Felicia's blog

Hong Kong City University Apps Lab

Felicia — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:54:08 +0000

The mission of City University Apps Lab (CAL) is to promote coding education in Hong Kong. Started in 2013 by Dr. Ray Cheung, Associate Professor in Electronic Engineering, CAL seeks to expose people to technology, empower them to incubate innovation and transform their ideas into applications that positively impact society. Campus programs have included: an entrepreneurship expo, robotics competition, mobile computing education festival, forums with industry leaders and of course, coding workshops with App Inventor.

A crime prevention project on campus enabled cross-disciplinary collaboration between social science criminology students and engineering students. They worked in partnership with the Crime Prevention Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force to create apps such as those to prevent telephone deception and to counter luggage theft at airports.

Five electronic engineering students joined CAL in 2013 to learn programming skills, but because of access to mentors, tech leaders and entrepreneurs, just 2 years later, they have created a new start-up called Pro-Hub and got funding for their app, EventCel. The app is an event management system equipped to handle vast amounts of data.

Since CAL is based on a university campus, one might assume that students are the main beneficiaries of programming instruction. While students do indeed receive mobile computing education and support for transforming their apps into social enterprises, CAL’s reach extends beyond campus borders with programs like Police Can Code, Executives Can Code, Ambassadors Can Code, Designers Can Code, and Prisoners Can Code.

For the past 2 months, CAL has been collaborating with the Hong Kong Sudden Cardiac Death Prevention Program because incidents of cardiac arrest are the leading cause of death in Hong Kong. Timely defibrillation and CPR is essential to patient survival, while information and access to equipment is paramount for nearby helpers. The collaboration aims to design an app that:

Locates and displays local automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
Broadcasts alerts to nearby lay rescuers
Recruits nearby lay rescuers to provide bystander CPR
Assists local rescuers in reaching AEDs for defibrillation

CAL recently partnered with Go Code (with support from WebOrganic, First Code Academy and Hong Kong Council of Social Service) to provide free coding classes for 300 underprivileged primary school students. Instruction was held on City U campus and curriculum included, Python, Scratch and App Inventor.

For more information about the many campus and community projects, or to get involved please visit the City U Apps Lab website.

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The 9th UNESCO Youth Forum

Felicia — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:44:08 +0000

At the end of October, I traveled to Paris, France for the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum conference. This year’s theme, “Young Global Citizens for a Sustainable Planet,” united over 500 young people, ages 18-25, from 159 member states who are transforming their communities. Participants were nominated by their national commission offices or local organizations and recognized as individuals whose leadership, efforts and voices are contributing to positively impacting global citizenship in their region. Conclusions and recommendations from participants of the Youth Forum can be found here (English version).

I spoke at the workshop: YouthMobile- Building Your Own Mobile Apps For Sustainable Development. The YouthMobile project aim is to empower at least 25,000 young people (particularly young women) to resolve issues related to sustainable development with digital solutions. By learning to code, this demographic can develop, promote, and sell socially impactful mobile apps that directly address challenging local issues that they themselves have identified.

I had the privilege of meeting some of these youth leaders and hearing their inspiring stories of mobile technology projects launched in Korea, India, Columbia and Africa. Many determined to carry-on despite obstacles like too few devices or spotty WiFi. Grace Ihejiamaizu, a youth educator who lives in Nigeria, was the Technovation mentor to the 2015 Technovation Challenge winning team that created Discardious, a waste disposal app made with MIT App Inventor. “We think the platform is very easy to use, the puzzle pieces make it easy to teach young people. It’s very intuitive; it allows you to feel like an expert. App Inventor has had a lot of impact in Africa and we want to scale it up to reach people who are not yet coding.”

Despite gallant efforts by young trailblazers such as Grace, the fact remains that only 20% of people in mobile computing (or computer science education/fields) are female. (The gender gap also exists with users of App Inventor.) This is a global problem in need of global solutions.
In an effort to transform the digital divide into digital inclusion, UNESCO launched the project Searching for Martha, during the YouthMobile conference. Martha Chumo is a 21-year-old self-taught Kenyan coder who founded the Nairobi Developer School, the first Kenyan hacker school when she was 19. Through tech meet-ups, hackathons and workshops all over Africa, she has taught over 1000 people to program mobile apps with MIT App Inventor. The goal is to find 1000 Marthas so that each one can in turn empower 1000 young women with programming skills by teaching them MIT App Inventor.

