3102: 150,000 Innovators and Counting: Technovation's Journey to Transforming Tech Education

[00:00:04] Have you ever wondered how the next generation of tech leaders is being shaped? And particularly, how young women are being prepared to take on the challenges and opportunities of a tech-driven future?

[00:00:18] Well, my guest today, Tara, has got a fantastic story. She's a former aerospace engineer turned CEO and founder of a company called Technovation, and they are the world's largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls.

[00:00:34] And with a mission that has reached more than 150,000 girls across 120 countries, Technovation empowers young women to develop mobile and AI-based applications that solve real-world problems.

[00:00:50] And I was incredibly excited to invite Tara to come on here and join me and share insights on how she's helping bridge the gender gap in technology and fostering ethical AI and the transformative impact of mentoring and education in tech.

[00:01:06] It is such a rich topic, and sadly, a topic that we don't talk about enough.

[00:01:11] So today, I join you to learn with me as we uncover the powerful stories of young female innovators and the profound influence of initiatives like the AI Forward Alliance and the impact that it's having on shaping a balanced and more inclusive technological future.

[00:01:30] Whether you are a parent of a young girl, you are a young girl in education right now, or you just know somebody that this conversation might inspire,

[00:01:39] Please send them over.

[00:01:41] Because I think this is one of those episodes that could have a big impact on the world.

[00:01:45] And if I can get just a few girls listening to this anywhere in the world that set a course into a tech career, I think we've achieved something special today.

[00:01:53] But enough rambling from me.

[00:01:55] Let's get Tara onto the podcast now.

[00:01:58] So a massive warm welcome to the show.

[00:02:02] Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:06] Thank you, Neil, for having me.

[00:02:07] I'm Tara Shiklowski, and I'm the founder and CEO of Technovation.

[00:02:11] We are the world's largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls, and we run in about 120 countries, inspiring them to become tech entrepreneurs.

[00:02:21] Welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:22] And one of the things I try and do here every day is find out more about the technology and the impacts that it's having on our society, work, and even world.

[00:02:30] And also find a little bit more about the origin story of my guests.

[00:02:34] When I was doing a little research on you, I learned that you started your career as an aerospace engineer before founding Technovation.

[00:02:42] So I've got to ask, what was it that inspired you to pivot towards education and empowering young girls to become technology entrepreneurs?

[00:02:50] I feel there's got to be a big story there.

[00:02:52] There was this big story.

[00:02:53] I think as a kid, I really wanted to work at this company called Air Awarement, and it was one of the most pioneering aviation companies.

[00:03:04] They made the first human-powered airplane.

[00:03:06] They made the first solar-powered airplane.

[00:03:08] They made the first electric vehicle, electric car, actually.

[00:03:11] And so I was really aiming my side.

[00:03:13] So I was working on a PhD program just so that I could go to that company and work on bird-inspired airplanes because I wanted to make airplanes that were beautiful, graceful, super energy efficient.

[00:03:25] And then when I did intern at the company, and at that time, they started to build the first drones ever.

[00:03:32] And the biggest customer was the U.S. military.

[00:03:36] And I think that did not feel good to me to make killing machines.

[00:03:42] And so it was a huge sort of wake-up call, and I did not want to go into a big aerospace company.

[00:03:49] So the only options were Boeing and Airbus at that time.

[00:03:52] Lockheed Martin.

[00:03:52] And so it was a real sort of step back.

[00:03:56] What do I do type of a moment?

[00:03:57] And like any engineer, I opened up a spreadsheet, and I made a list of what are the big problems in the world?

[00:04:03] What do I have to offer to them?

[00:04:05] And the match was education as a real lever to change your destiny, right?

[00:04:12] Like which may be a function of where you're born, but education really changes that.

[00:04:18] And then I love motivating people to do hard things.

[00:04:22] If someone says, I don't know what I'm doing, there's something that sort of really gets started up in my –

[00:04:29] and I want to sort of help them figure out their goals and help them really shoot for the stars.

[00:04:33] So I think it's an immediate reaction that I have.

[00:04:37] So I was like, okay, that's what I'm going to combine.

[00:04:40] And I wanted to bring the most like high-quality, world-class education that even the richest person couldn't buy if they wanted to

[00:04:49] and bring it to the most vulnerable, underrepresented groups in the world.

