This year, Technovation Uzbekistan programme was held in Uzbekistan for the first time.

Some 21 teams of girls participate in Technovation Uzbekistan. Bright Minds represented Inha University in Tashkent. About 25 students of IUT mentored the programme participants.

According to statement of Technovation Challenge organizers, three teams from Uzbekistan advanced to the semifinal of the contest: Bright Minds with HealTech project, LimitBusters with Linkey project and Techno Squad with Yordam project.

Students of Inha University in Tashkent are members of Bright Minds team. At the same time, several IUT students are mentoring Techno Squad.

Coordinator of Technovation at Inha University in Tashkent Hilola Umarova said: “I would like to congratulate all semifinalists of Technovation Challenge and wish success in next stages on behalf of administration of Inha University in Tashkent. Teams, which were not able to book their berth in semifinals, should not despond and they should continue to study and improve their projects. All participants of Technovation Uzbekistan presented interest projects. Today, some of them were unlucky, but tomorrow luck will be on your side. Continue work on yourself and achieve new successes.”

Semifinalist teams will be entered into the next round of judging, which will take place online. The finalists will be announced in mid-June. The final of Technovation Challenge will take place in San-Francisco (USA).

It is worth to mention that the contest Technovation has been organized in 78 countries of the world since 2010.

The programme is fully free and supported by Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Intel, Oracle, Dropbox. Since 2015, the UN and UN Women are participating in organization of the contest.

The programme envisages creation of girl teams, who under guidance of the mentors and trainers should solve one problem, create app to solve this problem and create a start-up to launch the app in the market.

Participation in the programme helps girls to develop critical thinking, entrepreneurship and programming skills, as well as the ability to identify problems, develop and test solutions, work in teams and communicate with different audiences.