IT solutions Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) awarded a group of college students from Ateneo De Manila University P150,000 for designing an application that promotes inclusivity for young girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industry.
The group, led by engineering student Maxine Caparas, presented Gathertz!, an educational mobile app that contains interactive games, quizzes, and stories of historical women in STEM.
Caparas said that the team wanted to leverage on the accessibility and simplicity of mobile devices if they wanted to reach more women.
“The design is as such because our target audience—our target users are highschool students. So, we asked ourselves, ‘What exactly do we want to see?’ and that’s how Gathertz! came to be,” she said.
Moreover, the team has decided that a portion of the prize they won will be allocated to the development of the app.
“Although we might get started on our own first, just coding on our own, because it’s our hobby. It’s part of what we do as engineering student,” Caparas added.
The team leader said that they were in the middle of their finals when they started the app conceptualization, but they were able to push through the difficulty.
Two more groups, from Saint Louis University, Questify and Career Catalysts, won the second and third places, respectively.
The competition and awarding was held on the same day, Feb. 8, 2023, at the Marquis Events Place in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
This year’s installation of the competition gathered ten groups from various universities to create innovative projects that would address the country’s gender gap in the STEM industry workforce.
The TCS Sustainathon was first launched in Singapore in 2020, and has installed global editions in the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, and the Middle East.