhe. They spent time with the elders there, talk to them, mingled with them, learned about their life experiences on DDE up in the other meeting to reverse singing songs on Theo. Elders and children were sort of having fun together, and it was amazing. >> So I visited your instagram page and which looks amazing, by the way, thank you. And I noticed that there were a list of activities for every for for them to do when they meet each other. So can you tell us more about those activities? >> Yes, so some of the activities I already talked about them, but they could also sort of have a picnic together, get some food for each other or the children could make drawings, write poems for the elders. And those can be put up in the old age home itself so that even after the children leave, it's like a reminder and a token of love for the elders that reminds them that they are loved on the you are cared for Andi. They could also have other activities, like yoga sessions together, maybe read books to each other. There was other kinds of activities that are listed on. How did >> you come up with this idea? >> Oh, well, the initial inspiration. Or I wouldn't say inspiration. It was a bus, the incident that happened to me. So I lost both of my grandparent's. Within the span of failure, I lost my grandmother, too, can't cancer. And then after her, she passed away. My grandfather sort of felt like really lonely and that he had lost all purpose in life. On I could see firsthand the effects that loneliness could have on someone's mental and social well being on that lead to health problems that he never, ever had before. And we lost him in, unfortunately in January this year, so I really wanted to work on senior care on. Then. My teammate Basseterre suggested that we should also include orphans within this. Since you know we in India especially, we have a very strong familial bond between children and grand parents, and the's children do not have that same connection. They grew up without that kind of nurturing love that only parents or grandparents can provide to a child on. So we felt that we should be solving both of these problems and bridging them together in some in some way on. That's how we came up with this idea. >> It sounds like it's an amazing idea, and it also sounds like it could help more than just the community that you're in. But it could really help the whole world because so many people deal with loneliness, especially in old age or orphans who want love from a grand parent or parents, so it just sounds like it could be really useful. It's a lot of people, thank you. So how has your experience a techno nation been >> It has bean an amazing Johnny. We want expecting to make hated this level and is just phenomenal on the huge honor to be standing here on We began by just Regis formed We are all classmates on We have known each other for a while and so we just found out about this competition formed a team started working towards that on We were really passionate about this car. So working and taking time out of school to work on this just came naturally simply because how important this cause, boss, for us personally on then. So 12 The deactivation journey we kept on learning new things. Not all of us were aware off how to court applications. So we used Tekken ovations or curriculum on other online resources to teach ourselves those skills along the way and developed our entire project submission on DDE. Yeah, it's just amazing to be here now, sitting in front of such a huge audience. >> Absolutely. It's such a huge success for all of you. So can you tell us more about how how you all met your said your classmates, right? >> Yeah. So the four of us are classmates on Anushka is in another class within the stools, so be already sort of knew each other. Andi, I found out about the competition online and techno vacation seemed really ins like, Ah, create platform, especially because it's like, if specifically wants to empower women to court and going to make a stone. Male dominated fields that computer science on entrepreneurship. So the four of us off science students and she studies Commerz on. That's how we came together and started walking. >> That's amazing. So where do you have to see this app? You know, if you get the funding if you win today, where do you hope to see it in five years? >> Right now? Are up has already been launched in the play store, and we have about 1000 plus downloads in the future. We would like to know just to expand out of the Delhi nCr reason by We're currently working on a go pan in there and hopefully in the future in about 10 years. Maybe spread this throughout the world because I feel like communities across the work and benefit from >> men. Three. >> That's amazing. Best of luck to all of you and good luck for your pitch tonight. And congratulations. Once again. Thank you so much. So this has been team tech witches from India. You're watching the cube staging for more.

>> from Santa Clara, California It's the Cube covering techno ovation World Picks Summit 2019 Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media Now here's Sonia to Gari >> Hi and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host, Sonia today, Aria and >> we're here at Oracle's >> Agnew's campus in Santa Clara, California covering techno vacations World Summit 2019 a pitch competition in which girls from around >> the world create mobile >> lapse in order to create positive change in the world >> with us. Today we have team decoders >> from Albania. Welcome. Thank you. The members are day a row, Johnny. Um Arla Ho, Huh? And your non desk Degrassi. Welcome. And congratulations on being finalists. Thank you. So your app is called JSA. Tell me more about that. >> Okay, So this name is an opinion, and it actually means find your voice, which is also our Moto jesu is focused on helping women who suffer from domestic and gender based violence. So it has all these features that are based on our three main pillars helping the user identify the problem, empowering them and then enabling them to take >> action. That's amazing. And I know sometimes in domestic abuse cases, sometimes just identifying the problem is the hardest part, so that's awesome. That's the first part in your AB s o. Can you tell us more about how someone would use Thea? >> Yeah, So on the first round after insulation, they would face this entrance quiz a T end. It gives you on evaluation about these five questions about gender based fans, but it's more about self reflection and serving as an early warning mechanism for people and questioning their whole, >> um, >> their whole perception on gender based finalists. After that, they come to the main menu, which is the 30 day program, which has myths about violence that you can give the answer. If it's a powerful, it will give you the anti myth, mindfulness exercises and success stories of other women in similar situations. Besides from the program, we have an information and you that has contacts. Thio, coordinator to municipality coordinators, Thio nonprofit organizations. It has some basic information about gender based violence ended. It signs legislation updates on, um, laws that women can benefit from and some other additional information. But also one of the main points of our app is connecting. Scattered resource is in our country So we have all these NGOs and old these institutions that are designed to help women. But most of them do not know that they exist. So when they want to separate from an abusive husband and want to report violence, they don't know where to head. So serving that we have the S. O s menu, which has the emergency hotlines, because in Albania we have separate health fines for different situations not like here in America. 91 on you have different numbers. They change them from time to time, and it's really important to have them all in one place when you need them. Most way also have, um, you can also connect directly to psychologists, lawyers, doctors and shelters that help women who >> suffer from domestic bounds. That's amazing. It just sounds like such a great app. >> And one more thing, which is really important because this feature that I'm about to mention is about all women. It's the opportunities many. So we have collaborated with local businesses, and they have agreed to furnish the AB with job notices, how workshop notices and coupons that allowed the only the users of the app can you respond to so they can benefit from that. But the thing is, when a user, even though they didn't they do not suffer from domestic violence. The Enter the app for the Opportunities menu. They also go through the entrance questionnaire. So that's when all the questioning for >> a violin starts. And do you find that this domestic violence is a huge problem in your community? Or how did you come up with >> this idea? >> Yes, it's actually a really huge problem in Albania. We have grown up seeing all these headlines. At the moment we opened the TV, there would be a ah headline that would say, Husband killed life and it would be for the most absurd reasons. And we have. It has all these deep cultural roots, and it's really horrible. We would see it, um, Unger peers through early signs of it, of course, and we would see how Dad would soon develop Thio. What we will be see today in the news and we see it's not getting any better. So we decided we wanted to do >> something about it. That's amazing. And I hope you, uh, you take the sap worldwide and globally. Thank you I'm sure it will help a bunch of other people in the world as well. Oh, thank you so much. That is all the time we have for today. Thank you for being on the Cuban. Good luck for tonight. >> Thank you. Uh, I'm your host, Sonita Gari. Thank you for >> watching the keeps Coverage of techno. Haitian World pitched 2019 till next time.

>> from Santa Clara, California It's the Cube covering techno ovation. World Pitch Summit 2019 Brought to You by Silicon Angle Media. Now here's Sonia to Gari >> Hi and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host, Sonia to Gari, and we're here at Oracle's Agnew's campus covering techno vacations. World Pitch Summit 2019 a pitch competition in which girls from around the world developed mobile labs in order to create positive change in the world with us. Today we have teen LPs n from Spain. Welcome, and the team members are Paulo Fernandez Rosa's Sandra Cho Manual Gomez, Nouria, Peoria, the CIA, Fernandez and with the beyond Tovar. Welcome to the Cube. Thank you. So your app is called one and where tell us more about that. >> They will, when I'm were easy enough that detects anomalies when you go out to work or run am. It's to ensure woman's safety on it, obtains your location in real time. And if something happens, for example, if you stop or if you're in getting near to your destination, it calls the emergency contact or the emergency service's >> Wow, and so can you tell us how a user would would go through it. Step by step. >> Yes, A first of all you need to establish our contact am. So then you have two different Moz A the start mold, which is a for when you, for example, go running. And when do you stop the up? He takes that anomaly so it sends you a message in case off emergency it goes a the emergency contact on the other mode, it's they take me to a remote. So that's when you, for example, want to go home. And so you you don't follow your route. I am the only they up since you and alert. And in case of emergency, it's Cindy. Um, message to your contact. >> Wow. I feel like that could be really useful. Yes. Is that a big problem in Spain? >> Yes, it's He's actually well into feel better. Okay, Yeah, >> we saw this problem in our community on when they gave us the opportunity to try to help in some way. We thought while we can try to create this application on forgives on on it in our country, there have been a lot of women murdered on kidnapped ennui. A thought that it was something very >> very important. I'm That's amazing. So how did you all come up with this idea? >> A. Well, it'll be gone when we hear about their martyr off Laurel. Wilma It that made us a became aware with the magnitude of the problem, so am I. We wanted to do something that they will will be a helpful for us. So we did this >> application. Wow. And, um what problems or struggles as you go through creating this app? I >> am. Well, I think that the the worst think was the time because we had, like, a really short time to do this application to develop and to develop it because we started in February on, we had to We have a deadline in April. So for us, the time was the most difficult part. Also, the programming, the coding. But that that was because we had to learn coding. So yet the time was our our difficult >> part. If you get funding, where do you see this app in five years? >> Well, a We want to continue developing this up on improving it because we really need this up. We want to add new new languages and also introduce it in a iose to a iPhone users to use it also on in 50 years. We would like a this up to continue working about. Hopefully, maybe a this problem with disappear. >> That's great. Um, so tell us more about your experience at Tech Novation. How did you all meet? And why did you decide to join techno vacation? Tell >> me. So we discovered generation in the high school. Our technology teacher air showed as the contest, and we decided to join. And we're old friends. So it was a, like, easy to work because we already know each other. So am that's the best part. And we won't really wanted to do something that could be useful for us. So we decided to to start the Italians with that idea. >> That's awesome. What? What's been like the best experience a part of the experience so far? >> A this trip, actually, Yeah, it is being amazing. I am. It's actually one of the best rips off my life, and we're all having a great time here. >> That's also, um So, uh, thanks so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. And good luck for tonight. Thank you. This is team LPs n from Spain. Thanks so much for watching Stay tuned for more

(upbeat music) >> Announcer: From Santa Clara, California, it's theCUBE covering Technovation World Pitch Summit 2019. Brought to you buy SiliconANGLE Media. Now, here's Sonia Tagare. >> Hi, welcome to theCube, I'm your host Sonia Tagare and we're here at Oracle Santa Clara covering Technovation World Pitch Summit 2019, a pitch competition in which girls from around the world develop mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. With us today, we have Sydney Hough from Team Uproot. So your app Uproot tell us more about that. >> So, Uproot is an app, kind of in the field of AgTech, we worked to target noxious and invasive weeds in agriculture because what happens is noxious weeds often out compete crops for nutrients and farmers don't know what's going on sometimes, so Uproot helps farmers identify weeds by using a neural network and we also have monitoring services like mappings for tracking weeds over time. So, we're basically delivering an integrated solution to help farmers manage noxious weeds on their farms. >> Sonia: That's awesome. >> Thank You. >> Can you tell us more about how it works? >> We have basically three components, so there's the identification feature where you can scan plants in real time using your phone's camera and it basically analyzes the image and tells you what kind of plants it is and if it's harmful or not. We've got kind of an educational feature as well. So once a plant's been identified, basically the app returns a bunch of information about that plant, Is it harmful, how severe is it, how should you best control that plant? And then you've got the whole monitoring feature. So that includes tracking of weeds, pinpointing them on a map, so you can track them over time and manage them. >> Wow, and how did you come up with this idea? >> I had this brief exposure with this company called Kisan, they're a startup and they also use machine learning and mobile apps to help farmers in India actually. And I thought it was really cool how they're using machine learning to kind of target this underserved community and I was like, how can I, how can I apply that in my how backyard, right? >> Sonia: Right. So, here in California, one of the big farm issues is noxious of weeds, so I was like maybe this could be a cool solution, a cool application of ML. >> And how did you find out about Technovation? >> Last year, I competed as well. I was, I love software development, so I was looking for online coding competitions and this just happens to be in my search results, so I'm super glad I found it. >> And how do you think Technovation as helped you improve your app? >> I think before Technovation, I was really focused on just the code, and I love coding, but I didn't realize that companies can't live by code alone you have to really have a planned out business model, if you don't have that, no matter how good your app is, you're not going to get, you're not going to have success in the real worlds, so I think Technovation really helps me develop marketing plans and strategies and stuff like that. >> And who do you think your target audience is for this app? >> Currently our target audience is farmers in California. >> Okay, where do you see this app in like five years? >> So our goal right, I'm actually working closely with a statewide nonprofit called Cal-IPC, right now we're working to kind of revamp the app's mapping features, specifically enabling the sort of grid based system that allows geospatial data to be delivered out via API to plant databases. So, we're really working hard on that to get that feature out and from there, we plan to expand across California and I'd say in the next five years, our goal would be to take app nationwide to train our model on more species and just expand in general. >> And what advice would you give to featured Technovation participants? >> I would say start early because in the past two years where I've competed, I've often found my self doing a lot of things last minute just because I've procrastinated, so, have an idea early and work on your app over a long period of time, 'cause they give you several months. >> Great. So this has been Sydney Hough, from Team Uproot, Thanks so much for watching, I'm your host Sonia Tagare and stay tuned for more. (upbeat music)

