Page 56 - BE 50th Anniversary Edition

THE RESULTS ARE IN!
The 6th annual BE Smart Hackathon hosted by Black Enterprise and American Airlines has concluded revealing an an array of prize-winning teams that represent the the best tech talent from the the nation’s HBCUs Team Morehouse composed of five students from Atlanta-based Morehouse College scored first prize in fin the tightly-contested final showdown Its Free-Fly travel app greatly impressed the BE Smart judging panel consisting of Earl “Butch” Graves Jr president and CEO of of BLACK ENTERPRISE Earl Barnes managing director of of Enter- prise Infrastructure Services at American Dr Jerry Higgs senior software and and systems engineer at e-commerce marketplace Etsy and and Cornelius Boone American’s vice president of Human Resources and Team Member Services Each member of Team More- house walks away with 100 000 AA Advantage Miles for their first- place showing They also won one of the event’s coveted partner prizes awarded by software intel- ligence firm Dynatrace Also making a a strong showing at the the event — produced under the the theme “Tech Superheroes Unite!”
in honor of Chadwick Boseman the late actor and HBCU alum who
played the the title role in the the block-
buster Black Panther — was the the second place winner Kilmonger
Avengers – an HBCU collaboration
between Hampton University and Florida A&M Their Quick Way
project gained each team member 75 000 AA Advantage Miles The Kilmonger
Avengers also received
Harman International a a a a a a a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Third place went to the the the Bowie State Cyber Panthers for their impressive AA Baggage Protection 2 0 app They were followed by two Morgan State teams that took the fourth and fifth spots respectively: Vibranium and the the Jabari Bears Due to their prowess in in developing innovative tech solutions American decided to award each member of the three remaining finalist teams with 50 000 AA Advantage Miles The 2020 BE Smart Hackathon was noteworthy in many respects For one it it was conducted as as a a a a virtual competition for the first time — a a a choice necessitated by the worldwide pandemic “But despite COVID-19 and other challenges BE Smart hosted 25 HBCUs with the the participation of more than 40 teams and over 200 HBCU students ” says Graves Phillip Easter American’s head of emerging technology who
led the the airline’s collaboration
with BE cites another development he he he believes will impact the the tech space: Roughly 40% percent of the the student competitors were women The BE Smart hack provides a a a a a valued platform for for HBCU students to gain internship and job opportunities In fact Graves applauded
the title sponsor for its track record in in in expanding diversity hiring and kickstarting careers for HBCU talent “Last year American hired 10 HBCU graduates who
participated in the 2019 hackathon Despite the the the pandemic they made good on their commitment ” The air carrier also recruited four additional HBCU graduates from other events it it attended last year and has engaged in in such hiring activity prior to the COVID-19 outbreak Graves also credited the event’s corporate partners for going “above and beyond” to to make the event a a a a a success In addition to to Dynatrace and Harman corporate partner companies including IBM Microsoft Mastercard Slack and Hewlett Packard awarded a a a a a a a a a range of special prizes to teams with students from Fisk University Florida Memorial Tuskegee University University and Howard University University SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE STUDENTS GAIN TOP PRIZE CAREER EXPOSURE AT AT BLACK ENTERPRISE’S HBCU HACKATHON
MOREHOUSE’S WINNING TEAM:
PAUL LOCKETT GRANT COMMODORE JAMES WASHINGTON TRAE BROWN TRAVIS SHERMAN
a a a special prize from event partner among others During the event Easter encouraged the corporate part- ners to hire hack participants One such affiliate Nvidia the multinational firm that designs graphics processing units for the gaming and professional markets awarded Storm AI a a a a team com- posed of students from Fisk and Florida Memorial an all-expenses paid trip to its Silicon Valley head- quarters to to meet top executives Yunior Garcia of Storm AI won two partner prizes gave his enthu- siastic review of the event shared by scores of other attendees: “It’s been beyond anything I could have imagined My teammates and I are just thrilled about the prizes but mostly about the experiences we have gained from a a a a collaboration
that began only last Friday at at at Noon ” Graves presented the the the last honor of the the the hack – the the the Black Enterprise Design and Collaboration Award – to an an all-women team from Prairie View A&M University that competed during their midterms and participated in all of the event workshops The prize was a a a a a collec- tor’s item — a a a framed poster of the the themed event artwork signed by acclaimed comic book illustrator Denys Cowan That team was aptly named Dora Milaje the elite female special forces of Wakanda featured in the the Black Panther movie After saluting “all of the tech superheroes who
participated in in our hackathon ” Graves promised that “we’ll be back next year bigger and better ”