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May |
May 22, 2013
Congratulations to all Carnegie Mellon University Class of 2013 graduates, especially those we have worked with at the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses, as well as students who took TechBridgeWorld courses this academic year! A special congratulations to our TechBridgeWorld graduates: Scott Andes, Debjani Biswas, Afnan Fahim, Mariem Fekih, Poornima Kaniarasu, Sandeep Reddy Munnangi, Ronnell Perry and Shree Lakshmi Rao. Thank you for your dedication and hard work! We wish you the best in your future endeavors.
May 22, 2013
We congratulate and support TechBridgeWorld alum Brad Hall who is now a full time "Biker and Builder". Brad participated in the inaugural iSTEP internship Tanzania as the technical lead for the Braille Writing Tutor project. Read more about Brad and his experience with TechBridgeWorld in the Alumni Corner of our Fall 2010 Newsletter (page 2).
Bike and Build focuses on developing individuals, helping reduce the affordable housing crisis, and creating and growing a sense of community. Through this organization, Brad will be cycling across the United States to build houses and raise money for affordable housing. Best of luck this summer, Brad!
May 22, 2013
On May 18, TechBridgeWorld’s main community partner for iSTEP 2010, the Asian University for Women (AUW), graduated its first class of young women. Located in Chittagong, Bangladesh, AUW provides a world-class education to promising young women from diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds from across South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Congratulations, graduates!
May 15, 2013
This month we bid farewell to Yonina Cooper (Nina) who has served as the Associate Director of TechBridgeWorld for four years. At the end of June, Nina will be retiring from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, where she has been an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Computer Science for nine years.
Over the years, Nina has contributed so much to TechBridgeWorld by co-teaching our courses, helping us with countless presentations and events, recruiting and training students to participate with ICTD research, serving as a Co-PI for research projects, and supporting our fundraising campaigns. We thank Nina for sharing her unique perspective as a technical leader and university educator, along with her extensive international experience.
Nina, we have enjoyed working with you these past few years and we will miss you dearly. We wish you the best in your next adventure!
May 15, 2013
In 2012, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) launched their first $10 Robot Design Challenge. Co-founded by TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member Ayorkor Korsah, AFRON is now raising money for the competition’s second round in Summer 2013, which will encourage entrants to design software and curricula for the prize-winning robots. Participate in the discussion about how Africa can contribute to the future of educational robots by interacting with a fun interface that the competition organizers set up.
May 15, 2013
Congratulations to Afnan Fahim who won the "Best Undergraduate Poster" award at the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Meeting of the Minds (MoM) undergraduate research symposium on April 30. His senior thesis project, entitled “Towards Computational Offloading in Mobile Device Clouds” was advised by TechBridgeWorld volunteer Khaled Harras.
May 8, 2013
TechBridgeWorld recently wrapped up its spring courses: Software Development for Social Good (15-239) and Seminar on Innovating for Underserved Communities (15-303/603). In the final class for 15-239, student teams completed oral exams related to their projects. For 15-303/603, students individually presented their analysis of an ICTD project of their choice. We are excited about the outcomes of these courses and look forward to offering them again in the future.
May 8, 2013
Congratulations to TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member Ayorkor Korsah who was named a 2013 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (TDIA) recipient along with African Robotics Network (AFRON) co-founder Ken Goldberg. The TDIA celebrates people whose ideas and projects have created meaningful impact in their fields. Its goal is to highlight applications of, and advancements, in disruptive innovation theory that have spread far beyond their original technological and industrial realms.
May 8, 2013
Thousands of women throughout the world are leading technological innovation. They often go unnoticed and unrewarded. The Anita Borg Institute has created a set of awards to honor these distinguished women and those who are working towards the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in technology. Please review this brief summary of the awards currently open and nominate a deserving team or candidate or forward this information to someone who might be interested.
The Anita Borg Social Impact Award – Deadline is May 15, 2013
The Award for Social Impact recognizes individuals who have made a positive impact on women, technology, and society. The recipient will receive a $10,000 award and will be honored at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Minneapolis, Minnesota in October 2012.
