Category: IT Showcase

National I.T. Showcase Winners for 2022 Announced—HBCUs Capture Top Collegiate Awards at BDPACON22

ATLANTA—BDPACON22, one of the nation’s leading technology inclusion conferences, adjourned Saturday, August 20, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, with a new cohort of I.T. Showcase winners selected from the nation’s colleges, universities, and high schools. Annual showcases feature white papers, oral poster presentations, selection panels from ICT Industry judges, and new scholarships for finalists. This year’s cohort follows.

Student Members from BDPA’s Houston Chapter and Prairie View A&M University at BDPACON22
High School Round

Jonathan Bryant • BDPA Detroit
1st Place – Utilizing 3D CAD To Design and Test Charging Adapters for Use In Charging Electric Vehicle
Awarded: $2,500

Sai Nirmal Sarva • BDPA Atlanta
2nd Place — Technology for People with Speech Development Issues
Awarded: $1,250

Javon Jennings • BDPA Huntsville
3rd Place — The Use of International Writing Systems to Enhance Password Security
Awarded: $750

Collegiate Round

Dallyn Reden • Prairie View A&M University • BDPA Houston
1st Place — Securing Invasive Virtualization Attacks
Awarded: $2,500

Olaoluwa Adewoye • Bowie State University • BDPA Washington, D.C.
2nd Place — Cluster Array Configuration through interconnection of Raspbian Systems
Awarded: $1,500

This year’s 44th annual BDPA Technology Conference (BDPACON22) and Career Expo theme was “Honoring our Legacy, Accelerating the Pace.” For BDPA, 2022 is a great year for community action refocusing on technological barriers, challenges, and policies facing underserved communities. BDPA continues to raise community awareness as the association explores better solutions with new opportunities from diverse and  innovative perspectives.

Increasing STEM and cybersecurity engagements with local non-profits, small businesses, HBCUs, JROTC units, and media remain very high priorities for the association as planning for their 50th anniversary in 2025 and supporting sponsored events begin to unfold in FY23.

To review events or an agenda item from BDPACON22 or to plan for BDPACON23 next year in Atlanta, registrants and BDPA Members may visit https://conference.bdpa.org.

For media inquiries, requests from BDPA Chapters and journalists may be made by emailing: info@bdpa.org or info@bdpatoday.org .

About BDPA

BDPA’s Houston Chapter at BDPACON22 with Norman Mays (center), co-author of The BDPA Story

Established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1975 as Black Data Processing Associates, BDPA is an international organization with a diverse membership of professionals and students in the fields of information technology, computer science, data science, and related science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. BDPA Members and mission partners engage in serving local communities through professional outreach events, technology conferences, research and development (R&D) summits with youth STEM competitions, while advocating and charting the future direction of information and communications technology (ICT) industries. For corporate, professional, or student engagements, visit BDPA.org.

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Review BDPACON22 events —plan to embrace BDPACON23 next year in Atlanta!

BDPA-DC Receives New Grant from Best Buy Foundation to Support Local Tablets-For-Teens Projects

WASHINGTON—The Best Buy Foundation has approved a grant to BDPA of Greater Washington, D.C. (BDPA-DC) in direct support of the association’s Tablets For Teens program.  Grant reporting and requirements for this next phase provide details on precisely how funds are used to support this rapidly emerging digital divide initiative.

BDPA-DC is supporting the following mission sets with Title-I schools across the National Capital Region collocated within our primary area of responsibility. Direct support includes distribution of free or low-cost computing devices to students and distribution of new cellular wireless hot spots to students with no broadband service at home.

This special grant also assists BDPA student members, students enrolled in National BDPA’s Student I.T. Education and Scholarship (SITES) activities, and local JROTC Cadets attending Title-I schools with new tablet PCs, notebook PCs, mobile hot-spots, or small single-board card-sized computers with accessories.  BDPA Student Members, Cadets, and local high school students may also receive community service hours supporting local BDPA SITES projects, webinars, technology events, and outreach activities with BDPA.

Best Buy has been a committed, valuable and engaged community partner and BDPA-DC enthusiastically looks forward to continuing our local, regional, and national relationships in the future.

BDPA Huntsville’s 2020 SITES Finalists receive new Samsung Galaxy Tab A tablets from the Association’s Tablets For Teens initiative after their technical showcase competitions during National BDPA’s 45th Anniversary and virtual BDPA2020 Annual Conference. Photo © 2020 BDPA Huntsville, AL. BDPA Detroit’s 2020 SITES Finalists are featured on our cover photo.

