Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Today, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of Uzbekistan opened the new season of the largest international technology competition for girls “Technovation Girls Uzbekistan 2024”, which was simultaneously held in 5 cities of our country, in Tashkent, Andijan, Namangan, Nukus and Ferghana.

“Technovation Girls Uzbekistan” is the largest STEM program for girls in our country, organized by the NGO “Tech4Impact” in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the technology company “Yandex”. It is a qualifying stage for Technovation Girls, an international technology competition that takes place annually in 160 countries. The goal of the competition is to interest girls in IT technologies and entrepreneurship.

At the grand opening, the organizers spoke about the program, and representatives of the Agency for Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Yandex and UN agencies also spoke.

Selected participants aged 8-18 were able to take a closer look at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and then shared their interests and the goals that affect them most.

The Technovation Girls Uzbekistan 2024 program includes training modules on programming, marketing, and business skills. During this time, girls will learn to solve socially significant problems using technology and create innovative mobile applications in areas related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Technovation Girls has been taking place in Uzbekistan for the eighth year, this season, with the support of partners, we are strengthening our work in the regions, planning more offline events, meetings with role models, visits to technology companies and a hackathon in the Fergana Valley,” notes the director of the NGO “ Tech4Impact" by Said Yusupov. – The example of the winning team of the global competition last year inspired many girls, and we are looking forward to the ideas and mobile applications of the new stream of participants.

This year, Yandex specialists became mentors for teams from all regions of Uzbekistan. In 3 months, with their help, each team created a socially oriented mobile application, wrote a business plan for the project and made a video about it, and also presented their project in the final of the competition.

- The idea that IT is not a women’s industry has long been outdated. In my opinion, such a shift in consciousness has become possible because girls from an early age interact with technological services and see more and more role models in the industry,” says Daria Zolotukhina, HR Director of Yandex. - It is important to deepen this interest, which is why we support Technovation in Uzbekistan.

Such projects allow to independently go from an idea to a full-fledged project. This is the first important step that can determine the team's career in the future.

It is worth noting that from 2016 to 2023. at Technovation Uzbekistan, 275 teams reached the finals, with the participation of 600+ mentors and 3500+ girls from 9 regions of Uzbekistan. In 2023, the Tecnas team from Uzbekistan presented its project of a VR laboratory for schools in Silicon Valley, in the USA and won the Social Impact Award among the 12 best finalist teams.