TechSister

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Home Page
Scholarships Page
Chat with Mentor/Mentee Page
Schedule Meeting Page
Forums Page
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Architecture Diagram

Inspiration

Most female scholars in my community are facing a lot of challenges today due to the gender-biased mindset society has placed on them, especially when it comes to the tech industry. It was then that I decided to embark on my own educational journey, traveling to the US to pursue my Master's, driven by a determination to equip myself with the skills to effect lasting change.

As a first-generation immigrant, I encountered numerous obstacles along the way. It was during these trials that I longed for a platform like Tech Sisters—a supportive community that understood the unique challenges faced by women in the tech industry and provided the resources and opportunities necessary for their success.

Some shocking facts:

Women make up only about 26% of the computing workforce in the United States, as reported by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).
The percentage of women in leadership roles in technology companies is relatively low, with women holding only 25% of executive positions and 11% of executive technical roles, according to a study by McKinsey & Company.
LGBTQ+ individuals are underrepresented in the tech industry, with studies indicating that only 7% of tech workers identify as LGBTQ+, as reported by Hired's 2020 State of Software Engineers report.

TechSisters is the culmination of our passion and purpose—a dynamic website that empowers women in the tech industry. It is a platform built upon the belief that by bridging the gender gap in technology, we can ignite a transformative ripple effect throughout communities.

What it does

A survey conducted by the World Economic Forum found that at the current rate of progress, it will take approximately 257 years to close the gender gap in economic participation and opportunity globally.

TechSisters is a dynamic website empowering women in the tech industry by offering an array of resources, mentorship opportunities, and inspiring success stories. With a strong commitment to bridging the gender gap in technology, TechSisters also provides valuable scholarships to support women in pursuing their educational and professional aspirations.

Key Features:

Mentorship Network: Enable women in tech to connect with experienced mentors who can provide guidance, advice, and support throughout their career journeys. Implement features like mentor-matching algorithms, scheduled mentoring sessions
Learning Resources: Curate a comprehensive collection of educational resources, tech blogs, and webinars, tailored to women's needs and interests in various technology domains.
Community Forums: Create a space for women in tech to engage in discussions, ask questions, and share experiences. Implement a forum platform with categories dedicated to various tech topics, career advice, work-life balance, and inclusivity in the workplace.
Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: Highlight initiatives and success stories related to diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. Showcase companies that prioritize gender equality and offer a directory of inclusive workplaces.- Like Facebook feed

How we built it

With a focus on leveraging Google Cloud services, we constructed a robust and scalable solution to address the unique needs of our target users. The integrations with Google Cloud Services are listed below:

Integrations:

MongoDB Atlas: Utilize MongoDB Atlas as the database to store user profiles, mentorship data, job listings, and other relevant information.
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): Deploy the application on Google Cloud's scalable infrastructure for high availability and performance. To achieve this, we incorporated the usage of Google Cloud's Load Balancer and Ingress services.
BigQuery: Utilize BigQuery to perform analytics on user engagement, mentorship effectiveness, and platform usage to improve the user experience and measure impact.
Cloud Run: Utilize Cloud Run to seamlessly execute the scholarship extractor, success stories extractor, and mentor matching service as cron tabs, ensuring reliable and efficient task automation. Additionally, we deployed a Socket.IO server on Cloud Run to power real-time instant messaging functionality, enhancing communication capabilities within the application.
Cloud Domain: Configured DNS settings and seamlessly integrated my custom domain with the application hosted on Cloud Run, ensuring a smooth and streamlined user experience.
Cloud Scheduler: Employed Cloud Scheduler to create triggers to schedule Cloud Run jobs for task automation, enabling timely execution of critical processes.
Google Cloud Container Registry: Utilized Google Cloud Container Registry as a secure and reliable repository for storing and managing container images. Used to push container images, enabling seamless deployment and scaling of our application on Kubernetes Engine and Cloud Run.
Google Calendar API: Integrated the Google Calendar API into our platform, enabling the creation of events between mentors and mentees. By leveraging the Google Calendar API, we facilitated efficient appointment management, ensuring smooth communication and collaboration between mentors and mentees within our platform.

