Google RISE Awards
Google RISE Awards
All of our RISE award recipients are working to increase access and interest in CS and STEM fields with diverse student populations. Google is proud to partner with the following organizations:
DiscoverE | Edmonton, AB
DiscoverE runs high-impact camps, workshops, and clubs for young people throughout
Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. They focus their initiatives on bringing
STEM to life for under-represented groups such as girls, low-income families, and
Aboriginal students.
Girlstart | Austin, TX
Girlstart runs teacher development programmes, summer camps, STEM career conferences,
science events for families, and community STEM education outreach programs for girls.
Level Playing Field Institute | Oakland, CA
LPFI runs the Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH) - a rigorous three-year STEM
enrichment program for high-potential students of color in under-performing high schools,
including a five-week residential program on college campuses each summer.
Design, Technology, & Engineering for All
Children (DTEACh) | Austin, TX
DTEACh provide opportunities for underrepresented students to find solutions to the
world's most pressing societal and technical issues through STEM. They focus on teacher
development and curriculum writing to improve motivation amongst students to choose STEM
courses, degrees, and careers.
Purdue Engineering Projects in
Community Service (EPICS) | West Lafayette, IN
EPICS High is focused on Grades 6-12 with the goals of increasing pathways into STEM
careers by engaging students in the design and implementation of projects that solve
local community problems. Students are civically engaged in making their communities a
better place, while reinforcing their STEM learning and building professional skills.
Fox Valley Career Center | Kaneville, IL
Fox Valley Career Center targets students in remote areas to provide them with hands-on
opportunities in computer science. They also run teacher training workshops to teach them
how to include computer science related activities into their existing curriculum.
CodeNow | Washington, DC
CodeNow focuses on teaching underrepresented high school students in grades 9-12
foundational skills in computer programming through free extra curricular off-campus
trainings. The aim is to lower the barriers associated with programming by opening the
door at an earlier stage when children are just beginning to explore their options and
opportunities.
Emerging Leaders in Technology and Engineering
(ELiTE) | Harlem, NY
ELiTE runs STEM enrichment and creative problem solving programs for students from
resource limited communities in Ghana, Tanzania, Jamaica, Mexico, and Harlem, New York.
Girls Who Code | New York, NY
Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and
resources to pursue opportunities in engineering and technology. They have developed a
new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web
design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship led by the industry's top
female developers and entrepreneurs.
Thinkersmith | Eugene, OR
Thinkersmith’s Traveling Circuits, takes hands-on CS classes on the road to local K-12
schools (and libraries, for homeschoolers and non-schoolers). The aim is to expose
inspiring CS material to children who cannot attend after-school programs due to lack of
transportation, family obligations or other extra-curricular activities. Many of the
lessons teach ideas (such as binary, information storage, and functions) using crafts or
games. This makes the program easy to implement in schools where technology is scarce.
Universidad Nacional de Cordoba | Cordoba,
Argentina
The CS Department runs college level program in computing in one of the poorest
neighborhood of the city. A group of professors from the Computer Science and Education
departments are teaching high school students to create their own animation, videogames
in the platform Alice and through Chatbots to motivate students to pursue a career in CS.
Dwengo vzw | Salta, Argentina + Belgium
Dwengo is a Belgian non-profit organization which supports students those interested in
learning about microcontrollers. They developed a multi-functional microcontroller board
and a freely available graphical programming language which is currently used by more
than 100 schools in Belgium and the Netherlands. They will now expand access to the
resources to high school students in Argentina, as well as training teachers how to use
Dwengo in the classroom.
21st Century Chalkboard Project
| Haiti + San Francisco
The 21st Century Chalkboard Project aims to help young people in Haiti gain access to
educational resources. The project designs, programmes, and delivers educational software
in Creole directly to educators and students in Haiti on jump drives and donated
computers.
Code Club | United Kingdom
Code Club is a nationwide network of volunteer-led after-school coding clubs which aims
to give every child in the UK the chance to learn to code. The club connect volunteer
programmers from the web development community with their local primary schools in order
to share their knowledge and skills with children. Children learn to programme through
projects that use Scratch to create games, toys and animations.
Uniristii Association | Romania
The Unirisitii Association is working with students and teachers to create online video
lessons, demonstrations, materials and resources for Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics
and Computer Science. These online lessons will give access to technical and practical
lessons to students in rural and socio-deprived areas of the country.
ETH Zurich | Switzerland
ETH Zurich runs an 8 week course to teach students and teachers in primary schools to
programme using Logo. Currently active in the German speaking parts of Switzerland, they
will now expand to the French and Italian-speaking parts of country.
