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#RaceOnTech: Sharing The Experiences Of Diverse Innovators

Editor's Note: Our #RaceOnTech public call-out for diverse innovators officially ended June 15, but we encourage you to continue engaging around the #RaceOnTech hashtag to get to know each other's work. More than 150 people and organizations were suggested to join our "Day in The Life" social storytelling series set to begin July 13. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

Across the tech industry, efforts to increase diversity in the workforce have intensified. Google for instance, has embedded engineers at Historically Black Colleges to mentor students and help advise them on curriculum.

Google also reports that women now represent 18 percent of technical roles at the company. That's up slightly from the previous year but African-Americans and Latinos still lag far behind in technical roles across the industry.

Who are some of the diverse voices emerging in technology and science across the country? This summer, All Tech Considered will lead a cross-platform storytelling project to engage with diverse innovators who are making an impact in the science and technology sectors. The social series will focus on real-time storytelling around the hashtag #RaceOnTech.

In mid-July, All Tech Considered will select innovators who are breaking new ground in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. We will invite a selected group to join us on Twitter for the day as we follow their footprints on Twitter. #RaceOnTech will put a face on some of the experienced and emerging forces in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

A flurry of tweets from Detroit last night gave a jump-start to the series, as WDET General Manager Michelle Srbinovich introduced us to diverse innovators from the Motor City.

The deadline to Tweet or email your nomination is June 15.

The public has also begun weighing in, using #RaceOnTech to connect entrepreneurs, educators and engineers from across the country to the series.

To get a sense of previous real-time engagement with entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists around hashtags check out the March 2014 series #NPRWIT (women in tech) and the December 2013 series #NPRBlacksinTech.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.