[00:04:54] And that's the journey we are on now.

[00:04:57] Wow, it's a fantastic story.

[00:04:59] And I love the line there of wanting to fix problems in the world rather than add to them.

[00:05:05] And on this podcast, I always try to share so many stories of how people are making a real impact with their work and by using technology.

[00:05:13] And the theme of the show is always technology works best when it brings people together.

[00:05:18] And wow, I'm going to drop a powerful stat here for people listening.

[00:05:22] Technovation has trained more than 150,000 girls in technology and entrepreneurship over the past 15 years.

[00:05:31] I mean, that alone is just incredible.

[00:05:33] And just to bring those stats to life, could you share any of the most impactful success stories of how this program has influenced participants, career paths, and making such a big difference in the world?

[00:05:45] Yeah, like just so many stories.

[00:05:48] So I think I can share, I don't know, how much time do you have?

[00:05:52] So I'll share one from the US, one from India, and maybe one from Kenya if you have time.

[00:05:58] So this is a girl from South San Francisco.

[00:06:03] She used to be in a kind of a lower income school, and they really did not have too much of a career path or understanding.

[00:06:13] There wasn't that much computer science available.

[00:06:15] But her teacher learned about Technovation and asked and told her, like, I think this is going to be great for you.

[00:06:21] And so she participated with some of her friends, and it completely opened up her mind because Technovation is very unusual.

[00:06:29] It's not a coding program.

[00:06:30] It is find a problem that you care about in your community and then build a tech startup for it.

[00:06:35] So you learn how to code.

[00:06:37] You learn how to build an app.

[00:06:38] You learn how to do a business plan and everything.

[00:06:40] And so that completely changed the way she thought about her future.

[00:06:43] And so she went to college.

[00:06:46] That college did not have computer science, so she took the next thing that was entrepreneurship, and she got a degree in that.

[00:06:54] And then because of her Technovation experience, so she's African-American, and she got a job at Apple, actually, and she worked at Apple for many years.

[00:07:03] And then I think, again, like, so Technovation is kind of like your weightlifting program for an entrepreneur, right?

[00:07:10] Like, you start to build this muscle, and as you start to do harder and harder things, you can lift more weights.

[00:07:15] You can do bigger and bigger challenges.

[00:07:17] And because you have that in your history, it really builds your confidence, and you never sort of let go of that entrepreneurial bug.

[00:07:25] So after five years at Apple, I think she's like, I've got to do something more.

[00:07:29] So she and her sister started a scholarship fund for African-American girls like her.

[00:07:35] And she's, I think only she was in her early 20s at that time.

[00:07:38] And then she's like, I'm going to leave the comfort of this job and start my own business.

[00:07:43] And there are not that many African-American girls around or young women doing this kind of stuff.

[00:07:48] But she tried this Technovation for that.

[00:07:51] I reached out to her, and she's like, okay, we've got to get this program back to my high school.

[00:07:54] But, you know, these journeys are still unfolding.

[00:07:57] These are young women.

[00:07:58] And it's not as if, like, you put a full stop and you say, and she did this.

[00:08:02] Because they have so many more years in which they're going to make a huge change.

[00:08:07] And so we want to stay really closely connected to them.

[00:08:10] So that's Zane, this girl from India.

[00:08:14] We have incredible chapter ambassadors who go into the community and ask parents to let their daughters participate.

[00:08:20] Because in many cultures, it's unsafe for girls to go out in the evening, after school, things like that.

[00:08:26] So this chapter ambassador kept going to these parents and saying, let your daughters participate because it's important for them.

[00:08:33] And usually the answer is, but I want this for my boy because girls will only get married.

[00:08:38] So this is a waste of our time.

[00:08:40] But the chapter ambassador kept saying, just give it a shot, right?

[00:08:43] And so the dad was a taxi driver.

[00:08:46] Finally, after many years, they gave in and let the daughter go to Technovation.

[00:08:50] She did really well.

[00:08:52] I think she was written up in the local newspaper.

[00:08:54] And then, interestingly, the dad was involved in a car accident and lost his source of income.

[00:09:04] But by then, this girl got a job at Google and started to sort of climb as a software engineer and was supporting the family.

[00:09:18] And if the family hadn't let her go into Technovation, she would have never gone down this path.

