The solution

Girls Tech runs STEM-focused training courses exclusively for young women aged 7 to 24.

The project stands out for its targeted educational design, ensuring an adaptable curriculum for girls across different age groups—from young children to those who have just completed high school. This is made possible through the involvement of specially trained coaches in STEM disciplines who guide and support participants throughout their learning journey.

For younger girls, coaches offer playful activities and creative workshops that introduce basic STEM concepts in an engaging and enjoyable way. Through games, hands-on experiments, and interactive activities, participants intuitively and stimulatingly familiarize themselves with scientific and technological concepts.

For older girls, including those approaching the post-high school phase, coaches provide more advanced and in-depth courses on specific STEM topics such as programming, engineering, and more. These courses aim to develop technical and creative skills, preparing participants for successful careers in technology and innovation.

The workshops are designed to actively address the gender gap in STEM education and, consequently, in digital and engineering roles in the workplace. Girls Tech is conducted entirely online to ensure flexibility and accessibility. This advantage, combined with its free format, ensures the courses are as inclusive as possible.

Organized and managed by SYX, the non-profit organization of Synesthesia, the training leverages Synesthesia’s extensive in-house expertise and that of its partners.

Results

The most recent edition took place between March and June 2024, involving over 1,000 girls. Over three months, 60 courses were delivered, totaling 234 hours of online training. More than 30 courses sold out.

In totale, sono state raccolte 1221 iscrizioni provenienti da 60 diverse città italiane.

The solution

Synesthesia’s Technologies, in collaboration with Fondazione Veronesi’s team, focused on:

• Defining the game design
• Developing the game
• Creating a dedicated website

For the development of the web game, the Ren’Py engine was used, which is ideal for creating Visual Novel Games. The game is accessible on both desktop and mobile platforms, allowing users to immerse themselves in the Smogville environment through engaging audio effects, graphic animations, and detailed illustrations.
At the end of the game, the system provides an “adventure score” based on how risky the player’s decisions were—reflecting their exposure to air pollution risks.

The project involved multiple partners: Fondazione Veronesi, in collaboration with Symmaceo Communications, developed the story, script, character design, maps, and illustrations. Game design was handled by Luca Gambadoro and Marco Mazzaglia.

Results

“Smogville was integrated into the “Tutti per aria!” project, an educational initiative by Fondazione CRT, conceived and developed by Fondazione Veronesi. The program featured workshops addressing air pollution and the importance of protecting both oneself and the environment. From March to April 2023, over 2,100 middle school students from Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta participated in these workshops, with Smogville serving as the centerpiece of the educational offering. Starting in the 2023-24 school year, the program will expand across Italy. We strongly believe in video games as an innovative tool for informal education in schools. We used it to create an engaging and challenging story while ensuring the scientific message and its accuracy remained intact. It’s crucial for us to promote projects focused on health education, especially when the topic—air pollution—affects us all so closely. The Synesthesia team helped us transform an idea into a complete game; it was an incredibly stimulating project!”.

Alessandro Vitale (Scientific Supervisor, Fondazione Veronesi)

The solution

Word Ladders is a game that allows players to test their vocabulary and attempt to create the longest possible “ladder” by adding words to each rung. However, not all words earn points. Players start by adding increasingly generic words above the given word (e.g., apple → fruit → food). The longer the ladder, the more points are scored.

The development of Word Ladders involved active collaboration with the client, who fully managed the data analysis phase and word algorithm. In addition to the refactoring activities, Synesthesia’s Technologies team worked on implementing the following features:

• statistics section with scores related to game activity.
• real-time updated leaderboard section (with search filter options).
• badges section with goals that players can achieve based on their performance.
• tutorial section detailing all the features and various game modes.
• information section about the initiative.

Synesthesia’s development activities were carried out using the following technologies: React Native for the front end and Node.JS for the back end.

For further information on the scientific objectives behind the creation of the game, the privacy policy, and other app documentation, please visit the academic project’s website.

