Six dedicated girls from Todd Shattuck’s AP Computer Science Class participated in the National Technovation Competition on May 3, placing second. The Technovation competition is an app-designing competition open exclusively to girls. Juniors Jin Kyung Park, Gabriella Zavaleta, You Min Jung, Lillian Lee, Lillian Peng, and Senior Natalie Orsi designed an android app, “SATisfy,” a study buddy designed to connect students studying for the SAT with their friends who can tutor them.
As a team, they put their heads together; they realized how often they use Collegeboard and Facebook, and found a way to combine the two.
Using the program “Appinventor” designed by MIT, the team designed the app over the course of three weeks. You Min Jung and Lillian Peng were responsible for the business plan, Jin Kyung Park and Lillian Lee were in charge of fact checking and research, Gabriella Zavaleta planned and performed the presentation, and Natalie designed the actual app.
500 girls submitted to the regional competition via video submission on April 23. Uni’s team placed first and advanced to the national competition.
Technovation flew them out to San Jose, and they were the first to present, which was an intense experience for the team, especially for presenter Gabriella Zavaleta.
“We had to overcome a lot of challenges; it was difficult to present a pitch first in front of a full auditorium and a panel of judges, especially since we hadn’t done a pitch before.” After their success, they were awarded iPod Shuffles and trophies. Junior Lillian Peng added, “It took a lot of patience and responsibility, but I learned a lot along the way.”