Contxto – Personally, some of my favorite news stories involve international tech diplomacy, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently collaborating with the Brazilian financial entity C6 Bank.
In a bid for upward mobility and the democratization of app development, together they will promote a joint effort known as MIT-Brazil App Inventor. To prepare the next generation of techies, they intend to attract young Brazilians from vulnerable communities to become fledgling app developers.
Motivated to transform Brazilian youngsters from consumers to creators, this program will reportedly run from January 6 to January 17. As MIT students will travel to São Paulo to train young people, the intention is to prepare up to 90 participants to build apps in as little as 30 minutes.
Special emphasis will also revolve around projects with local or global impact. Besides accepting a rather large cohort, others can look forward to a final workshop available during the last week. This will not only prepare folks as developers but also educational ambassadors for the multi-dynamic tool.
MIT App Inventor in Brazil
Just around the corner, interested participants have until December 10 to apply for this project. According to reports, this will replicate MIT’s pre-existing open-source toolkit, MIT App Inventor.
From the sounds of it, this resource apparently doesn’t require any previous software development knowledge. It is so user-friendly that apparently even children can design apps on smartphones or tablets.
Thanks to this resource, the MIT App Inventor is reportedly responsible for the creation of 43 million applications. Many of them are inherently social as well as impactful, such as Hello Navi—an app assists those with poor eyesight navigate schools easier.
Also considering that Massachusetts is home to robust Portuguese-speaking communities, it’s refreshing to see MIT invest in this linguistic demographic. After all, many folks from this New England state come from Portuguese, Brazilian, and even Cape Verdean backgrounds.
Who knows, perhaps some of these program alumni will also become MIT international students.
-JA