>> from Santa Clara, California It's the Cube covering techno ovation World Pitch Summit 2019 Brought to you by Silicon Angle Media Now here's Sonia to Gari >> Hi and welcome to the Cube. I'm your host, Sonia to Gari. And we're here at Oracle's Agnew's campus in Santa Clara, California covering techno vacations World Pitch Summit 2019. Ah, pitch competition in which girls from around the world developed mobile lapse in order to create positive change in the world with us. Today we have Team Coco from Kazakhstan. Welcome. The members are, um Dilma as camel Over and Mallika Bree by Ava Uh, Donna Ulanova and Lube of do Chen Kuo Welcome. And congratulations on being finalists. Thank you. So your app is called tech Go. Can you tell us more about it? >> Yes. Uh so so techo in three d mobile application, which has a minute reality and as connected to the hardware which has dedicated for the behavioral change of people for so that they can become more conscious and like a friendly. >> And can you tell us more about how it works? Yes, >> of course there is. Luba, who can explain this? Okay. S >> o r application is about an astronaut who needs to save the planet. S O Firstly is there is a game in which a person needs to save your hair. Virtual airs by selling some ecological problems in it so that he or she wrote, be educated to both real life scenarios. And I also have a step counter which tracks your carbon footprint and encourages people to trust Morgan Friend the transportation options And that's a rare make really impact is that we connect our application with a special trash boxes in our city. All those locations are shown on the map, and coming to this place is user received trash box. And since Rosa Garbage and then because he has restaurants carriage here, she will get some points and your impact will be realized in the eventuality. Yeah, >> So what impact in society do you hope that this app will help change >> Rapids three t mobile application and it's a game. That is why Gamification and theater magic reality, which is a r which is inside this game a cz more visually in psychological attractive to people and those challenges that we provide a game are intensified so that most of the people. When they accomplish their goals, they might get, like, have a certain profit out of it so that they can become worker friendly and gain benefits. This is how we want to make sure that people might gain my changed a behavior for the sake of ecology. >> That's awesome. So you're using essentially a game incentivize people to make better choices in their everyday lives. That's great. And so how >> did you >> come up with this idea? >> So look, I will explain >> this. Actually, there were before some eco trash boxes in our school because like the thing off, ecological problems and recycling is one of the most talked about topics in Kazakhstan nowadays. And like in our school, the students try. Thio make this echo charge boxes, but they were always empty because students wasn't incent ified to recycle the garbage. And we tested our up in our school and we already launched it in our school and this ups incentivize our students. And now this I could trash boxes with our hard way always full. So >> that's awesome. See, you already found some success with your app. Thank you. Do you think that that this is a problem in the bigger community. >> Oh, maybe Donna Comptel. >> So we're saying that we started locally, but we got to go globally within that, uh, a pollution, like a pollution global problem and we trying to solve all over the world. So in our game, we have the whole world that you become an astronaut. So you should be aware for hold the problem that was happening in the earth. So we are trying to engage and educate people to be more global on to be more responsible for our final for our home. >> It sounds like everyone in the world should download that app. Yes, I do hope Thio uh, expand if you get the funding. >> Yes, um, we plan to expand not only in our country, Kazakhstan on only locally, but also globally. And we would like to create the eco friendly community across Central Asia since we want to make sure that consciousness is global in our area. >> And what struggles have you faced trying to create this app? >> Um, probably there were some struggles and off course in the realization and, uh, the realization of technical part of this project and creating a business model, since we are not very experienced in this kind of things. But since we have participated in techno vacation and we were immersed in this protest and were modified Thio motivated. Yeah, and we're motivated to learn all this things and acquire those skills. And this is why we became more experienced in this stuff. So right now, uh, those struggles that we face before not longer problem for us. So yeah, this what we faced? >> So techno vacation has definitely helped. Do you improve your app and yes, right houses. Tech innovation Helped you? >> Yeah, Um, probably someone else wants to ask you this question. >> How is SECNAV ation help? You were What skills have you learned from this journey? For >> example, one of the most important skills, I guess iss a teamwork. Like after we started to work on the one project, we started to listen each other excavation actually helped us too. Um, I understand the opinions off other people and like to understand the problems in our society. We start to dream bigger to think bigger, wider kind of that >> That's amazing. And also take Novation helping us >> to explore new companies to be more like open a person to come to The company's asked about the help on not like B just like see the problems and trying to solve trying to find a solution and be the people of the world and be responsible for our planet for what's happening in our local community on be aware of everything. >> And, um So I heard you guys had an amazing week. Um, you you went to whoever You went some other places. So can you tell us more about your week >> you want? So we went to amazing places in a Silicon Valley in a San Francisco San Jose and we so, like it'd, for example, Golden Gate Bridge. And also the Alcatraz so were so impressed by their architecture by the people by the nature on DDE. We just expected a lot of Onda. We just got this old expectations come to the reality on dhe. We hope that that kind of dream will come true in our future, and we gonna to work in a one of the big companies that were located here. I know all the universities. So >> how is it like going to the different tech companies and seeing it in real life. >> So we >> visited Uber Company and Google Ventures, and both we I have seen people who work is there, and we're really impressive on. And we really like it. It? Yeah. And, uh, I think so. Before, like in my childhood, I dreaming to be to be in Silicon Valley, to goes there and, like, meet people who are work already working you And now, like my dream came through. >> That's awesome. And you get to see California And you you might be able to win today. So thank you so much for being on. I wish you all the best. And I hope you haven't amazing pitch tonight. Thank you. This has been Team Coco from Kazakhstan. I'm your host, Sonia to Garey. This is the Cube. Stay tuned for more

I would say find a problem that you care about and find a mentor I would say sign up for Technovation because that really has all the elements and the support systems that you need focus is on kids with autism and we got to meet these 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 Anna it was an unbelievable experience [Music] in the future we want to make it available in many devices and you want to spread it to all be able to help them I want to say that Technovation gave us wings as I mentioned one year to fly in a world of endless opportunities and I would say that if you have that will do something good for the society technology look our best option you can go for an you can implement inspired me by showing me how it's very possible to make your own business and create your own and fight for what you want for what you believe in [Music]

>> 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 for girls to develop apps in order to create a better, positive change in the world. This week, 12 finalist teams are competing for their chance to win the gold or silver scholarships. With us today, we have on Amy Kim, the Chief Operating Officer for Iridescent. Amy, congratulations, and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Can you tell me more about Technovation? >> Technovation is a program for girls where girls identify a problem in their community and they build a mobile app and a business plan to help solve that problem. Our girls, this past year we had almost 20,000 girls participate from all around the world. We had about 115 different countries registered this year so we've had really big growth. We are in a ninth year of operation for this program, and Iridescent, who's our mother organization, we're about 13 years old. >> How did you get involved with all of this? >> I actually started off as a mentor and a volunteer here at Iridescent, so I used to volunteer for Technovation team when we used to do a small program in L.A. and San Francisco where girls used to physically come to the studio and do the Technovation program and also I used to be a mentor for our Curiosity Machine program, which is a hands-on engineering design challenge program and competition. I was a volunteer for about four years, and then I came on board as a staff member about four years ago. >> What have you noticed has been the change from when you came on to now? >> I think one thing we have done at Iridescent strategically is grow the program globally, and we did that by making our programs free and all of our curriculum accessible. What we've really relied on is training our volunteers. I think you've talked to some of the mentors, some of the regional ambassadors. The trainer model has really helped us grow, and then we're able to reach more girls at a lower cost. Most of the money that we are able to raise, we are able to serve more children and serve more kids. >> What method do you think that's really helping getting these girls noticing Technovation? Is it online, is it through mentorship? >> Actually a lot of it is word of mouth. We were featured in a documentary called Code Girl about two years ago, and that has helped us get a broader reach, too, but really it's one girl who participates or one volunteer who volunteered with us. And our RAs, our regional ambassadors, in each of their countries they really do a great job promoting on our behalf to get more girls an opportunity to be a part of this program. >> What are you most excited about for this year's competition? >> That's a little tricky, cause we always get a little attached to every team, and we really try hard not to pick a favorite, but I think one thing we've seen this year is we updated our curriculum last year and I think the curriculum has really shown to be really strong and then more and more countries can adapt it. I think just seeing what the girls can accomplish, if you guys, what you'll see is that the girls are tackling really hard problems and they bring their own unique perspectives. Just seeing how they approach a problem is, to me, very exciting. >> What are these girls judged on for their pitches? >> They're mostly judged on a few criteria. One is the actual technical ability of their apps and how well do they solve the problem that they are trying to solve. Also, what is their business plan, is this a doable thing, does this business already exist, what is unique. There will be a little bit of public speaking, also how they present themselves, and the actual technical ability of the apps as well. >> That's great. What do you hope Technovation will bring for the greater girls in tech community? >> I'm a chemist by training, and I was the only woman in my PhD program, and I think one thing that really comes up a lot is that women oftentimes don't have mentors, don't have a community, and I think for these girls, I hope that as they grow and as they go to college and they pursue their career that they have a community that they built from here that will carry on through their career. >> What success stories do you have from past Technovation winners? >> That's a tricky question cause we have so many. We have, sorry, I'm trying to remember her name. We have a student who participated about four years ago and she built an app to help Alzheimer's patients, and what she has done is she has actually created a start-up and has been featured in New York Times before. We have stories like that, but we also have stories like in the slums of India where girls don't have internet, they don't have power everyday, so what they will do is they will code on post-it notes. Then when the power will come on, they will turn on their internet and they will be able to code it on App Inventor altogether in that one hour. We have success that really varies and the way we count our success is really the fact that the girls had an opportunity that they may not have had otherwise. That's really how we count our success. Even if they don't become technology entrepreneurs, our goal really is that they try to tackle something hard, they learn through their failures, and they persisted is really our goal. >> That's wonderful, and we're so glad to be here at Technovation. Thank you for having us on. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks for being here. I'm Sonia Tagare, and this is Amy Kim, and we're at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018. Stay tuned for more. 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>> 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 we have two regional ambassadors from Turkey. Resat Bozkir, >> Hi. >> And Sedat Yalcin. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much for being here today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your hospitality. >> Absolutely. So can you tell me, what is a regional manager? What do you guys do? >> Okay, you want to start? >> Okay, regional ambassador. As a regional ambassador, we help with the Technovation program in our country by organizing events and managing locally, for example, this year, we translated all our Turkish language and help other mentors and other students. >> Oh that's wonderful. >> Yes. >> So how many students do you have? >> We have nearly thirty students this year. And we've been working for five years with Technovation. This year we have thirty students. And now, one team is here as a finals team in this one also. >> What are the age groups of your students? >> Middle school and high school. We start at 13 and 18. >> So you mentioned you've been doing this for five years. Have you noticed an increase in girls in tech over the years? >> I think, if I remember those days, only 10% are students who were girls, and now 50% of our students are girls. We participated for very... Not much girls in our group. That is programming, robotics and everything. Now lots of girls do it, like this project. >> That's amazing. So what are you most excited about for this tournament? >> Can you say it again? >> Oh yeah, what are you most excited about for this week for the competition? >> Oh, as I said before, we have one finals team for this ceremony, and this is their first moment in Technovation. And they are the most little ones, our girls. We hope this will be a very good experience for them. And we are really excited to be here. >> That's wonderful. So can you tell me just a little bit more about how girls in Technovation is helping girls in tech, the conversation in general? >> Okay. >> I think it's a good question because lots of students before Technovation, I asked our students, "Do you have any download, any mobile application?" Lot of students would say, "No." "Do you have any, "make a presentation more than hundred people?" They say, "No." "Do you have any ideas about business plan?" They say, "No." "Do you have any ideas about entrepreneurship?" They say, "No." "How about the Technovation program?" They say, "Yes, I succeed. "We made the program "and then we download the mobile application "and we make a presentation, and we make a business plan." They say all of that. Excited about programs like this. >> That's wonderful, and I think you guys are doing such an amazing job. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much for being on theCUBE, Resat and Sedat. We're really excited to have you here, and I hope you have a great trip back to Turkey. (laughs) So we're at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, stay tuned for more.

