Wearable Toy Designed to Teach Girls Computer Programming

Women can be great programmers just like men. All they need is a little bit of passion.

With that in mind, Lyssa Neel, the 10th woman to earn a PhD in computer science at MIT, has designed a wearable electronic toy that she hopes can get girls interested in computer programming.

Neel's invention, linkitz, allows young kids to take part, rearrange, and snap together electronic blocks. With linkitz, kids can learn programming in a fun way, she told Techcrunch.com.

Neel herself fell in love with computer programming in the sixth grade. She said she was inspired by her own three daughters to design the toy.

"I bought them 'engineering toys' when they were in elementary school, but many of them devolve into solitary building activities, which is not the way my girls wanted to play. They were very social and very interested in friendship and doing things with friends. So I decided to try to start with things that my girls liked to do, and add technology into those games," Neel told Techcrunch.com.

"I'm hoping to hold [young girls'] interest as they move to middle school, when lots of girls start to say they think math and science are boring."

The linkitz team also includes engineer Drew Macrae and higher education professional Chris Wallace. The team is currently in the Chinese city of Shenzhen wher they say they are learning about product manufacturing to make linkitz ready for mass production.