Watson and TechGirlz

Triangle TechGirlz delivered another great event about IBM Watson. There were 21 middle school girls and 7 local volunteers. Jane Bossert was our fearless leader and the IBM Technical Exploration Center was a great host. 

Three things I took away from tonight :

1. Kristen Dunne and the rest of the Watson development team are making the world better by continuing the innovative work we saw in 2011 on Jeopardy. She provided a few great examples in healthcare. 
2. Middle school girls are smart, curious and can come up with very clever, purposefully ambiguous questions.  "Where do the stars live?" "Where can you find lots of pens?" or "It is a (w)hole."
3. Techgirlz is a great idea and the Triangle Techgirlz is a great group. Seeing 21 girls cheering for a computer and wanting to see the machine is encouraging and inspiring.  Definitely time for me to write some more python code! 

I often wonder why I spend evenings volunteering with groups like TechGirlz or Code for America. Tonight reinforced that it is worth the time. It reminds me of why I love being a programmer. 

Here is the curriculum if you want to use it for local middle school : http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/initiatives/activitykits/hello_watson/

What to get involved in the Triangle TechGirlz? Join on Google  or Facebook  or contact me about our next planning session.

Thanks!
Ginny

And an a little inspirational music by Natasha Bedingfield (Unwritten)