[00:09:23] And so that is such a powerful story of systemic change where you're changing.

[00:09:30] But the chapter ambassadors are the people that are really changing the mindsets of the parents because girls can't do that.

[00:09:36] They don't have agency.

[00:09:37] These are little girls.

[00:09:40] The last story I'll tell you is this girl from Kenya.

[00:09:43] Her name is Dorcas.

[00:09:45] She participated in Technovation, had an incredible experience.

[00:09:50] She was sort of, I think, middle class Kenyan.

[00:09:52] And she was like, I want to get this program to more underrepresented girls in Kenya.

[00:09:58] So there's a very, very large slum in Kenya, Nairobi.

[00:10:02] It's called Kibera.

[00:10:03] And so she went to Kibera with a mentor and she brought Technovation to these girls.

[00:10:09] And so the first year she did that, so she's now a mentor right at this point.

[00:10:14] The girls there have to spend somewhere between like two to six hours a day going to collect water.

[00:10:22] So all around the world, every day, girls spend 200 million hours collecting water.

[00:10:28] So this is time away from their education.

[00:10:31] This is time when they're spending in very dangerous circumstances and carrying extremely heavy loads on their head.

[00:10:36] So these girls made an app where you could buy water and sell water.

[00:10:42] And so now this became very interesting to boys, not just girls.

[00:10:47] And her family shifted their role from basically just sending their daughter every day to collect water to actually operating a business.

[00:10:55] And so then Dorcas was like, okay, I can do better.

[00:10:59] So then she went with this mentor, Asha.

[00:11:02] They went a little bit further into rural Kenya, into this area called Samburu, where the people practice FGM.

[00:11:12] I don't know if you're familiar with the term.

[00:11:14] So these are girls who are sold off in marriage as early as five years of age.

[00:11:20] And the community practices female genital mutilation.

[00:11:24] And so there is a foundation that rescues these girls.

[00:11:29] And there is a very high security enclosed because the community tries to get these girls out.

[00:11:35] So Dorcas and Asha went to this community and to see if they could bring technovation to them.

[00:11:41] And so Dorcas was telling me that that was the most sort of moving moment she's ever had because she was like, I come to them and I ask this question.

[00:11:50] What are some problems in your community?

[00:11:52] And it felt so trivial based on what they have gone through.

[00:11:57] And so she was like, I had no resources to try to figure out how to help these girls move from their place of trauma to actually a place of empowerment.

[00:12:06] But just because of genuine care, the girls went through it.

[00:12:11] And the app that they created was so incredible.

[00:12:15] So that community makes some of the most beautiful beaded jewelry, beautiful ornatesa.

[00:12:20] So they made an app because they were like, at the heart of this is economic suffering.

[00:12:26] And so basically they made an app where you could sell the beaded jewelry and the money goes to the family.

[00:12:31] So then they don't have to sell their daughters.

[00:12:33] And so Dorcas was like, that is, I mean, that was an example of technovation having multi-layered impact, not just on the girl who goes through it, but because they go through such a transformation experience, they want to give it back to others.

[00:12:49] So those teams were actually featured by the World Economic Forum earlier this year because of what they are doing and the change.

[00:12:56] But that's some of the, I wanted to highlight the people that make this change happen.

[00:13:01] Yeah, and that is one of the reasons I asked that exact question.

[00:13:05] I mean, the fact that you can immediately reflect on three incredibly powerful stories from three continents around the world is just phenomenal.

[00:13:13] And there are so many stories like that.

[00:13:16] In fact, there are more than 12,000 mobile and AI-based apps that have been created through your program.

[00:13:23] And behind each of those is going to be other stories.

[00:13:25] Obviously, we can't have all those on here.

[00:13:27] We'll be talking for weeks, months and years.

[00:13:30] But what would you say are some of the standout projects that have addressed some real world problems out there?

[00:13:36] And are there any common themes or challenges that these young innovators are focusing on right now?

[00:13:43] I think I'll say that teenage girls are really ahead of the adoption curve.

[00:13:50] And I remember somebody saying that a lot of language innovation actually comes from teenage girls because their language is a bit more evolved than boys.

[00:13:59] And they're always, they're rebellious, right?

[00:14:01] So they're always testing the boundaries of what is sort of the norm.