The association’s global mission as outlined by National BDPA is to bridge digital divides across cyber security, information technology (IT) and telecommunications competency gaps while broadening outreach and awareness campaigns for computer, data science, and technical careers. Since 1978, BDPA-DC’s projects across the National Capital Region support career development and economic development through well blended and tailored series of student programs, industry outreach, community relations, and legislative affairs primarily for urban and underserved communities. Tablets For Teens is another program under the Chapter’s SITES-IV (“Industry 4.0” SITES) portfolio. 

Additional information for the national capital region is provided on the following two landing pages, bdpadc.org or tabletsforteens.org.

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Tablets For Teens • Earth Day Tech Summit 2021 • TabletsForTeens.org

BDPA achieves new milestone with 45-year Anniversary and Virtual Youth Tech Camp

ST. LOUIS, MO (BDPA St. Louis)―BDPA2020 is a wrap! This weekend, National BDPA’s High School Computer Competition (HSCC) finalists out of the Midwest Regional bracket from BDPA’s St. Louis Chapter successfully re-captured their national coding and app development championship title. The awards were virtually announced live Saturday, August 22, 2020 by the association’s Board Members and Student Information Technology Education and Scholarship (SITES) Program Directors.
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Winning two titles in the last three years, BDPA St. Louis achieved this feat with support, coaching, and passionate mentorship during COVID-19. This year’s challenges also included remote access for many communities to attend a “virtual” BDPACON20 during the Association’s annual Coding Combine and BDPA2020’s Youth Technology Camp (YTC).

Throughout the year, local chapters conduct SITES training programs for youth in their respective communities. SITES programs include, but are not limited to, HSCC, Mobile App Showcase, IT Showcase, YTC, and Tablets for Teens. Next school year (SY20-21), local SITES programs expand to include participating middle and high school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) units. These programs are designed to expose young adults to computing and technical concepts while sharing with them expertise to develop mobile and web applications. Some chapters will participate in regional competitions throughout the country to further prepare their students. Each BDPA chapter is able to send teams of 3 to 5 students to the association’s annual regional and national technology conferences to compete against teams from other chapters all over the country.

National BDPA’s High School Computer Competition (HSCC) program was launched in 1986 by Dr. Jesse L. Bemley, of Washington, D.C. What started as a two-team event between the Chapter cities of Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Ga. has grown to over 20 teams of various high school students from chapters throughout the nation. HSCC is designed to immediately introduce our youth to emerging fields of Information Technology and Cyber while encouraging them to seek higher levels of education, and groom many of them to become our next generation of IT professionals.

More coding and cyber teams for 2021 are forming in direct support of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with additional tech-inclusion programs for JROTC, Sea Cadets, and Civil Air Patrol cadets. Local sponsors and regional impact investments are welcomed.

Email JROTC@bdpa.dc for additional details. bt

2019 Community Technology Awards

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WASHINGTON — National BDPA’s Greater Washington, D.C. Chapter (BDPAdc.org) is hosting an evening of professional networking and Holiday Soirée with Tech Industry executives on Thursday, November 21, 2019, at Samsung Electronics Executive Briefing Center, 700 PENN S.E., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

2019 High School Computer Competition Champions
2019 National High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Champions from Washington, D.C.

This year’s annual Tech & Media Reception, Community Technology Awards,  and Holiday Soirée is co-hosted by Samsung Electronics. In closing out this exciting decade, the association is honoring the region’s High School Computer Competition (HSCC) national coding championship team (above), celebrating the 55th Anniversary of The Washington Informer, and celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the H.O.P.E. Project DMV.

2019 Community and Technology Award Winners

2019 Lifetime Achievement Awards

2019 Industry Sponsor of the Year

2019 Community Service Award

2019 Member of the Year

  • Terry Wilson-Brox, KPMG
    Tech ‘Team Mom‘ for 2019 National HSCC Coding Champions
    Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA).

2019 Entrepreneur of the Year

  • Ron Hamm , President, HCG
    Government Relations (GovRel) contributor to bdpatoday

2019 President’s Technical Career Awards

  • Anu Fomengia
  • Dernard Hawkins
  • Lynette Hinton
  • Sedley Randolph
  • Phyllis Ussery
  • Brittany Walker

Earl A, Pace, Jr. | Co-Founder, BDPASince 1975, BDPA’s mission sets continue to pay it forward into its fifth (5G) decade to bridge application development, cybersecurity, information technology (IT), and telecommunications competency gaps between Industry, Academia, governments and traditionally underserved communities.