>> 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 finalists are competing for their chance to win the coveted gold or silver scholarships. With us today we have Tara Chklovski, the Founder and CEO of Iridescent, Tara thank you so much for being on. >> My pleasure. >> So can you tell us a little bit more about Technovation? What's the event about? >> Yeah, so Technovation is the worlds largest technology program for girls and we inspire them to find problems in their communities and actually create mobile apps and launch startups to solve these problems. And so we operate in 115 countries. >> Wow! >> This year we had about 20 thousand girls register for the program, and right now we see about girls and student ambassadors, regional ambassadors, mentors from 15 countries. So some of the countries are: Nigeria, India, Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia, Palestine, Spain, and of course, the US and Canada. >> That's wonderful. >> And I think I may be missing a couple countries. >> So, could you tell me more about Iridescent and how Iridescent is involved in Technovation? >> Yeah, totally. So, Iridescent is the parent non-profit and we started in 2006, our mission is to empower underserved communities, especially girls and women to become innovators and creators of technology and engineering, and so it requires them feeling that they have a place at the table and being empowered to actually create new solutions, and not just be the users of solutions. >> That's wonderful. Can you tell us some success stories from past winners? >> Yeah, totally. So Technovation is unusual because it's 100 hour, pretty robust, almost like a bootcamp where, you don't need to have any prior knowledge of computer science or entrepreneurship, and you go through and have a completely finished product. And so, in the early years, in say 2010, the winners of the New York regional competition actually created an Uber-like app. And this was before Uber was actually known as a ride sharing. And a team from I think the Bay area created a Pinterest-like app. And so these girls are ahead of the times because, I mean everybody knows teenagers are ahead of their time, and girls are very active users of technology, and this puts into their hands that they become creators. But some of the success stories, one of our biggest one is Emma Yang, she was named like the top 10 under 10 to watch out for, but she created an app for her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and she could, it would help memory training. And recently, she was actually featured in Apple's WWDC Conference when Tim Cook played the video showcasing the developer and their families, and so she was one of them on the video, so, we felt incredibly proud that we were the ones to bring her into technology. >> That's wonderful. So can you tell me more about how Technovation is helping these girls? >> Yeah, so Technovation again is unusual, because it's not like we're going to cram a whole bunch of coding and programming down your throats, it's rather, first the question is, find the problem that you're passionate about in your community, and then, oh by the way, did you know you could use technology to solve that problem? And so that real world application is very important for a new newcomer to the field, and so we bring thousands and thousands of young girls who would never dream about going into computer science into this field, so, just to give some numbers, annually, we have about 64 thousand undergraduates in computer science as a country, and only 10 thousand of them are women. >> Wow. >> And so just to give you a sense of the scale of Technovation, we have about 12 thousand Technovation alumni now in college and in the workforce. Every year we add about five thousand girls, and so that's 50% of our national output of the number of computer science graduates, right, like undergraduate women. And so we are significantly moving the needle, but it's taken a long time, I mean, this is our 13th year. And so that is the message that to build this community of young women leaders and entrepreneurs, they need to see more like themselves and so it takes time to get to get to that starting with a few girls, and so yeah, this year we have 20 thousand. >> How do you think the Girls in tech community is evolving as a whole? >> I think the coding community is becoming very, is becoming, it's becoming a movement, it's taken 10 years, and so I think you can see the change in the AP computer science results this year, you're seeing more and more girls becoming interested in computer science. But again, there's a big problem of access still, I mean, low income groups do not have access to, to coding programs in their communities, and I think, there's room for us to improve and add there. I think the Girls in tech community is vibrant, in Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley is a tiny place in the world, as you can see, right? So I think, yes it's there, but we are very small, there's a lot of room, and there's a lot of room for other organizations to take up the challenge. >> That's awesome. So, last question: What advice would you give for girls who are interested in technology? >> I would say, find a problem that you care about, and find a mentor, I would say sign up for Technovation, because that really has all the elements and the support systems that you need, it's much more than an hour of code. You really need to see all elements of what technology can bring, and the change that you can enable. So I would definitely say yeah, sign up for Technovation, because it helps you make a real change in the world. >> That's awesome, thank you so much for being on theCUBE today. >> My pleasure. >> It's so inspiring what you're doing. >> Thank you! >> Thanks for being here, we're at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, stay tuned for more. (bubbly music)

>> 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 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 Mexico we have Edutec and they're consisted of Miriam, Angelica, Luna, and Medina. We have then Luzdhy Huerta and Citalli Ruiz Puga, Ivana Michelle Orozco Lopez, Cesar Valdez, Consuelo Sarahi Checa Navarro, and Vanessa Dinorah Perez Ramirez. Congratulations and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> So your app, Care For Me, tell us more about that. >> Who wants to tell? Well, this application, Care For Me, is an app that is focused on the caregiver of a patient with Alzheimer. That normally turns out one person in the family. So during the process of the Alzheimer disease, it's a very difficult situation for all the family. But when they developed the application, they started thinking of the caregiver because sometimes they lost in all the disease. So they developed the application so the caregiver has more support and tools in order to provide very good care for the patient, and as well for themselves. >> And what was the inspiration to create this app? >> Somebody wants to answer that? What is the inspiration? >> My teammate Tivana had a grandma who suffered this disease, so we inspire in this case. >> Well, that's wonderful that you're doing that, and I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people. So what made you join Technovation? (speaks in foreign language) >> Let me just translate it? >> Sure. >> They knew about Technovation because an invitation from the university that we all belong that is (speaks in foreign language). And they mentioned that there were some courses about technology, especially for the science mobile application. (speaks in foreign language) >> Then they mentioned when the course was starting, they informed what is Technovation about, and they know that they have to develop an application with a social impact, so they have to attack some problematic they see in their communities. And then they get very excited to help people, to help another. And at that time, that's where they knew each other because they didn't previously know each other before the competition. >> So how did you all meet? And how did you decide to make this team? (speaks in foreign language) >> So the course is offered by the University of Guadalajara. We offer app inventor and marketing, we brought some experts after some courses. Roughly December, the girls all got together, they didn't know each other, and they decided to form a team, and we're here now, right? (laughs) >> And what are you most excited about for this competition? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> She's saying that... Sorry. She's saying that the most exciting about all this and working together is about the opportunity to help other people, and have an impact, and that's why they enjoy working together. >> That's so inspiring. So how do you think Technovation is helping the larger girls in tech conversation? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> She's saying that the most impact that they have about these kind of programs is about getting all the fears that you think you have that may be stopping from doing something, so you have to believe that you can to solve all these fears. >> That's awesome. (laughs) So who do you think is the team to beat? Who's the competition? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> I think the focus of Technovation is to not pit girls against each other, but to work on themselves and on their project, and hope for the best, I guess. (laughs) >> That's a wonderful perspective to have on this. I want to thank you all so much for being on theCUBE, and congratulations on becoming a finalist, and good luck on your pitch tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> We're here at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018 here in Santa Clara, California. Stay tuned for more. (upbeat music)

>> From Santa Clara, California, in the heart of silicone valley, it's The Cube, covering Technovations, World Pitch 2018. Now, here's Sonia Tegare. >> Hi, welcome back. I'm Sonia Tegare, here with The Cube in Santa Clara, California covering Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, a pitch competition for girls to develop applications in order to create positive change in the world. This week 12 finalist teams are competing for their chance to win the gold and silver scholarships. With us today, we have Team Join Us from Spain. We have Andrea Escortell, Ines Mut, and Amelia Gonzalez and with them we have their mentors. So, we have Josefa Ribes and we have Rosa Maria Bosch. Thank you for being on The Cube. >> Thanks to you. Thanks. >> So, I wanted to ask you, what is your app Join Us? >> It's for join old people and the young people because the old people live alone so he needs help and the young people need travel and visit new places, so the app, the app connect the people. >> Are there any personal connections or reasons why you decided to make this app? >> (speaking in foreign language) >> It's a problem. >> Because it's a general problem in the world. >> What made you decide to join Technovation? >> I showed the teacher the Technovation challenge and they are very excited they were very excited to participate because it's a very, very best thing for us because seeing how there are a lot of people that is alone in their house, and it's opportunity to solve a real problem. >> So how does the app work? How do you use it? >> (speaking in foreign language) >> The link is different for the interested parties. We did survey and that is necessary service of the local consul to guarantee and they will play our own for both parties. >> That's amazing. It's so inspiring to see you all work on this. Is this your first time to America? >> Yes. >> How are you liking it so far? >> Yes. >> Really like it? >> Yes. >> Well I want to thank you so much for being on the Cube, this app seems amazing and we hope you come on some other time. I'm Sonia Tegare, here with the Cube at Technovations World Pitch Summit 2018. Stay tuned for more.

>> 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 for girls who develop mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. This week, 12 finalists are competing for their chance to win the gold or silver scholarships. With us right now, we have, from Delhi, India Team Cantavits. So we have Sneha Agarwal, Aditi Jain, Shriya Shukla. Then we have Kritika Sharma, and then we have Shraddha Chugh. With them is their coach, Archana Jain. So congratulations, and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> So your app, Eedo, tell us more about that. >> So Eedo is a late Latin word for electronic waste. our app is all about electronic waste. Electronic waste is electronic equipment which are not in a working condition right now. So what we do is connect people who generate e-waste to people who recycle it in an eco-friendly manner without harming the environment, and health problems. Because, generally people, what they do is, they dispose their e-waste as regular trash, or they just throw it in the dustbins, or maybe sell it to the local scrap dealers which harm the environment illegally, and harms all the human health. So our app is just about connecting e-waste generators and e-waste recyclers, to not harm environment and human health from e-waste dispos&al. >> It sounds like it could have quite the social impact. What inspired you all to create this app? >> Actually, it was one of the potential ideas when we had a brainstorming session to choose an idea for an app for Technovation challenge, but then we read a grave article about e-waste in a national daily, and that motivated us further, and we decided to make an app to solve this issue. >> What inspired you to join Technovation? >> Actually, Technovation always gave us inspiration, and that spirit to just go into the field of information and technology and create cool apps to solve community issues. I think we were, in 2016, we came to know about Technovation, and just reading about an overview of Technovation, it just gave us that spirit and that enthusiasm to participate in this competition. >> And how did you all create your team? How did you meet? >> She's our teacher at school, and she's the one who introduced us all. I, Aditi, and Shraddha, we have been participating for three years in this competition. This is the third year, and Shriya has been participating for two years. This is her second year, and Sneha is the new one, and she introduced us all. She came up, and we went to her once or twice, then she introduced us to this competition. >> Actually, she appointed all the students, that we should come as a team, >> Yeah >> and go into this competition. >> That's wonderful. So how do you think, being a part of this competition, how has it helped you? Has it made you more interested in technology? >> Yeah, definitely. >> Actually, Technovation gave us the opportunity to go in a world of endless opportunities. Actually, Technovation helped us to actually identify ourselves, identify inner talent so that we solve community issues, and create coding, actually go into coding, and that high tech opportunities. >> Yeah? >> Yeah. >> Just take the microphone. >> You want to add anything? >> I want to add. We also got to learn many things that we'll not learn if we didn't get to know about Technovation. We learned coding, and marketing strategies, which we'll not be able to learn if we not create an app for Technovation. >> Well that's wonderful. >> For me, earlier, coding was a very difficult task. I'm talking three years back, but now, after participating in this event in three years, it has been very easy and it it is very helpful to develop a new career in our life so we can go in the field of software engineering, or many other fields that will be very wonderful for our life. >> That's very inspiring. What are you most excited about this week at the Technovation competition? >> For this week, we're most excited about pitching our app in front of the people so that we can generate awareness about the e-waste problem and our solution to it. >> That's great. Can you tell us a little bit more about how a user can use this app? >> Actually, if I'm a common user, and I have to use my app to dispose of the e-waste, so what will I do? I download the app from the Google Play Store, just post an ad of the e-waste, like, I have a Mumbai phone that's broken now. I just enter the device name, the quantity, and the date and time for collection, and I'll just post the ad. Only that's much work from the generator of e-waste, and then comes in all of recyclers of the e-waste. He'll just see the list of ads which have been posted by the generators of e-waste. He'll click the ad, view it's details, and accept that for pick up. After picking that e-waste from user's doorstep, he'll be given a reasonable amount for the same to the user. Wow, so what advice would you give to other girls who want to join Technovation? >> I want to say that Technovation gave us wings, as I mentioned earlier to fly in a world of endless opportunities, and I would say that if you have that will to do something good for society, technology is the best option you can go for, and you can implement to solve community issues. So, go girls, I would say, go girls in the field of information technology, and do whatever you want. >> Well, that's a great note to end on. Thank you all so much for being here, and congratulations, and good luck on your pitch tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> We are here at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018 in Santa Clara, California, stay tuned for more. (electronic music)