Anita Borg Change Agent Awards – Deadline is May 15, 2013
The Change Agent Awards celebrate the accomplishments of rising technical women leaders from outside the United States, with an emphasis on developing countries, whose work results in social, cultural, and/or behavioral change. The award covers the winners’ expenses to attend the conference. The award recipients will be honored at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Minneapolis, Minnesota in October 2012.
Questions? Contact info techbridgeworld.org.
May 1, 2013
Last month, TechBridgeWorld Postdoctoral Fellow M. Beatrice Dias and Project Assistant Ermine Teves gave a guest lecture about our work at Carnegie Mellon University’s Information Networking Institute. The presentation provided the audience with an overview of our research group, some background on the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), and a demonstration of our Braille Writing Tutor. Beatrice and Ermine also engaged the audience with TechBridgeWorld’s stories from the field, which highlighted the challenges and rewards of ICTD field research.
May 1, 2013
Congratulations to TechBridgeWorld Volunteer Jay Aronson! Jay directs Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Human Rights Science, which was recently awarded an 18-month, $175,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The grant will support research to investigate how social media and big data analytics are changing human rights fact-finding, and to better understand ways that these technologies can advance human rights protection in the future.
May 1, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Technical Consultant Gary Giger is currently in Doha at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) to help advance work on the TechCaFE program. Specifically, he is working with members of the Doha-based TechCaFE team to further develop educational games as well as help create a framework for developers to add new games. This work is made possible with funding from a National Priorities Research Program grant from the Qatar National Research Fund entitled "Innovative Computing and Mobile Technology for Improving English Literacy Skills for Children and for Adults". While in Doha, Gary will also work with the TechBridgeWorld team to prepare for the launch of the iSTEP 2013 internship.
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April |
April 24, 2013
On April 22, students enrolled in 15-239: Software Development for Social Good gave their final project presentations at Google Pittsburgh. Three of the five presentations described advances made to TechBridgeWorld’s Braille Writing Tutor (BWT) project, including a BWT emulator, Android enabled BWT, and Standalone Braille Tutor. One team presented the map generator they developed for our NavPal project and another team described the educational game and enhanced teacher portal they developed for our TechCaFE project. The final presentations were attended by several members of the Google Pittsburgh community and a majority of the TechBridgeWorld Executive Board. TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member M. Freddie Dias also attended (pictured: BWT emulator group).
April 24, 2013
Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Computer Science Senior, Afnan Fahim, was recently featured in Carnegie Mellon Today magazine. Afnan was one of the iSTEP 2011 interns based in Uruguay. He was the technical lead for developing a Facebook app to enhance English literacy among Uruguayan youth. Afnan will be continuing his studies at Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh campus as a Fifth Year Scholar in Fall 2013.
April 24, 2013
TechBridgeWorld bids farewell to Abhaya Nivarthi who was a research associate on the TechCaFE project, based in Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Among other tasks, Abhaya led the TechCaFE’s needs assessment efforts. We wish Abhaya the best in her future endeavors.
April 17, 2013
Computer Science Ph.D. student Peter Chapman’s Spring 2013 V-Unit project aims to encourage computer science education in middle schools and high schools through a competition that presents computer science from an exciting perspective. The result is picoCTF 2013: Toaster Wars, a series of challenges centered around a unique storyline where participants must reverse engineer, break, hack, decrypt, or do whatever it takes to solve the challenge. The “Adventure” runs from April 26 through May 6, 2013 and is open to middle school and high school students from the United States. If you are interested in proposing a V-Unit project, please contact us.
April 17, 2013
Through the Software Development for Social Good (15-239) course, students are enhancing TechBridgeWorld’s Standalone Braille Tutor (SABT) and it is now operational with all of the Braille Writing Tutor’s modes and games. In early April, students got initial feedback about the SABT from partner contacts in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. This feedback will significantly enhance features of the SABT to ensure its accessibility and relevance to users.
April 17, 2013
iSTEP (innovative Student Technology ExPerience) is a unique internship program that provides Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) students with the opportunity to conduct technology research projects in developing communities. We want to express our sincere appreciation to our CMU colleagues at the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses for their many contributions to make every year of iSTEP a success!
