On October 22, the App Inventor Foundation conducted a virtual workshop at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico in collaboration with ELENA-Climate Academy, a youth-led initiative that empowers girls to use technology to tackle environmental problems.

In the past, girls at the ELENA-Climate Academy have reflected on how natural resources are used and how climate change affects women in particular. They have also explored new technological developments related to sustainability and experimented with mobile and web development, electronics, and chemistry. 

The goal of the workshop was to inspire the high school girls to learn more about STEM fields as they think about what they want to pursue after high school. In an effort to expose the girls to computer science and programming, the workshop also introduced them to App Inventor, an intuitive, visual programming tool that allows users to quickly and easily build mobile apps. “Since the girls have some exposure to understanding problems surrounding the global climate crisis, the workshop enabled them to use technology to create solutions in the area,” said Giovanna Romero Contreras of Tecnológico de Monterrey.

The workshop kicked off with two researchers from the App Inventor team—Dr. Natalie Lao, Executive Director of the App Inventor Foundation, and Prerna Ravi, an MIT EECS PhD candidate—sharing their journeys and experiences as women in STEM. Lao discovered her passion for STEM education as an undergraduate at MIT, and has since pursued this interest through her involvement with App Inventor. Ravi is similarly interested in empowering underrepresented groups through educational technology, a topic she is currently investigating through a PhD at MIT.