[00:14:05] And so it's very, very interesting to see how young people use and break technologies.

[00:14:10] And so I'll give you an example.

[00:14:13] In 2010, a team of girls from New York created a Uber app.

[00:14:18] And this was before Uber was well known.

[00:14:21] At that time, they also created a Pinterest app because they're like, we want to share beautiful photographs and images with our friends for inspiration.

[00:14:29] And then in 2013, like 11 years ago, a team of girls came to me and said that they were really worried about the addictive nature of the phones and apps and that they wanted to create an app that would help them focus and step away and be more mindful.

[00:14:46] And at that time, there was no term of mental health or mindfulness or calm or anything like that.

[00:14:52] And so these girls are just way ahead of their time.

[00:14:55] And so we're seeing that in the AI apps now where I almost think it's like a last mile problem where you have large language models, but they are being built on majority languages, majority data sets.

[00:15:07] And so one of my favorite examples is like this girl from Bangalore.

[00:15:11] She wanted to improve the water quality in a local polluted lake and the volunteers were cleaning it and she wanted to show the volunteers the impact of their work, but she doesn't have a water sensor.

[00:15:21] So she basically trained an AI model to detect different types of bird species because she said as the water would get thinner, more birds would come.

[00:15:30] But all of the bird recognition apps were based on North American birds.

[00:15:34] So she made her own data set of Indian birds.

[00:15:36] And so there's so many more examples like that where this team of girls from Vietnam, they recognize that the facial recognition systems do not recognize their facial expressions.

[00:15:45] So they trained their own model to recognize Vietnamese facial expressions.

[00:15:49] So I think like this is something where everybody's talking about LLMs are so data hungry and they are not representing the global majority.

[00:15:58] This is what the Technovation girls are already doing and at a pretty large scale.

[00:16:02] So I think this year we had about 31,000 girls go through the program.

[00:16:06] Next year we're hoping for 45,000.

[00:16:08] And I think these numbers are immense.

[00:16:11] And the young women who go through the program have the mindset to solve very, very big complex problems and be lifelong learners, which is what you mean in this sort of gen AI space.

[00:16:24] Yeah.

[00:16:24] And my aim is that our conversation today will inspire girls listening around the world and indeed parents of girls.

[00:16:31] They may not get to hear it straight away, but maybe a week, month or even a year from now.

[00:16:36] And another thing I wanted to highlight here is Technovation recently launched the AI Forward Alliance.

[00:16:42] And you did that to increase access to AI education for girls globally.

[00:16:47] And there's a lot of hype around AI at the moment.

[00:16:50] It's undoubtedly the future, especially for kids in school.

[00:16:53] So can you tell me a bit more about this initiative and some of the partnerships involved and how you see it shaping the future of AI education too?

[00:17:03] Yeah, I think the big goal is like there's not enough talent out there.

[00:17:08] I think there are about only 14 million men who are professionals in tech and about 4 million women.

[00:17:15] And so if you think about that, that's less than half a percent of the workforce.

[00:17:19] And if you think about it, we are connected through technology.

[00:17:23] So much of our productivity is driven by technology.

[00:17:26] And so it just feels that countries could really advance if they increase their talent that they had.

[00:17:32] So I think number one, it's a talent gap issue.

[00:17:35] And number two, most women are in the service sector.

[00:17:38] And usually the service sector jobs are anywhere like four times or six times less than what a tech job does.

[00:17:46] And so there is huge growth, potential for economic growth for countries to increase their GDP.

[00:17:53] And so for some of those reasons, we launched the AI Forward Alliance in partnership with UNICEF, Google, Oxford Business School, EY,

[00:18:02] a lot of different organizations with the goal to empower 25 million young women over the next 10 to 15 years.

[00:18:09] So that countries have 50-50 representation of women in tech.

[00:18:13] But more importantly, that you have a workforce that has the mindset to tackle real world problems that are messy, complex through technology.

[00:18:24] And the tagline that we have is like builders of better AI because there's always room to improve.

[00:18:29] And there's a huge part of the population that's currently not part of the innovation process.

[00:18:34] So that's one of the easiest places to go to try to improve.

[00:18:39] And I've already sat behind the figures that you gave me there.

[00:18:42] I mean, women currently make up only 22% of that AI workforce.