Local BDPA Chapter goals across the National Capital Region (NCR) are set forth to provide access to technology and career training programs. Events with regional sponsors and mission partners include educational outreach programs for professionals, junior developers (Jr. Devs), young adults, and youth technology programs across the Greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area (DMV) in direct support of economic development, technology inclusion, and workforce development initiatives.

Reservations for this year’s reception and BDPA Professional Membership drives for 2020 remain open until Monday, November 18, 2019. Discover more by visiting the trade association’s landing pages, publications, and archives → https://bdpadc.org

Select here to RSVP before Monday, November 18th

Regional STEM Summit attracts PMs and Junior Developers from Industry

WASHINGTON — High school and middle school students from across the National Capital Region attended the 23rd annual Youth Summit on Technology produced by Patriots Technology Training Center (PTTC) at Bowie State University. Parents, teachers, and sponsors from NSBE, NSBE Jr., and regional BDPA Chapters joined hundreds of students attending cybersecurity workshops, technology panels, and STEM exhibits during this year’s STEM summit.

“Empowering Students Through Technology” has been PTTC’s mission for over 20 years by increasing the number of students, primarily 5th through 12th grades, entering into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) post-secondary fields of study and career paths.

Patriots Flight Simulation competitions

Their award winning program includes an annual Youth Summit on Technology, Summer Camps, and the Patriots STEM Carnival.  PTTC also engages in Amusement Park Design, Biology/Chemistry/Math, Biomedical, Cyber Security, Flight Simulation (above), Lego Robotics, Science Bowl,  Solar System, and Video Designing competitions for participating. PTTC students have attended Regional and National Society of Black Engineers conferences and regional BDPA Innovation Summits.

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Program managers and developers from the Defense Department, public, and private sector organizations participated in this year’s STEM workshops, tech industry panels, or served as judges during BDPA’s regional coding competitions.

National BDPA’s Northeast Region co-hosted its annual regional High School Coding Competition (HSCC) with BDPA of Greater Washington, D.C.’s (BDPA-DC) annual Innovation Summit at Bowie State University.  During this year’s Advance Program Briefing to Industry (APBi) and fireside chat, Navy Commander Erica Dobbs, DISA; Joy Huggins, Defender Academy; Eileen Gadsden, E-Region Enterprises; and Raymond Bell, Jr. of HOPE Project DMV shared their diverse backgrounds with members. Their recent success stories revealed how well their respective organizations uniquely continue to successfully navigate complex digital transformations with legacy technology, aging policies, and cultural challenges while assimilating traditionally underrepresented communities into tomorrow’s tech workforce.

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National BDPA’s HSCC program, launched by Dr. Jesse L. Bemley in 1986, will feature this year’s regional finalists from participating chapter cities during national scholarship rounds  in Atlanta, GA during #BDPACon19, August 1-3, 2019. BDPA-DC’s 2019 regional HSCC teams were co-sponsored by AIS and bdpatoday. Select here to co-sponsor local teams and order new swag for this year’s journey to Atlanta!

— BDPA photos ©2019 bdpatoday

bdpatoday archives

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AIS | BDPA-DC, save the date!

BDPA announces National IT Showcase winners for 2018

NEW ORLEANS, LA—BDPACON18, the combined global tech conference co-hosted by National BDPA, National Society of Blacks in Computing (NSBC), and the Institute for African American Mentoring in Computer Sciences (iAAMCS) adjourned this past weekend in New Orleans with the announcement of National BDPA’s IT Showcase student finalists.

National BDPA’s IT Showcase winners for 2018 follow.

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High School

1st  Place:   Ms.  Liliana Gordan,
Fuzzy Logic: A Bridge to Autonomy
2nd Place:   Mr. Milton Turner,
The Risk within Smart Cities
3rd  Place:   Mr. Elisee Djapa,
Data Science: Data Analytics

College

1st Place:  Ms. Lauren Ravenell,
Technology in Athletics
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2nd Place: Ms. Alison Tuiyott,
Natural Language Processing
3rd  Place: Ms. Oladokun Ekundayo “Ola”,
Cyber Security: International Conflict

National IT Showcase finalists, High School Coding Competition (HSCC) finalists, and Youth Technology Camp (YTC) students who participated in BDPACON18 head back to school with their respective BDPA chapters to pursue exciting careers in technology.

bd18fBDPA, formerly known as Black Data Processing Associates, was founded in 1975 to promote professional growth and technical development across underserved communities for those in or entering information and communications technology (ICT) oriented fields of interest and related industries. Today, National BDPA has chapters in over 40 U.S. cities with a wide variety of technical, community,  and government relations outreach programs promoting workforce and economical development.