Since 2009, we have involved dozens of CMU students in projects on assistive technology, literacy tools, information exchange and environmental sustainability. We have also worked with partners in Bangladesh, Ghana, Tanzania and Uruguay. This summer marks the 5th year of the internship program, and this year our team will work on assistive technology projects in India.
April 10, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias was the keynote speaker at the 26th Annual Glenna Hazeltine Women in Mathematics and Science Conference, which took place at Millersville University on April 2. The purpose of this conference is to provide young women in science and mathematics with opportunities to meet with a variety of professional women role models who have successfully pursued scientific and mathematically-oriented careers. Bernardine’s speech, entitled "Innovations that Cross Boundaries: Why People Matter," shared some of TechBridgeWorld’s experiences, stories, and lessons learned throughout a decade of technology innovation in partnership with underserved communities around the world.
April 10, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Student Representative Hatem Alismail was recently featured in the Winter/Spring edition of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s On-Q magazine. The article highlights Hatem’s research as a Robotics Institute PhD student and his involvement with TechBridgeWorld. Hatem was a participant in TechBridgeWorld’s inaugural iSTEP internship program in 2009 and now serves on our Executive Board. In the article, Hatem notes that he is excited to see the potential real-world applications of his work in robotics through related TechBridgeWorld projects.
April 10, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member David Dausey will become the Dean of the new School of Health Professions and Public Health at Mercyhurst University, beginning Fall 2013. Congratulations, David!
April 3, 2013
In March, TechBridgeWorld Postdoctoral Fellow M. Beatrice Dias traveled to Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) to conduct user testing for a phone game prototype developed by 15-239 students. The phone game was tested with migrant workers at CMU-Q who are learners in ROTA’s Adult English Literacy program (RAEL). In this car driving game, the learner’s objective is to correctly answer as many literacy questions as possible to fill up his or her gas tank. The game was developed based on findings from a needs assessment conducted with this group of users. Preliminary findings indicate that learners enjoy the phone game and that there is potential for incorporating such technology in RAEL classes. This work is made possible with funding from a National Priorities Research Program grant from the Qatar National Research Fund entitled "Innovative Computing and Mobile Technology for Improving English Literacy Skills for Children and for Adults". This work supports TechBridgeWorld’s TechCaFE (Technology for Customizable and Fun Education) program.
April 3, 2013
Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Nico Slate and staff member Emily Mohn Slate along with 10 CMU undergraduate students from the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses are participating in CMU’s first Social Change Semester. The goal of this program is to create a sustainable model of service-based global education.
They began the Social Change Semester at CMU’s campus in Doha, Qatar, where they collaborated with migrant workers from South Asia. From Qatar, they traveled to rural central India, where they lived at Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram in Sevagram, Maharashtra to work with a rural development organization to carry forward Gandhi’s legacy.
For the remainder of the semester, they will travel to Chennai, to partner with a free school and a youth leadership organization to empower underprivileged children. The last week of the semester will be in New Delhi to meet with leaders in government, business, civil society, and the arts. Throughout the semester, students take courses and conduct research, while designing and implementing service projects in collaboration with local partners.
Follow the Social Change Semester journey by reading their blog.
April 3, 2013
Through the Software Development for Social Good (15-239) course, students are developing an Android-based Braille Writing Tutor (BWT) that can connect to a smartphone for computing and internet access to provide users with more features and educational games. With help from TechBridgeWorld volunteer Satish Ravishankar, several Android interfaces options being considered for the Android-based BWT were tested with visually impaired teachers at the Mathru School for the Blind in Bangalore, India. Feedback from these testing sessions will significantly impact development of the Android-based BWT to ensure its accessibility and relevance.
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March |
March 27, 2013
We are happy to welcome Jim Gartner to our Advisory Board! Jim is the Managing Director of Corporate Security Concepts, Inc. (CSC), an international security consulting firm working with multinational organizations and global universities. Prior to CSC, Gartner spent a total of 28 years at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and today continues that relationship in an advisory role. Jim served as Senior Director of Global Security at CMU and was based in Doha, Qatar from 2006 to 2012 where he assisted in CMU's global expansion efforts. While at CMU, Jim helped TechBridgeWorld vet future iSTEP locations. We look forward to working with Jim in his new role!
