Eight girls from Uni recently participated in a competition and a two-day U of I weekend retreat, both designed to spark an interest in computer science among young women. The result? No cash prizes, but an appreciation that working with computers, nonprofit organizations, and other girls from your school can be really fun.

By Yuzuko Nakamura
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Wednesday, May 3, 2006, The OG, features

Last November, several representatives from the U of I's Women in Computer Science organization came to Uni for a Brown Bagger as a part of a program called ChicTech.

ChicTech's aim? To inspire an interest in engineering and computer science in young women through sessions like Brown Baggers and through a contest, the Technical Ambassadors Competition (TAC).

Girls participating in TAC needed to think of a project that used technology to aid their community. Groups of two to six found a nonprofit organization that needed technological assistance and worked with them to accomplish the organization's goals.

Eight Uni girls, myself included, decided to take part in this competition. I joined a group of four sophomores: Jie Han, Beth Peregrine, Aliisa Rantanen, and Aran Yoo. We named our group ABAJY using the initials of our first names. The other three students, senior Noam Roth and juniors Aria Collopy and Elizabeth Ford, formed a group called the Ellipses.

From late November to late March, our groups worked on our projects, wrapping them up and submitting them online by March 26. Finally, the Technical Ambassadors' Competition ended with a two-day conference that took place on April 22 and 23 at the Siebel Center.

My group, ABAJY, worked with 40 North 88 West, 40 North for short, an organization dedicated to promoting the arts in Champaign-Urbana, to create a Web forum. The Ellipses created a new Web site for Last Resort Rescue, a young nonprofit organization in Champaign-Urbana that rescues and cares for dogs so that they can be adopted.

There were many reasons for deciding to do the ChicTech project, ranging from sophomore Jie Han's “I needed something for my résumé” to junior Elizabeth Ford's “I'm interested in computer science.”

“It sounded interesting,” said sophomore Aran Yoo, “and I wanted to learn more about engineering just in case I was going to go into that after high school.”

“I wanted to do a contest and learn to communicate with people better,” Han added to her list of reasons.

I personally was interested in it because of the prize money — the first-place team would get $300 per member, and the second- and third-place teams would receive $150 per member. Unfortunately, by the end of the ChicTech project, conference, and award ceremony, I was still as broke as ever. But that isn't to say I didn't get anything from the ChicTech experience.

First, the two-day ChicTech conference was a lot of fun. It was packed with all sorts of games and activities: Sudoku puzzles; touring computer science grad students' projects; playing games made by college students, intended for girls; computer science Jeopardy; and a movie/game night featuring “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Kingdom Hearts II.”

“I especially liked playing the computer games the college students had made, seeing the graduate student projects, and playing Jeopardy,” said Ford. “The other girls there were really nice and fun to hang out with.”

“The retreat really gave me a lot,” said sophomore Aliisa Rantanen. “I learned about Squeak, about a career in computer science, and I made new friends.”

The conference ended with an announcement of the winners of ChicTech TAC. Neither of the Uni teams won, although both received an honorable mention.

“I think we were the less technical group, though,” said Han. “But we did pretty good on our presentation.”

The first-place group was from Plainfield South High School. Their project involved using Java to organize data from their bowling team.

“Regarding the other projects, well … I was surprised how little they impacted,” Rantanen noted. “It was all for their own clubs or schools, whereas I think we did a good job with actually getting out in the community.”

Most of the teams that competed worked on projects for their sports team, for their school, for an academic program at their school, for a club at their school that they belonged to, or for a volunteer organization that they were part of.

However, both Uni teams contacted and worked with nonprofit organizations that they had never heard of before. The Ellipses found their nonprofit organization by looking at an online listing of nonprofits in the Champaign-Urbana area. ABAJY was hooked up with 40 North through counselor Sam Smith.

Both groups also extended their work for their organization beyond the competition.

“We're going to keep working with them [Last Resort Rescue] to move the site off of Uni's server, add PayPal, and add new updates as necessary,” said Ford.

The members of ABAJY are going to moderate the forum, install a phpBB forum on 40 North's server if space opens up, and work with 40 North on publicizing it.

True, working on a project in addition to schoolwork is a bit tough. My group met every day over spring break to make the necessary changes to our forum. However, all the participants came out highly recommending other girls to participate in this competition.

“Working on the project is fun if you don't have that many other activities — and the conference has good food,” said Yoo.

And although I didn't end up getting any money, it was definitely a fun project. I got to know and work with four very talented, artistic sophomores, which makes it all worth it.

To see the fruits of the two Uni groups' labor, visit the Last Resort Rescue site and the 40 North forum.