>> 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 apps in order to create positive change in the world. This week 12 finalists are competing for their chance to win the gold or silver scholarships. With us we have, all the way from Egypt, Team Thunderins, and with us is Yara Elkady and Rahma Medhat with their mentor Karim Abdallah. So congratulations and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> So your app is called Stray Paws. Tell us more about it. >> So our app aims to solve the problem of street animals. It basically gives the user the ability to adopt animals through our app because in our hometown the adoption process is very difficult, and it also helps to rescue injured animals in the street. >> So what inspired you to create this app? >> Because in Egypt there are several campaigns that are launched every year to poison any street animals which leaves hundreds of cats and dogs dying. So we just want to help the animals because there are no specific rules to protect them, and they are growing in number, like in every street there will be stray animals, so we want to help them to have a better life. And we want stop the killing of them. >> Well that's a great cause to be a part of. So how would a user use the app? >> Okay first of all we have two features the adoption and the rescue. The user could open up our app and there will be three buttons. For the first button is the adopt button and the second is the rescue. He will just pick adopt if he wants to adopt and then he can pick to add a pet for adoption. If you have a pet to offer for adoption, he can add them and all its information in our app, and then other users who wish to adopt could enter another button in our app, and open the screen and just look through a gallery of pets that are available for adoption. And then pick the pet he wants, and then he can contact the owner of the pet directly. >> Wow. So Rahma, maybe you can tell us, how did you guys get involved in Technovation? >> We first of all we have known the competition at March and we only had a month and a half to finish our project. Yes, so we known Karim and he has helped us a lot. Yes and that's all. >> And Karim can you tell us more about how it was mentoring these two? >> Yeah I met them last March. Met them once in physical and after that we did all the job online by online meeting via Skype or messenger or something like that but they did a great job in very short time. >> And how excited are you for their pitch tomorrow? >> Very exciting, we hope to win tomorrow. >> And so how did you all find out about Technovation? >> We found that we were in a workshop for teen entrepreneurs and then they told us about the competition and we found out and we registered the next day. >> Okay. So how do you think Technovation is going to help you in your careers? >> It's going to help me greatly because I wish to be an entrepreneur in the future and make a business, and it inspired me by showing me how it's very possible to make your own business and create your own and fight for what you want, for what you believe in and it's not that hard. If you want it you can do it. And it's very inspirational to be able to make a whole project in a short time and that it works. And it's really great. >> And what advice would you give to young girls who want to join Technovation some day? >> I highly advise them to join because it will inspire them a lot, and show them that it's not impossible to create something that you are proud of and it will be an experience you won't forget. >> And last question, what are you most excited about this week for the competition? >> The pitch because we have been practicing for a long time and I want to just show our project to the world. And we're very excited to pitch in front of many people. >> Well that's great. Thank you so much for being on theCUBE. I am really excited by your app and I hope your pitch goes well. >> Thank you. >> We're here at the Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, stay tuned for more. (energetic music)

>> 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 finalists are competing for their chance to win the coveted gold or silver scholarships. With us today from the state of Palestine, we have team TMWZ and that stands for Tamara Awaisa, and we have Masa Halawa, Wasan Al-Sayed, and Zubaida Al-Sadder, and their mentor is Yamama Mahdi Shakaa. Congratulations and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So your app, Be a Firefighter, tell us more about that. >> Who want to start? >> Masa? >> So Be a Firefighter is a virtual reality game that provide awareness and entertainment to let users be more aware about the fire situation and be able to extinguish it and prevent fire from happening. >> That's awesome, and what was the reason that you decided to make this app? >> Several differents came to our school and visit us and they told us that there is a lot of fire accident. Because of fire accident, loses and destruction, and death, because of that we decide why we, why we want to (nervous laughter) solve this problem. Because of that we decided to make this app. >> That's wonderful. >> So what's the mission of your team? >> We want to help many people, so in the future we want to make it available in many devices and we want to spread it to all people to help them. >> Oh that's wonderful. (giggling) So why did you decide to join Technovation? >> We decided to join Technovation because we want to make a change in our own way and help others. So we find Technovation and we got into it. >> That's awesome, so did you find out online or did you find out through a chapter? >> We find it in our school. Our teachers told us about that challenge. >> And where do you hope to see this app in five years if you get funding? >> We want to make it available on the web, providing more level for all ages and allow the player to compete on social media like Facebook. Also we want to make a version for hospital and organization with more control that allows the the players to do the action with their hands. >> I hope you achieve that. >> Yeah we hope. >> What are you most excited about this week at Technovation? >> Actually for all of these tours, and the visiting Google and visiting NASA and today we visited Nvidia. We were so exciting, it's so amazing places and companies. And also we are so exciting for the presentation and the booth. We are practicing so much so yeah, this feels like. >> Very exciting. How did you all meet? >> And we want to represent Palestine well, so that's real exciting too. What's that again, yeah? Oh yeah, we meet in the school, we are in the same class at school and we are sitting next to each other. And we are friends from two years. >> Are you all in high school? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Okay well thank you so much for being on theCUBE. I'm so excited for your app and I hope you see it in the App Store. (giggling) Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> We are here at Technovations World Pitch Summit 2018. I'm Sonia Tagare, stay tuned for more. (digital music)

>> 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)

