DLDwomen, one of the leading conferences in Europe focused on women in the fields of innovation and future vision, has had many eminent guests over the years. Last week the attendees at the 2013 edition were wowed by two young girls. Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni are not wealthy entrepreneurs or great innovators. They are just two 20-year-old students from the Stanford University who co-founded She++, a Stanford-based community for innovative women in technology with the express intent of getting more women to learn coding.
Ayna and Ellora are trying to expand She++ into a full-fledged community that ‘inspires women to empower computer science’ and create female technologists. Ayna is studying for a Bachelor of Science degree in Symbolic Systems at the Stanford University. Along with She++, she is also the Founder and Executive Director of SPOT Globally, an NGO that aims to sterilise stray animals and educate youth the world over.
She is also a board member of the Ashoka Youth Advisory Network, which aims to network social entrepreneurs across the world. She has also worked as an intern at various technology companies like Evernote and is presently a Product Manager intern at Microsoft. Ellora, who is studying for a B.S degree in Computer Science at Stanford, is the brain behind the She++ campaign and has personally built the campaign website and has produced the She++ documentary. She is currently an intern at Palantir Technologies.