Inspiring girls to become women who shape the future through technology

Technology and engineering disciplines still lack diversity — even in 2019. The complex nature of this problem asks for collective solutions that tackle different facets of the problem. No single initiative will change this, and more importantly for a systematic change, we must force ourselves to think about long-term impact.

Beyond teaching programming through imagiCharm and the app, imagiLabs is creating a community of girls who act as role models for each other. It is creating a movement of girls shaping the future through technology. Our mission is to empower and inspire girls to pursue careers in technology and engineering, fields that we currently represent less than a fifth of.

Ericsson was the first to recognize the importance of our mission and approach by selecting imagiLabs to be incubated with support of Ericsson ONE. Ericsson ONE is Ericsson’s incubator and accelerator for intrapreneurs with game-changing ideas. After the incubation phase, imagiLabs has continued its collaboration with Ericsson through the Digital Lab program which is Ericsson’s outreach program teaching technology skills to children and youth. A new course called Creative Coding is under development and this course will make full use of the imagiLabs methodology and solutions.

The Digital Lab program is a part of Ericsson’s Connect to Learn initiative. The main purpose of our Connect to Learn deployment is to increase access to quality education, particularly for girls, through access to relevant technology and digital learning resources. Including a module with a more intentional focus on engaging girls and balancing the gender gap, alongside courses in artificial intelligence, game development and robotics can help Connect to Learn to better deliver on its value proposition.

Through this collaboration and Ericsson’s global network, imagiLabs can have a much greater reach and impact. As for Ericsson, the company can act as a leader not only in the industry but also in changing the industry.

We are very thankful to Ericsson ONE and all of the other departments in Ericsson that have supported us in this journey. Now it’s time for us to spread the word to more parents and we need your help! Help us share our campaign with any parents dreaming to see their daughters thriving in the tech industry, or anyone who might be interested. Sister, daughter, niece, cousin or friend — we built imagiCharm to expand programming and make it inclusive for all girls to creatively express themselves while learning how to program.

Original Source Published on https://www.ericsson.com