Kids draw objects from the future, and designers bring them to life through virtual reality. We help kids recognize the creative power of technology and inspire a career path in tech. View Gallery, Email or Partner.
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Partnership with CCDC
We demonstrate technology’s power to bring imagination to life, using virtual reality; make technology accessible by exposing students to code; and finally, demystify the technology workplace with tours and one-on-one mentorship from technology company employees. We hope mentorship, inspiration, and awareness today can convince these students that a job in tech is a goal worth pursuing.
The Bay Area is largely characterized by an alarming trend of increasing gentrification. Here, tech companies attract money that spills over into surrounding residential areas, flooding the market and inflating living costs--especially for housing and food. For communities whose families aren’t involved in engineering or computer science, these price escalations can wreak havoc on living conditions.
This leads to devastating living conditions we would like to remedy. By working with kids from these communities, we hope to demonstrate to them that technology is not just cold numbers and logic but a creative medium in which ideas can be realized and imagination can brought to life.
By bringing together low-income families and tech companies, we then hope to inspire pursuit of technology as a career path, equipping them with the awareness and confidence to turn fear to excitement for technology.
Engineers and designers from such companies facilitate small-scale mentorships with these students. As students ourselves, we understand how inspiration can go a long way, and per our nationally-recognized advisers in social welfare, awareness can go a long way. Our vision is for Bit by Bit's mentorship programs to provide youth with the confidence and understanding needed to build interest in computer science--step by step, and bit by bit.
1.
Imagine
We invite kids from elementary and middle schools to design a futuristic object, using paper, pen, and crayons. To connect with low-income families, we partner with local, non-profit afterschool programs and housing organizations.
2.
Bring to Life
Engineer and design mentors from these tech companies then use their own imagination to convert these drawings into 3D models. These models are available for viewing through virtual reality and brought to life with 3D printing.
3.
Code
Kids then pick from 10 lesson plans to put these futuristic objects into action. Each lesson plan features the futuristic object in a different game. With engineer-mentors at their side, kids then spend the next 8-10 coding lessons building a game.
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In our inaugural quarter, we impacted over 50 students across 4 locations in the bay area.
Bit by Bit was born in January 2018, with initial forays collaborating with low-income family housing units. A few months later, we incorporated with the founding team today--launching in two cities with three corporate sponsors and two national housing organizations.
All of us have served on UC Berkeley course staff; between the co-founders alone, that's a decade of cumulative teaching experience.
Emily Chang
Maxwell Chen
Wan Fung Chui
Matthew Hawes
Emily Hill
Andy Palan
Teresa Pho
Alvin Wan
Derek Wan
Anna Young
Tony Zhao
Lucy Liu
