Ms.Geek Rwanda is a competition designed to inspire Rwandan girls to join the technology field. The competition involves a problem statement developed by the Girls in ICT that participants will develop a solution to. Solutions must be technology driven, in order to give the girls an opportunity to showcase their knowledge and skills in problem solving. Finalists will receive business training and mentorship to prepare them for their final presentations.    

The competition is organized by Girls in ICT- Rwanda and is open to female high school and university students. This year’s competition was the second edition of Ms. Geek.

Girls in ICT Rwanda is a group of women working in technology, who have come together to inspire young Rwandan girls to consider careers in technology. We want them to know that careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are not meant for only men – and show that they too can do it. Girls in ICT Rwanda held MsGeek2015 as a way to celebrate International Girls in ICT day for the third time.

Eligibility

Female students from any university/TVET institutions/high school in Rwanda are eligible for the Ms Geek Rwanda competition. Each candidate must meet the following requirements to compete in the 2015 Ms. Geek Rwanda:

• Current university/TVET/high school female students
• Contestant should be able to demonstrate the ability to understand the problem statement and deliver a presentation at the final day
• Will be available on April 25^th 2015 (International Girls in ICT day) to participate in the final event.

Criteria for the challenge

§ The document must describe the solution in detail, including the conceptual design, what technologies should be used to develop it, the role of various users, how content will be generated, and ultimately how knowledge is transferred

§ The technology solution must be original, but may partially include the integration of existing technologies

§ Please consider that your users will have varying Internet access in terms of how frequently they can use it and which devices they will use (laptop, tablet, mobile phone)

A graphical presentation must accompany the concept note, demonstrating how the solution will work and an example of the user interface

Training by Educate for final 5

- 5 girls were selected from 120 applications that were selected. The top 5 were selected based on their responses to the problem statement.

- After selection of the final 5, students were taken through a 1-month training with Educate to polish their presentations and pitches for the final event. Training manly focused on Q&A, presentation skills, and public speaking.

Selection of the winners

- A panel of 5 judges participated at the final event to select the Ms. Geek 2015 winners

- They Ms. Geek was selected based on the following criteria

o Novelty

o Presentation

o Utility

o Accessibility

o Feasibility

The Winning project was a project called Rwanda Online Open School by Vanessa Mutesi – a 15-year-old high school student.