March 27, 2013
On March 24, TechBridgeWorld held the second of two preparation sessions for the iSTEP 2013 internship. Like the first preparation session, the iSTEP 2013 and TechBridgeWorld teams met via videoconference between the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses. TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member M. Freddie Dias joined this second prep session.
In this prep session, the interns spent time working as a team on a collaborative activity that spanned both Doha and Pittsburgh locations. They also familiarized themselves with project-specific work and presented their storyboard ideas for a video they are creating about the internship. The session concluded with TechBridgeWorld’s Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias leading a discussion on key takeaways of the session and how they apply to the iSTEP 2013 internship.
March 27, 2013
On March 26, Spero Pipakis and Tracey Morsek from the Access Technology Center at Blind and Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh (BVRS) attended part of the 15-239 class. Spero, who is a Coordinator, and Tracey, who is an Instructor, demonstrated some of the technologies they provide training for at BVRS to the 15-239 students. Thanks to Spero and Tracey, everyone present received an opportunity to learn more about how technology can enhance the lives of visually impaired people.
March 20, 2013
Our Winter 2013 Newsletter is now available! Read this issue to learn about TechBridgeWorld's featured research project, the results of our annual 100@100 fundraising campaign, iSTEP 2013 updates, course updates, Young Toddler visit, featured alum, and more!
March 20, 2013
As part of a new campaign, the Anita Borg Institute is profiling Famous Women in Computer Science and Technology in 2013. The month of March features TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board Member Jeannette Wing.
March 20, 2013
TechBridgeWorld recently started a new course, Seminar on Innovating for Underserved Communities (15-303/603). The mini course, which is offered to Carnegie Mellon University students in the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses, will familiarize students with ongoing work in the area of technology innovations for underserved communities. This seminar course will review several key publications and presentations on this topic and teach students the necessary skills to analyze and critique this work in useful ways. Class sessions will be dedicated to student-led discussions of reading and viewing material. Assignments will involve analyzing, writing, and presenting critiques of specific projects.
March 13, 2013
TechBridgeWorld recently wrapped up the Innovating for Underserved Communities: Field Research Basics (15-302/602) mini course. In the final class, student teams presented their designs for an internet-enabled version of the Braille Writing Tutor. Prior to the presentations, all eight students from the 15-302/602 Pittsburgh class visited the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children (WPSBC) for an afternoon of fun with students and staff from WPSBC’s Residential Program. 15-302/602 students got to experience how WPSBC students bowl and play air volleyball after school. In turn, the 15-302/602 students played saxophone and sang for the WPSBC students and staff. The visit was a great learning opportunity and TechBridgeWorld continues to enhance our partnership with WPSBC.
March 13, 2013
Accessible Pittsburgh is an initiative that informs the community about initiatives and programs offered by the City of Pittsburgh, the Department of City Planning, and the City of Pittsburgh Allegheny County Task Force on Disabilities. Accessible Pittsburgh recently featured our NavPal project. Watch the video.
March 6, 2013
TechBridgeWorld thanks Traffic21 for their support of our NavPal project. NavPal is a smartphone-based personalized aid to enhance the navigation capability, independence, and safety of visually impaired and deafblind people. With Traffic21 funding, researchers have integrated the localization, path planning, and interface components of NavPal, created a prototype webpage for visually impaired people to virtually explore unfamiliar buildings, and surveyed potential users of this webpage for feedback. Researchers have also been exploring ways to more accurately determine a person's location within a building using Wifi signal strength mapping to specific locations. Long-term variation of Wifi signal strength was studied both at the Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh campus, and at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children (WPSBC). Students from TechBridgeWorld's 15-239 course, have also contributed to this work by developing a prototype for converting floor plans to an accessible format that can be used with the NavPal tool.
