UNM is preparing to launch its third annual mobile app contest, partnering with CNM for the first time in a collaboration that has brought innovations to the competition, including an award for teams composed exclusively of women.
The “Women in Technology” award is up for grabs for female applicants to the contest, whether they apply individually or as a team. So far the contest has four such applicants, according to Manikantam Chitturi, the contest coordinator.
“We thought of encouraging women to be involved more,” Chitturi said.
The award is $2,500, to be given to an individual contestant or divided evenly among members of a winning team. For comparison, the contest’s overall first-place winner will get $5,000; second-place, $2,500; and third-place $1,000, according to the contest’s webpage.
Chitturi said that the award is incentive for women to enter the contest, as there were no female contestants last year.
“Partly, this is the input of CNM,” said Moira Gerety, deputy CIO of IT at UNM. “Some of the funding they’re using for the program comes from contributors and funders who are interested in diversity.”
UNM has made a special effort this year to promote diversity in the contest, and that part of the effort was the introduction of an all-female honor, Gerety said.
She said that demographic was selected because it is difficult to get women interested in technology programs at UNM and CNM, and other demographic representations will be highlighted in future competitions.
Gerety said the contest organizers reached various campus resources to advertise the competition to women, including UNM’s Women’s Resource Center and ethnic centers. Gerety said that while minority men are also lacking in the technology field, women are lacking even more.
“My only fear is that we don’t get enough all-women teams,” Gerety said.
She said that the competition’s organizers are working hard to get word out that the contest is seeking all-female teams, even if they don’t have much experience in the necessary fields.
“A good emphasis here is that the app you do doesn’t have to be complex,” Gerety said, “There are lots off apps that are not very complex and relatively straightforward to put together that are very useful.”
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Gerety said that she wants to encourage people that aren’t “true geeks” to do some simple projects. She cited a local woman who developed an app and ended up winning a city-wide contest as a good example of technological simplicity. Her app informed users of the locations of parks around Albuquerque.
“She was a mother with young children,” Gerety said. “She was out and about often with her kids and just wanted a simple app to say, ‘hey, where’s the closest park?’”
The contest’s registration deadline is Oct. 31. There will also be several workshops through the spring semester, with the apps due for submission on March 25. Anyone interested can visit appcontest.unm.edu for more information.
Fin Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at new@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @FinMartinez.