Sponsor and host local IT Showcase events and attend BDPACON19 next year in Atlanta by visiting BDPA.org.

— Source and photos: BDPA and bdpatoday
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Advertise today and lock in 2018’s rates for 2019.  Select here for new rate schedules.

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National BDPA’s Washington, D.C. Chapter to Host Annual Tech Awards

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WASHINGTON (bdpatoday)—National BDPA’s (NBDPA) Washington, D.C. Chapter (BDPA-DC) will celebrate several milestones during this year’s annual technology and community service awards banquet. Chartered in 1978 to introduce underserved communities to “data processing”, computer sciences, or help bridge digital divides between industry, academia, and government, BDPA-DC also celebrates its 38th Anniversary in 2016.

hscc-champs14National High School Computer Competition (HSCC)  Launched 30 Years Ago 
The National BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) was founded in 1986 by Dr. Jesse L. Bemley, a National BDPA Life Member from Washington, D.C. What started as a two-team event between Washington, D.C. (BDPA-DC) and Atlanta, GA (BDPA Atlanta) HSCC Teams has grown to over 25 teams of students from various high schools in BDPA Chapter cities throughout the nation. HSCC was designed to introduce Student Members to the field of data processing careers, now Information Communication and Technology (ICT), to encourage students to seek higher levels of training, certification, education, and groom them to become our nation’s next generation of ICT leaders and technical professionals.

bdpa-bigdata-predictbdpatoday Reaches 10-Year Milestone
BDPA-DC’s Communications Committee also reaches a new milestone this year with their serial publication, bdpatoday (ISSN 1946-1429), entering its tenth season. The first edition of bdpatoday was published in May of 2007 to promote information technology and cyber success stories through the lenses of underserved communities in advance of the annual National BDPA Technology Conference co-hosted in Washington D.C. that year.

2016 BDPA-DC Award Recipients
BDPA-DC’s 2016 Technology and Community Service Award recipients will be honored on Saturday, November 19, 2016, at the Washington Navy Yard Conference Center from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

This year’s Award Categories for the National Capital Region follow.

• 2016 BDPA-DC Lifetime Achievement Award:
  Terry Halvorsen; Department of Defense (DoD), Chief Information Officer (CIO)

• 2016 BDPA-DC Entrepreneur of the Year:
  Aaron Saunders; Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Clearly Innovative, Inc.

• 2016 BDPA-DC Member of the Year:
  Thurman Jones; Patriots Technology Training Center (PTTC)

• 2016 Chapter President’s Awards:
  Instructor Staff: H.O.P.E. Project DMV
“Helping Other People Excel“

• Mission Partner of the Year:
   United States Air Force

• Education Partner of the Year:
   Bowie State University

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Top cover photo: (L-R) Terry Halvorsen (DoD); Aaron Saunders (Clearly Innovative, Inc.); Thurman Jones (Patriots Technology Training Center); Louis Shack (HSCC); Raymond Bell Jr.; Michael Smith; David Reid, and Dean Cook [not pictured] (H.O.P.E. Project DMV).

 —Photo credits: BDPA-DC, bdpatoday, and DoD

National IT Showcase Winners Announced

ATLANTA (bdpatoday) —National BDPA just wrapped up #BDPAConnect16, the national information technology organization’s 38th Annual National BDPA Technology Conference and Career Fair in Atlanta, Georgia.  During the annual National Awards Gala, six college and high school students were honored by Industry and Academia for their itsc16-skyperesearch,  white paper publications, and oral presentations. International IT Showcase participants Ms. Kerich Ivy and Mr. Isaac Kiunga (left) from Kenyatta University were able to participate via Skype from Nairobi Kenya with assistance from Bryan Bemley (far left). Mr. Bemley is an IT Showcase alumnus with a Computer Science degree from Bowie State University.