The NavPal research team thanks our partners (WPSBC and Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh), our project sponsors for their support, and the many students who have contributed their time and talents to enhancing this work. For more information on NavPal visit the project website.
March 6, 2013
The first CMU Young Toddlers visit was such a hit that they recently visited TechBridgeWorld again, this time bringing more young toddler friends and a few of their parents. On March 1, ten Young Toddlers and three of their educators from the Cyert Center for Early Education enjoyed a morning full of excitement, learning, curiosity, and fun! Similar to the first visit, TechBridgeWorld featured (1) an American Braille/Sign Language immersion station showcasing some of the educational toys currently used to teach blind and deaf toddlers; (2) a storybook station featuring a slideshow of our pictures and videos of children we have worked with around the world; and (3) a station featuring a couple of smaller robots for the toddlers to interact with.
TechBridgeWorld Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias, Project Manager Sarah Belousov, Project Assistant Ermine Teves, Postdoctoral Associate M. Beatrice Dias, Technical Consultant Gary Giger, and Robotics Institute Administrative Coordinator Ashley McClinton participated in the visit. Robotics Institute Administrative Coordinator Lynnetta Miller also helped us prepare for the event. Guests also included Bernardine and Beatrice's parents, Malcolm and Bernie Dias, Bernardine's toddler son, Brandon Browning-Dias, Beatrice's toddler son, Asher Dias-Richards and Beatrice’s husband, Matt Richards. |
February |
February 27, 2013
TechBridgeWorld recently collected feedback on the NavPal "Routes"
webpage from our visually impaired partner contacts at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children and Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh. The goal of the Routes page is to enable visually impaired people to virtually explore unfamiliar buildings to prepare for a visit to these buildings. Our partner contacts tested the prototype Routes page by exploring fictitious route instructions between buildings on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Pittsburgh. All participants who responded thought that the webpage was useful for their travel planning and provided feedback for improving the website. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar student Hashim Moosavi in Fall 2012, the NavPal Routes webpage will eventually contain information relevant to several buildings in Pittsburgh, and elsewhere as the project expands. Hashim’s work on the Routes page and other research on NavPal are made possible in part due to the generous support from Traffic21.
February 27, 2013
On February 24, TechBridgeWorld Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias helped judge the Steel City Codefest at the Google Pittsburgh office in Bakery Square. 20 teams competed in this 24-hour event, which was designed to provide participants with an opportunity to meet new people, build amazing software apps and build a community of citizens who want to grow Pittsburgh's technology infrastructure. Congratulations to enLightened, OpenDataPgh, and ParkIt. Click here for more information on the winning apps and all participating teams.
February 20, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias and Associate Director Yonina Cooper are co-teaching a new course titled Innovating for Underserved Communities: Field Research Basics (15-302/602) at Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh and Doha campuses. The students recently completed background research on the iSTEP 2013 community partner, the Mathru School for the Blind, as well as a literature review on an internet enabled version of the Braille Writing Tutor.
The outcomes of these assignments and the course will seed this summer’s iSTEP 2013 field research. The course is supported by TechBridgeWorld Postdoctoral Associate M. Beatrice Dias who serves as a Teaching Assistant.
February 20, 2013
We are grateful for the support of our current and past volunteers who have been involved with courses, projects, student mentoring, events, and fundraising. Learn more about our volunteers at our Volunteers page.
February 13, 2013
TechBridgeWorld Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias is co-teaching the new Software Development for Social Good (15-239) course with School of Computer Science faculty member David Kosbie. The goal of this course is for Carnegie Mellon University students to work on projects for social good and produce free and open-source software products of real and immediate value. For this inaugural class, all of the projects are sourced from TechBridgeWorld. Three of this semester’s projects involve our Braille Writing Tutor (BWT): (1) creating a BWT emulator, (2) enabling the BWT to operate when connected to an Android smartphone, and (3) implementing the base functionality of our Stand-Alone Braille Tutor (SABT). Another project involves developing a process to standardize and convert floor plans so they can be used in our NavPal project. The fifth project involves creating cross-platform educational games for our TechCaFE project that are able to run on multiple devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).
