Schlagwort: #include

  • Powercoders and Arduino #Include join forces to promote equal opportunities

    Powercoders and Arduino #Include join forces to promote equal opportunities

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    Arduino #include Powercoders

    The Arduino #include program was first announced as part of 2021’s Arduino Day. Since then we’ve been working with Powercoders, which runs a bootcamp to promote equality in the IT industry. 

    Powercoders Internship

    Powercoders is a non-profit coding academy for refugees. It offers a 3-month bootcamp followed by a 6 to 12 month internship.

    It’s all about promoting equal opportunities for diverse talents across the IT industry. The goal is permanent placement of newly trained refugees in IT companies and their various internal departments.

    It’s an outstanding program that’s broken up into five steps.

    • Basic Training: After a rigorous selection, a class of 15 to 20 students are trained for the first seven weeks in basic IT skills (HTML/CSS/JavaScript).
    • Career Day: In week six, the students’ CVs are sent out. They join the Career Day in week seven for interview sessions. During week eight, personal job interviews then take place.
    • Industry Focus Training: Weeks nine to 13 see students being prepared for their internships by improving specific technical skills to meet their companies’ requirements.
    • Internship: Ideally, an internship starts after the training and lasts for 12 months (with a minimum of six).
    • Follow-up: When selecting an intern it’s important to consider their career path. For example, as a junior position, a trainee program or an apprenticeship.

    Given that Arduino shares so many of the Powercoders’ values, especially as part of the #include program, this was a great fit.

    After several interviews with various candidates, we were thrilled to have met Souad Allahham and brought her into the Arduino web team. 

    Arduino Internship

    Souad is a Syrian refugee now living in Italy. She’s acquired a wide range of digital skills not only through the Powercoders program, but is also self-taught. Her passion for the world of data makes her a perfect addition to Data Management and Analysis activities. Arduino’s currently implementing a lot of new tools and investigation strategies in this area.

    “It’s been around three months that I’ve been with Arduino,” says Souad. “I admire the work environment here so much. Everyone is so kind, open and friendly. My tutor is so organized, an excellent communicator and very supportive. He provides me with all the instruction and information I need.

    Arduino #include and Powercoders

    “My team leader is so professional and knowledgeable. I’m learning a lot about analytical tools and methods from him using real datasets,” she continues. “And my teammate shares his Arduino experience with me in a very clear and transparent way. With encouragement and support from Stefano, we published my first report about the Arduino Forum, which shows daily KPI metrics. I’m so glad to have this experience. Thank you Arduino for this golden opportunity!”

    Souad’s not the only one who’s delighted that she’s been able to join the team. Stefano Visconti, who heads up the Web and Cloud teams, summed up the whole of Arduino’s appreciation for the great work she’s been doing.

    “Souad is an exceptional learner,” he says.”She was able to become a valuable contributor to our team in a short time. Always positive and easy to work with!”

    We hope this is only the beginning of a long journey working together. Welcome to Arduino, Souad!

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    Website: LINK

  • Arduino #Include Teams Up With Ghanaian “Lab on Wheels” Education Project

    Arduino #Include Teams Up With Ghanaian “Lab on Wheels” Education Project

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    Brenda Mboya Arduino #Include

    The Arduino #Include program was first announced as part of the 2021 Arduino Day event. Since then, the team has been refining exactly how #Include will help members of the Arduino community to spread our love of electronics around the world.

    One of the pilot programs has just taken delivery of equipment provided through #Include. This marks an exciting milestone for Arduino, its users, and a whole community of brand new Arduino lovers in Accra, Ghana.

    Jenga Labs in Ghana gets #Include gear

    Brenda Mboya is well known at Arduino. She was a guest speaker at Maker Faire Rome in 2019. She’s done a huge amount of work in Africa, bringing electronics, robotics and educational technology to students and teachers across Ghana. In 2018, she was listed among the top 25 women in the world to have made a significant contribution to robotics.

    Her latest project is Jenga Labs, which she describes as being a “lab on wheels”. The objective is to bring coding and robotics to some of the most remote areas of the region. She’ll be running courses for 7- to 14-year-olds, and Brenda primarily works to encourage young people into robotics. She’s also very active in supporting teachers, and helping them bring, use and understand tech in the classroom.

    We’re thrilled that Brenda’s now taken delivery of the Arduino kits and electronic components we sent her as part of the pilot program for #Include.

    We can’t wait to see what Brenda’s students create with the tools they now have. It’s exciting on all kinds of levels. Bringing accessible technology to new people and places, for example. Or finding out how we can begin to expand on this early test case for the Arduino #Include initiative.