(upbeat music) >> Hello and welcome to theCUBE Conversation. I'm John Furrier here in the Palo Alto Studios, with two great guests, Tara Chklovski, who's the founder and CEO of Iridescent, and Anar Simpson, Global Ambassador of Technovation. Thanks for coming in today. Appreciate moving your schedules around to come in. Thanks for coming to our studio. >> You bet, yeah. >> So Sundar Pichai was at your event. That's the big story this past week. There's has been a Google memo from a low level employee who wrote some things that got the whole world sharking around gender biases, role of women in tech. We do a lot of women in tech as you know in theCUBE, hundreds and hundreds of women over the years, friends, and also smart people. This seem a pretty big moment for you guys. You had an event at Google. Sundar canceled his on-hands meeting to address this, under fear of retaliation and safety, but came to your event on Google Campus, surprising to many. It's written up on Recode and The Verge. Pretty notable. So tell us about what happened. >> So, yeah, this was the 2017 Technovation World Pitch Competition and the awards ceremony. And Sundar came and he talked to a lot of the girls who were presenting their ideas to solve problems in their community, and then he had a little bit of a one-on-one conversation to learn a little bit more about the kinds of problems, their interest in technology entrepreneurship, and then he addressed the crowd of 900 plus supporters, and really emphasized that there's a place for women in technology, and more importantly, for him and Google, that there's a place for these girls at Google. >> Great timing for you guys too. And I want to drill more into what happened but I want to just point out this was a scheduled stop for Sundar in terms of it. You guys have a program called Technovation which was a 2017 World Pitch, folks around, you're the Global Ambassador, take a minute to talk about what Technovation is. Why was it on Google's Campuses? What was it all about? What does Global Ambassador mean? Talk about your mission. >> Right, so Technovation's mission is to empower girls to become technology entrepreneurs and it's much more than just learning how to code. It's really about seeing girls and telling girls that if there's a problem in their community, technology can help them have a very powerful voice. We've been running for eight years and Anar is our Global Ambassador who's helped us grow to more than a hundred countries. Technovation's relationship with Google is eight years long. Google has supported Technovation, was the very first technology company to support Technovation way before any other company saw the potential. And since then, since 2010, Google has provided funding, mentors, spaces, not just across the US but globally. And so this year, it was a year long worth of relationship made with code which is their arm focusing on gender equality. They basically provided funding but made this event possible at Google headquarters. >> Anar talk about the Global Ambassador role you have, and kind of comes down to the question for Tara as well, is it beyond entrepreneurship and beyond coding? I mean talk about specifically what you guys are bringing to folks outside the Silicon Valley. >> Oh sure, so my role as the Global Ambassador for Technovation is really getting to girls all over the world and saying to them you need to be engaged in technology. And what we found, as Tara mentioned, we've been doing this now, I've been doing this now for five years, is that we're building a movement. We're bringing in girls, we're bringing in mentors, we're bringing in companies and governments together to make this a reality for girls in tech careers in their own countries. And I want to go back and address Google's relationship with Technovation a little bit more because this is more of an anecdote. I got into Technovation not willingly. Six years ago I had a start-up, it was called Parallel Earth, and I was working hard at it. And I was using the offices at Mozilla because they allow people to do that, you know people like me to work there. And one day somebody sent me a note, it just came on the internal email system, and they said, "You're a woman, you're in tech, "there's an event going on at Andreessen Horowitz "where the luminaries of the Valley are going to be talking." And so the luminaries were Mary Samayo who was at Google at that time, Freada Kapor Klein, Padma Ashriwurier , and I think that there was two other people. And so we went to this event and we sat in a packed room at Andreessen Horowitz. And these women, the luminaries at the Valley at that time, each one of them stood up and told us their story, and afterwards they fed us hors d'oeuvres and offered us wine. And then they said before you go, we have one to ask of you which is could you sign up to be a mentor for Technovation. And I thought to myself, no, I am like over my head in my own company. I don't even have time for myself. And they asked, be a mentor, it's just two hours a week for 12 weeks. And I thought to myself, oh God, man, I drank their wine, I ate their hors d'oeuvres, I listened to them and now how can I say no? And so I signed up. And it was a stretch for me because what happened at that time, the curriculum was still being delivered by a person. And so I've been assigned to the Google Campus in Mountainview. And somebody in engineering at Google had been able to get a room, a very small conference room. And so for 12 weeks I met this team of girls from Mountainview, and there were other mentors like me, and then there was a whole bunch of girls from Sequoia High School. And John, in that 12 weeks, I was a changed woman. Those five girls, they blossomed under me. When I met them, I said to them, "I'm here, I am a type A, this is a competition." >> "I signed up for the Andreessen Horowitz--" >> Exactly, exactly. "Listen, I got my own star, "but we're going to win, this is a competition." So they just rolled their eyes at me, like, who the heck she is, we don't even want to be here. >> John: They draw the short straw on this one. >> Exactly. But those 12 weeks changed my life. >> John: In what way, what way did it change your life? >> I have a degree in Computer Science. I have a Master's in Communication. I went to Stanford for innovation and entrepreneurship. So I've been in the field for a very long time. And what I saw in terms of the curriculum, what I saw in terms of the mentorship, what I learned about design thinking and being able to create an app, I never had that. When people like me, we go in to a university, and doing computer, we never had that kind of stuff. And I thought, oh my God, if I'd had that, I would be, like, soaring the skies right now. And to have girls who really came to this table with nothing, and you see them becoming graphic designers because they had a little bit of access to Microsoft Paint, someone who has the ability to do PowerPoint, one girl, in my team of five, almost never showed up, she was late, she never came, and then two sessions before the Pitch, she showed up and she realized, have we've gone so far without her. So here's what she did, she took that little graphic that that woman who'd done it in Paint, and she got her mom and they went to some t-shirt shop, and they got that graphic printed. And the next time she came, there were five t-shirts that said the name of our team which was Intoxication Station, and one for me. And then it turns out she's a really good speaker. Who knew? So she almost never came, brought these shirts, was the speaker for the group, and we won the local competition and then the next one, then we placed second in the finals. >> She came in, contributed with a t-shirt, and graced you the back end, won the trust of the group, ended up being the speaker and winning the award. >> Yes, they grew, they literally, you know if you take a time lapse and you see a flower blossom, that's exactly what happened. >> Tara talk about your credentials 'coz you have a Ph.D. >> So I have a, yeah, Bachelor's in Physics, and Master's in Aerospace, and I was in the Ph.D. program in Aerospace but I dropped out because I wanted to start Iridescent. >> That's good. Dropping out of Ph.D. has a good track record. A lot of folks who dropped out of Stanford includes some of the big names we now know. What's some examples during your life when you had those kind of changed moments? >> I think, Iridescent, we are now in our 12th year. Every couple of months it's a changed moment because it's a test of grit. And just believing in yourself because I mean, I started with just an idea and grew it to be an organization that's all over the world. And it doesn't come with just full-hearted focus. A lot of courage is what I've seen. I have also seen how much you are passionate about an idea really swings how the other person is thinking. And so the idea only matters so much, I think, of course, I mean, the track record and everything has to be there, but I think a lot of it depends on your own passion for it, and I've come to realize that passion is maybe proportional to the complexity and the impact of the problem you're trying to solve. So if you're only trying to solve a small problem, you lose interest in two years, right, and maybe that's why, I'm always curious, why do so many start-ups fail after two or three years? It's because maybe you came in not thinking that you're going to change the world, maybe you came in because you wanted to make quick money, or et cetera, whatever. And so I think for me this is my life's work. And if you want to bring more and to represent the communities into innovation. And so it's not something that's going to be solved easily. >> Start-up success and then people working on teams, really is about inclusion and letting things bloom and being ready for anything. That's the greatest feat. Let's get back to the Sundar event that you guys were having. Now this is a good conversation to have because one of the things that came out of the aha that became that memo, really was a conversation publicly. And now it's been polarizing. There's just some kind of a hate, hate kind of mindset with it most of the time. Plenty of stuff in the internet to go read there, but what actually are some good conversations in the industry? What was the conversation like during the event? Because this was in full conversation mode while you guys were having your 2017 World Pitch competition of which he presided over and had a speech to the entrepreneurs. What was it like? What are some of the conversations that were taking place? >> I think the most powerful piece of the whole evening was really the girls walking in and seeing the incredible diversity that we have in this world, right. So we had girls, and mentors, and supporters, from over 30 countries and just them coming and waving the flags, and different faces, and different cultures, all trying to make the world a better place. I mean, it's rare that you see that, using technology. And I think it's very fitting that Silicon Valley is the center of this. But I think there was not one dry eye in the group because you realized the conversation is so much bigger than one company, one country. It is something that affects us as all human beings, and you believing in human potential. So I think seeing these young girls, some of them 10 years old, there was this, I think, maybe the crowd's favorite was these 10-year-old girls from Cambodia who want to improve sort of the lives of these people working in cottage industries, right. And they created an app, like, say, Etsy or something, but focused on Cambodian products, and the courage of these little girls, I think everybody walks away feeling okay there's hope even in the midst of all of this discussion. >> It creates a lightning rod in some ways that hopefully will move on to the substantive conversations. How do you guys feel about what happened as you take this mission forward? You guys are doing some amazing work. And we'll do a segment on that in a minute, but given the landscape now, how do you view this? How are you talking with friends and colleagues and family members around it? Because I certainly had conversations with my friends certainly in the east coast, like, "No, no, that's not the way Silicon Valley is." Google actually is a very cool company. It's not what you think it is. They're very open. They support a lot of great initiatives. And they're candid. And then I go on and explain. It's like a university. So me and Larry have this little ecosystem that they've kind of built the university culture if you will. But it's open and there's things that happened that get misrepresented. That was my take for the folks who don't know Silicon Valley. But what's your take? What do you think about what's happened? >> So this is really, really good that you brought up the university campus, environment of it. So I have two girls, they're both millennials, and they're both in a tech world. And we had this discussion. And here is the perfect answer, right. So one of my daughters, Kat, she said that when she read that, she thought it was basically a gathering of his thoughts. And it was a gathering of his thoughts because he was probably asked to adhere to I&D stuff that's going on, in every company right now, right. And so he was like a little bit of a, wait a second, he wants to sort of, respond to his being asked to go to I&D stuff. And then Katya said, "But you know mom, "it was just a gathering of his thoughts. "And if this is an essay, and it was a poorly written one, "and if I was grading it, I would give him a C minus." Then my older daughter said-- >> John: Oh, she'll give him an F on that one. >> Right. >> John: C minus, she's generous. >> No, because he did. He tried to make it very professional and very academic. And she said but it was a first draft. He didn't proceed to toughen it up, solidify it, find more evidence, have it critic. It was just a gathering of his thoughts and he hasn't gone through the process. Both these girls graduated from Berkeley and so I think they would know what a C paper look like versus an A paper. And then my older daughter said, "And the other thing is, "it's not like "I&D efforts "are actually bad, "but what we're trying to do is "we're trying to condense the time "in which we're trying to get women "at equal peering in the tech world." Now women have never been at equal peering in many professions. There were not enough doctors, lawyers, accountants, you name it, right? Main street, Wall Street has never had equality. And now we're looking at technology and the reason everything just flares up in technology is because we live in today's world, where news and information is available all the time. So there's two things going on. Information is readily available. People can come in to the conversation very quickly. And whenever anything happens in Silicon Valley, the effect is massive because all eyes are on Silicon Valley all the time. So it's a bit of a distorted view. But we have gone through this. It took a long time for women to become astronauts. It took a long time for women to become neurosurgeons. It took a long time for women to become lawyers and dentists. It will take a little bit of time for women to become top technologists. But we're hoping that it'll shorten and things happen quickly in the Valley and we're trying to get that quicker. And so we're seeing a little bit of friction. This is responses from millennials. So for me it was like-- >> John: Interesting perspective. >> Yes, great perspective. And when Sundar said these things at the World Pitch, I was sitting in the second row and every time he said something I would clap really loud. And Todd said, "Why are you being so good?" And I said, "I need to hear that. "I need to her him say that because--" >> John: What did he say that moved you? >> Oh, he just said you have a place in technology. And I said yes. We needed to hear you say that right away, all the time, and especially to these girls, these two 18-year-old girls, and all of the ones that come from a hundred countries that weren't at Google but were listening to the live pitch. And I needed to hear it. I'm a veteran but I needed to hear it because-- >> It's interesting too the narrative that the millennials and certainly the younger kids hear is an echo of what comes down. And, interesting, my son who is 15, at dinner last night said, "Dad, I'm a white male. "What does that mean?" >> Poor guy. >> Then I'm like, oh my God, he's a kid. So, again, things are shifting, they're out of context. Tara your thoughts on how this all evolves and the positive things that folks can do. What's your perspective? >> Yeah, I mean, I think, I had a lot of discussion with my husband yesterday on this because he's a white male, right? And, but also we have two daughters, right. And so there's this whole he for she campaign, right. And that I think like our conversation earlier, the discussion has to be very inclusive and you cannot polarize. And I think I have to be careful because, I mean, my passion is what drives the work because the work is hard, but I have to also remind that, okay, there's a whole another segment of the population that cares, right, and, so I think it's just constantly remembering these kinds of things. I think in terms of what the industry can do, I think the normal thing is that people are doing which is really well, investing lower in the pipeline, investing in young girls, and all of that kind of stuff, and also sort of the inclusion and diversity stuff in the workforce. But I think there are some other segments, other industries that we can learn from, and I think one very unique place is actually the aviation industry. But the experimental aircraft, so we're just aviation enthusiasts, right. And so they have this gathering, yearly annual gathering, and 600,000 people come from all over the world, the thing that makes it unique and there's almost equal representation, there are two things that make it very unique. First is the family affair. And I think the tech industry has done a very good job, sort of convening these developer conferences but they are closed and most of them are 100% male, right? I think there could be something there where the, again much more than a company, that the industry has to do. And to make it maybe not commercial but do it as a fun family gathering and not in Silicon Valley. And then I think the second would be to actually lean on the veterans of the industry to share their passion with the young ones. And I think one of the problems of technology is that it's moved so fast that it has become very abstract. And nothing is very hands on. If you open up something, you will not understand anything. And so what the aviation industry had done really well is to showcase the core fundamental principles of how these things work using the old airplanes, old engines, combustion engines. But you can see how things work, right, and so-- >> John: It's like kindergarten. >> Exactly, exactly, start that way and then you can go into the more complex. But I think there's a role for the veterans of the tech world to play here. And I think it's not just sort of gender but it's also maybe age and making it much more about the family, rather than just the developer in the family. >> Tara and Anar, you guys are inspiration. Thanks for taking the time. And I've had the, my age, luxury of spending nine years at Hewlett Packard company before, maybe these early 90s when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were around. And one of the things that really influenced me, and I think this is something that I see a positive light coming in this industry, to your point, about so much changes, is that we seem to be going back to a crowd that wants to see respect for the individuals, citizenship. These were company values at Hewlett Packard when I was there that I always remembered was unique. Hey, you can have differences but if you have respect for the individual, and you have the citizenship mindset, that seems to have been lost in tech, and with this whole movement you're seeing, win at all cost, being an asshole, what you going to do to be a CEO, or flip it fast, or programs. So it became a very selfish environment. It seems to be shifting that way with this conversation. Your thoughts? >> So I have to say doing a start-up is not easy. Getting successful in this word is not easy. Shaking the status quo is not easy. So I have to say that the same people and we're not going to name names, but the same people who are very arrogant and have little respect for the laws and rules, they have given us products that are changing people's lives. There is no question about it. With that, they're a provider. With that, they're sort of "I don't care, I'm just going to go over you "if you don't comply with me." A lot of ride sharing, wouldn't even have happened. And to me when you provide employment, when you provide alternative services, when you provide something that takes away the way things were, I see that as a plus, okay. I think what we're seeing is that's needed to a certain extent, and then you realized, okay, now we have to get back to growing it and working it. And if you keep going in that mode, you probably won't succeed. >> So being tough and determined and having grit is what you need to breakthrough those walls as a start-up. You don't need to be necessarily a jerk. But your point is if you're creating value. >> If you're creating value, and that sometimes you actually have to be a jerk because there are a very few brave, non-jerk people who have gone against big unions and big monopolies, right. I would not be able to go against the taxi commission. You need somebody who's a complete a-hole to do that. And he did that and it made a difference. He doesn't have to continue to do that and that's-- >> There was a meme going around the internet, "If you want to make friends, sell ice cream." >> Exactly. >> So you can't always win friends when you're pioneering. >> Right, right. There is a balance and maybe we've fostered the fact that you need to be that attitude for everything and that's not true. The pendulum shifted a bit too much. But I think that we shouldn't scorn them because really they have made a difference. Let everybody get back to-- >> It's a tough world out there to survive. And you have to have that kind of sharp elbows to make things happen. But it's the value your providing, it's how you do it. >> Exactly. >> Well thanks so much guys for coming up. Appreciate to spend the time to talk about your awesome event at 2017 World Pitch as part of Technovation where Sundar represented Google in your great program with young girls go over some tech books. Thanks for sharing. This is CUBE conversation here at Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(upbeat happy music) >> Hello, and welcome to a special CUBEConversations here at theCUBE Studio in Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier here for a special Women in Tech and Technovation conversation with Tara Chklovski founder and CEO of Iridescent also runs TechNation and Anar Simpson global ambassador of TechNation. Great Women in Tech conversation and you guys have done amazing work, you're both rock stars. Thanks for spending the time. We just had a great chat about your event you had the 2017 World Pitch competition for girls in entrepreneurship in coding and everything else. Congratulations, so tell us about Technovation. What do you guys do and you guys are doing some amazing work. Tara start us off, where are you guys and what's going on? >> So Technovation is the world's largest technology entrepreneurship program for girls and girls aged middle school and high school are challenged that you have to find a problem in your community, to learn how to code a mobile application and learn how to start a startup from scratch all the way to the pitch video business plan. And through that process they are partnered with a woman in tech mentor and they go through a hundred hour learning experience. At the end of it they have to submit their apps and business plans for judging, and