This month AkiraChix will be holding the Mobile Garage Student’s Exhibition on May 18 at the iHub Nairobi starting from 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. On this day students from universities and colleges from all over Kenya will showcase their mobile applications and compete for the three top prizes that are sponsored by Samsung Kenya.

Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users

The theme of the event is ‘Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users’. In the course of the event we shall host a panel of entrepreneurs in a session dubbed ‘FailTalk’. These include: Michael Wakahe of Shujaa Solutions, Jessica Colaco of iHub Research, Tim Rimbui of Waabeh and Susan Oguya of m-Farm. During this session tech- entrepreneurs will talk of their failure stories and what they learnt from them. This is a platform where the students can hear of the reality of entrepreneurship and the challenges in the journey. They will have an opportunity to ask the entrepreneurs how they overcame their challenges. Other sponsors of the event include Google and the iHub.

Register for the event and get your tickets from Eventbrite.

Post written by Wangechi Mwangi.

Akirachix together with the Mombasa Tech Community are holding a mobile boot camp in JKUAT Mombasa Campus. The boot camp starts today, May 8, and ends on May 10. During this three-day event the students will be trained on mobile application development in SMS/USSD, Java 2 ME, Android and Mobile Web. The trainers for this boot camp are Ambrose Njeru a lecturer at African Nazarene University, Eric Mutuku a lecturer from Strathmore University, Nelson Bore a freelance mobile and web developer and Edwin Ochieng a lecturer from JKUAT Juja campus.

A section of students listening in

It is with great excitement that we are here in Mombasa building another arm of the Kenyan Technology Community. Special thanks to Ahmed Maawy for linking us to the Mombasa Tech Community, to Aalifiyah Ganijee and Said Faud for organizing everything on the ground.

Students listening in

Akirachix has previously held boot camps and outreach events in Maseno University in Kisumu, Masinde Muliro University in Kakamega, Egerton University in Njoro among others. We believe that talent is everywhere and thus want to create opportunities for this talent to be developed. This kind of thinking guides our Mobile Garage outreach events. The products of these outreach events will come together on May 18^th at the Mobile Garage App Showcase that targets students in institutions of higher learning.

The day was finally here.

AkiraChix hosting Girls in ICT Day

Watch the video message from the ITU Secretary-General on Girls in ICT Day.

With girls from over 20 schools within Nairobi and its environs in attendance, it was clear, that aspiring and existing women in tech in Nairobi had eagerly awaited this day.

Vice President Linda Kamau kicked off the event, introducing our attendees to the work AkiraChix does, and the focus of the day’s event, which was to introduce young girls in high school to career opportunities available in the tech industry. Linda then proceeded to moderate a panel consisting of recent high school graduates pursuing careers in tech as a result of interaction with AkiraChix through it’s programs.

Linda kicks off the event

Wangechi Mwangi met AkiraChix while she was still in high school at Precious Blood in 2011. This was when AkiraChix began piloting the mentorship program for High schools. During this time, Wangechi and a few of her friends co- founded a social network known as AZMA, and she also began work as an intern at iHub Research. By the time her results were announced, Wangechi had co-authored a research paper, and switched from wanting to do Economics(much to the surprise of all who expected her to do Medicine), and pursuing a degree in Business Information Technology at Strathmore University.

Cynthia Abura wasn’t a member of the computer club in High school. She was a Music student. This is why she didn’t understand why her friends were bothering her about participating in a Google Code-In contest. Nevertheless, she took up the challenge. Cynthia moved from wanting to pursue Medicine to a computer science degree through interaction and mentorship from Linda Kamau, who helped her and her friends during the google Code In contest. So determined she was, that she would even work remotely, while in Uganda, just to make sure that her tasks were completed on time. Precious Blood Riruta ended up being one of the top 5 schools with the most students completing tasks in the contest. Cynthia helped put not only her school, but Kenya on the map of tech. She plans on merging her computer science knowledge with Aviation in future.

Fridah Oyaro is one of the students slated to graduate from the AkiraChix training program, class of 2012, this coming weekend. She talked of her persistence to join the program, through frantic phone calls to Marie right before interviews were to be conducted. She spoke of her journey within the program, and the discovery of her passion for design through interaction with her teacher and mentor, Nyandia Kamawe. Fridah has moved from little technical skill, to designing posters and publications, including the one used for the Girls in ICT event.

Linda talks to recent High school graduates

After a short break, the girls got a taste of what work in the different fields of tech entailed, through a speed-geeking session. Attendees got to walk through six stations within the room, in 10 minute rotations. These stations focused on design, entrepreneurship, software development, UX research, Tech writing and Robotics. This session was extremely informative, as per feedback received from the girls, who felt that they had now gained a better understanding of what each of these different fields involved.