Royal
Institution of Great Britain | United Kingdom
The Royal Institution runs a nationwide programme of Masterclasses in Mathematics and
Engineering for students from all backgrounds. The classes aim to excite, and inspire
students about the relevance and fun of CS and STEM outside of the classroom. They work
with and train Mathematicians and Engineers to communicate their knowledge effectively to
students aged 9 to 18 and to introduce students to practical ways of exploring the
subject of CS and its applications.
Science and Society Synergy Institute (S3I) | Croatia
S3I is an independent research institution suporting schools and teachers in applying
innovative teaching methods in STEM and CS. They run a seven-day Summer Science Factory
(SSF) for 8-18 year olds comprising hands-on interdisciplinary STEM and CS activities.
Technik Begeistert
| Germany
Technik Begeistert e.V. is a group of ten former participants and team-coaches of LEGO
robot tournaments who have set up a national programme to inspire other children in
science and technology through robot programming.
St. Angela's College | Ireland
St. Angela's ICT Department in conjunction with The Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL)
runs a Robotics and Mobile Phone Application Camp for children aged 9-15 years. The
programme focuses on the practical side of technology - students use real phones, real
robot kits and real game controllers to develop their own apps, control robots and create
their own gaming experiences. The aim is to inspire students with examples of real-world
science and to engage them in hands-on, inquiry based learning experiences.
JSC Mezon | Russia
Mezon.Ru Group builds and supplies simple robots to schools for use in IT classes to
teach programming.
Northern Arctic Federal University,
Institute of Mathematics, Information and Space Technologies, Department of Computer
Design | Russia
NAFU is a new university designed to meet the needs of the Russian North and the Arctic.
They run a summer camp to bring high school students from remote parts of the Northern
Arctic region to the university to encourage them to major in CS, Maths and Sciences.
Middle East Education through Technology |
Israel and Palestine
Working together with MIT, MEET's educational program uses computer science and business
learning to develop a professional network among its students while empowering them
individually and as a group to create positive change within their own communities. The
project consists of an intense three-year computer science, business, and leadership
program for excelling Palestinian and Israeli high school students (age 15-18).
Working to Advance African Women Foundation
(WAAW) | Nigeria
WAAW Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the pipeline of
African girls STEM and CS related fields, and work to ensure that this female talent is
engaged in innovation for the African continent. They train volunteer university
graduates to run STEM outreach programmes in high schools in Abuja to raise awareness of
CS education.
iLab Liberia | Liberia
Operating in Monrovia, iLab provides access to cutting-edge technology, expert IT
assistance and a community of individuals leveraging technology for the good of the
country. The goals of iLab include giving young Liberian women access to computer
programming classes and professional growth resources, provide quality instruction as
well as equipment curriculum and internet connectivity, and introduce Liberians with an
IT interest to various career paths in the field beyond basic networking and hardware
repair.
Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation
(GRAF) | Ghana
The mission of GRAF is to design accessible and innovative programs that will excite and
motivate young Ghanaians to pursue careers in science, technology and engineering, build
self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. They run a programme for girls and students
from socio-deprived areas to learn giving them the opportunity to work alongside
professional engineers to design, build and program robots to solve real world problems.
Women's Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) |
Nigeria
W.TEC is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation working to empower girls and women
socially and economically, using information and communication technologies (ICTs). They
run a tech camp for Nigerian girls age 11-22, followed by monthly workshops, mentoring
and alumni network.
Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT) | India
FAT works to create awareness on the issue of women and technology through seminars and
workshops for women and girls to increase their access to STEM education. They run a Tech
Center for adolescent girls from underprivileged backgrounds in New Delhi where they are
introduced to computer skills, and are given a space to explore technology.
The Shikkhok Project at University of Alabama at
Birmingham | Bangladesh + University of Alabama at Birmingham
The Shikkhok.com project aims to provide free online education and high-quality courses
in Bengali language to rural and disadvantaged students in Bangladesh and India. They
bring together educators and researchers from all over the world for to create content in
Bengali language on both basic and advanced topics, to develop a model for ultra-low-cost
online education for students in the developing world and to serve as an open, free, and
cheaper alternative to traditional educational institutions.
Programming Challenge 4 Girls | New Zealand
PC4G runs an annual challenge to introduce high school girls to programming in an
interesting way prior to their senior subject choices. It shows girls that programming
can be fun, introduces their teachers to programming and offers professional development
to teachers.
