Congratulations to the members of Generation Linkers, a Technovation Girls Waterloo team who were named a North American Regional Honoree in the Technovation Global semi-finals. The winning team, consisting of Sophie Rus, Le Anne Du, and Olivia Guo, won for their app LinkAge, which connects young adults aged 16-25 to lonely senior citizens with similar interests.
“Generation Linkers put so much thought, care, and passion into their project, so it is incredible to see that work honoured on a global scale,” says Samantha Jewett, the Technovation Waterloo Chapter Ambassador. “We had four teams from our chapter compete in the semi-finals, and want to congratulate all of them for their accomplishment. The youth in our programs are the future leaders of the world, and I am so proud to be a small part of their journey.”
Technovation Girls is a free twelve-week program that empowers girls and gender minorities age 8-18 with “the skills to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders.” Waterloo’s Women in Computer Science (WiCS) Outreach oversee the Waterloo chapter, which includes students from across the Waterloo and London regions.
L-R: Olivia Guo, Sophie Rus, Le Anne Du
All three team members are friends and high school students; Sophie is at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, and Le Anne and Olivia are students at Laurel Heights Secondary School.
Le Anne, a grade ten student, got involved with Technovation because her friends Sophie and Olivia had participated the year before. “I’ve taken computer science courses before, but I enjoyed how Technovation pushed me to expand my knowledge on coding past the school curriculum,” she says.
Olivia, also in grade ten, initially joined Technovation because her older sister had enjoyed the program. She says that the program helped her build confidence in her ideas and abilities. “For anyone unsure about getting started in tech, I would say you don’t need to have everything figured out,” she says. “The important part is being able to learn and willing to work through challenges. This experience has made me more confident in my ability to build something that matters.”
The young women developed the idea for the project when they learned about the crisis of loneliness among the elderly, particularly during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. The LinkAge app uses AI to match young and elderly users, suggest conversation topics, and offer activity ideas to encourage interaction.
The team developed the app in conversation with residents at the local Laurelwood Retirement Home. They interviewed residents and then ran tests of the app with volunteers there as well. “The moment that brought our ideas to life was when we watched them run through our app smoothly,” says Le Anne. “Witnessing the successful test run inspired hope among us, and a sense of pride from the results of our hard work.”
They were supported in app development by mentors at the University of Waterloo, and through a $1000 grant from RBC’s Youth Creativity Fund. They would like to thank Alethea Robinson at RBC, the volunteers at Laurelwood, and Waterloo Technovation – particularly Samantha Jewett – for their support.
“We really appreciate the value of this particular outreach program of the Math Faculty at Waterloo,” says Sophie Rus, who is in grade nine. “It was an amazing way for us to get started and explore what we can do…Being chosen as the Regional Honouree for North America feels like an amazing recognition of our hard work and the merits of our idea and approach. We hope to use this momentum to push the app and the project further than we initially thought possible.”
At the end of the day, the win is particularly meaningful for the Generation Linkers team because they are passionate about applying tech meaningfully to social issues. “The stories people shared with us reminded me how important social connection is at every stage of life,” Olivia says. “I believe technology, when used purposefully, can support those connections and help bridge generational gaps. To me, it’s not just about using devices, but about creating tools that bring people together in a meaningful way.”
Learn more about the Waterloo chapter of Technovation Girls, which begins sign-ups for its next session this September, on their website.