Thus, the Searching for Martha projects seeks to:

Identify 1000 young African women entrepreneurs currently skilled in mobile computing education
Provide them with capital and arm them with business, leadership and entrepreneurial skills
Enlist their expertise to train 1000 young women in mobile app development

The goal: to empower 1 million young African women in mobile app development by 2017

Immediately prior to the Youth Forum conference, the Rwanda ICT Chamber hosted an initial brainstorming workshop at the 2015 Transform Africa Summit. A collaborative endeavor by UNESCO field offices in South Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda and co-facilitated by the Her2Voice NGO (Rwanda), the two-day workshop gathered 20 female entrepreneurs in mobile programming ((including Grace Ihejiamaizu) from regions all over Africa to identify ways to sustain and expand female entrepreneur role models, leadership and expertise.

More information on the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum can be found here.

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The MIT Master Trainers Program

Felicia — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 20:24:10 +0000

The MIT App Inventor team is excited to announce the inaugural:

MIT Master Trainers Program in Educational Mobile Computing

This program consists of 3 parts:

Part 1: Begins October 19 with the 6-week edX App Inventor MOOC Mobile Computing with App Inventor – CS Principles.

Part 2: Applications are due December 7. Accepted applicants begin 10-weeks of online independent study.

Part 3: Takes place March 24, 25, 26, 2016 at MIT. This 3-day workshop brings participants together for intensive training on
app development, teaching techniques, troubleshooting, problem solving and computational thinking.

For more information please visit the MIT Professional Education Short Programs Website.

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UNESCO YouthMobile

Felicia — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 11:52:05 +0000

The UNESCO YouthMobile Initiative has launched the 1st of a series of training workshops of young students in mobile apps programming in Abuja, Nigeria. The training program was based on the beginner and intermediate levels of the App Inventor curriculum from the well acclaimed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA).

Samsung Electronics supported by donating laptops used during the training. Some of the Apps that were developed and demonstrated by the students for education including literacy or sustainable development include:
· Know your Country

· Hydrating Education

· English Pro

· Learn Alphabets

· Other Apps include Calc Plus, Safety App, Web Locator, My Career Guide, My Review, Musical App, Story Telling App and Health Tips.

The second segment of the YouthMobile training is has been planned to hold at the Samsung/UNESCO Digital Village in Oban Town, Cross River State in partnership with Team Charis Nigeria, made up of a group of girls from Calabar, Cross River State in Nigeria. Team Charis won the High School Division of the UNESCO-supported 2015 Technovation Global Challenge in San Francisco, America with their app “Discardious,” a mobile solution to the problem of improper waste disposal in Nigeria.

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UNESCO Youth Forum

Felicia — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 20:47:41 +0000

UNESCO Youth Forum

MIT App Inventor will be participating in the UNESCO Youth Forum “Youth for Change” conference in Paris, France, October 26-28, 2015. As the Manager of Educational Outreach and Business Development, I will be speaking about new MIT App Inventor initiatives and opportunities for educators and young people to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from mobile computing education.

The Youth Forum takes place every 2 years and gathers exceptional young people ages 18-24 from UNESCO member states, to speak about their involvement in youth-related issues at a local, community and country level. This year the theme centers on sustainable development and climate change.

In addition to hearing how young people are tackling local problems and mobilizing resources, attendees will also hear from various experts from organizations and projects around the world. Past participants have included representatives from Mozilla, Intel, FOSSFA, FOSSASIA, Orange, All Dev Camp, Technovation, The MASH Project, Apps for Good, Esprit, m:Lab East Africa/ eMobilis, Nairobi Dev School and MIT App Inventor.

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Youth Radio

Felicia — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 17:36:57 +0000

Are you up to date on what’s happening with Youth Radio in Oakland, California?
Here’s a quick run down.

