Our story

Patrones Hermosos or Beautiful Patterns by MIT

“Patrones Hermosos” or “Beautiful Patterns” is a program to develop Computational Thinking skills  on Latin American girls between 13 and 17 years of age, motivating them towards STEM careers.

This initiative is led by Abel Sanchez PhD, director of research and director of MIT Geospatial Laboratory. Professor Sanchez took the program for the first time to Nuevo Leon on 2017 and run a pilot of 2 weeks with 50 participants.

The website http://dreamers.mit.edu  includes a full description of the program as well as evidence of its implementation in 2017. Additionally, the following video includes a good overview:

Due to the success of this workshop, the program is being extended to more than 11 states in Mexico the objective in 2019 is to  impact more than 1,500  girls.

The website http://dreamers.mit.edu includes a complete description, as well as proof of its application in 2017 and 2018.

The site to register is https://patroneshermososmexico.org

Why donate?

Your donation allows us, mainly, to pay for the flights of the instructors of the MIT, but also to transport  girls of remote zones, the materials, the foods, the workshops that take place from 9 to 4 pm, from Monday to Friday, this Year from May 27 to 31.

What do they learn?

• The topics covered during the week include:
• Patterns to maximize happiness
• Patterns to keep, share and discover secrets
• Looking for things and ordering things
• Patterns to optimize routes, schedules and maps
• Strategies to win

The previous topics practice algorithms such as the Gale-Shapley algorithm (Nobel prize winner), ciphering, bubble sorting, algorithm for Towers of Hanoi,  binary counting and even block-chain.

During the day the participants look at every topic in different ways: lecture, practical exercise, team presentation of the topic applying the algorithm to problems of their own life, playing games and competing against their peers (going through the algorithm), programming the algorithm, etc. Throughout the week they work in teams on a project that is presented on Friday, mainly through web pages they design and construct.

The last activity gives a one to one time with all the instructors, all of them engineering or computer science students, no much older than the participants. During this chat the younger girls hear what is to be a CS or engineering student, in their own language.

Challenges

Our main challenge is to obtain the funds for the flights of the MIT girls. Despite the support of the Tec, the MIT, Csoftmty and other universities as UDEM, UERRE, UANL, UP, UT, Tec Milenio, Universidad de Veracruz, LANIA, Softtek, Motorola and other organizations with which we have been able to obtain laboratories for workshops, materials and food for girls, we have not yet been able to cover the most expensive flights.

In addition, there are girls outside the urban areas who wish to attend and we need to raise funds to pay for their transportation.

Videos and photos

Check out our photos and videos, watch how girls have fun, learn advanced topics and believe in themselves.

http://dreamers.mit.edu

Givers