By David Seduski | Development Associate
NFTE New York Metro officially launched GenTech 2.0 at Long Island University-Brooklyn on July 8, 2013. The program enrolled 43 rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders who attend 29 different high schools representing all five boroughs of New York City. At LIU-Brooklyn students began their two week tech-entrepreneurship "bootcamp", where they underwent crash courses in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and how to integrate these skills into a functional business plan. Having used the progress not just to learn about the technology that will bring their ideas but also to get to know their fellow participants, the young entrepreneurs formed nine groups to develop their applications.
Here is a brief description of the groups and the apps the are incubating:
These groups have already developed early app prototypes and basic ideas for their first minimum viable product. Currently students are working throughout the summer three days a week to expand their ideas and finish their coding work. Wednesdays through July and August have brought continued workshops for more advanced work as the apps become more complex. Students also work twice weekly with tech and business mentors from companies like AppNexus, MasterCard Worldwide, and NASDAQ. These sessions have some of New York City's top business minds helping GenTech students to refine their mobile apps and presentation skills.
On September 10, 2013, all student teams will participate in our Semi-Finals Demo Night round at Quirky in New York City. Students will pitch to panel of judges from leading tech and entrepreneurship companies to compete for one of three top slots at the Finals Demo Night on September 19, 2013 at AppNexus. Students will be evaluated against a rubric for their written business plan as well as their mobile app design and development to win a prize of $1,500. After the competitions, to reinforce the core ideas of the program, NFTE will be holding hackathons for GenTech students and their classmates who did not participate in the program. During the fall and early winter these mobile app hackathons will pair students alongside professional developers and designers so that they can further develop skills learned, gain more experience of working with tech professionals, and continue to build a network within the tech and startup sectors. Though right now GenTech is only in its early stages, NFTE is confident that the continued work and upcoming competitions for the students will drive home the key concepts of our tech-based program.
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