What is Youth Radio?
YR is a media production company started in 1992 to offer young people a way to bring their voices to various media streams by creating content and engaging other youth through technology. YR offers practical course work in journalism, creative arts, digital photography, web design, social media, video production, technology, app development, and podcasts (to name a few). And as you can guess from the name, Youth Radio produces a weekly radio show with original content and topics relevant to today’s youth.

YR and MIT App Inventor
YR takes creating content very seriously and they even developed an app to help them deliver their original content! Students created 5 different prototypes of an app and with the help of Google, MIT, and the University of San Francisco, narrowed down the many options to include the following functionality: story sharing, collecting media from listeners and a podcast rating system. Here are a few screenshots of the final product.

Download the Youth Radio App Inventor App on the Google Play store and start tuning in!

App Making
The YR website offers links to app making tutorials suited for beginning, intermediate or advanced app developers. Doing tutorials is necessary when learning new technical skills, but what about when you want to venture off on your own to make an app from scratch? How in the world do you get started? Maybe you have no idea what to create or maybe you have too many ideas and can’t pick just one. YR has a DIY Toolkit to help you unravel the Mobile App Ideation process.

Make a Hip Hop History App (you know you want to!)
This tutorial reviews the basics in case you’re a beginning coder and need a little introduction to App Inventor. Once you have the hang of navigating the App Inventor platform, the Hip Hop History App tutorial will have you diving in to uploading media, defining variables, creating lists, making a slider and creating a player. These tools will come in handy for any app you make and will most probably inspire you to create other apps that will display images, use audio samples, or make use of a slider.

Listen Up!
Be sure to check out the latest news and podcasts offered by Youth Radio.
Online: Click the "Listen Now" button in the bottom right hand corner of the YR website or type this URL into your browser
On your mobile device: Download the YR app!

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Upcoming App Contests

Felicia — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:39:53 +0000

Are you a budding mobile app developer who:
• has made apps for family and friends, but is now looking to reach a wider audience?
• wants to get feedback from users around the globe?
• is wondering what it takes to have a successful or best selling app?

Contests are a great way to:
• expand your creativity
• hone your app development skills
• become inspired
• gain exposure
• learn about entrepreneurship
• win prizes

Here are some upcoming opportunities:
2nd National App Inventor contest in China
Arab Mobile App Challenge
Technovation (High School Girls)
First Robotics Kickoffs and Competitions
Verizon Innovative App Challenge (US Middle and High School Students)
Congressional App Challenge (US High School Students)
Mobile App Competition for Indiana High School Students
MIT App of the Month!

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MOSTEC

Felicia — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 16:43:16 +0000

MOSTEC (MIT Online Science, Technology, and Engineering Community) is a six-month program for eligible rising seniors offered through the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs. It combines online curriculum with a week long on-site project-based workshop at MIT. One of the tracts offered was mobile app development with App Inventor! After 3 weeks of learning App Inventor online and one week of collaborative group work on campus, MOTSEC students presented their original app designs to an auditorium full of science and engineering enthusiasts. The results were quite impressive!

One of my favorites was created by Foli Amaizo who was tired of his friends at school having bad attitudes. He didn't want the negativity to get contagious, so he decided to built an app called Positivity. Users can select from an array of positive messages to send to friends who may need a pick-me-up. Users can even set the timer to send texts on regular intervals.

Another cool app called Movie Crew was made by a budding indie filmmaker who sought to provide resources for film sets. He said he has had trouble finding people willing to work as crew, so he wanted to create a database to offer available work opportunities. Next time you need a grip, gaffer, or an actor, check out Movie Crew.

Get Fit is an app for busy people who have so much going on, they have trouble setting aside time to workout. This app provides four options: Cardio, Core, Lower Body and Stretching and then gives users a 5 minute intense workout program. Of course, users can input longer sessions as well. The Cardio option even has a Find Your Location button in case users are running on a new trail and get lost.

A savvy student decided to help others become financially responsible by creating an app to track saving money. My Piggy Bank enables users to set a savings goal and see their progress. This tool is multi-functional and can encourage users to be more accountable and aware of their finances.