[00:18:46] So can you just expand on why it's so important that we close this gap and how great a representation of women in AI can contribute to a more ethical and inclusive future for the technology industry and equally the world at large, really?

[00:19:03] Yeah, I think there's three points right there, right?

[00:19:07] Number one, there's an economic argument where when women can earn more than they're currently doing, then their families benefit, their communities benefit, their countries benefit.

[00:19:19] And so we did an analysis of 91 countries using occupation data from the ILO.

[00:19:25] And it's 91 because those are the countries that have the data.

[00:19:29] And the return on investment for skilling girls today using a research-based program like Technovation is roughly 565 times.

[00:19:40] Now, I don't know of any other intervention that has such a high ROI.

[00:19:44] And the reason is because women make up so much of the food production pipeline in many countries, especially in the global majority.

[00:19:54] They are underutilized in almost every sector in the world.

[00:19:58] And so it is a very easy way for them to be brought into the economy to earn much more.

[00:20:04] And then so number one is an economic argument.

[00:20:07] And if you do that, the overall gain to us is $212 billion.

[00:20:14] And so that's just because it's not part of the conversation right now.

[00:20:20] Number two, there's an innovation argument just because when you feel this, when you have teams that think alike, you all think in one direction and you come up with one product.

[00:20:31] But the world is so large and markets are growing.

[00:20:35] People are getting more wealth.

[00:20:37] And so there's room for businesses to expand to new markets.

[00:20:41] And the best way to do that is to understand what is happening on the ground locally.

[00:20:46] And the way to do that is to tap into their local talent pools.

[00:20:50] And with internet, you have access to talent pools all over the world.

[00:20:54] So I think that it's the kinds of ideas you get when you have a diverse innovation team is mind-blowing.

[00:21:03] So I think like the example I gave of the Vietnamese facial expressions, somebody sitting in Silicon Valley will not be thinking about that.

[00:21:11] And they will not have access to those data sets as well.

[00:21:15] And so the local person at the last mile using technology to map out their world, that's what you need for products that make sense for everyone.

[00:21:26] So personalized customer support is something that I think is definitely more doable now because of Gen AI.

[00:21:33] But the human needs to be part of that.

[00:21:35] And I think young women are the most easy answer to that.

[00:21:40] 100% with you.

[00:21:42] And I also wanted to highlight that your work and the Technovation program has also been featured in documentaries like Code Girl I was reading about

[00:21:51] and also highlighted at global summits, including the UN's AI for Good.

[00:21:56] So what would you say are the key messages that you aim to convey at all these high-profile events?

[00:22:01] I attend a lot of these tech conferences myself as well.

[00:22:04] So what kind of messages are you delivering?

[00:22:06] And why are these platforms so important for your mission?

[00:22:10] I think because too often when the conversation is around gender or women or girls' education, it's limited to the basics.

[00:22:19] It's limited to, oh, we need to get them primary education because so many girls are out of school.

[00:22:25] But I don't think it needs to be done in a sequential manner.

[00:22:29] And you just talk to any young girl and you'll know that they may have a smartphone, they know how to use it, they have so many ideas.

[00:22:37] And so there's no reason to say, oh, you can only do primary education.

[00:22:42] And once she goes to college, that's when she needs to get a computer science degree.

[00:22:46] And that's when she'll get this kind of a job or experience.

[00:22:49] I think you can do it in parallel.

[00:22:51] One of the coolest things I remember reading was Seymour Papert.

[00:22:54] He wrote this book, I think in the 70s called Mindstorms, where he predicted that a time will come when a two-year-old will be able to communicate with a computer and ask the computer, show me pictures of dinosaurs.

[00:23:11] And the kid does not know how to read and write, right?

[00:23:15] So at that time, like this is in the 70s, right?

[00:23:17] Like at this time, the only way to communicate with a computer was through programming.

[00:23:21] And so what Seymour Papert talked about was something mind-blowing, which now, of course, everybody takes for granted, where little children can communicate with computers without knowing how to code.

[00:23:31] And so that is exactly the idea where young women can be part of the AI revolution, where they're actually creating AI, not just AI literacy.

[00:23:40] So too much of the conversation at these global summits for women are like, oh my gosh, we need to protect these poor women against the evil effects of biased data sets.

