Coding one particle @ a time with volunteer Melissa Powel!
I met Melissa Powel back in the fall of 2013 for an event teaching Latina girls ages 12-17 coding in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. After that event we stayed in touch and watched each other grow; her obtaining her Masters in Product Design from Carnegie Mellon University while maintaining a proven track record working @ Google and me connecting more than 150 young adults for careers in tech and launching <dev/Mission>.
This summer we started talking about the possibility of creating an IoT Pilot Program: The Internet of things is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to connect and exchange data.
The brainstorming began by having both of us think through the process of what a pilot IoT workshop would look like. The brainstorming led to having three workshops: one just to introduce the IoT concept, and to start working with the Particle Photon, second one to start helping our students and alumni to design a project, then finally to having our 1st Hackathon this Saturday Nov 11th @ the Google Launchpad space. Particle for Good has provided a significant donation of devices as well.
These are Melissa's words regarding the event this Saturday: Google Developers Experts is hosting a one day IoT hackathon for 20 students from dev/Mission, a local non profit that works to train untapped young adults for careers in technology. dev/Mission's goal is to connect the most overlooked population in San Francisco, Bay Area and beyond; and expose them to careers in the tech industry to build wealth and prosperity in the local diverse communities through jobs in technology.
Melissa was just recently highlighted in the SF Mission Local Newspaper for her work with <dev/Mission> this summer and our current Fall 2017 Cohort.
We are very thankful for Melissa donating her time and passion to our "next generation of tech talent"!!!!!!!!!!
#youbelonghere #IoT #nextgenoftechtalent #volunteering #getinvolved