PM’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan inspires Bangalore girls to develop waste management app
US Ambassador interacts with the Technovation Challenge winners from city school, discussing the app Sellixo developed by them
US Ambassador Richard R Verma interacts with the Technovation Challenge winners, a five-member team from New Horizon School, Bengaluru, at the IIM Bangalore Central Pergola, on November 4, 2015.
While delivering a speech on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at the IIMB Auditorium on the same day, Ambassador Verma brought up the topic of the Technovation Challenge in the context of the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas. The winning team (Anupama, Navyasree, Sanjana, Mahima and Swasthi) was invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.
NOVEMBER 04, 2015: The US Ambassador Richard R Verma had an informal meeting with the Technovation Challenge winners from the New Horizon School, at the IIM Bangalore Central Pergola from 1.15 pm on Wednesday, November 4, 2015. The group of middle school girls, Anupama, Navyasree, Sanjana, Mahima and Swasthi, had formed one of two teams from India selected to attend the Technovation global technology entrepreneurship forum for girls in San Francisco, where they competed with teams from around the world. They took home the top prize in the middle school division and a $10,000 seed funding prize, for an app named Sellixo that created an online marketplace to solve waste management challenges.
The students were accompanied by their proud, beaming parents. Ambassador Verma broke the ice by asking the winning team about their trip to the United States. He asked them questions about how they all came together to develop the app, how they thought about the subject (waste management). The girls replied that they took inspiration from Prime Minister Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which tackles waste management and also from their first-hand experience with garbage being dumped near their doorsteps, a menace in Bengaluru today.
The young champs said that it took them four months to develop the app and then they refined it, after which the app was picked by the Technovation judges from the US to be the Asia representative. They went to the US for the finals. In California they pitched their idea. There were 10 schools participating. There were two teams from India, one from Africa, around four from the US, and one from Brazil and Mexico. Apart from pitching it to the judges, they had to pitch it to the audience also. The other Indian team was also from Bengaluru, and they had developed a job portal for differently-abled people.
The winners related their five-day stay in the US. The first two days were spent meeting other teams, going around San Francisco, etc. There was a home token exchange programme too, for which the Bengaluru girls had taken Channapatna dolls for the other participants. On the third day they presented the app, followed by the award ceremony the next day. The girls also got to attend workshops by companies like LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. at the University of San Francisco.
At IIMB on the afternoon of November 04, the girls walked the Ambassador through their app. The Ambassador also asked them how the whole experience contributed to what they might want to do in the future. To this, they replied that their experience made them interested to take up engineering or some form of technology.
Later on the same day, while delivering a special lecture on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at the IIM Bangalore auditorium, Ambassador Verma brought up the topic of the Technovation Challenge in the context of the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas. The winning team was invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.
PM’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan inspires Bangalore girls to develop waste management app
US Ambassador interacts with the Technovation Challenge winners from city school, discussing the app Sellixo developed by them
US Ambassador Richard R Verma interacts with the Technovation Challenge winners, a five-member team from New Horizon School, Bengaluru, at the IIM Bangalore Central Pergola, on November 4, 2015.
While delivering a speech on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at the IIMB Auditorium on the same day, Ambassador Verma brought up the topic of the Technovation Challenge in the context of the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas. The winning team (Anupama, Navyasree, Sanjana, Mahima and Swasthi) was invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.
NOVEMBER 04, 2015: The US Ambassador Richard R Verma had an informal meeting with the Technovation Challenge winners from the New Horizon School, at the IIM Bangalore Central Pergola from 1.15 pm on Wednesday, November 4, 2015. The group of middle school girls, Anupama, Navyasree, Sanjana, Mahima and Swasthi, had formed one of two teams from India selected to attend the Technovation global technology entrepreneurship forum for girls in San Francisco, where they competed with teams from around the world. They took home the top prize in the middle school division and a $10,000 seed funding prize, for an app named Sellixo that created an online marketplace to solve waste management challenges.
The students were accompanied by their proud, beaming parents. Ambassador Verma broke the ice by asking the winning team about their trip to the United States. He asked them questions about how they all came together to develop the app, how they thought about the subject (waste management). The girls replied that they took inspiration from Prime Minister Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which tackles waste management and also from their first-hand experience with garbage being dumped near their doorsteps, a menace in Bengaluru today.
The young champs said that it took them four months to develop the app and then they refined it, after which the app was picked by the Technovation judges from the US to be the Asia representative. They went to the US for the finals. In California they pitched their idea. There were 10 schools participating. There were two teams from India, one from Africa, around four from the US, and one from Brazil and Mexico. Apart from pitching it to the judges, they had to pitch it to the audience also. The other Indian team was also from Bengaluru, and they had developed a job portal for differently-abled people.
The winners related their five-day stay in the US. The first two days were spent meeting other teams, going around San Francisco, etc. There was a home token exchange programme too, for which the Bengaluru girls had taken Channapatna dolls for the other participants. On the third day they presented the app, followed by the award ceremony the next day. The girls also got to attend workshops by companies like LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. at the University of San Francisco.
At IIMB on the afternoon of November 04, the girls walked the Ambassador through their app. The Ambassador also asked them how the whole experience contributed to what they might want to do in the future. To this, they replied that their experience made them interested to take up engineering or some form of technology.
Later on the same day, while delivering a special lecture on ‘The US and India: A Fellowship of Minds in Service to Humanity’ at the IIM Bangalore auditorium, Ambassador Verma brought up the topic of the Technovation Challenge in the context of the new generation of Indian minds advancing courageous new ideas. The winning team was invited to the stage amidst cheer and applause.