    More about Arduino #Include

    The history of Arduino has been one of inclusivity. Everything here is designed to make electronics accessible to as many people as possible. That’s an ongoing challenge that we both relish, and take seriously.

    In an effort to bring that philosophy to the forefront of the ongoing business, we’ve developed the Arduino #Include program. We’ll build on our efforts of expanding the understanding of electronics and technology. This will have a strong focus on the diversity values that Arduino also holds dear.

    This means making a special effort to bring visibility to people who use Arduino as a tool for inclusivity, equality, social justice and accessibility. We see this very much as an opportunity. It’s a long term program that we hope will help to create positive role models across the tech communities.

    Ultimately the #Include initiative will see Arduino help to establish “ambassadors”. It’ll donate hardware and software services, and give visibility to diverse people and groups across the spectrum.

    Which brings us to wishing Brenda all the best with her Jenga Labs robotics project as part of the Arduino #Include program.

    We’ll keep you posted on Jenga Labs, and about how you can get involved in #Include as the program expands.

    Watch this space for more news, and make sure you visit Brenda and Jenga Labs to give them your support!

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    Website: LINK

  • Transgender Awareness Week: spreading gender awareness in the Arduino community

    Transgender Awareness Week: spreading gender awareness in the Arduino community

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    Transgender Awareness Week, which culminates today with the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), aims at raising the visibility of the transgender and gender non-conforming people, and address the issues their community faces.

    At Arduino, we believe that technology should improve the lives of everyone, regardless of their gender, sexuality, race, age, ability, nationality, and body. Being inclusive is at the core of our mission: making technology easy to use, we want to empower everybody to be free to innovate. 

    We have decided to join the Transgender Awareness Week and the TDOR because we feel a duty to our community, and to all its members, including the GNC and trans community. Our goal today is not only to celebrate all the diversities of our community — in particular the trans and GCN community — but also to start a conversation with our users about inclusivity in general. Finally, our celebration wants to empower our community members to spread awareness by being everyday their authentic self. 

    At Arduino, we believe role models are important to inspire people, to show the way, to reveal what’s possible so we’re going to talk more and more about the people who helped build the technologies who make what we do possible. 

    Today, we celebrate two trans women that, even indirectly, have contributed to the Arduino Project. Sophie Wilson and Lynn Conway not only represent a fundamental inspiration for us, but are also a beacon of hope for the next generation of trans and GNC scientists in our community. 

    Sophie Wilson studied computer science at the University of Cambridge; in 1978, she designed the Acorn Micro-Computer, System 1, an early 8-bit microcomputer for hobbyists and, later, co-designed with Steve Furber  the prototype of what became the BBC Microcomputer. In 1983, Wilson started to design the instructions set for the “Acorn RISC Machine” processor that became popular as Arm. The Arm became one of the most successful microprocessor architecture  in history and is now used in billions  of different products, from mobile phones to laptops, from digital TV to video games and our beloved Arduino boards. (All of our latest boards are based on Arm.) Wilson was listed in 2011 in Maximum PC as number 8 in an article titled “The 15 Most Important Women in Tech History.”

    Lynn Conway studied at the M.I.T. and Columbia University and was then recruited by IBM Research to co-design the architecture of the Advanced Computing Systems (ACS) project. With the invention of the multiple out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling, used by most computers to improve their performance, she made foundational contributions to computer architecture. In 1969 she underwent gender transition and was fired. This didn’t stop here and the work she did with Carver Mead led to the so-called  “Mead & Conway revolution.” Their book “Introduction to VLSI Systems” was the first VLSI chip design textbook usable by non-physicists and resulted in a worldwide restructuring of academic materials in computer science and electrical engineering education, and was paramount for the development of industries based on the application of microelectronics. She was also recognized by Time Magazine in 2014 as one of the most influential LGBTQ figures in American Culture. Lynn is a gender activist and has always worked to protect and expand the rights of transgender people.

    As Arduino users, we have to thank Lynn for “democratizing” the design of complex silicon chips, which paved the way for people like Sophie who we must thank for designing the Arm processor architecture that is central to all of the work we do now. Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today in technology!

    So, Lynn and Sophie, thank you from the bottom of our open source hearts here at Arduino. 🙂

    The celebration of the Transgender Awareness Week and the TDOR is only the beginning of an important journey that will mark Arduino’s commitment to inclusivity. Stay tuned for more! 

    (NOTE: The biographies are edited from Wikipedia articles used under the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.) 

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