Speed Geeking!

Attendees then got to watch Sheryl Sandberg’s famous TED talk, “Why we have too few women leaders”

Watching Sheryl Sandberg's TED talk

Right before lunch break, Ory Okolloh, co-founder of Ushahidi, and Google Policy Manager for Africa and Susan Eve Oguya, co-founder of M-Farm, then shared their own personal experiences and advice to young ladies looking to join the tech industry.

Ory Okolloh

Susan of M-Farm

In the spirit of global collaboration, we sought to gain insights on what it means to be a woman in tech, from a global perspective. Nivi Murkhejee, of Elimu Kenya moderated a G+ hangout, featuring Asikana Network in Zambia, Maureen Agena of Girl Geek Kampala in Uganda, Ronda Zelezny Green in Germany and female Googlers Shikoh Gitau in Paris, Beryl Nelson in Poland, Jacqueline Rajuai in Nigeria, and Sonny Franckel in Germany. These ladies shared their personal journies into the tech industry and what drives them to keep at it.

Nivi moderates the G+ Hangout

Judith Owigar then led a panel discussion featuring female leaders in the tech industry, including:-

• Jessica Colaco, iHub Research Lead.
• Maureen Wangechi Maina, a Senior IP transport Planning engineer at Safaricom.
• Margaret Ndisha Mwakala, a system analyst and an upcoming, training statistician.
• Margaret Mwaura, current CTO at Adwest Communication LTD.
• Miriam Jemeli Kosgei, one of the Safaricom Women in Technology.
• Wambura Kimunyu, CEO of The technology monitoring Institute
• Catherine Mahugu, Co-founder and CTO of Shop Soko, formerly known as Sasa Africa

Expert panel of women in the tech industry

With that, the event came to a close, with an amazing group shot of attendees.

Happy Girls in group shot

Some of the key points of advice that emerged through out the day included women believing in themselves, not being afraid to try something different, and exposing themselves to STEM subjects and embracing collaboration, as working together creates a much more powerful force.

AkiraChix would like to thank all the panelists and participants for helping us make the event the success that it was. A big thank you also goes out to Google Kenya and ITU for all their financial support of the event, Pete’s coffee for the fantastic food, Mateeshoh for the great quality T-shirt designs, and iHub for their continued support through use of their space. We are grateful. Special thanks to Marie Githinji, Angela Oduor and Wangechi Mwangi for their hard work on putting this event together.

It is our hope that all the information shared this past weekend will have a positive impact for both aspiring and existent women in the tech industry. We aimed to inspire, and were truly inspired as well!

Pictures from the event can be found on our G+ Page.

It is now two days to the much awaited Girls in ICT Day which is to be held this Saturday, 27th April 2013. On this day, we celebrate women in technology, by continuing to grow and mentor the next generation of women in technology. It will be a day to inspire and get inspired.

Designed by AkiraChix Training programme Beneficiary, Fridah Oyaro

We will be hosting girls from over 10 high schools including the likes of Precious Blood Riruta Secondary School, Kenya High School, Moi Girls Nairobi, Limuru Girls and many more. We will also have girls who recently completed high school and are eager to dive into the world of technology and others who have just dipped their feet into the waters.

A number of women representing the different fields of tech will share their work and what it entails for each of them. These include Nivi Mukherjee of e-Limu, Susan Oguya of M-farm, Hilda Moraa, C.E.O of Wezatele, Catherine Kiguru, C.E.O of Ukall Limited, Kagonya Awori from iHub UX Lab, Lillian Nduati a tech writer, and iHub Media Lead, and many more

There’ll be an expert panel of experienced women in the tech industry, featuring the following individuals:-

• Jessica Colaco, iHub Research Lead.
• Maureen Wangechi Maina, a Senior IP transport Planning engineer at Safaricom.
• Margaret Ndisha Mwakala, a system analyst and an upcoming, training statistician.
• Margaret Mwaura, current CTO at Adwest Communication LTD.
• Miriam Jemeli Kosgei, one of the Safaricom Women in Technology.
• Wambura Kimunyu, CEO of The technology monitoring Institute

We’ll also be hosting a G+ Hangout, featuring Google Female Engineers from across the Globe, Ronda Zelezny-Green, Asikana Network( Zambia) and Girl Geek Kampala. This session aims at gaining insight on life in the tech industry for women from a global perspective. Those of you who would like to join us virtually, are free to join in .

Lunch and Snacks will be provided. Plus you also get your own cool t-shirt. Get your free tickets from the Eventbrite page and encourage your friends, daughters and sisters in tech to also get their tickets!

This event is brought to you in conjunction with iHub Nairobi, Google Kenya and ITU, who are the brains behind the Girls in ICT initiative

See you all then!