Past RISE partner organisations:
Mathworks Honors Summer Math
Camp | Texas State University San Marcos | San Marcos, TX
The Mathworks Honors Summer Math Camp (HSMC) engages young students of all socioeconomic
backgrounds in doing math at a high level. Students are taught by university professors,
guided by undergraduate mentors, and share the joy of mathematical discovery with peers.
They learn the fundamentals of proof-based reasoning through a Number Theory class. Other
classes such as Mathematica Lab give students a first taste of computer programming and
writing functions. Weekly guest speakers provide inspiring research topics and are role
models for the students. Most importantly, students gain self-confidence to tackle new
problems and become future engineers and scientists.
CodeEd Inc. | New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Boston, MA
CodeEd teaches computer science to girls from underserved communities, starting in middle-school. We partner with schools and programs serving low-income girls and provide them with volunteer teachers, computer science course offerings, and computers.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Robot Build Season |
Monta Vista Robotics FIRST Team #115 | Cupertino, CA
Dedicated to fostering a passion in science and technology within our community, the Monta
Vista Robotics Team inspires students by exposing them to engineering and outreach
opportunities. MVRT has taken great strides in technology and leadership by encouraging its
members to further pursue their imaginations beyond the mundane world and into the
extraordinary realm, by applying knowledge gained in the classroom to real-world hands-on
engineering challenge. We stand together as a diverse group of people ready to face
hardships and combine our ingenuity to attain a common goal: building a masterpiece and
inspiring the next generation of engineers and leaders.
Utah High School Supercomputing Competition | Salt Lake City, UT
The Utah High School Supercomputing Competition makes computer cluster hardware available to teams of high school students. The teams then compete to see who can make the most efficient use of these clusters to solve a common challenge. This competition is being held in conjunction with the University of Utah's Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair (SLVSEF).
AndSAM | Southside High School SAM Team | Greenville, SC
The AndSAM program will create and evaluate STEM and Computer Science related mobile phone applications for use in classrooms. The applications will be developed by Southside High School students and teachers in collaboration with a Computer Science professor and a PhD candidate from Clemson University. Evaluation of the applications will be done by Southside teachers in actual classroom settings. An ongoing mobile phone programming summer camp will be established, and information generated by all parts of the project will be communicated by a variety of sources including web pages, publications, and presentations
Greene Scholars Program | California Alliance of African American Educators | San Jose, CA
As a long‐term K‐12 initiative, the primary goal of the Greene Scholars Program is to increase the success rate of African ancestry youth in science, technology, engineering and math course work and to increase the number of students choosing STEM career paths. Our Math Tech Project is a year-round supplemental intervention including a Summer Math Academy for all levels of math ranging from Pre‐Algebra to Calculus. The purpose of this program is to ensure the student's academic success through extended educational learning and mentoring, plus build the student's self‐esteem, improve students' attitudes and provide motivation to help students develop discipline.
Saturday Academy Classes and Workshops | Saturday Academy | Portland, OR
Saturday Academy serves students from Oregon and SW Washington with high quality, innovative learning opportunities taught by experts in the field. Saturday Academy provides 2nd-12th grade students with STEM experiences that draw students into hands-on, real world activities that create meaningful connections between academic content and practical application. We provide community professionals with facilities, equipment and expertise for classes, camps, workshops and internships in order to augment the science curriculum of the schools with the concept that if children are given the opportunity to follow their curiosity, they will be engaged in learning and become life-long learners.
GetSET (Get Science Engineering & Technology) | Santa Clara Valley Society of Women Engineers | San Jose, CA
GetSET is a program for underrepresented ethnic minority girls in the San Francisco Bay Area to expose them to engineering and build self confidence and leadership skills. GetSET is a week-long stay at a local university filled with engineering and leadership workshops, tours of technology companies, and team building exercises. Due to the recent economic downturn, GetSET has been forced to cut the week short to 4 days, but with the help of Google RISE we will be able to provide a week full of enrichment to our participants.
Adventures with Robotics | Redeemer Community Partnership | Los Angeles, CA
Adventures with Robotics is a program run by Redeemer Community Partnership in South Los Angeles. Supported by funding from Google RISE, our vision is to ignite a passion for science, mathematics and engineering in elementary aged children. We will do this through a hands-on engineering and robotics curriculum and participation in FIRST robotics competitions, with an emphasis on learning by doing. In partnership with local middle and high school robotics programs and the USC Center for Engineering Diversity, we want this program to become the first step in a STEM learning pipeline from elementary school to college to career.
