Our CT private school student, sophomore Angelique P. will compete with Girls For Technology, Inc. and represent the State of Connecticut at Facebook headquarters to compete in the final round of the Engineer For The Week Challenge (EFTW) to further develop Artificial Intelligence (AI), EBONI – a Chabot for young Black professionals.
In the fall of 2018, Facebook announced a national open call for teens to design a working tech product and develop computer science skills by solving real-world problem. Girls For Technology created a team of four high school girls who met over 35 hours after school at the Wilson-Gray YMCA to create an artificial intelligence-powered Chabot. The girls created EBONI – a chatbot that is designed to help young Black professionals navigate the workplace while also promoting culturally competent workplaces.
The Engineer For The Week challenge both inspires girls in tech while simultaneously teaching girls software development skills. In October, Facebook executives were so impressed with the girls’ progress that their Education department director flew from Silicon Valley to meet with the team. The Girls For Technology team will advance to the final round and is invited to Facebook Headquarters from May 2nd to 3rd. Angelique is one of four high school girls on the team.
During their visit to Facebook, the team will further develop their product, participate in a Hackathon with Facebook engineers, and tour the Facebook campus. Finalist teams will take home tangible prizes along with the Good Deed award including $50,000 in cash prize donations to 10 select non-profit organizations.
