Hello everyone, 2018 has been eventful year and would like to keep update you all on what happened throughout the year!
We had three major events; Let’s Animate, an animation workshop for girls aged 10 to 18, Data That Speaks, a data analytics and Visualization class to cater for the older ladies and the SheInnovates Boot Camp, a two-week non-residential camp for secondary school girls.
Our 1st workshop of the year 2018 under the ATG Educate series was Let’s Animate, a 5-day educational workshop for girls age 10 - 16, exposing students to the animation concept and the opportunity to create and have fun. It was structured to provide an experiental session, equipping and exposing them to the application of technology and thus encouraging team work.
This workshop held in April at one of Chams center situated at Lagos digital Village, Alausa, Ikeja with a total of 14 students in attendance. The class facilitated by Mr. O.J Okosun introduced the animation concept to the girls teaching them the basics of 2D animation.
The girls had a hands-on experience as they were given daily tasks to practice what they learnt. At the end of the workshop, they were able to create different animated stories which they presented on the final day at the showcase ceremony.
The showcase ceremony was graced by the ED of Chams, Mrs Funke Alomooluwa who gave a speech on Chams and how the organisation encourages girls and women in STEM with other invited guests and parents of the students.
In May, while networking at TechFest, we got talking to a Lady about who we are and what we do and then she asked a question, “What about ladies who didn’t study engineering and the likes but want to go into the Tech field?” This led to our next event Data That Speaks which catered for the older ladies.
Data That Speaks, was a 5-week Data Analytics and Visualization workshop for female university students and young professionals. It was structured to expose and educate on technology tools available in data analytics and visualization, to empower data with the skills for data driven decision making. This took place on the 16th of June to 14th of July (Saturday only) at Beni Gold hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. We had 18 ladies in attendance from different fields and four guest facilitators coming in each week to teach them on topics in Data Science, Data Analytics, Data Storytelling and Data Visualization using Tableau. Each participant was made to work on a personalized project applying the learning and skills gained from the class.
The workshop came to an end on the 14th July and was commemorated with a presentation ceremony for the participants to provide an opportunity for them to share some of what they had learnt and network with members of the ATG community. The occasion was graced by Wole Oyekanmi, COO of Quantextive as our guest speaker who spoke on "Application of Data Analytics in financial services" and other invited guests. Finally, there were short presentations from three of the participants presented their projects they had worked on following a question and answer session.
Recently, we concluded the SheInnovates summer boot camp sponsored by project 30 for 30. To find out more about our sponsor and what inspired the project, please click here
The camp was structured to educate the students with technology skills applicable in solving problems in our society and environment with its major focus on topics like Web development, Digital skills, Robotics programming (Edison), Animation, MIT inventor App, Data Science etc.
SheInnovates boot camp, a free 2 week non-residential camp for secondary school girls age 10 -18 held on the 20th to 31st August, 2018 at the UNITeS CISCO lab, Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos with 30 girls in attendance. This was made possible by collaborating with facilitators such as Dhack Institute and Foundation of Moral Value Reorientation (FMVR) in partnership with UNITeS CISCO.
In the first week, the girls were introduced to various topics to give them an opportunity to learn and be exposed to different skill areas. Ms. Iretiola Adebayo-olubi and Mr. Banji from FMVR taught Google Digital skills and Data Science respectively, Ms. Oluwasayo Babalola who introduced them to MIT App development, Ms. Adaora Asiegbu of Afro-Tech Girls who took the girls through a Google digital skills session with Made with Code as a focus, Mr. Adeolu Owokade of Dhack Institute introduced the girls to Robotics and taught them how to fly a drone and Mr. Deji Ishola taught web development and Rapid prototyping. Each session was followed by the girls practicing what they learnt in each class.
The following week had the girls working in a team of 4, working on a mini project around a specific topic. The Robotics team facilitated by Dhack Institute worked on a Robotic lawn mower complete with obstacle detection and ability to move in straight lines and an Autonomous Office Document Delivery Robot that reacts to different colours and goes to different "cubicles", the Animation team facilitated by Mr. Oj Okosun worked on a short animated story about the visit of the British prime minister, Theresa May to President Mohammed Buhari and also showing a comparison in import and export between China, Asia and Nigeria, the Web development team facilitated by Mr. Jephtah Uche worked on simple websites for a start-up company, Afro-Tech laptop and Black Girls code and Data Science team facilitated by Mr. Banji worked on how data can be explored to make accurate predictions using Excel.
The camp came to an end on the 31st August with a closing ceremony. The occasion was graced by our guest speaker Ms. Tobi Ayeni, founder Miss Techy, who spoke to the girls about evolving, using knowledge they gain now and building on it. Ms. Maria Rotilu, MD Branch Nigeria had a fireside chat with the girls moderated by one of the participants was quite insightful on learning about her own experience and career so far as a female leader., Ms. Tolu Owokade of Project 30 for 30 used this opportunity to share with the girls the vision of the initiative and why she is passionate about educating more girls about STEM. Finally, there were short presentations from each team showcasing what they had learnt over the week, providing the opportunity to the other teams to learn about how they worked through their project and the principles applied.
“I have benefited in so many ways especially being exposed in the technological field and also learnt to give back to the society especially for the fact that I am a girl”
- Oyinkansola Abayomi, Participant
The girls were all smiles and sure had an awesome time at the camp. They all would love to experience another of its kind. To make our programs even more unique, we would like to hear from you on suggestions on events/projects you would like us to work on. Please feel free to dream very big! You can contact us on projects@afrotechgirls.org or drop a comment below.
Thank you for reading.