[00:23:50] And I'm like, let the women take care of that.

[00:23:53] Don't think of them as being having powerless, no skills, no victims, right?

[00:24:00] Like, and I think that that's the main message that I want to give to people.

[00:24:04] And I do it by showing these stories, because when you see these stories, you're like, I want those women on my team.

[00:24:10] And there's no argument of like, oh, you need to do it because you have a certain quota.

[00:24:15] It's no, because I need the ideas.

[00:24:17] And that's what I really want to show.

[00:24:19] And that message really comes across in our conversation today.

[00:24:23] And as I said, I go to a lot of tech conferences around the world and every keynote almost sounds the same.

[00:24:29] It begins with other great opportunities and the value that it can bring to businesses,

[00:24:34] usually followed by the ethical implications of AI, which is a growing concern too.

[00:24:40] So on that side of things, how do you at Technovation address this in your curriculum?

[00:24:46] And especially when empowering girls with AI skills, do you think it's a critical step towards developing that more ethical and responsible AI system?

[00:24:56] Absolutely. And we have a very robust module and many modules like at every step of the way, girls are encouraged to think about how this could harm someone.

[00:25:06] I think for an innovator, you really need to be stopping at every point and thinking about what am I missing here?

[00:25:13] How could this be used in a way that was not intended?

[00:25:17] And so we partner with a responsible AI, which is an initiative from the UK government.

[00:25:23] And we use their responsible research and innovation framework where it is to really teach young people how to think about really to build technologies that care and are kind.

[00:25:35] And if you have that kind of mindset, I think you will.

[00:25:39] It's such a human plus AI kind of interaction.

[00:25:42] And we don't have that many precedents of this, right?

[00:25:45] Like where your Gen AI editor is part of your meeting like now, right?

[00:25:50] Like taking notes and really being a collaborator.

[00:25:54] And so I think this is a new era for us when things are changing rapidly.

[00:25:59] But if you come at it from a holistic, OK, I want to build technologies that help people that are kind, caring, empathetic and always looking out for could this harm someone?

[00:26:11] I think you have you've accomplished a lot of the checkpoints in the RRI framework.

[00:26:17] And of course, we are recording this at that magical time of the year where we're starting to set goals for the next year 2025 in this instance.

[00:26:26] So if I ask you to look ahead, what are your goals for tech innovation in the next few years?

[00:26:32] How do you envision the program evolving?

[00:26:34] And are there any other new opportunities that you see for expanding your impact on the next generation of tech innovators?

[00:26:43] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:44] I think next year our goal is to, in partnership with UNICEF, in partnership with the AI4 Alliance, to reach roughly 100,000 girls and young women.

[00:26:52] Like I mentioned, I think we're looking at girls age 8 to 18 to join.

[00:26:57] So the season is open.

[00:26:58] The competition will start January through April.

[00:27:00] So we are looking for mentors to support these girls.

[00:27:04] So we're looking to have roughly 45,000 girls go through the program and then support roughly 60,000 alumna with their continued technical education needs, job placements, all of that, professional development.

[00:27:17] And then longer term, we have a very, very robust scale-up plan.

[00:27:21] And we are in the first horizon, which is just strengthening our infrastructure, getting all our partners in place.

[00:27:26] And we will be going into the second horizon, which is to really adapt our curriculum to the formal school system in many countries, because all children can benefit from this real-world problem-solving, future-ready skills, which I think are critical in an age where AI is taking over the white-collar jobs that we thought were untouchable.

[00:27:46] So I think that what the skills Technovation provides are critical, where you're actually driving our real product into the market, getting user feedback, getting messy with the real world rather than sitting safely behind your desk, making research reports, which that job is gone.

[00:28:03] So I think that's number two, which is really working with educators and school systems to bring this kind of future-ready skilling at scale.

[00:28:11] And then the third horizon, which would be to launch the world's largest network of young women, tech entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors.

[00:28:20] So there is no other group that is as large and has credited Technovation to sort of their journeys where they are.

[00:28:28] So many of our young women are now investors.

[00:28:30] We had an incredibly inspiring event at the UN General Assembly, and I was like, wow, they are investing in young women's businesses now, and that's exactly what that flywheel is beginning to spin.

[00:28:42] Wow. Honestly, I absolutely love chatting with you today.

