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Hey, I'm Ciara, a 15 year-old interested in interested in leveraging emerging technologies to solve the world biggest problems. I'm an incoming Activate student at The Knowledge Society where I've learned more about emerging technologies and worked on real-world challenges. I'm also an intern at Kira Learning where I'm helping with content for their AI curriculum. Additionally, I co-host the TechnoGypsie podcast, where my co-host and I meet with professionals in different emerging tech fields and go deeper into the field their in, the technology they use, and how it impacts the world for the greater good.
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Summer has been an absolute blast! While I may not be ready to leave the summer months behind, I'm so excited to share what I've been up to recently! This summer I've participated in multiple STEM and research programs, helped make major improvements to TechnoGypsie podcast and disease detection project, interned at Kira Learning, and so much more! I hope you enjoy this edition of my newsletter : )
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| TechnoGypsie Podcast updates |
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Although Rachel and I had tons of adventures and experiences that took up a majority of our summer, we still managed to record and release 3 amazing podcast episodes and make huge updates to the TechnoGypsie Podcast website! Our first episode of the summer was with Shely Aronov, the founder and CEO of InnerPlant, a company on a mission to transform farming by enabling crops to communicate with growers. We talk with Shely about everything ag: the problems in our current ag system, how to fix the problems in our ag system to solve both food security and climate change, and about the mindsets of a changemaker and how to approach solving big problems in the world! In our second episode of the summer we talk with Stefania Druga, an AI Resident at X Moonshot Factory, a third-year Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Washington Information School, and the founder of multiple fascinating projects (including Cognimates, TileCode, and Afrimakers.) In this episode we discuss all of her work and research, how to effectively teach AI literacy to children and families and why all this is so important to create a better future for humanity! In our last episode of the summer we talked with Anie Akpe the founder of African Women in Tech (AWIT), an organization that empowers African women to unlock their full potential in technology, through mentorship, workshops, hackathons and more. On this episode we discussed things like bringing a business idea to life, building high impact start-ups, the importance of meditation, and so much more! Go check all of these episodes and more on our new and improved podcast website (linked below)
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| Disease detection project |
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Over the course of this summer, Emma, Mansi, and I have been working to continue the focus hackathon project we did in February (check February newsletter for a refresher on what that was.) Since the start of summer we've made tons of adjustments to our project including switching to a new disease (Ovarian Cancer) and using new technology for our sensor. We've also been fortunate enough to meet with multiple doctors, biotech/health tech professionals, and professors, all of which have provided us with great advice. We're planning on continuing on with this project leading into the school year and I'm excited to share more in the next newsletter!
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| Girls who Code Summer Immersion program |
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Earlier in the summer, I got the opportunity to attend the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (SIP). In this program I learned how to build web applications in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The learning experience was amazing! The instructors were so supportive and detailed when explaining different concepts, and I found it very exciting to be learning all of these new skills. Throughout the course of the two-week program I built 3 projects, a personal website, a personality quiz, and a website providing resources to students interested in learning about emerging technologies . Although these projects aren't the most aesthetically pleasing and still in the works, I found it much easier to grasp onto HTML, CSS, and JavaScript concepts when actually actively putting my skills to the test.
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| Python for Machine Learning iDTech camp |
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One of my last camps of the summer was at Howard University, doing the Python Coding for Machine Learning (ML) iDTech camp. This camp was a great opportunity for my to refresh my Python programming skills through the ML projects we completed over the course of the week. Some of the projects included building virtual battle bots and AI Chessbots. During several days at camp we got to hear from amazing speakers including musicians, engineers, and white house officials, and it was also fun to do activities with friends (like learning how to play fall guys and playing random Jeopardy games.) It was also so amazing to be surrounded by the beautiful campus!