The course is supported by TechBridgeWorld Technical Consultant Gary Giger, Graduate Student Representative Hatem Alismail and Advisory Board member M. Freddie Dias who are mentoring students on the various projects. In addition, Human Computer Interaction Institute faculty member Haakon Faste is lending his design expertise to students in the course.
February 13, 2013
Peter Chapman, a Ph.D. Computer Science student at Carnegie Mellon University, is working on a V-Unit project during the Spring 2013 semester titled, “picoCTF: A National Computer Security Competition for High School Students.” This project is advised by Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor David Brumley. If you are interested in proposing a V-Unit project, please contact us.
February 6, 2013
Our third annual grassroots fundraising campaign, 100@100, ended on January 31st. Thank you to the many donors and volunteers who helped us exceed 100% of our financial goal! All funding raised through this 100@100 campaign will support our iSTEP internship program. We also thank our students and alumni who helped us meet a 100@100 challenge which earned us an additional $1,000 from a matching donor. If you were not able to participate in this year’s 100@100 campaign and would like to give to TechBridgeWorld, we welcome donations throughout the year. Learn more about how to donate on our website or contact us.
February 6, 2013
On February 3, TechBridgeWorld held the first of two preparation sessions for the iSTEP 2013 internship. The iSTEP 2013 and TechBridgeWorld teams officially met for the first time via videoconference between the Pittsburgh and Doha campuses. TechBridgeWorld Advisory Board member and Heinz College faculty member Chris Labash and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Student Development Coordinator Jeff Davis also joined the session.
Through this preparation session, the interns learned more about each other and TechBridgeWorld supervisors, demonstrated their knowledge of the iSTEP 2013 internship through teamwork and thought about how to tell creative and effective stories as a team. The second iSTEP 2013 preparation session will take place in March and will focus on preparing the team for project-specific work in the field. |
January |
January 30, 2013
The Cooperative Robotic Watercraft project at Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU)
Robotics Institute is creating an autonomous fleet of robotic "airboats" to provide
intelligent environmental monitoring over large bodies of water at a low cost. Through a grant from the
Qatar National Research Fund's National Priorities Research Program, the airboat design
and intelligence will be improved over three years, culminating in the simultaneous deployment of 25 airboats. Led by CMU faculty members
Paul Scerri, M. Bernardine Dias, Peter Hansen and George Kantor, this project is concluding its year one
activities at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q). Research at CMU-Q is
currently focused on deploying five airboats featuring the latest design and improving the algorithms used for coordination and
collaboration (pictured: Airboat testing in Doha, Qatar).
January 30, 2013
TechBridgeWorld's TechCaFE (Technology for Customizable and Fun Education)
program has already made two new additions this year! First, we are pleased to welcome Abhaya Nivarthi to our Doha-based research team.
Abhaya holds a Master's degree in Instructional Systems and Technology as well as in Economics, and will be leading the needs assessment efforts
for this project. Second, we are excited to announce a new partnership with Reach Out To Asia
(ROTA), whose mission is to support Qatar's neighboring countries as they overcome developmental difficulties. Our team will work with ROTA to design
tools that can help enhance English literacy skills of learners enrolled in their Adult English Literacy Program.
January 23, 2013
TechBridgeWorld thanks our many donors and volunteers who are supporting our annual 100@100
fundraising campaign! This year's campaign ends on Thursday, January 31. We are excited to announce that we were successful in reaching our financial goal
as well as our Student/Alumni Challenge! We are still reaching for our goal of 100 donors by the end of this campaign, and we are currently at 65% of that goal.
Please consider becoming a donor and champion to help support our programs. This year's 100@100 fundraising supports TechBridgeWorld's
iSTEP 2013 program where Carnegie Mellon students will be working on assistive technology projects
with our partners at the Mathru School for the Blind. Invest in the future of TechBridgeWorld and
make a gift today at any level!
January 23, 2013
We want to express our sincere gratitude to the wonderful supporters who are contributing to our annual 100@100
campaign, as well as to donors who contribute generally to TechBridgeWorld throughout the year! Several TechBridgeWorld donors have continued their support year after year. We
welcome donations at any level to TechBridgeWorld and further details are available on our website, including
testimonials from a few of our donors.
