Megan Smith
Megan Smith
Megan J. Smith is the Chief Technology Officer of the United States. She was previously a vice president of Google at Google, was vice president of business development at Google for nine years, and was general manager of Google.org and the former CEO of Planet Out. She serves on the boards of MIT and Vital Voices, is a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Aid and co-founded the Malala Fund. On September 4, 2014, she was named as...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
CountryUnited States of America
Megan Smith quotes about
high mandatory school science
I was lucky that science fair was mandatory at my high school in inner-city Buffalo.
computer core curriculum great including optional programs robotics science
We need to have making, including computer science, shop, etc. as part of the core curriculum from the beginning, not just an optional afterschool thing. Things like First Robotics and all of those great programs need to become mainstream.
computer divide everybody expected grade places science second several teaching vietnam
There are several places in Vietnam where they're teaching computer science from second grade in class, so they don't have a gender divide because everybody is expected to program.
century deep demands encourage experience history interested passionate pursue science
The things you're passionate about and interested in, get experience with them by going deep on projects. I would encourage science projects, plays. Pursue science, math, writing, history - the 21st century demands a lot of cross-disciplinary thinking.
class facts history inspiring science taught
Science class is traditionally taught as science history class - you learn all these facts that someone else discovered, which you need to know, but that's not really an inspiring way to learn science.
attract economic everybody opportunity people science technology women
The more people we can attract to science and technology - men, women, everybody - the more economic opportunity we have as a nation.
active believed learning mandatory money school science teachers
I went to an inner-city school in Buffalo. We had no money. But our teachers believed in hands-on active learning - there was a mandatory science fair, which was critical.
elementary
I think it's so important in preschool and in kindergarten and elementary school that we're not biasing ourselves.
amazing country operating
We are the only country with an operating rover on Mars. We are an amazing country on tech.
government
The American government will be whatever we all make of it.
commission open played source technology truth
I think open source is an evolutionary idea for humanity, this idea of transparency. It played out for us in the technology world, but it also played out with the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission and Wikipedia.
women
There are 2 to 3 million women programmers in the world. We need to see them more.
best came consistent fought girls great hard indication late shows starting stay took twice
This was a great indication of where we're at in starting this program. We came out and really took it to them in the first game. But it's hard to stay consistent when you have a really young team. We're doing the best we can, and you can see that we fought back twice (in the late game) and that shows that our girls have a lot of heart.
current examples historic minorities stories technology women work
There are hundreds of historic and current examples of women and minorities doing groundbreaking work in technology, but so many of these stories are not well known, and in some cases, the stories have been all but lost.