Little Shop of Physics | Colorado State University | Fort Collins, CO
The Little Shop of Physics connects college students with 20,000+ K-12 students each year, presenting 100+ hands-on science stations that illustrate principles from motion to magnetism. K-12 students learn science concepts while seeing how science is an active investigation. We have a special focus on underserved communities and take 3-4 extended trips each year to Native American reservation areas. We've found our approach is valuable for Native American students in traditions that let children explore under the guidance of elders. Additionally, LSOP Director Brian Jones received the 2011 Millikan Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers.
"Introduction to Engineering" Summer Camps | Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin | Austin, TX
The "Introduction to Engineering" summer camps hosted by the Equal Opportunity in Engineering Program and Women in Engineering Program within the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin consist of comprehensive, experiential-based programming designed to encourage underrepresented students to explore engineering as a career choice. The camps build students' confidence by providing a practical understanding of engineering and how technology and engineers enhance the quality of life. The goal is to increase the enrollment of minorities and women in engineering programs with camp participants pursuing engineering careers to ultimately transform lives for the benefit of society.
Black Girls Code | San Francisco, CA
Black Girls Code was founded in 2011 to introduce girls of color from underrepresented communities to computer programming through workshops and after school programs that teach basic computer programming skills in Scratch, Ruby on Rails and other contemporary programming languages. Black Girls Code plans to expand to additional markets in the Greater Bay Area in 2012 and other locations including summer week long intensive classes in several cities.The Google Rise Award will enable the outlined program expansion by supporting various organizational costs which will enable our organization to introduce more girls in the Bay Area and beyond to programming.
Career Day and Middle School Outreach | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Amherst, MA
The University of Massachusetts Amherst's Department of Computer Science (CS) and College of Engineering (CoE) will expand a major recruiting activity for high school girls, Women in Engineering & Computing Career Day, and to develop and integrate outreach activities for middle school students from key high-need districts in western Massachusetts. The project, led by the CoE's Diversity Programs Office and CS's Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE) will engage more than 200 high school girls with computing activities, role models, and careers, involve engineering and computing university students, and reach 100 diverse middle-school students through engaging design and computing activities.
Centre for Academic Achievement | Ireland
The Centre for Academic Achievement runs afterschool educational classes in a university setting for bright primary school students from socio-economic disadvantaged areas. Many of these students may not have thought of attending university as an option for their future and the goals of the programme are to encourage these students to reach their potential, to get students interested in learning outside the school environment, and to promote positive attitudes to education in the community. Each term, pupils from 32 local primary schools get the opportunity to study, for free, science, maths and engineering subjects delivered by specialised staff.
NERD! | Dipartimento di Informatica | Italy
The Department of Computer Science at "La Sapienza", Rome, has become a focal point for young people wishing to acquire a sound theoretical and experimental preparation which will enable them to enter and participate actively in the fast evolving world of Information and Communication Technology. However, less than 15% of our students are female. To address this problem, we launched the NERD? program for female students in High School. NERD? is the acronym for the Italian phrase "Non E' Roba per Donne?", which translates as "Not women's stuff?". The main objectives of the program are to disprove the stereotype that computer science is for "nerds" and demonstrate the highly creative nature of the discipline, thus stimulating students' interest in pursuing their studies in it. A web site will be set up to share our experience and teaching material with other universities and instructors, and also to offer a meeting point for female students attracted to the discipline.
Spreading STEM Through Robotics | FIRST Robotics Team 1884: The Griffins | United Kingdom
The Griffins are a FIRST robotics team based in the UK. With the help of Google RISE, the team aims to provide STEM opportunities to secondary school students in disadvantaged areas of London through the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). In the FLL competition, students build LEGO robots and research scientific topics relevant to modern society. The Griffins' goal is to kick-start robotics teams in London schools that would compete in FLL's London regional, the largest regional competition in the UK. Robotics provides a unique experience for students to gain an interest and appreciation for STEM outside the classroom.
comeUP | Frauennetzwerk Informatik | Germany
The comeUP program by the Frauennetzwerk Informatik at Universität Passau reaches out to high school students. University students act as ambassadors to their own high school, introduce the kids in their junior and senior years to Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Mathematics by giving them first-hand experience of their study environment and by running small demos and workshops on Robotics and mobile applications on smartphones. The outreach program is complemented by a mentor program where the ambassador keeps the contact with the students reached through the school visit and guides them in their decision to study STEM courses.