January 23, 2013
TechBridgeWorld's Founder and Director M. Bernardine Dias will help judge the Steel City Codefest in Pittsburgh, US on February 24, 2013.
Steel City Codefest is designed to provide participants with an opportunity to meet
new people and build amazing software apps. It is also about building a community of citizens who want to grow Pittsburgh's technology infrastructure.
The event, which spans 24 hours, will be held at co-sponsor Google Pittsburgh's office in Bakery Square.
January 16, 2013
In Spring 2012, TechBridgeWorld was awarded a three-year
National Priorities Research Program
(NPRP) grant from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF)
for our TechCaFE (Technology for Customizable and Fun Education) program. TechCaFE provides educators with
simple and customizable tools to make learning fun for students. Through this grant, TechBridgeWorld and the
Qri8 Lab will create
a suite of culturally and socially relevant computer and mobile phone based tools for enhancing English
literacy skills among children and adults. Led by Carnegie Mellon University faculty members M. Bernardine Dias,
Yonina Cooper and Silvia Pessoa, these literacy tools will be field tested and evaluated in several
countries including Qatar and the United States. Through this work we hope to advance the state of the art in computer
assisted language learning, educational technology, and technology for development.
TechCaFE will be targeting three categories of users: children (high school age or younger), youth (college and university age), and adults (25 years and older). To date, we have collected background information on part of our user population and are creating tools that can be iteratively tested with these groups in order to further develop them to be more effective and useful. We will be working with experts in teaching English as a second or foreign language to inform the design of our tools and the content that is associated with this technology.
Currently we are focused on the following technology tools:
- A Facebook game titled "My Robot Champion" that enhances English literacy through teaching
- A J2ME phone game titled "Whiz Kid" that utilizes more of the capability of CaFE Play
- The TechCaFE suite of tools
- Games for a smartphone platform
January 16, 2013
Welcome back Carnegie Mellon students! We hope you all had a happy holiday and a relaxing break.
Do you want to get involved with TechBridgeWorld? Do you want to learn more about the field of ICTD
(information and communication technologies for development)? If so, we encourage you to take our
Spring 2013 mini-2 course entitled
Seminar on Innovating for Underserved Communities (15-303/15-603).
The ultimate goal of this course is to familiarize students with ongoing work in the area of technology
innovations for underserved communities. This seminar course will review several key publications and
presentations on this topic and teach students the necessary skills to analyze and critique this work
in useful ways. Class sessions will be dedicated to discussing reading/viewing assignments and each class
discussion will be led by students. Assignments will involve analyzing, writing, and presenting critiques
of specific projects.
January 9, 2013
TechBridgeWorld is excited to announce the iSTEP 2013 summer internship team
who will be working on assistive technology projects with our partner the Mathru School for the Blind.
Madeleine Clute, Madelyn Gioffre, Poornima Kaniarasu and Vivek Nair will be part of the Technology Development team to further develop our
Stand Alone Braille Tutor.
Aditya Kodkany, Shree Lakshmi Rao, Aveed Sheikh and Avia Weinstein will be part of the Needs Assessment
team to further investigate the needs of Mathru's new disability center. For more details on what the interns will be working on this summer,
visit the iSTEP 2013 website.
The iSTEP 2013 interns are from both the Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh and Doha campuses. The interns represent several different
departments including Business Administration, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Mathematics, Psychology and Robotics. Congratulations to all of these students! The TechBridgeWorld team looks forward to working with them.
January 2, 2013
Invest in the future of TechBridgeWorld and join the third year of 100@100, our
annual grassroots fundraising campaign. Our goal is to enlist 100 donors giving $100 each by January 31, 2013 to support our iSTEP 2013
program. We have already raised 57.1% of our goal in recent weeks. We are also working towards reaching our
100@100 Student/Alumni Challenge
to earn a matching gift from an anonymous donor. We encourage our supporters to participate in any way that they can. Join the power of
100@100 and give today!
>> Read More
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