TECHNOVATION GIRLS
Do you want to make a positive impact on your community with technology? Join our community for a 12-week long program that teaches young girls, like you, how to build a business and mobile app that solves a real challenge in your community.
You will be guided through the program and learn industry-relevant skills from our community of over 300 mentors skilled in ideation, marketing, business development, user experience design, pitch development, videography, and software development.
The Technovation[MN] program ends with a state wide celebration, Appapalooza, where teams pitch and demo their app to a panel of business professional judges, family and friends. The semi-finalists compete on a regional level, and finalists are selected to compete globally where they pitch to executives and investors in the hopes of winning seed funding and help to commercialize their app.
Many of our Appapalooza winners will continue to refine their idea and app and go on to compete in other regional startup competitions such as the Minnesota Cup Youth Division and Minnedemo and compete year after year!
In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in STEM fields, but only 0.4% of female college freshmen plan to major in Computer Science. This lack of participation in such an important and growing field has serious consequences for the future of technological innovation. If women aren’t represented in technology, your ideas, concerns, and designs won’t be included when we create the cities, cars, infrastructure, medicines, communications, companies, and governments of tomorrow. Teach a girl to code and she can create anything she sees missing in this world.
2023 Technovation Girls Season:
- Registration Opens – October 11, 2022
- Official Season Launch – January 7, 2023
- Registration Deadline (for Students & Mentors) – March 2023
- Submission Deadline – April 18, 2023
- Judging & Celebration – May 2023
- Appapalooza – May 20, 2023
- World Summit -August 2023
TECHNOVATION GIRLS COMPETITION PARTICIPANTS & DIVISIONS
Participants– Teams of up to 5 girls in middle school or high school (ages 8-18)
Commitment– 40-60 hours: 2-4 guided hours per week from Jan through Apr; Appapalooza live pitch event in May
Experience– No prior programming experience is needed
Accessibility– The entire curriculum can be accessed online
Beginner Division – Students between 8-12 years old as of August 1 compete to win recognition for their work developing an app or an AI program. They then participant in the Technovation Girls World Pitch to show off their talent. Location TBD.
Junior Division – Students between 13-15 years old as of August 1 compete to win seed funding to bring their app to market and participate in the Technovation Girls World Pitch to show off their talent. Location TBD.
Senior Division – Students ages 16 – 18 years old as of August 1 compete to win funding to bring their app to market and participate in the Technovation Girls World Pitch to compete on the global stage. Location TBD.
T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST – DUE MARCH 5, 2023!
We want you to design a t-shirt that encompasses the values of the Technovation Challenge to inspire and empower girls to build and leverage technology to make an impact on their communities. This year’s theme is grassroots community building… So let your imagination run wild!
Submission Guidelines:
- T-shirt with a black background with white writing – can also incorporate the Technovation Girls Brand Colors
- Image should be designed on a 12 x 12 inch canvas
- Digital or drawing
- No dates should be included (Ex.: Technovation 2022)
- Open to all students ages: 8-18
- Theme: Grassroots Community Building
- Must be an ORIGINAL design!!!
- Submit using a .jpg or .png file type
- Keep it very simple for printing (one to two colors is best)
There is a $150 prize for the winning design!! Submissions must be received by March 5, 2023.
CORPORATE SPONSORED CHALLENGES
Some of our most supportive sponsors provide additional opportunities to inspire the girls in the program.
Benefits include the ability to:
- Meet outstanding Minnesota business leaders
- Practice your live pitch before Appapalooza
- Build understanding of culture and technology at leading businesses
- Receive additional mentorship and coaching
- Broaden your technology skill development
- Check out your competition
Below are the 2023 sponsored challenges. Find a printable version here.
CARGILL NOURISH THE WORLD
Cargill Women in Information Technology (CWIT) are partnering with Technovation[MN] to take on its challenge to incorporate Cargill purpose. Teams whose apps focus on nourishing the world (animals, humans and plants) will receive an opportunity to virtually present to a global team of senior leaders on Cargill’s Day of Development. Registration will open in Q1 2023.
US BANK CHALLENGE
Incorporate one or more of the elements of the U.S. Bank Community Pillars into your mobile app to qualify, including work (e.g. workforce education, economic prosperity, entrepreneurship and financial literacy), home (e.g. neighborhood stability & revitalization), and play (e.g. arts, culture and recreation). Teams who are selected will receive the U.S. Bank Innovation Toolkit to help you clearly define your mobile app and an opportunity to virtually present to the managing committee. Registration will open in Q1 2023.
ALEXA SKILL CHALLENGE: LIFE HACKS
Have you ever wondered “how does Alexa know everything”? How does she actually work? Or, why can’t Alexa do this for me? Well, Technovation[MN] is offering a chance to not only understand the game-changing voice technology but build an Alexa skill of your very own.
If you are interested in building Alexa into your app project this year, we will have technical mentors from Amazon available to work with teams that would like to utilize this technology.
Participants will work with Amazon experts to set up their Amazon Web Services account and build an example skill from scratch. You will start your project with a working Alexa Skill that you can modify and build upon for your customized skill.
More details on this challenge will be made available at Launchapalooza on January 7th!
PAST REGIONAL WINNERS AND APPS
Get inspired by reviewing past Technovation projects and winners and their demo and pitch video.
An excerpt from Tien VoNguyen, Technovation[MN] participant and Student Ambassador. Read her whole post – If not us who, if not now when – here.
Through Technovation I met role models already in technology and made concrete what I wanted to work toward after high school. Everyone I met along this journey showed me how to be unapologetic, to be unapologetically female, to be unapologetically intelligent, to be unapologetically assertive, to be an unapologetic leader. And now, I want to major in Biomedical Engineering, and work toward helping girls bridge the gender gap, particularly in STEM.