tech4good Archives

Closing the Adult Education Gap for Employers and Employees, with Ned Zimmerman-Bence, GogyUp

October 1, 2018

GogyUp removes language barriers from the workplace. According to the most recent report from the US Department of Labor, there are currently 6.9 million job openings in the US. In the last month alone, job openings in nondurable goods manufacturing increased by more than 30,000. Businesses are finding it difficult to find qualified employees who can meet the rigors of technical qualifications. At the same time, 36 million US adults read below the 3rd-grade level. And 90 million adults struggle to read technical writing. Yet, only 5% have access to the instruction that they need. That’s where GogyUp comes in. Their Employment Literacy System (ELS) is a tool for on-boarding,…

The Many Side-Hustles of Sherrell Dorsey, ThePLUG and BLKTECHCLT

April 9, 2018

ThePLUG is the first daily tech newsletter covering founders and innovators of color. What do these people have in common: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Tim Cook, and Larry Ellison? Yes, these are all icons of the tech industry. They also happen to be white men. Sherrell Dorsey of ThePLUG says, “Part of my personal and professional growth was staying abreast of what was happening in the news.” However, she noticed a gap in tech news. “The daily business and tech news cycle is filled with the stories and work of white men building the future,” she says. “Rarely are we recognizing the work of…

Making Technology Fun, Relevant, and Accessible for Girls, with Betty Gronneberg, uCodeGirl

October 2, 2017

uCodeGirl offers pathways to technology careers for teen girls by tapping into their curiosity, skills, and potential. Betty Gronneberg grew up in Ethiopia. She attended Addis Ababa University where she majored in statistics. Betty recalls a day in college when she saw her name on a list of students who had been accepted into the new Computer Science track. She was one of two female students on the list. This was 1991. The “world wide web” had not yet been invented. Betty learned to write simple programs in BASIC, an early computer language. Betty’s experience grew rapidly as the internet began to spread. She became a country-wide email administrator for…

Civic Engagement in a Digital World, with Damola Ogundipe, Civic Eagle

July 31, 2017

Civic Eagle is a technology startup that creates Software as a Service (SaaS) tools for local and state governments, and policy advocacy organizations. Damola Ogundipe says, “I’ve always kind of known that I wanted to take an entrepreneurship route.” During college, he ran a successful sneaker retail company on eBay. In 2011, Damola graduated from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management with a degree in Finance. In 2013, Damola was working as an independent consultant in the healthcare field. As the debate flared up over the Affordable Care Act, he realized that he did not know what was in the bill. “That was concerning for me,” he says….

Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Humanitarian Missions, with Lori Most, BinaryBridge

July 24, 2017

BinaryBridge creates software that helps humanitarians do their work effectively and efficiently. Lori Most grew up seeing television commercials of humanitarian crises, especially in Africa. Lori recounted, “I always wanted to go to Africa and help…I thought ‘I’m going to grow up and go over there.” In college, she started as a pre-med student. Partway through she switched to engineering. “I changed directions a lot,” she laughed. When she graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in mathematics, she was left with this sense that she still wanted to help. After graduating, Lori quickly found work in the booming field of software development. She worked as a software…

Removing Barriers to Healthcare in Ethiopia Through MedTech, with Yohans Wodaje Emiru, helloDoctor

March 27, 2017

Dr. Yohans Wodaje Emiru is the founder of Telemed Medical Services. Their flagship service is helloDoctor. For every doctor in Ethiopia, there are more than 30,000 patients. Compare that to less than 400 patients per doctor in the United States. Millions of Ethiopian patients are cut off from medical services due to geography and infrastructure. There are also cultural barriers to medical treatment. Some conditions can seem embarrassing to discuss face-to-face with a local doctor. Transportation costs or consultation fees may be a barrier to treatment. Yohans Wodaje Emiru has found a way to use technology to provide access to medical professionals using a simple hand-handheld phone. Yohans understands the…

Fighting Air Inequality, Christa Hasenkopf, OpenAQ

Fighting Air Inequality through Open Data, Open Source Tools and Collaboration, with Christa Hasenkopf, OpenAQ

March 19, 2017

OpenAQ aggregates and shares air quality data from around the world in order to fight air inequality. How big of an issue is air pollution? The World Health Organization estimates that one out of every eight deaths on the planet is related to air pollution. That’s more than HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined. Most of these deaths occur in developing countries, creating what Christa Hasenkopf calls “Air Inequality.” Christa is an atmospheric scientist. In grad school, she focused on the atmosphere of a moon of Saturn called Titan. One day she was talking to a professor from a neighboring university. The professor was telling Christa about Mongolia while showing her pictures…

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