we have thousands of judges who are experts in tech from all over the world, review those and then we have a quarter final, semi final and then the big World Pitch competition that was held last week here in Silicon Valley. >> And this sounds so progressive and cutting edge. It sounds like what Palo Alto high school would do with Menlo and Sacred Heart and Castilleja, but this is not just Silicon Valley this is, I mean talk to us a little bit about the scope of the program. How do people get involved? Share some of the data. >> Yeah, totally, and so it is all over the world. We run in a hundred different countries, primarily brought and expanded through our work that our global ambassador Anar has done, and most of it is really trying to bring girls who would have never been exposed to technology entrepreneurship careers. And the way we work is really through partnerships, amazing organizations and visionary leaders who do the hard work of actually supporting these girls, getting these girls interested. So these girls would typically never go into careers in tech because they never see themselves as being interested and so the hook is that you want to find a problem in your community. You have to go out, talk to people, try to understand what is a big problem that is worth solving, and then we say, "Oh by the way, you know you could solve "this problem using technology." And so you get in a whole another group of people that would not normally access these careers. >> So is it an application process? Is it in the US? >> Anybody can. >> So anyone in the US. >> Anybody. >> So my daughter who wants to get some community hours could actually go take it to a whole other level. >> Totally, so you can just register. We haven't launched the new season yet but it'll be out live in October. Sign up, find a team of girls, and there's actually a documentary, an award-winning documentary done about the program. So the same woman who did Inconvenient Truth wanted to profile Women in Tech and she did a whole documentary about Technovation and it's called CodeGirl and you can get it on any online video platform. >> That's awesome, well congratulations. It's super impressive work, very inspirational. And Anar, you're bringing the global perspective in and we were talking before we came on camera that you had a goal. Share with us your five year goal and an update of where you are in taking this out beyond the United States. >> Sure, so you know five years ago I was a mentor for Technovation. It was my first time and it was an amazing experience, and we won in the local competition and the regional competition and then placed third in the final competition. And after that I had a conversation with Tara about the amazing experience that I had, and we were chatting and she said she'd love to take this globally. And being the type A enthusiast that I am, I said oh, well okay that's fine, you know, I come from Kenya. I've lived in Canada, so we've got three-- >> John: The perfect mix. >> Yeah, three countries already, but I'm sure we can take it global. Well in fact with our work together, I was able to take Technovation to 18 countries in the first year, 34 countries in the second year, 72 countries in the third year and this year we're at over a hundred countries. And it hasn't been an easy road. We keep saying this to each other, we just keep trying. Our focus is on getting this program. We don't get caught into anything politics or any otherwise, and we just want to get to as many girls as we can. And as Tara said, partnerships have played an immense role in getting Technovation all over the world. So initially it was just cold calls, people I knew in Kenya, people I knew in Canada, people I knew in LinkedIn, my little circle. But then my circle got bigger and bigger and then lots and lots of opportunities presented themselves and one of them was the Tech Women program that's run by the State Department. They bring in senior technical women to Silicon Valley for an internship and then I said to them, Oh and when they go back home, what do they do? Shouldn't they do Technovation? And so we've done good partnerships with them, we've done a good partnership with the UN women. We've been profiled in the United Nations high-level panel report, and these things keep happening and the... But it's not just because of the community or the relationships we're building. Our program works. It is credible. Our impact reports show that these girls end up in tech-related fields as they progress, and that's the whole point of our purpose, right? Is to say look, girls everywhere should be entering technology fields and what Technovation does it it's building a pipeline of young girls to enter these careers all over the globe. >> Well it's no secret that the folks that know me and watch theCUBE and know the show know that I'm a huge proponent for computer science and you know it's kind of similar, we kind of fell into that in the '80s. It's now become very interesting in that the surface area for computer science has increased a lot, and it's not just coding heads down and squashing bugs and writing code. There's been a whole nother evolution of soft skills, Agile, Cloud, you're seeing a full transformation with the potential unlimited compute available. With mobile now 10 years plus into the iPhone, you see new infrastructure developing. So it creates the notion that okay, you can bring the science of computers to a whole nother level. That must be attractive as you guys have that capability to bring that to bear in the programs. Can you guys comment on how you guys see just the role of computer science playing out? This is not a gender thing, just more of, as I have a young daughter I try to say it's not just writing code you can certainly whip out a mobile app but it's really bringing design to it or bringing a personal passion that you might have. So what are some of the patterns you're seeing in this surface area of what's now known as computer science? >> I think it's super important because as technology has progressed we've been able to provide this program. If we were still programming with you know, the in front of screens and doing the what you see is what you get kind of thing without, we would not be there. I think the big thing that's happened in the last 10 years is the mobile phone. I mean if you find a girl anywhere today in the world, chances are she'll have a mobile phone on her and she's going to be loathe for you to take that one thing from her. You could take other things from her, but try taking that phone away from her, she will not let you. And so the fact that she's so attached to that mobile phone means that you can then tell her, hey you don't have to be just a consumer of that thing. You can be a producer of that thing. Anything that you see on there, you can actually design. This is power. This is your thing to good and great and better, and if we can shift that in their minds that this is their link to the world that's wide open, we're seeing that. >> Well the world in consumed by it, I mean a lot of women in the world will be consumers of product. Certainly with AI, the conversation over the weekend I was having with folks is the role of women. It's super important not just in AI, but as software becomes cognitive, you have to align with half the audience that's out there. So it'd be hard for a guy to program something that's going to be more oriented towards a woman. But it brings up the question of application, and whether it's self-driving cars or utility from work to play and everything in between. Software, and the role of software's going to be critical and that seems to be pretty clear. The question is how do you inspire young girls? That's the question that a lot of fellow males that I talk to who are fathers of daughters and or are promoting Women in Tech and see that vision, what are some of the inspiration areas? How do you really shake the interest and how do you have someone really kind of dig in and enjoy it and taste it and feel it? >> Right, right. >> So there is some research to back what the formula is that works and to drive change in behavior. And so there is this, one of the biggest sort of names in cognitive psychology is Albert Bandura. He's a professor at Stanford. But basically it's the same principles that drives say the addiction from alcohol or weight loss or any kind of new behavior change. So the first is you need to have exposure to someone who you respect showing that this is something of meaning. So the key words are someone you respect, right? And so media can play a very big role here for scale, right otherwise it's only maybe your teacher or your parent and if they're not exposed to technology, they can't really affect your, and so media can play a huge role there. Second is the experience itself, right. Like how do you make it easy to get started, and then it's like learning from video games, right. So you make it very very easy, like the first step is just come over here it'll be fun, there's pizza, come right, like your friends are coming. But then the feedback has to be very fast, so the first step and that's where a good curriculum matters, right. So that's where also working on a mobile phone is very appealing even though many apps is-- >> John: It's relatable. >> It's relatable but the feedback is instantaneous, and so the programming language that the girls use is block based so even though you don't have any prior programming background you can still build a working app so that's critical. Then human beings get tired very easily and so the feedback needs to keep changing. It has to be unpredictable. The third piece is that of expectations, and so you have to have very high expectations, and so that's why this current discussion around cognitive differences in gender I feel is missing the point because it's not what you're born with, what are you capable of? And so if we looked at our genetics we would never go to space, we would never go to the deepest parts of the ocean because we are not meant for that, right? But we had really high visions and expectations and so human beings rose to that. And then the last piece is less relevant in developed countries but it's still important so, it's sort of the human energy. We are not a brain dissociated from the body. We are connected, right, and so if you're hungry and tired and sleepy, not the right time to sort of make a dramatic change in your interests. So this is relevant, if for us, we try to figure out which countries are we going to work in, so post conflict, war torn areas are not the best areas to start a new program in. You need the right partners. >> So you're saying the biological argument of, of course they're different, men and women. >> Yes. >> But it's the capability, that's where people are missing the boat. >> And the support system, right? So have high expectations, provide them with the right support, but the most important thing is your own beliefs in that. >> Let's get your thoughts on that because I think you guys have a great program with Technovation. You mentioned mentors, key part of the formula most likely. What we hear in the conversations I've had with women peers has been you know, there's a real call to arms at the executive level now, folks my age in their fifties who made it who are there succeeding. They really want to give back and they really have recognized the value of having that peer mentorship and then inspiring the young generation. Whether it's part of the things we cover like Grace Hopper or Technovation things that you do. Or even just mentoring in their own communities. What does that mentorship look like that you guys see, that you'd like to see doubled down on or areas you'd like to see tweaked or perceptions that need to change. What's your thoughts on mentorship and the role of inspiring young girls? >> Mentorship from men? >> John: Men and women, I mean. >> From both. >> John: Well I see the mentoring with women, that's the first step. >> Right. >> I have a whole nother conversation in my opinion that the men need training. Not just like go to class and learn how to talk but how to empathize. >> Well my big thing has been that you know when you wanted to encourage women up the ladder in your companies or you want to encourage women to actually get in to technical roles. That intent should not be placed in the CSR department of your organization 'cause that speaks volumes, right. To say oh, well that's in the social responsibility department or the HR, that just says okay, so you're not really, you don't think we're capable of helping you with your product or service. We're sort of part of this and it's like, no, you know. So I think you want to mainstream it, which is what a lot of I and D things are trying to do now. >> John: Inclusion and diversity. >> Inclusion and diversity techs. >> To make it part of the fabric not a department checkbox. >> Exactly, and-- >> That's what you're getting at right? >> Exactly, and you know the evolvement of these departments to include everybody and to make it more diverse is going to be not frictionless, it will be friction until a time where it won't even be necessary. I and D departments should have one goal, which is to work themselves out of a job. If they can work themselves out of a job, then the company would have done what it needs to be done. But I think-- >> John: Meaning it's self sufficient, it's self governing. People are humans, there's respect for individuals. >> Yes. >> I mean this is basically comes down to if you look at it as humans it takes, every conversation could be tabled as, what? There's a person on the other side, it's a human being. Not a woman or a white male or whatever. >> And you know-- >> There's not there yet, but I mean certainly that would be the end game, so in that scenario that department's out of business the I and R, the inclusion and diversity department has done it's job. >> You don't need one, because exactly. You don't need one because you know, you're okay, and I think capabilities is really important. In corporations, and this isn't anybody's fault. This is just how it's been done. This has just been the culture of it, right? Who gets invited to which meetings? Who gets invited to which conferences, right? And so we heard the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki saying you know, she had to sort of elbow a little bit to say why am I not allowed at a certain conference? And it's like, maybe just wake up to that and say, well why aren't you involving more people at conferences and think tanks because you know, I come from a oil and gas background, and people used to do a lot of deals on the golf course because oil and gas people play golf a lot and a lot of deals used to happen. Well in the Valley we don't play golf a lot but we do do other things, conferences or get togethers and if you don't include the people in your team as groups or representationally well then they're not going to be there when you make these decisions. So maybe just be a little bit-- >> Exclusionary is a problem and Kleiner Perkins was taken to task. They had ski trips apparently planned and they didn't, well mostly guys and they didn't invite the woman partner. It was a big scandal. This is where they kind of make that, it's a normative thing they've got to change the norms. >> It's change the norms and if you actually want your company which is made of all kinds of people, to move really far ahead, don't be like that. Include everybody because the only goodness about that is you'll go forward. You don't include somebody, well you're going to hurt them and then they won't be able to contribute because they just can't and then your product or your service is going to fail. It's really simple. >> You mentioned the Susan Wojcicki post, was an article in Fortune magazine where she wrote a guest article and she mentioned her daughter. >> Yes. >> Was feeling the narrative which by the way changed from the original Google memo to have a different meaning, but that's what she heard. So the question to you guys that I have on that is with Technovation and the work that you're doing, you're exposed to a lot of the ecosystem, across the world not just in the US from young girls. >> Yes. >> They see what's coming down from the top or the media, so certainly it's the game of telephone as things translate down to the level of the girls. Is there a pattern that you see emerging in their eyes as they look at this nonsense of narratives that are moving around. It's kind of a moving train the narrative of gender, Women in Tech but ultimately they have to internalize it and what patterns do you see and what do you guys do to either nullify that misperception and how do you amplify the real perceptions? >> Can I take that one? I was in Nairobi at the Safaricom headquarters. I don't know if you know Safaricom but these are the people who came up with M-PESA, and this is the currency that you can do on your mobile phone and Kenya uses M-PESA, like almost everybody in Kenya uses M-PESA. So Safaricom is a big tel-co and it's a big deal in Kenya, and Safaricom has taken Technovation, it has embraced Technovation in a big way. And the people who embraced Technovation at Safaricom in a big way are both male. So Josephine who is a tech woman fellow who came here and then went back and started Technovation. Her director, Clibeau Royal, he's male and the CEO of Techno, CEO of Safaricom is Bob Collymore and he's also male and these men, if I could clone these men in every country with every company you would see this sort of moving away and shifting away that women aren't good engineers or can't be good engineers. They are embracing it in such a way, not because they like Technovation because they know for their business having more women and equal women and a diverse company is making their product and their goods better. >> John: Yeah, their arbitraging the labor pool, why would you ignore talent? >> Exactly. >> Whether they're over 50 or they're women, it doesn't matter. >> I want to add to that, so there's quite a bit of data, so the pattern's are not anything different from what the message girls get from school and parents, right. So if you look at the data, there are a hundred countries that legally discriminate against women. And so what industry, what message industry is telling is really firstly doesn't filter through to the larger population. Silicon Valley is a completely different bubble. But overall the message is girls are given is like, this is not for you, right, and so especially in some of the more sort of populous dense countries in the world. And so we have to fight a lot of these kinds of perceptions from the ground up, and the number one sort of gatekeeper is the father and so a key part of what we have now done to date is to provide sort of education and training to the parents because... There's a very moving story that, we work in a remote town in South India and a mentor who's very dedicated has been trying to get these girls to participate in Technovation. He did that and then there were, one girl was actually offered a job but the father kept sort of saying no, not needed, no girl in my family ever needs to work, but he fought it. And then so then the girl actually gets a job, and then a year later the father calls the mentor and said, "You know what, I'm so grateful that you did it "because a day after she got the job I got hit in "an accident and I lost my job." But it's these kind of perceptions that have to be changed one person at a time, which is what makes this very hard. Unless you actually are able to get the media to change sort of the messaging. And I think in the US which is, there is some very interesting studies on that question, right. If you were to think, would there be more women in STEM in poorer developing countries versus richer highly developed countries, where would you see more women in STEM? The answer is actually the women in poorer countries like Iran, Malaysia. The reason is because in an individualistic society like in the US where there's a lot of emphasis on materialistic but it's also about are you happy? The conversation has changed to, from parents telling children do what makes you happy, and then you're very prone to advertising, and advertising works when it's highly targeted and highly gendered. And so in the '60s there was no such thing as pink and blue, now there is pink and blue, right? And so now we have just made our entire society entirely susceptible to advertising, and girls are passive and compliant and boys are aggressive. And so then when you are looking at the board structures, there's no, it's very very hard to fix the problem right there, right? You have to go down deeper because you don't get leaders who are compliant, maybe secretaries are compliant. But you have to fix the message that teachers give girls, that parents give their baby girls when they're born. And so industry is just sort of in the spotlight right now, but the issue is not that of industry it's also that of society. >> Industry (mumbles) are supporting you guys is interesting that this industry seems to be chipping, and certainly Silicon Valley's a little bit different as you said, but in general it is a cultural parent thing. Any plans there with Technovation to have a parent track? (laughing) >> Yes totally, I mean I think right now 10% of parents actually volunteer to be mentors, kind of like say Girl Scout troop leaders and so we are trying to figure out okay what is a way to involve parents and to make them part of the discussion. >> Well we'll keep the conversations going with Technovation you guys do incredible work. I'll just end the segment here by just telling a little bit about what you're working on right now? What are your goals? What are you passionate about? What are some of the things you'd like to do in the next half of the year, next year? What are some of the things going, Tara, you start. >> I think for us is to go deeper, so we are just launching a partnership with MIT to increase sort of the rigor of the curriculum, the rigor of the training and also provide more personalized learning and so this is the power of technology so we don't want to have girls drop out of the program because it's a hard program. So really trying to bring the best from industry to support that. >> Right and so you know my goal is to get Technovation to all the countries in the world, but keeping in mind we're making sure that it's delivered in a really good way and so girls complete the program et cetera, and the model that I hope to replicate in many other countries is the model that we're trying within Canada. So the new Canadian government is very interested in making sure that all of its citizens are you know, innovative, ready for the technology change that's coming there, and they launched a new fund called CanCode and so we have been part of that application process and we hope to have Technovation in almost every city in Canada, across Canada, and to really get this going and we, right now Canada is, everybody's like, you know, favorite country. And we hope that if we can do this in Canada, then other countries will follow and so that this program will get to as many girls as it can. >> Well you know how I feel. I feel computer science training in general should be standard in curriculums, because of all the conversation around automation. Automation is the fear is that jobs will go away. The data we have from our research over at Wikibon shows that the billions being automated away is non-differentiated labor. >> Right. >> Which implies that a working knowledge of those machines will shift to the value side. So you know I'm on the pro side of AI and automation personally. Especially I think it's great for-- >> But there's an education side too. >> There's the education side and I think this is a real fun area. You guys are at the cutting edge of it, both doing great work. I appreciate you taking the time and we'll have you back in for an update. Tara, Inar thanks so much. This is theCUBE Conversation here in Palo Alto I'm John Furrier thanks for watching. (upbeat happy music)