  • 2016 Collegiate Undergraduate IT Showcase Winner
    • 1st Place—Ms. Briana Young,
      Central Michigan University
      DIABETES TRACKING: USING INTEGRATED WEB TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES
    • 2nd Place—Ms. Adrienne Nelson,
      Florida Agriculture & Mechanical University (FAMU)
      FROM CHALK BOARD TO SMART BOARD: THE EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY ON EDUCATION
    • 3rd Place—Mr.Darren Young,
      Purdue University
      CLOUD COMPUTING: FORECASTING YOUR BUSINESS TO SUCCESS
  • 2016 High School IT Showcase Winners
    • 1st Place—Mr. Maurice Jackson,
      Cornerstone School of Washington, D.C.
      VIRTUAL HUMANS: AN OVERVIEW
    • 2nd Place—Ms. Amaria Jones,
      Cornerstone School of Washington, D.C.
      ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS
    • 3rd Place—Ms. Angela Queen,
      Cornerstone School of Washington, D.C.
      CYBER SECURITY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGAINST CYBER ATTACKS

National IT Showcase Backgrounder

The 2016 National BDPA IT Showcase was powered by Eli Lilly & Company and Johnson & Johnson.  Launched during the 2003 annual National BDPA Technology Conference in Philadelphia, annual regional and national IT Showcase events allow student presenters from educational institutions across the globe, to present and demonstrate their research. The presentations represent advanced computing and technical topics presented by college and high school students to an audience of corporate representatives, IT professionals, and students.

Students participate in this 2-day event held during the annual National BDPA Technology Conference and Career Fair. The focus of this event includes, but is not limited to, intelligent technologies (i.e., smart toys, machine learning, and genetic algorithms, etc.), wearable computing technologies, autonomous vehicles, mobile technologies, parallel computing technologies, cybersecurity, computing curricula, and  business intelligence.

Student presentations and research projects are reviewed by a panel of industry judges in two primary categories—college and high school. Awards are made in each category for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. National awards are presented during the annual Awards Presentation at the end of the National IT Showcase session. Each participant is professionally recognized by National BDPA with his or her Certificate of Appreciation.

—BDPA photos by Charlie Perkins

National BDPA Celebrates 30-Year High School Computer Competition (HSCC) Milestone

ATLANTA—The National High School Computer Competition (HSCC), powered by BDPA, was founded in 1986 by Dr. Jesse L. Bemley (inset), a National BDPA Life Member from jesse-conf08-GalaWashington, D.C. What started as a two-team event between Washington, D.C. (BDPA-DC) and Atlanta, GA (BDPA Atlanta) HSCC Teams has grown to over 20 teams of various high school students from chapters throughout the nation. It was all designed to introduce students to the field of data processing (now, Information Technology) to encourage them to seek higher levels of education, and groom many of them to become our next generation of IT leaders and professionals.

BDPA, formerly known as Black Data Processing Associates, was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1975 to promote professional growth and technical development in underserved communities for those in or entering information and communications technology (ICT) oriented fields of interest and related industries.

See this month’s cover story in the August 2016 edition of bdpatoday.

Defending National coding champions capture South’s HSCC Regionals

CARY, NC (bdpatoday) —National BDPA’s South Regional High School computer Competition (HSCC) was held on Saturday, June 25th in Cary, NC. The meeting was co-hosted by National BDPA’s Triangle Chapter and MetLife in the MetLife Building.

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BDPA photos by Rick Leggett

Four teams participated in this year’s South Regional HSCC. BDPA’s defending National HSCC Champions from their Atlanta Chapter, led by HSCC coordinator Francisco Nunez, won the top seed in the South’s 2016 HSCC Regionals. Second place was captured by BDPA’s Triangle HSCC Team from Raleigh-Durham, NC, led by coordinator Latish Scarborough.

In addition, to computer competitions, students participated in multiple career building and skills enhancement developed and presented by Candice Brown from MetLife. In the afternoon, BDPA Members, regional IT professionals, and members of the Black Professional Network (BPN) from MetLife, jointly participated in presentations with visiting teams.

In the morning sessions, Student Members engaged in inclusion exercises outlined below.

– Who are We?
Students and Professionals participated in simple icebreaker activities to become better acquainted with those from other teams

– Career Interviews

Students paired off with professionals for an interactive mentoring session where student members interviewed IT professionals about their current career paths

– Picture Me

In small groups , students performed a short skit and demonstrated ‘A day in the Life’ of their preferred IT professional to the larger group. In smaller groups, other professionals performed a short skit and demonstrated what NOT to do in corporate and professional environments to the larger groups.

Ms. Markita Payne, Director, National BDPA South Region, addressed both audiences; students in the morning, and BPN attendees in the afternoon.  Mr. Mike Williams, National BDPA’s President, welcomed the students via video.

— Source: BDPA Triangle Chapter

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