Spring 2011

Los Angeles Pitch NightApril 28, 20115:30pm - 9pm

Santa Monica Public Library Auditorium601 Santa Monica Blvd

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Welcome!Dear Guests,

Thank you so much for attending the inaugural Technovation Challenge Los Angeles Pitch Night! Our girls have worked so hard the past two months, and we’re excited to take this opportunity to showcase their enthusiasm and creativity in developing their apps and business plans!

The Technovation Challenge is a program run by Iridescent, an LA-based science/technology education nonprofit. This program was started in 2010 in the Bay Area by Dr. Anuranjita Tewary, an affiliate of Iridescent, while she was on sabbatical, and Dr. Tewary has since joined LinkedIn as a Senior Data Scientist.

The mission of the Technovation Challenge is to promote women in technol-ogy by giving high school girls the skills and confidence they need to be suc-cessful in computer science and entrepreneurship. In this 9-week course, teams of girls have worked with computer science TAs and professional mentors to create a mobile phone app prototype, as well as a business plan to promote it. Not only does the Technovation Challenge give girls ac-cess to technology and business creation experiences, but it gives young women confidence, troubleshooting skills, and valuable lifelong connections to smart, successful women for networking in years to come.

We thank you again for supporting women in technology and are so happy to be host to you tonight!

Sincerely, the LA Technovation team:

Renée GreenLA Program Coordinator

Rachelle FuhrerLA Instructor

Jeri CountrymanDirector of Programs

AnnaLise HoopesNational Executive Director

Agenda

5:30 – 6:45 Networking

View mobile app demos

6:45 – 8:30 Pitches

Keynote and judging

8:30 – 9:00 Awards and networking

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AcknowledgementsIn addition to the sponsors listed on the back of this booklet, we would like to recognize the following individuals for all of their help:

LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley ThomasLA City Councilwoman Janice HahnGardena City Councilman Dan MedinaJack Gabig, Gardena Municipal Bus LinesDr. Nick D’Amico, Gardena High SchoolCharles De Cuir, Gardena High SchoolRobin Ward, BetterWorksAlon Goren, Invested.inLeila Najafi, EventbriteYolanda Gil, USC Information Sciences InstituteShiva Swami, Entrepreneur and Consultant

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InstructorRachelle Fuhrer studied Mathematics-Computer Science and Interdisciplin-ary Computing and the Arts at the University of California, San Diego after deciding she wanted to go into the field of digitally-animated films. She has since switched tacks, and is currently pursuing a MS in Computer Science Game Development at the University of Southern California and will start working as a Game Programmer Intern at Blizzard Entertainment in May, where she hopes to work full-time upon graduation.

MentorsAlice Pang ......................................................................Developer Evangelist, MicrosoftAmanda Zook ...............................................System Administrator, Biola UniversityAmy Hee Kim ........................................STEM Coordinator, Girl Scouts of AmericaBernadette Nicholas ..................................Software Engineer, Xerox CorporationCarmen Heger ...............................Application Engineer, SDL Language WeaverKatherine Wilcox ............................................Entrepreneur and EnCorps EducatorStephanie Younger .........Software Developer, Lakeshore Learning MaterialsTrish Steen......................................................Science Teacher, CALS Middle School

TAsOur TAs are all students at the University of Southern California.Becky Chen ...............................................................................................Computer ScienceEmma Ye .............................................................................................Electrical EngineeringKadra Alvaro ...... Computer Security, Computer Engineering, and Computer

ScienceLei Huang ...................................................................................................Computer ScienceMegha Gupta ......................................................................Robotics, Computer ScienceTricia Turton .............................................................................................Computer ScienceYi Qin ......Medical Imaging and Imaging Informatics, Biomedical EngineeringYingying Zhang ........................................................................................Computer Science

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Epic TunesTeam: The Brownies

Epic Tunes is designed for the concert-going music lover: with Epic Tunes, music lovers can easily find affordable concerts in their area! This app al-lows users to read up about their favorite artists, read reviews of concerts and venues, find maps of eateries that are near to venues, and purchase tickets online. Users will be able to generate a custom profile listing their favorite artists, allowing them to find and sample new artists based off of their musical preferences and find events at which the artists are perform-ing, as well as connect with other users with similar tastes.

Team members:Alicia FigueroaBrenda RodriguezPaola Vasquez

Mentor:Amanda ZookTA:Becky Chen

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Check It OutTeam: Team Rise

With so many choices and so much information in teenagers lives, Check It Out helps teenagers to save time, money, and keep pace with the latest trends by helping them get discounts, avoid traffic, manage time, and orga-nize their clothes. The app collects discount information about local restau-rants and shops and provides traffic information to enable users to enjoy these savings. In addition, Check It Out also aids users in recording daily to-do lists and providing reminders to complete scheduled tasks. Lastly, this app tracks and record the clothes in a user’s closet to help select outfits every morning according to current trends.

Team members:Destiny JonesErica JohnsonJacky Perez

Mentor:Trish SteenTA:Emma Ye

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Tab Attack!Team: Tech Nerds

Tab Attack! – guitar, bass, and drum learning made easy. Tab Attack is a music education game where users can have fun while learning how to play guitar, drums, and bass, utilizing tabs and playing their favorite music. Tab Attack provides tutorials with clear instructions that explain to users how to read and use tabs. The app features a play-along touch screen with tabs of songs that allow time-strapped users to learn to play their own instrument. The user experience is enhanced with links to other websites with access to more music and three levels of play with scorekeeping options.