>> From the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle, it's theCUBE. Covering Imagine A Better World. A global education conference sponsored by Amazon Web Services. >> Hey, welcome back everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown Seattle at the AWS Imagine Educate Show. It's a public sector show. It's the first time they've ever done it really focusing just on education as opposed to the regular public sector show or the AWS Summits and re:Invent that you're very familiar with. We're excited to be here. One of the big themes here is colleges partnering with high schools. And we're excited to have our next guest really talk about how that's working in this program. We have Howard Stahl. He's a professor at Santa Monica College. Howard, great to see you. >> Thank you. >> And with him is Koda Kol. He's a teacher at Roosevelt High in East L.A. and also an adjunct professor at Santa Monica College. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> So, let's just jump into it. There's a big conversation about training people for the next generation of cloud skills. It's good for the kids, it's also good for the employers, it's good for Amazon, it's good for their customers and their partners. How are the kids feeling about this? How is this program being accepted by kids? Is it cool, is it something they want to do? How hard of a sell is it? >> The students are engaged. They're learning something that is immediately relevant to societal's demand. Our students, they're setting up, spinning up web servers, file servers, even VPN, and the VPN servers is going to disrupt the way schools strategize and implement security, because now when they go back to the high schools they're bypassing all these web securities using VPN. >> Right. >> But they really do love it. The students seem to really drink it up. >> They get it. >> Yeah, they do. >> So is there a particular classification of app or of all the different things that you're teaching 'em, database, security, this or that, that resonates more than others or what is it that connects to what they do every day that makes them think, "Hey, this is cool, I engage "these things every day. "What a great career to get into." >> Yeah, I think, they see Amazon in their daily life every day. Delivering them stuff, making them buy stuff, having them deliver things. And they can see as they peel apart the layers and see behind the scenes how Amazon actually gets that done. >> Right. >> And it seems immediately relevant to them. >> Right. >> And so the student interest has been fantastic. >> Been fantastic. And Koda too, I think it's always the thing too with, especially the kids when they're in high school, 15, 16 right, they're starting to get a little bit of attitude. "Why should I read 400-year English novels Dad, "how's that going to help me in my job?" or "Why am I taking chemistry, I don't want to be a doctor? "I get it I got to take it to get into college "but I don't really want to take Chemistry." This is probably something a little bit different in terms of direct visibility into the application. I mean, those other things have applications too, you just don't see it when you're 15. But this they can see, right? They can see how it's going to directly impact them in a positive way. >> Yes, and it also puts everyone at the same playing field. Students that normally fail their English classes, Math classes, now they're in the same classroom and learning content where everyone is on the same page. So, you got your high performing students also with your students that are failing a class, trying to discover what they want to do in life. >> Right. >> They're together, they're working together. Find a common interest and excelling, engaged and asking for more. "Where can we take more classes? "This is what I want to do, "this is where I want to be." >> That's great. Another thing, we were just at a high school competition called Technovation earlier this week where mainly girl's teams from all over the world building applications. Same kind of a thing. Get 'em involved in an application that they can really see a difference and they get it. And I wonder if some of your kids talk about, everybody wants to be mission driven today, and kids want to do stuff that has a higher impact on society, right? We've got four different garbage cans we have to sort our stuff in 'cause we want to be renewable and take care of the environment. Do they see that software is the easiest way to make a huge impact globally, do they get that? >> They get that, they see it. They're instantly creating servers in 5-10 minutes. Going on their servers, setting up websites. They see the relevance. They're taking advantage of the technology. >> Yeah, that's great. So Howard, I wonder if you could speak a little bit about how a partnership with AWS enables you to do things that you wouldn't be able to do if they weren't helping in this whole process? >> At SMC we've been working with AWS for about four years now to spin up this program. The partnership has been fantastic. AWS has been really giving and helpful. They helped train faculty. So we got professional development from them. Now, as part of this program students get credits on the platforms. Faculty get credits on the platform. They've been helping us with advertising and all kinds of other great things and it's really been a wonderful, wonderful partnership, really fantastic. And that industry connection really makes a big difference in making the program succeed. >> You mentioned something I want to follow up on in terms of the staff. We talk a lot about the kids here and the impact on the kids and their education, but I'm curious to get your take on how this has impacted the staff. This new classification of learning if you will, around cloud computing specifically. This subset of computer science which has had a hard time squeezing in between science and math, especially at the high school level. But how are the staff, the teachers taking to this? Do they see this as a great new opportunity? A bunch of new skills to learn? That's got to be kind of invigorating for them, I imagine as well. >> I think so. I think it's really invigorated people who've been around. It keeps us on our toes, makes us learn new things. It's very exciting for many of us and it has been great. And the wonderful thing about computer science is that it changes a lot. As I often say in math, "They haven't invented any new numbers." But in computer science, what I learned when I was in school. Oh my gosh, things have changed a great deal. And so there's a commitment to keep current. And in the community colleges definitely we try to keep our curriculum current with what industry needs. >> Right, I think it's a really great statement on the role of community colleges, in a very specific role to help match skills with needs in jobs. I mean just really concrete, really straightforward, really kind of a simple mission. >> Yeah, and Amazon actually has connected us with local employers near SMC that have helped us validate our curriculum and actually are very interested in hiring the graduates out of our program right away, 'cause there is such a dearth of industry talent in this particular field. >> Which is great, just to close that loop, right. And if I recall, your certificate program is the model now that's been rolled out to all 19 of the L.A. community colleges. >> Yeah, so this program has really spun up, and become much, much bigger than just one particular college. So we developed a number of classes at SMC and a certificate, and we're using that now as a model throughout L.A. county to bootstrap AWS skills in all the local community colleges. 19 other colleges are working with us. >> Right, right. Agreeing to run the same classes at their institutions. And that's very exciting as well. They've also agreed to find local partner high schools to work with as well. So we're really trying to build a hub of AWS experience down in L.A. in what we call "Silicon Beach". >> Right, right. And then the goal ultimately is to get an associate program, right, over some period of time when you get whatever the certification is, or that process. >> Yeah, so we're working on building an AA Degree in cloud computing as well. >> That's great. Koda, you look like you had something to jump in there. All good? >> All good. >> Okay, good. So I want to give you the last word in terms of what would you say to educators that are not in L.A. about what this type of program has brought to you, and more importantly your students in your everyday life at Roosevelt High? >> It has changed the lives of many students. It's changed my perspective on how I see education because in fact it was a little difficult getting the students to be engaged initially, but ever since we launched this cloud computing every student, we can't get enough classes, sections, open. We open one section up and it gets filled. The students are in class. They want to learn the material. It's a good time to be in education. I love it. >> Well good. Well thanks for sharing the passion, it comes through. >> Well the passion starts with our department chair, Howard Stahl here. He's very passionate and it resonates with all the staff members, which resonates with the students. So now we have the synergy that's happening that we hope to eventually distribute to all the other campuses, and make a model. Use Santa Monica as a model. >> Great. Well Koda, Howard, thanks for taking a few minutes. And, really enjoy this story. I look forward to the follow up next year. >> Thank you. >> Alright he's Koda, he's Howard, I'm Jeff! You're watching theCUBE from downtown Seattle at AWS Imagine Education. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