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| Kode with Klossy Data Science camp |
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Probably one of the most memorable parts of summer was the Kode with Klossy (KWK) Data Science (DS) camp. Over the course of these two weeks I learned so much more than I thought I would and really connected with all of the girls at the camp (who are so supportive and amazing!) During the camp we learned how to organize data on Google Sheets, how to work with data in SQL, statistics, building data visualizations with Google Data Studio and Python, and soo much more! Along the way we had many brain breaks where we played games like Mafia and Evolution and also went outside to visit places in D.C like the White House and National Monument. On the last week we worked on building out our final projects in preparation for our presentations at the Deiloitte office. Here is the link to the website featuring my groups project. Overall, the experience was just absolutely incredible, and I'll definteley miss all of the trips to Starbucks, the various theme days we had, and all of the activities that bonded us together. Big shoutout to Jenna, Rose, Anum, Lauren, and Scarlett for making all of the DS concepts understandable and fun as well as helping bond our community together!
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| Character Lab Youth Council |
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Back in May I started my journey with Character Lab and recently completed the youth council program in August. Through this experience I've learned so much about what it takes to cater a product/platform (in this case a platform that connects youth to researchers) to a user. Throughout the months we analyzed various stages a user of this research platform would go through including signing up for the platform, getting email/text notifications for reminders to take surveys, reward systems, and much more. It was so great hearing everyone's perspective and and bouncing ideas off each other. I'm really excited to see where the project goes!
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| Factor summer program |
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Over the course of 4 weeks around a dozen teenagers and I got to help Factor craft some important aspects of their Factor Discover program. The experience really opened my eyes to the importance of crafting a program to cater the needs of the customer rather than just making assumptions based on your own personal experiences. Through these 4 weeks we interviewed teens on some of the issues they struggle with figuring out next steps after high school and what resources they wish they had, compared our interviews with our original assumptions, and crafted messaging/ads based on these pain-points. Overall it was great working with Travis and the other teens in the program, and I can't wait to see how the discover program turns out!
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This August I started my internship at Kira Learning! I've been a huge fan of what Kira has been doing for a while and back in July I finally had the courage to reach out and see how I could help. I'm so grateful for Sarah and Andrea for allowing me to join the team! So far, I've had a blast getting to know the team, and help build out content for Kira's AI micro-course. Just through these last few weeks I've seen how fast start-ups move and how progress is just exponential. A big thanks for Jagriti and Dilara for working with me on content for the AI micro-course and being so willing to help out when ever I have a question. I'm really excited to continue working with the team and so excited to see all of the behind the scenes work go live for other teachers and students to use!
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| TKShowcase |
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The end-of-year showcase for TKS was incredible! The virtual cohorts had two showcases on gather and the in-person cohorts had their own as well. I helped organize the morning showcase and it was so great seeing everything come together. We hosted panels on topics like problems facing GenZ and climate change and had many speakers talk about the projects they completed during the year. To top the showcase off we got words of wisdom from Kat Cole! Huge shoutout to Syona for all the amazing help. The evening showcase was also a blast! I got to present on my journey learning Artificial Intelligence and building computer vision projects, and host a panel on the worlds biggest problems. Big shoutout to Chandhana for all the help with my presentation and the amazing work you did with yours! Another big congrats to all the presenters for both of the showcases, all of you need incredible! Overall both showcases were an amazing way to end off the year at TKS!
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| Kode with Klossy showcase |
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This summer I was invited to speak on a panel at the Kode with Klossy showcase hosted at the Apple 5th Avenue Store. The panel was hosted by Karlie and the other panelist were Anum and Laura. I really enjoyed talking with the other panelists about things like the importance of programs like Kode with Klossy, the impact the KWK community has, what needs to happen to make tech more equitable, and my overall experience at KWK! It was also so amazing to see groups from the other Kode with Klossy camps present on their projects, including projects on language learning, accessible cooking resources, connecting communities through indigenous culture, and soo much more! To top the event off, there was celebratory ice cream (including vegan flavors) and an opportunity to network with other Kode with Klossy alum! Big shoutouts to everyone there as well as the people who made the panel prep and process of getting to the event so seamless (Ashley, Brooklyn, and Dorothy.)
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- Starting my Sophmore year at Sora Schools
- Starting Activate (second year) at The Knowledge Society
- TechnoGypsie podcast episodes (including another Quantum one!)
- Continuing working on content for Kira Learning courses
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