[00:28:46] So many big takeaways.

[00:28:47] And your passion for what you do here really shines in the conversation.

[00:28:51] And ultimately, if I zoom out for a moment, you're someone that's helping and inspiring hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world.

[00:29:00] And you'll continue to do that in conversations like this and your work.

[00:29:04] And as the saying says on an airplane, though, you've got to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

[00:29:11] So I've got to ask, with this real pressure on us all to be in a state of continuous learning, where or how do you self-educate?

[00:29:18] How do you keep up to speed with the pace of technological change?

[00:29:22] Any advice or tips you can share there?

[00:29:25] Yeah, I think I do a lot of reading of research articles.

[00:29:29] So Google Scholar is very, very interesting.

[00:29:32] So I usually go pretty deep into a section, into a field, trying to see.

[00:29:37] And I think it's really changed now with all these Gen AI tools where you can absorb and synthesize a lot more.

[00:29:43] But yeah, I think the original research, which is kind of locked away sometimes in a lot of journals and things, but reading very, very heavily from different sectors really helps change, open up your mind and help you stay.

[00:29:55] But it's quite impossible to stay up to date with what's happening in the tech space.

[00:29:58] So I think I always feel very, very far left behind.

[00:30:01] But I try to do my little bit of learning, like micro learning on a weekly basis.

[00:30:09] Love it.

[00:30:09] And for anybody listening, any parent, girl, business leader, tech leader, anyone that's been inspired by your story today, maybe they want to help, maybe they want to get involved, maybe they want to sign up.

[00:30:22] Where is the best place to find out more information and connect with you?

[00:30:26] Thank you.

[00:30:27] Technovation.org.

[00:30:28] So sign up to be a mentor, sign your daughter up to join, sign your students up to join.

[00:30:32] The season is open.

[00:30:33] And then I would highly recommend people to donate because this is the most cost effective way to invest in your own future is to donate to a girl's technology education.

[00:30:46] Well, as I've said a couple of times in this conversation today, over the last 15 years, you've trained over 150,000 girls to be technology entrepreneurs and innovators.

[00:30:57] More than 12,000 mobile and AI-based apps are out there at the moment solving real world problems.

[00:31:02] And we covered that, but also some of those three incredibly powerful stories from three different continents and also packing in ethical implications of AI and how closing that gender gap in the workforce can ensure more ethical AI too.

[00:31:18] So many big takeaways.

[00:31:20] I'd invite anybody listening to please check you out and get in touch because we can all make a big difference together.

[00:31:27] But more than anything, just thank you, Tara, for sitting down with me and sharing your story.

[00:31:31] Thank you.

[00:31:32] Thank you, Neil.

[00:31:33] That was fun.

[00:31:35] Wow.

[00:31:35] What an inspirational conversation.

[00:31:37] And I don't say those words lightly.

[00:31:39] And I think it's clear that that journey towards a more inclusive and ethically guided technological landscape isn't just necessary, but it really is inspiring.

[00:31:48] And the stories of young women stepping into roles of impact and innovation across three countries that Tara shared there really does offer a hopeful glimpse into the future of a tech industry,

[00:32:01] shaped by diversity, shaped by diversity, driven by desire to solve meaningful problems.

[00:32:06] It doesn't get any better than that.

[00:32:08] But what are your thoughts on the role of education in transforming technology and indeed society?

[00:32:15] How can we all contribute to nurturing a more diverse generation of tech leaders?

[00:32:22] This is where I ask you to share your insights.

[00:32:24] Join the conversation about creating a more equitable technological future.

[00:32:29] And you can share your ideas with me.

[00:32:31] Just techblogwriteroutlook.com.

[00:32:33] Instagram, LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil C. Hughes.

[00:32:37] Nice and easy to find.

[00:32:38] And remember, please reach out to Tara if you've got anything that you would like to share with her,

[00:32:43] because this is something she takes so seriously, so passionate about.

[00:32:48] Anything we can do to help here at Tech Talks Daily, I'm happy to do.

[00:32:52] But so much to think about there.

[00:32:54] Let me know your stories, your thoughts, your takeaways.

[00:32:57] And I'll be back again tomorrow with another guest and another topic.

[00:33:01] But thanks as always for listening today.

[00:33:03] But bye for now.