Fab Lab Kids Club | Happylab | Austria
INNOC runs the Happylab in Vienna, Austria's first Fab Lab. More than 400 members use the Happylab frequently in order to realize and materialize their ideas. The Fab Lab Kids Club is a low-threshold service for kids in the age of 10 - 15. This provides guided hands-on activities to inspire excitement in STEM and CS as a basis for future innovations in technology. The Fab Lab Kids Club aims to inspire a younger audience to deal hands-on with new technologies. One afternoon per week the Happylab will be opened especially for kids. The Fab Lab Kids Club is an out of school activity, which supports discretionary learning in a high-tech environment. Personnel experienced in youth work will supervise the kids.
Info-Education | Romanian Computer Science Teachers Association | Romania
RCSTA (UPIR) is a scientific and professional organization with the goal to provide computer science education in the pre-university education system. The project Info-Education contest has the goal to provide among the students "programming for life", creation of small works in the matter of webpages, educational software, robots, multimedia. The impact of the program will be among 3000 students from Romania and 5 European countries.
Inspirational STEM Days | The Smallpeice Trust | United Kingdom
The Smallpeice Trust is an energetic and independent educational charity, which promotes Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to 10 to 18 year olds with the aim of opening up more career opportunities for young people, securing the future technology talent pipeline in the UK, and helping to rebalance our economy.
Founded in 1966 by Dr Cosby Smallpeice, a self-taught engineer, The Smallpeice Trust has a reputation for delivering professionally executed engineering courses. Over the past academic year, The Smallpeice Trust has run 37 inspirational residential courses for 2,060 students and a record 16,115 students took part in an STEM Day.
IT Camp for girls | Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University | Denmark
For six years the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University has held the IT Camp for girls. It gives a group of girls aged 15-19 an insight into the world of IT and computer science. They will attend theoretical lectures, programming workshops and they will visit an IT company. Also, the girls will be introduced to role models from the IT world. We believe that the IT Camp for girls makes a difference. We are experiencing that former participants go on to study computer science themselves. Our goals for 2012 are to repeat the success of last year's camp and continue to inspire more young girls to consider an education in computer science.
Great Olympiad Science Competitions, Science Teachers Enrichment Program Summer and Science/Mathematics Program | Youth Care Foundation | The Gambia
The Youth Care Foundation, The Gambia is chartered charity organization. It works in partnerships with the following organizations to promote and advance interests in Mathematics and Sciences: Directorates of Science and Technical Education, The Gambia, Science Teachers Association The Gambia (STAGAM), and Mathematics Teachers' Association The Gambia (MTAGAM)
ICT Clinic for Girls | Savana Signatures | Ghana
Savana Signatures has a mission to promote the development of youth and women through education and knowledge sharing. It seeks to use ICT as catalyst to develop the minds of youth and women for the benefit of Ghana's development and builds capacity of women to access information for their social and economic growth; builds capacity of youth to use ICT for entrepreneurial development; trains teachers and students to integrate ICT into teaching and learning; re-orients the youth and women in the use of ICT for entrepreneurial growth and advancement; conducts research on ICT4D with a focus on youth and women.
Akirachix Training Program | Akirachix Association | Kenya
AkiraChix aims to build a successful force of women in Technology that will change Africa's future. In line with one of our missions of inspiring and developing women in technology, we aim to conduct a technical training for twenty five young women from socio-economically disadvantaged areas of Nairobi who lack opportunities for post-secondary education. As demonstrated from our successful first year, this program will give these young women the opportunity to find financial independence as technology professionals. The Google RISE funding will facilitate the running of this second edition of the program by covering the program costs.
Young Girls Science and Health Tele-Academy | Youth for Technology Foundation | Nigeria
The mission of YTF is to create enriched learning communities where the use of technology affords opportunities for marginalized youth and women living in developing countries. The Young Girls Science & Health Tele-Academy teaches Nigerian girls, ages 13 through 18, to use technology to research and disseminate information about a principal cause of cancer deaths in African women- breast cancer. Beneficiaries will increase their interest in a STEM career, and increase multicultural understanding. Collaboration software, digital cameras, computers, smart phones, radio and the Internet will be used to enable girls to collaborate with digital peers, leading educators and health professionals.
Fundi Bots | Uganda
Fundi Bots is a technology outreach programme for students in high school and university. Our core focus is the use of Robotics to sensitize and create an awareness in young children about the benefits and endless possibilities of technology in day to day life. By doing this, we also aim to promote early stage career development in technology and related fields. We are also creating a learning environment outside of schools where passionate African children can learn, grow and experiment with machines, gadgets and technology as a means of creative and innovative expression.