Challenges we ran into

Throughout the project, we encountered several challenges, which required significant troubleshooting and exploration. Here are the key obstacles we encountered:

Containerization and Image Pushing: We faced difficulties while containerizing our application and pushing the images to Google Cloud Container Registry. The documentation provided conflicting information, alternating between references to the Artifact Registry and Container Registry. This caused confusion and hindered the smooth progression of our deployment process.
Converting IP Address to Custom Domain with SSL Certificates: We encountered an issue when attempting to convert our Kubernetes application from using an IP address to a custom domain. Additionally, integrating SSL certificates using the Certificate Manager posed a significant challenge. We had to navigate through intricate configurations and complex settings to successfully establish secure connections.
Load Balancer and Ingress Service Configuration: Configuring the Load Balancer and setting up the ingress service proved to be another hurdle in our project. We faced difficulties in correctly configuring these components to ensure optimal traffic distribution and seamless routing within our application.

Despite these challenges, we persevered, conducted thorough research, and sought assistance from the developer community and google cloud documentation to overcome these roadblocks and achieve our desired deployment and networking outcomes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

During the course of the project, we achieved several notable accomplishments that we take immense pride in. Here are the key milestones we successfully accomplished:

Creating an Empowering Platform for Underrepresented Women in Tech: Building a platform that enables underrepresented women to access opportunities in the tech industry is a remarkable accomplishment. By providing a space for these individuals to connect, learn, and grow, we are proud to contribute to fostering diversity and inclusivity in the tech community.
Successful Utilization of Google Kubernetes Engine with Load Balancing and Ingress Services: Deploying our application on the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and effectively configuring load balancing and ingress services was a major achievement. This marked our first experience using Google Cloud for a deployment of this scale, showcasing our ability to navigate and leverage advanced cloud technologies.
Integration of Cloud Domain and Certificate Manager: Linking our application to Cloud Domain and Certificate Manager was a significant achievement. This allowed us to establish a custom domain and secure connections with SSL certificates, ensuring a professional and trustworthy user experience. This accomplishment highlighted our proficiency in managing networking components and securing web applications.
Development of a Challenging Instant Messaging Service with Socket.IO: Implementing an instant messaging service using Socket.IO posed significant challenges. Overcoming these obstacles and successfully integrating real-time communication capabilities into our application demonstrated our determination, problem-solving skills, and ability to tackle complex technical hurdles.

What we learned

The process of building our project provided us with invaluable learning experiences and expanded our knowledge in several areas. Here are the key lessons we gained throughout the development journey:

Diversity and Inclusion in Tech: Building a platform to empower underrepresented women in the tech industry reinforced the importance of diversity and inclusion. We recognized the significance of providing equal opportunities and fostering a supportive community, contributing to a more inclusive and diverse tech landscape.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Technologies: Working extensively with Google Cloud Platform introduced us to a wide range of powerful tools and services. We deepened our understanding of GCP's offerings, including Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Domains, Certificate Manager, and Cloud Run. This hands-on experience allowed us to grasp the capabilities and benefits of these services and apply them effectively to our project.
Containerization and Deployment: Containerizing our application and deploying it on Google Cloud Container Registry and GKE taught us the importance of packaging applications and their dependencies for consistent and scalable deployment. We acquired insights into best practices for creating container images, pushing them to registries, and orchestrating their deployment using Kubernetes.

What's next for TechSister

TechSister's journey doesn't end with the completion of this project; instead, it marks the beginning of an exciting next phase. Our vision is to transform TechSister into a global platform that empowers women and girls worldwide who aspire to break into the tech industry. Moving forward, we aim to expand the platform's reach and impact by providing comprehensive resources, mentorship programs, and networking opportunities. Our future plans involve collaborating with organizations, industry experts, and advocates to amplify our impact and bridge the gender gap in technology on a global scale. Together, we can create a more diverse and inclusive tech industry, fostering innovation and unlocking the untapped potential of aspiring women technologists worldwide. Please visit https://www.linkedin.com/company/techsister/ for more details.