SFU Technovation competition aims to get more girls into tech

Simon Fraser University is trying to tackle the gendergap in technologybyhosting an entrepreneurshipcompetitionfor girls.

Technovation is a 12-week program that targets girls aged 10 to 18 and challenges them to develop a smartphone app and pitch it to a technology expert.

"If we're only going to rely on the men in the workforce, it's not going to be large enough for these fields," saidLesley Shannon,a research chair with Women in Science and Engineering."We need to have the women participating."

Women account forone-fifth of science and technology workers in Canada.

Shannon says programs like Technovationcan be extremelyimpactful in getting more girls involved in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.

Nicole Fonseca is a student at West Vancouver's Rockridge Secondary School and one of theparticipants. Her team is developing an app to help Syrian refugees in Canada.

"We're going to have all the educational resources, transit, information about our money and currency," she said.

Fonseca, along with the all the teams, will have her appjudged in April. If she wins, she get achance to pitch her projectin Silicon Valley and have itfunded.