Team members:Amanda RochaHelen AlexanderLaura GuzmanTheresa Nguyen

Mentor:Katherine WilcoxTA:Lei Huang

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The Kid TrackerTeam: MASKKK the Destroyers

The Kid Tracker is an extremely resourceful and simple to use mobile app for busy parents with busy children. Knowing that many parents are busy with work or other obligations, trying to keep up with their children’s school and extracurricular activities is a big job. This app allows a parent to keep detailed records of their child’s activities through calendars, organize con-tact information for each activity in a creative way, locate their child through GPS functionality, and allows for easy access to external parenting resourc-es such as quick dinner ideas and parenting blogs.

Team members:Ariel TamKim BurgarinKyana WallerMartha Perez

Mentor:Stephanie YoungerTA:Kadra Alvaro

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In a Flash!Team: TUF – Techno Unibot Freaks

In a Flash! does exactly what its name suggests: it helps students prepare for their exams in a flash. This app does away with the hassles of remem-bering to carry bulky flashcard sets around and helps students focus on the important thing - learning! A student can build different flash card col-lections, customize the color and font, rate the difficulty of each card, take quizzes based on topics and difficulty, and search for all cards related to a topic. In addition, she can also upload and download flash card collections from the web. A user-friendly interface and zero app cost mean that one can get started with “In a Flash!” right now!

Team members:Dercy De La CruzJessica HernandezJezenia AguirreJoanna DelgadoSarahi Lares

Mentor:Bernadette NicholasTA:Tricia TurtonMegha Gupta

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Guide Me Around: LATeam: Tech Chicks

Guide Me Around: LA assists LA locals in finding the easiest way to get around the city by bus. Using GPS data, the app can pinpoint the user’s location and provide options for the best bus routes to the user’s chosen destination. Guide Me Around: LA includes multiple bus companies and lines, allowing users to select from a mix of Metro, Dash, and other bus lines to choose the best combination of routes for them. The app also al-lows users to share their current location on Twitter and Facebook, and to get push notifications for bus arrival information and stop reminders, all while on standby mode.

Team members:Alejandra AkeKenia RiojaKhayla SherrodYeimi Clemente

Mentor:Amy Hee KimAlice PangTA:Yingying Zhang

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BUSavvyTeam: Musical Gears

BUSsavvy! is an application to help bus riders in Los Angeles to find the most convenient or fastest bus route to get to their destination, providing many safety tips, as well as some entertainment, to enable customers to spend an enjoyable time on the bus. The app provides at least 500 safety tips that users can either search through or select to receive on a random basis. For entertainment, the application provides a collection of conver-station starters and bus icebreakers to aid users in starting conversations and connecting with their fellow bus riders.

Team members:Ashley HuitronDiana MercadoNanci TorresWendy Vasquez

Mentor:Carmen HegerTA:Yi Qin

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KeynoteLucy Hood

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Lucy Hood, head of USC’s Institute of Communications Management Tech-nology (CTM), is a highly respected in-dustry expert in mobile strategy and innovator in digital content. USC’s CTM Institute is the world’s leading Institute at the intersection of tech-nology and content, offering its mem-bers cutting-edge global research and business strategy, executive edu-

cation and leadership forums for the digital industry. Twenty-five corporate partners include AT&T, Verizon, HP, Cisco, Qualcomm, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Ogilvy & Mather, Fox, and Disney.

Prior to joining USC’s Marshall School of Business, Hood was President of Fox Mobile Entertainment, and Senior Vice President of News Corporation, where she was widely known as an architect of corporate digital strategy. Hood built News Corporation’s mobile business through partnerships with companies such as Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm, Nokia and Veri-sign. Lucy Hood led the team that launched text messaging in the US on American Idol, and invented the Mobisode®. Hood was a key executive in launching numerous technology businesses at Fox, including Fox.com and FX Cable. Previously, she was an executive at Paramount Pictures, and produced the news program, “Business Times.”

Hood is a keynote speaker at major industry events and business confer-ences around the world such as CES, E3, CTIA, Mobile World Congress, Wireless Influencers and Digital Hollywood. In addition, she has spoken on digital issues before top government officials in the US and in China. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Yale University.

Judges

Dana Settleis a partner at Greycroft LLC, and heads the Los Angeles office. She has invested in and advised several successful tech ventures and is the only female VC in LA. She has also worked in invest-ment banking at Lehman Brothers and in interna-tional business development at McCaw Cellular.

Karen Jashinskyis a Certified Fitness Trainer and founder of O2 MAX, a youth fitness and media company with a large focus on lifestyle fitness programs for teens and college students. She has previously worked in marketing and business development.

Eva Hois the VP of Marketing & Operations at Factual. She is a serial entrepreneur with employers that include: Google, YouTube, Applied Semantics. She serves on the board of several non-profits and holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.

Dave Siemeris the founder of and Managing Director at Sie-mer & Associates Investment Banking and heads Siemer Venture Capital, which invests in multiple digital media ventures. Mr. Siemer received his MBA in Finance and Economics from the Univer-sity of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

With many thanks to our supporters:

Please visit us at:www.iridescentlearning.org