Eventor is a cool app that helps to publicize events. This could be used for any kind of gathering – a community service event, reunion, party, or study group to name a few. It is viewable as an app or online and shows listings of upcoming events. It also has an option where users can enter a friend's name and it will send the friend the URL of the Google Fusion Table where information can be entered into the database.

If you are stressed out, but don't feel like using your Get Fit app to ease tension, you can always use Got 99 Problems: The Stress Reliever. Users can shake their mobile device to see any of one of four games at random. The Test game allows users to get a 100% on a test simply by tapping on their screen. The Deadlines game challenges users to get an icon to a ball on the opposite side of the screen without touching any lines. Another game provides a pencil and blank slate, erasing the background reveals a positive message. And lastly, users can take a photo of whatever is in front of them, the image appears as the app background and then users can draw on it. Seems like the perfect way to diffuse stress!

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French Translation

Felicia — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 19:30:19 +0000

✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠ Due to the hard work and dedication of Adel Kassah, a middle school computer science teacher in Tunisia, the App Inventor platform is now translated into French! He has worked over the years on many coding translation projects, and most recently served as a coach and judge for the Technovation App Challenge. Adele's next project? App Inventor into Arabic! On behalf of the entire App Inventor community, merci beaucoup!
✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠✠

This is a guest post by Adel:

I am computer science teacher in middle school in Tunisia. I am working to promote coding culture in my country by organizing workshops, presenting in conferences, making teaching resources ... I first used App Inventor in middle school and it was a great experience for kids to make different games using the feature of their devices like GPS or orientation sensors. In the beginning, people were thinking that App Inventor was just another version of Scratch but for the Android platform and mainly used for teaching kids how to code. But, this point of view changed quickly after seeing the possibilities offered by App Inventor. More over, App Inventor is seen now as the Android programming platform for non computer scientists. I've seen projects in Robotics and mathematics done by non-CS teachers and students in other fields. I see the translation process as offering new tools for my community and others to master technology and add value. My slogan is: Don't spend your time learning new programming languages, concentrate your effort on creation!

For more information, please contact Adel at: adelkassah@gmail.com or through his Facebook Page.
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Samsung App Academy at MIT

Felicia — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:56:22 +0000

Mid-July, 2015, 60 local high school students converged upon MIT Sloan Business School to partake in the week long, free Samsung Mobile App Academy. Since the curriculum utilized MIT App Inventor to create mobile apps, no prior coding experience was required! The application process was based on GPA, AP course work and an interest in mobile app technology. Students learned about app design through instructors, self-paced online curriculum, group work and guest speakers. At the end of the week, they collaborated in teams to create a Boston tourism app using the design-thinking process: Ideate > Plan > Calculate > Build. Then, they pitched their apps designs to panels of tech experts. Just because the week is over, doesn't mean their app building is! App Academy attendees have the opportunity to submit their app ideas to win $20,000 in scholarships. Submissions are due in October and the App Inventor team is looking forward to seeing the winning designs!

Noa (a rising senior pictured upper left) had this to say about her app academy experience: "Surrounded by so many talented programmers and students at the academy, it was easy to feel like my skills didn't really fit in. I had no experience with the fundamental basics of computer science, and I had never taken apart video games as a child and used the parts to build a 3D printer. But the reality that had begun to take shape by the end of my experience at the app academy after spending a week transforming a vague idea into a tangible application that could impact the lives of people outside of my community using the App Inventor tools broadcasted a whole new theory for me about what technology meant. It became very clear that there is a very valuable place for people with less computer science based backgrounds in the world of technology and innovation. It is truly a remarkable thing that someone who has never before laid eyes on a programming language can build a product equally as brilliant and sophisticated as an application built by a person fluent in 3 programming languages. This is what MIT App Inventor and the app academy has allowed me to do. It has allowed me to see the strength that lies in pure innovation and the value that lies in having a revolutionary idea. I hope that many more students have the opportunity to discover that we all have the capacity to contribute to the world of technology and innovation. App Inventor has indeed taught me that there is not a day to waste on simply being a static consumer of the digital revolution."

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