Results

“The collaboration between Synesthesia and our research group at the University of Bologna has brought Word Ladders to life, a mobile app that is not only a linguistic game but also contributes to research on linguistic thought and improves the language skills of players in both Italian and English. Synesthesia’s professionalism was reflected in their cohesive, young, and dynamic team, who tackled every stage of the project with commitment, proactivity, and, above all, calmness in handling challenges. We appreciated the genuine interest shown by Synesthesia’s members in the scientific challenges that inspired this app, an interest that made us feel understood and supported. This partnership represents an excellent example of synergy between the academic and industrial worlds, inspiring innovation and scientific progress”.

Marianna Marcella Bolognesi (Coordinator of the Abstraction project under which Word Ladders was developed, and Associate Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Modern Cultures at the University of Bologna).

The solution

The lecture in the metaverse aimed to explore the use of technologies in education. During the experiment, the ICT degree program collaborated directly with Meta, which provided technological support, and Synesthesia, which handled the design of the environment and characters using Spatial, one of the leading virtual collaboration platforms.

An interesting detail is that the avatars used during the simulation were created with both gendered and “neutral” characteristics, meaning they were not identifiable by gender. Additionally, sociologists and psychologists were involved during the lecture to closely observe the course of the sessions.

Results

The project results were highly positive:

• Virtual reality made the lecture more engaging and motivating for students compared to traditional methods.
• Students had the opportunity to test a technology that many had never experienced before.
• There was a noticeable increase in their ability to apply theoretical concepts presented during the initial phase of the course.
• The students practised negotiations in the metaverse, improving their soft skills, such as understanding context and managing discussions to achieve better outcomes using avatars.

“From day one, Synesthesia approached the project not only as a technological provider but as an integral part of the University of Turin team. The project was developed comprehensively and flawlessly – from design to communication – meeting deadlines, identifying potential issues before they arose, proactively suggesting solutions, and building a strong relationship with researchers, professors, and students. Synesthesia’s approach is invaluable for all public and private organisations, like the University of Turin, that must tackle innovation and digital transformation projects quickly, using often unexplored technologies while adhering to bureaucratic constraints and rigorous methods to ensure the scientific validity of every process”. 

(Professor Paola Pisano, former Minister for Innovation and Digitalisation).

The solution

“Pandemia – Scrivi la tua storia” was fully developed by Synesthesia. The game was designed to meet specific needs: for instance, it can be completed in a limited time and is part of a broader educational journey.colato.

Creation and development process involved a team comprising a creative director, a project manager, a developer, a graphic designer, and a game designer. The game’s architecture is complex: each scenario challenges the player to think in different ways.

Throughout the game, players can make different choices based on the events presented.

Results

“Pandemia – Scrivi la tua storia” is part of an educational program by the Umberto Veronesi Foundation (the “Io Vivo Sano – Public Health and Epidemics” workshop), with digital workshops organized in May 2021 in schools across Italy. Approximately 3,000 students, 100 teachers, and more than 70 schools participated. At the end of the activities, around 500 online feedback questionnaires were collected. The results exceeded expectations in terms of both engagement and visibility.

As a result, a further development of the project was decided to improve certain aspects and add new features. The 2.0 version of the game was launched on October 6, 2021.

The solution

Italdesign, an innovative company interested in educational technology, wanted to offer the children of its employees an opportunity to engage with technology in a fun and experimental way. As a result, they chose to adopt the “Bimbi in ufficio” format.

FuturMakers organised three technology-focused days at the company’s headquarters in Turin, divided by age groups: 7-10 years, 11-13 years, and 14-18 years.

The educational activities were structured into five thematic areas, where children and young people could experience and learn about coding, electronics, robotics, making, and problem-solving.

Results

The “Bimbi in ufficio” activity had a direct impact on employer branding and corporate identity. The company was able to demonstrate its commitment to the family sphere of its employees, while also enhancing its image as modern and innovative, with a focus on the value of mindful digital education.