(electronic music) >> Hello and welcome to the Cube conversation. I'm John Furrier here in the Palo Alto studios with two great guests, Tara Chklovski, who is the founder and CEO of Iridescent and Anar Simpson, global ambassador of Technovation. First, thanks for coming in today. I appreciate moving your schedules around to come in. Thanks for coming into our studio. >> You bet, yeah. >> So Sundar Pichai was at your event. That's the big story this past week has been the Google memo from a low level employee who wrote some things that got the whole world shaking around gender biases, role of women in tech, and as we do a lot of women in tech as you know at the Cube. Hundreds and hundreds of women in over the years, friends, and also smart people. This is a pretty big moment for you guys. You had an event at Google. Sundar canceled his all hands meeting to address this under fear of retaliation and safety but came to your event on the Google campus. Surprising to many, as written up on VCode and the Verge. Pretty notable. So tell us about what happened. >> So this was the 2017 Technovation world pitch competition and the award ceremony and Sundar came and he talked to a lot of the girls who were presenting their ideas to solve problems in their community and then he had a little bit of a one on one conversation to learn a little bit more about the kinds of problems, their interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and then he addressed the crowd of 900 plus supporters and really reemphasized that there's a place for women in technology, and more importantly, for him and Google, that there's a place for these girls at Google. >> Talk about your mission. >> Right, so Technovation's mission is to empower girls to become technology entrepreneurs and it's much more than just learning how to code. It's really about telling girls that if there's a problem in their community, technology can help them have a very powerful voice. We've been running for eight years and Anar is our global ambassador who has helped us grow to more than 100 countries, but Technovation's relationship with Google is eight years long. Google has supported Technovation, was the very first technology company to support Technovation way before any other company saw the potential and since then, since 2010, Google has provided funding, mentors, spaces, not just across the U.S. but globally. >> Is it beyond entrepreneurship and beyond coding? Talk about specifically what you guys are bringing to folks outside of Silicon Valley. >> Oh, sure, so my role as the global ambassador for Technovation is really getting to girls all over the world and saying to them, you need to be engaged in technology. And what we found, as Tara mentioned, we've been doing this now, I've been doing this now for five years, is that we're building a movement. We're bringing in girls, we're bringing in mentors, we're bringing in companies and governments together to make this a reality for girls in tech careers in their own countries. >> What's some examples during your life when you had those kind of change moments? >> I think Iridescent, we are now in our 12th year, and every couple of months, it's a change moment because it's a test of grit and just believing in yourself because I started it with just an idea and grew it to be an organization that's all over the world and it doesn't come with just full hearted focus and a lot of courage is what I've seen, I think. I've also seen that how much you are passionate about an idea really swings how the other person is thinking and so the idea only matters so much, I think, of course I mean the track record and everything has to be there, but I think a lot of it depends on your own passion for it and I think I've come to realize that passion is maybe proportional to the complexity and the impact of the problem you're trying to solve, so if you're only trying to solve a small problem, you lose interest in two years. And maybe that's why, I'm always curious, like why do so many start ups fail after two or three years? It's because maybe you came in not thinking that you're going to change the world, maybe you came in because you wanted to make quick money or exit or whatever and so I think for me, it's this is my life's work and we want to bring more underrepresented communities into innovation, and so it's not something that is going to be solved easily. >> Let's get back to the Sundar event that you guys were at because I think it's a good conversation to have because one of the things that came out of the brouhaha that became that memo really was a conversation publicly. Now, it's been polarized here. There's just kind of a hate kind of mindset with it most of the time, plenty of stuff on the internet to go read through but there was actually some good conversations in the industry. What was the conversation like during the event because this was in full conversation mode while you guys were having your 2017 world pitch competition, which he presided over and had a speech to the entrepreneurs. What was it like? What were some of the conversations that were taking place? >> I think the most powerful piece of the whole evening was really the girls walking in and seeing the incredible diversity that we have in this world, right? So we had girls from and mentors and supporters from over 30 countries and just them coming and waving the flags and different faces and different cultures all trying to make the world a better place, I mean it's rare that you see that using technology and I think it's very fitting that Silicon Valley is the center of this, but I think there was not one dry eye in the group because you realize, the conversation is so much bigger than one company, one country. It is something that affects us as all human beings and you're believing in human potential so I think seeing these young girls, some of them 10 years old, there was this, I think, maybe the crowd's favorite was these 10 year old girls from Cambodia who want to improve the lives of these people working in cottage industries, right, and they created an app like say Etsy or something, but focused on Cambodian products and the courage of these little girls, I think everybody walks away feeling, okay there's hope. Even in the midst of all of this discussion. >> Yeah it creates a lightning rod in some ways and hopefully it will move on to the substantive conversations. How do you guys feel about what happened and as you take this mission forward? You guys are doing some amazing work, we'll do a whole nother segment, I think, that's on that in a minute, but given the landscape now, how do you view this and how are you talking with friends and colleagues and family members around it because I've certainly had conversations with my friends, certainly on the east coast, like no, no, that's not the way Silicon Valley is. Google actually is a very cool company, it's not exactly like what you think it is. They're very open. They support a lot of great initiatives and they're candid. And then I go on and explain, it's like a university, serene little area, have this little ecosystem, that they've kind of built a university culture, if you will. But it is open and there's things that happen that get misrepresented and that was my take. That's for the folks that filmed at Silicon Valley. But what's your take? What do you think about what's happening? >> So this is really, really good that you brought up the university campus environment. So I have two girls. They're both millennials and they're both in the tech world and we have this discussion and here is the perfect answer, right. So one of my daughters, Kat, she said that when she read that, she thought it was basically a gathering of his thoughts and it was a gathering of his thoughts because he was probably asked to adhere to I&D staff that's going on in every company right now, right, and so it was a little bit of a, wait a second, you know. He wants to sort of respond to his being asked to go to I&D staff and then Katia said, but you know mom, it was just a gathering of his thoughts and this is an essay, and it was a poorly written one, and if I was grading it, I would give him a C minus. Then my older daughter said-- >> Host: I would have given him an F on that one. She's generous. >> Because he did, he tried to make it very professional and very academic and she said but it was a first draft, he has not, he didn't proceed to toughen it up, solidify it, find more evidence, have it critiqued. It was just a gathering of his thoughts and he hasn't gone through the presses and both these girls graduated from Berkeley and so I think they would know what a C paper looks like versus an A paper. And then my older daughter said, and the other thing is, you know, it's not like I&D efforts are actually bad but what we're trying to do is we're trying to condense the time in which we're trying to get women at equal pairing in the tech world. Now, you know women have never been at equal pairing in many professions. They were not enough doctors, lawyers, accountants, you name it, right? Main Street, Wall Street has never had equality. And now we're looking at technology and the reason everything just flairs up in technology is because we live in today's world where news and information is available all the time. So there's two things going on. Information is readily available. People can come into the conversation very quickly and whenever anything happens in Silicon Valley, the effect is massive because all eyes are on Silicon Valley all the time. So it's a bit of a distorted view but we have gone through this. It took a long time for women to become astronauts. It took a long time for women to become neurosurgeons. It took a long time for women to become lawyers and dentists. It will take a little bit of time for women to become top technologists, but we're hoping that it'll shorten and things happen quickly in the valley and we're trying to get that quicker and so we're seeing a little bit of friction. This is responses from millennials so for me, it was like, yes. >> Host: Interesting perspective. >> Yes, great perspective, and when Sundar said these things at the world pitch, I was sitting in the second row and every time he said something I would clap real loud and Todd said, why are you being so good and I said I need to hear that, I need to hear him say that because-- >> Host: What did he say that moved you? >> Oh he just said, you know you have a place in technology and I said yes, we needed to hear you say that right away, all the time and especially to these girls, these eight to 18 year old girls, and all of the ones that come from 100 countries that weren't at Google but were listening to the live pitch. >> We seem to be going back to a crowd that wants to see respect for the individual and citizenship. These were company values at Hewlett Packard, when I was there, that I always remembered was unique. They go hey, you can have differences, but if you have respect for the individual and you have a citizenship mindset. That seemed to have been lost in tech. With this whole movement you see and win at all costs, being an asshole is what you got to do to be a CEO or flip it fast or bros program, so it became a very selfish environment. It seems to be shifting now, with this conversation. Your thoughts? >> So I have to say, doing a start up is not easy. Getting successful in this world is not easy. Shaking the status quo is not easy, so I have to say that the same people, and we're not going to name names, but the same people who are very arrogant and have little respect for the laws and rules, they have given us products that are changing peoples' lives. There is no question about it. Without their bravado, without their I don't care, I'm just going to go over you if you don't comply with me, a lot of ride sharing wouldn't even have happened, and to me, when you provide employment, when you provide alternative services, when you provide something that takes away the way things were, I see that as a plus. I think what we're seeing is that's needed to a certain extent and then you realize, okay now we have to get back to growing it and working it and if you keep going in that mode, you probably won't succeed. >> So being tough and determined and having grit is what you need to break through those walls as a start up. You don't need to be necessarily a jerk, but your point is if you're creating value. >> If you're creating value, and that sometimes you actually have to be a jerk because there are very few brave, non-jerk people who have gone against a big unions and big monopolies. Right, you and I, I would not be able to go against the taxi commission. You need somebody who is a complete a-hole to do that. And he did that and it made a difference. He doesn't have to continue to do that and that's the point. >> There's a meme going around on the internet, if you want to make friends, sell ice cream. >> Exactly! >> So you cannot always win friends when you're pioneering things. >> And you know, there is a balance and maybe we've fostered the fact that you need to be that attitude for everything and that's not true so the pendulum shifted a bit too much but I think that we shouldn't scorn them because really they have made a difference, let's just let everybody get back to-- >> Its a tough world out there to survive and you have to have that kind of sharp elbows to make things happen and it's the value you're providing is how you do it. >> Exactly. >> Well it's no secret to the folks that know me and watch The Cube and know the Silicon Valley that I'm a huge proponent for computer science and, you know, as someone who kind of fell into that in the '80s, it's now become very interesting in that the surface area for computer science has increased a lot and its not just coding and heads down and squashing bugs and writing code. There's been a whole nother evolution of Soft Scales, Agile, Cloud, you've seen a full transformation with the potential unlimited compute available, with mobile now 10 years plus into the iPhone you see new infrastructure developing so it creates the notion that, okay, you can bring the science of computers to a whole nother level. That must be attractive as you guys have that capability to bring that to bear in the programs. Can you guys comment on how you guys see just the role of computer science playing out and this is not a gender thing, this is more of, as I have a young daughter I try to say, it's not just writing code, you could certainly whip out a mobile app, but it's really bringing design to it or bringing a personal passion that you might have, so what are some of the patterns you're seeing in the surface area of what's now known as computer science? >> I think it's super important because as technology has progressed, we've been able to provide this program. If we were still programming in front of screens and doing the what you see is what you get kind of thing without, we would not be there. I think the big thing that's happened in the last 10 years is the mobile phone. I mean, if you find a girl anywhere today in the world, chances are she'll have a mobile phone on her and she's going to be loathe for you to take that one thing from her. You could take other things from her, but try taking that phone away from her. She will not let you. And so the fact that she's so attached to that mobile phone means that you can then tell her, hey, you don't have to be just a consumer of that thing, you can be a producer of that thing. Anything that you see on there, you can actually design. This is power. This is your thing to good and great and better. And if we can shift that in their minds that this is their link to the world that's wide open, we're seeing that. >> Well the world is consumed by it. I mean, a lot of women in the world will be consumers of product, certainly with AI, the conversation over the weekend I was having with folks as the role of women is super important not just in AI, but as software becomes cognitive, you have to align with half the audience that's out there. Must be hard for a guy to program something that's going to be more oriented towards women, but it brings up the question of application and whether it's self driving cars or utility from work to play and everything in between, software and the role of software is going to be critical and that seems to be pretty clear. Question is how do you inspire young girls. That's the question that a lot of fellow males that I talk to who are fathers of daughters and who are promoting women in tech and see that vision. What are some of the inspiration areas? How do you really shake the interest and how do you have someone really kind of dig in and enjoy it and taste it and feel it? >> So there is some research to back what the formula is that works to drive change in behavior and so there is, one of the biggest names in cognitive psychology is Albert Bandura. He's a professor at Stanford. But basically it's the same principles that drive, say, the addiction from alcohol or weight loss or any kind of new behavior change. So the first is you need to have exposure to someone whom you respect showing that this is something of meaning, and so the key words are someone you respect, right? And so media can play a very big role here, for scale, right, otherwise it's only maybe a teacher or a parent and if they're not exposed to technology they can't really affect your... And so media can play a huge role there. Second is the experience itself, like how do you make it easy to get started. And then it's like learning from video games, so you make it very, very easy, like the first step is just come over here, it'll be fun, there's pizza, come, right, like your friends are coming, but then the feedback has to be very fast, so the first step, and that's where your good curriculum matters. So that's where also working on a mobile phone is very appealing even though maybe apps is not-- >> Host: It's relatable. >> It's relatable but the feedback is instantaneous and so the programming language that the girls use is block based so even though you don't have any prior programming background, you can still build a working app, so that's critical. Then human beings get tired very easily and so the feedback needs to keep changing. It has to be unpredictable. The third piece is that of expectations. Sou have to have very high expectations and so that's why this current discussion around cognitive differences in gender, I feel is missing the point, because it's not what you're born with, what are you capable of? And so if we looked at our genetics, we would never go to space, we would never go to the deepest parts of the ocean, because we're not meant for that. But we had really high visions and expectations and so human beings rose to that. And then the last piece is less relevant in developing countries but it's still important, so it's sort of the human energy. We're not a brain disassociated from the body, we're connected, right? And so if you're hungry and tired and sleepy, not the right time to sort of make a dramatic change in you interests, so this is relevant like for us, we tried to figure out which countries are we going to work in, so post-conflict, war-torn areas are not the best areas to start a new program in. You need the right-- >> So you're saying the biological argument of, of course they're different, men and women, but it's the capability, that's where people are missing the boat. >> And the support system. So have high expectations, provide them with the right support, but the most important thing is your own beliefs in that. >> Let's get your thoughts on that 'cause I think you guys have a great program with Technovation, you mentioned mentors. Key part of the formula most likely. What we here, in the conversation I've had with women here has been, there's a real call to arms at the executive level now, folks my age in the 50s who made it, who were there, succeeding, they really want to give back and they really have recognized the value of having that peer mentorship and then inspiring the young generation, whether it's part of the things that we cover like Grace Hopper or Technovations, things that you do, or even just mentoring in their own communities. What does that mentorship look like that you guys see that you'd like to see double down on or areas you'd like to see tweaked or perceptions that need to change? What's your thoughts on mentorship and the role of inspiring young girls? >> Mentorship from men? >> Host: Men and women, I mean... >> From both? >> Well I see the mentorship with women, as that's the first step. I have a whole nother conversation, in my opinion, about the men needing training, not just like go to class and learn how to talk but how to empathize. >> Well my big thing has been that when you wanted to encourage women up the ladder in your companies or you wanted to encourage women to actually get in to technical roles, that intent should not be placed in the CSR department of your organization 'cause that speaks volumes, right? To say oh, well that's in the social responsibility department or the HR, that just says, okay, so you're not really, you don't think we're capable of helping you with your product or service, we're sort of part of this, and it's like, no. So I think you want to mainstream it, which is what a lot of I&D things are trying to do now. >> Host: Inclusion and diversity. >> Inclusion and diversity. >> To make it part of the fabric, not a department checkbox. >> Exactly. >> That's what you're getting at. >> Exactly and the involvement of these departments, to include everybody and to make it more diverse is going to be not frictionless. It will be friction until a time where it won't even be necessary. I&D departments should have one goal which is to work themselves out of a job. If they can work themselves out of a job, then the company would have done what it needs to be done, but I think-- >> Meaning it's self sufficient, it's self governing, people are humans, it's respect for individuals. I mean this just basically comes down to, if you look at it as humans, it takes it, every conversation could be tabled, that's what? There's a person on the other side, it's a human being, not a woman or a white male or whatever. They're not there yet, but I mean certainly that would be the endgame, so in that scenario, that department's out of business, the I&R, the inclusion and diversity department, has done its job. >> Exactly, you don't need one because you know you're okay. And I think capabilities is really important in corporations and this isn't anybody's fault, this is just how it's been done. This has just been the culture of it. Who gets invited to which meetings. Who gets invited to which conferences. And so we heard the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki saying, you know, she had to sort of elbow a little bit to say hey, why am I not allowed at a certain conference and it's like, maybe just wake up to that and say why aren't you involving more people at conferences and think tanks because, you know, I come from an oil and gas background and people used to do a lot of deals on the golf course 'cause oil and gas people play golf a lot and a lot of deals used to happen, well in the Valley we don't play golf a lot but we do do other things, conferences or get togethers, and if you don't include the people in your team as groups or representationally, well they're not going to be there when you make these decisions so maybe just be a little bit-- >> Exclusionary is a problem and Kleiner Perkins was taken to task, they had ski trips apparently planned and they did all mostly guys and they didn't invite the women part, there was a big scandal. This is where they make that, it's a normative thing and they've got to change the norms. >> Change the norms and if you actually want your company which is made of all kinds of people to move really far ahead, don't be like that. Include everybody because the only goodness about that is you'll go forward. If you don't include somebody, well you're going to hurt them. >> I want to add to that. So there's quite a bit of data. So the patterns are not anything different from what the message girls get from school and parents. So if you look at the data there are 100 countries that legally discriminate against women and so what message industry is telling, is really, firstly it doesn't filter through to the larger population. Silicon Valley is a completely different problem, but overall, the messages girls are given is like, this is not for you, and so especially in some of the most populous, dense countries of the world. And so we have to fight a lot of these kinds of perceptions from the ground up and the number one gatekeeper is the father and so a key part of what we've now done to date is to provide education and training to the parents because there's a very moving story that we work in a remote town in south India and a mentor who's very dedicated has been trying to get these girls to participate in Technovation. He did that and then one girl was actually offered a job but the father kept saying no, not needed, no girl in my family ever needs to work, but he fought it and so the girl actually gets a job. And then a year later, the father calls the mentor and said, you know what, I'm so grateful that you did it because a day after she got the job, I got hit in an accident and I lost my job, but it's these kinds of perceptions that have to be changed one person at a time which is what makes this very hard, unless you actually are able to get the media to change the messaging and I think in the U.S., which is, there's some very interesting studies and a question, right, like if you were to think, would there be more women in STEM in poorer, developing countries versus richer, highly developed countries. Where would you see more women in STEM? The answer is actually the women in the poorer countries like Iran, Malaysia. The reason is because in an individualistic society like in the U.S., where there's a lot of emphasis on materialistic but it's also about are you happy. The conversation has changed from parents telling children and do what makes you happy and then you are very prone to advertising and advertising works when it's highly targeted and highly gendered. And so in the 60s, there was no such thing as pink and blue. Now there is pink and blue. And so now we just made our entire society entirely susceptible to advertising. And girls are passive and complaint and boys are aggressive and so then when you're looking at the board structures, it's very, very hard to fix the problem right there. You have to go down deeper because you don't get leaders who are complaint. Maybe secretaries are compliant. But you have to fix the message that teachers give girls, that parents give their baby girls when they are born, and so industry is just sort of in the spotlight right now but the issue is not that of industry, I think it's also that of society. >> Industry, if you look at what Sundar is supporting you guys it's interesting that this industry seems to chipping and certainly Silicon Valley is a little different as you said, but in general, it is a cultural parent thing. Any plans there with Technovations to have a parent track? >> Yes, totally. I mean, I think, right now, 10% of parents actually volunteer to be mentors, kind of like girl scout troop leaders, and so we are trying to figure out, okay, what is a way to involve parents and to make them part of the discussion? >> Tara, Anar, thanks so much. This is The Cube conversation here in Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching.