The Village, 5/20/2013 (Kai Dupé)

Tech Support: Networking for Blacks in STEM. In 2008, I found myself trying to decide on a problem to study for my doctoral dissertation. Most of my classmates were studying problems in their workplace. For most of them this meant studying a problem in education as they were educators. I, however, was working in the corporate world as a software developer. A classmate suggested that I study an issue related to African American software developers. I remember thinking to myself, what African American software developers?

As Oprah would say this was my “aha” moment. I decided to study and write about this subject and start a blog where I could keep aspiring African-American tech professionals informed about the latest industry news, opportunities and opinions. I approached one of my marketing savvy co-workers who said I should call it simply, Where Are Blacks In Technology? I have been blogging my thoughts on the digital divide ever since.

Read the rest of The Village article.

NOTE: Kai Dupé is a long-time BDPA member.

SBWire, 5/17/2013 (Wayne Hicks, Ted Jordan)

Ted Jordan

BDPA Success Stories Enjoyed on iRadio Show. Ted Jordan is the visionary behind Funutation Tekademy. Funutation stands for fun and education! The company runs kids' camps, called Tek Labs, during the summer teaching kids to make computer games, build web sites, and program battle robots. Funutation commits to providing children the finest experience in technology skills education. As a result, computer programming and teamwork are integral parts of the Funutation Tek Lab experience.

"We didn't think it would turn out to be this good", commented Wayne Hicks, executive director of the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation. "BDPA Cleveland Chapter loaned a few laptops to Funutation to help them run tech camp pilots thinking this would grow to be a great program for kids in Cleveland. Ted has taken this to the next level."

Read the full Funutation Tekademy article.

Clemson University, 5/16/2013 (Juan Gilbert)

Juan Gilbert

Clemson Receives $5M for Alliance to Increase African Americans in Computer Sciences. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Clemson University a $5 million grant to launch the Institute for African American Mentoring in Computing Sciences. The institute will serve as a national resource and emphasize mentoring as the primary strategy for increasing African American participation in computing under the direction of Juan Gilbert, Presidential Endowed Professor and chairman of the Human-Centered Computing Division at Clemson, and Shaundra Daily, assistant professor in the School of Computing.

“African Americans represent about 1 percent of the computer science faculty and researchers in the U.S.,” Gilbert said. “We formed this institute to increase the number of underrepresented groups earning computing science doctoral degrees and researchers in the academy, government and private sector.”

Read the rest of the Clemson University article.

NOTE: Dr. Gilbert is a long-time BDPA member.

CollegeRecruiter.com, 4/24/2013 (Herchran Singh)

Herchran Singh

CollegeRecruiter.com CEO Faith Rothberg M.C.’s Women in Computing Awards for High Schoolers. Last week, Faith Rothberg, CEO of CollegeRecruiter.com, served as the Master of Ceremonies for an awards ceremony designed to encourage young women to enter the highly rewarding career fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

The National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing awards ceremony was held on April 18, 2013 at the Unisys Corporation data center in Eagan, Minnesota. The ceremony was organized by Advance IT Minnesota, the high-tech talent incubator run by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system. There were six winners and five runners-up in the first annual Minnesota Aspirations for Women in Computing award for high school students. Winners from across the state were selected based on their interests, accomplishments, and community involvement in computing and technology, as well as for their aspirations in computing and technology-related fields.

NOTE: One of the six winners was BDPA Southern Minnesota student member Herchran Singh of Rochester; senior at John Marshall High School.

Read the rest of the CollegeRecruiters.com article.

STLtoday, 4/12/2013 (Mark Grady)

NAHSE St. Louis Has Joined MPAC. The Minority Professional Associations Collaborative (MPAC) is pleased to announce a new member – The St. Louis Chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE) .

“This partnership will enable NAHSE to offer additional networking and professional development opportunities for its members,” says President Andwele Jolly.

MPAC member organizations represent expertise and skill in vastly different areas such as Management, Engineering, Accounting and more.

“These skills and experiences are leveraged to create rich, professional development programs for their organizations as well as enhance their networking opportunities,” says MPAC President Mark Grady.

Read the rest of the STLtoday article.

NOTE: Mark Grady is president of BDPA St. Louis chapter. BDPA is an organizational member of MPAC.

St. Louis American, 3/25/2013 (Imani Anwisye-Mashele)

3rd Annual Salute to Young Leaders. Tomorrow evening (Tues. Mar. 26) The St. Louis American Foundation will present its 3rd Salute to Young Leaders – a networking reception that recognizes a diverse group of 20 outstanding African American professionals under age 40. This impressive class of Young Leaders includes individuals who are leading by example in professional arenas that range from education, banking, engineering, politics and not-for-profit organizations.

The 2013 Young Leader awardees include: Dr. Imani Anwisye-Mashele, Family Medicine Resident (St. Louis University)

Read the full St. Louis American article here.

NOTE: Imani Anwisye-Mashele was on the High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team trained by BDPA St. Louis chapter for the 1999, 2000 and 2001 National HSCC championships.

Blerdology, 3/25/2013 (Greg Greenlee)

Blerd of the Month - Greg Greenlee. Greg is one of our best friends at Blerdology. We first met him when he drove all the way from Cincinnati for our very first hacakthon in Atlanta, and ever since then he has been an awesome resource, a great friend, and a great person to rap with about all of the craziness happening in the world. If you aren’t hooked up to BIT and the BIT Digest then you are missing out on great articles, great people, and general awesome blerdiness.



Read the full Blerdology article here.

CBSPhilly, 2/19/2013 (Jasmine Beard, Daneel Douglas, Phillip Easton, Eileen Gadsden, James Gadsden, Norman Morrison)

Brotherly Love: Teaching Tech to High School Kids. President Obama has been encouraging high school students to major in engineering, science, or math. Now, a group of minority tech professionals has decided to take that one step further by giving weekend lessons to the next generation. In a computer lab at DeVry University in Center City, students are practicing the finer points of computer coding.

Read the rest of the CBSPhilly article.

Wall Street Journal, 2/5/2013 (Larry Quinlan)

An Interview with Deloitte CIO Larry Quinlan. His job, like those of CIOs everywhere, isn’t easy. As Deloitte’s CIO, Larry Quinlan is ultimately responsible for meeting the daily technology needs of 60,000 employees in the U.S. and approximately 200,000 practitioners around the globe. As such, he knows a thing or two about the challenges CIOs face today. Budgets, cyber security, a relentlessly changing technological landscape -- Quinlan will be juggling these and countless other issues in the months ahead.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Q&A session here.

NOTE: Larry Quinlan is a member of the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation board of directors and a long-time senior advisor to the BDPA Middle Tennessee chapter.

Scientific American, 2/4/2013 (Danielle Lee, Wayne Hicks)

Black Family Technology Awareness Week celebrates STEM achievement and interests during Black History Month. Black Family Technology Awareness Week (BFTAW) is a national public awareness campaign designed to encourage more African Americans to incorporate technology into their daily lives. It is a nationwide program to educate and empower families – multiple generations, not just youth – through technology. Partners include community, corporate, and professional supporters who host events in cities throughout the United States to help families and communities learn about career opportunities in technology, engineering, science and math (also referred to as STEM by me and many others), as well engage them in fun learning games and gadgets to help individuals become aware of the many ways that technology improves our lives.

Read the rest of the Scientific American article.

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, 1/30/2013 (Irwin Sylvah, Emmaly Manchanthasouk)

Irwin Sylvah and Emmaly Manchanthasouk

Black IT Pros Give Bank. Lots of people talk about “giving back,” “reaching back,” “paying it forward,” all expressions of how important it is that those who have been fortunate return the favor to others. That principle is alive and well at the local chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), which is showing the rest of the Twin Cities what it really means to extend a helping hand to the next generation. BDPA has been quietly and steadily doing just that for the past eight years.

Read the rest of the MSR article.

North Carolina State University, 1/22/2013 (Khalia Braswell)

Khalia Braswell (r)

Computer Science Future Students. "Field of Dreams", a popular movie in the late 1980’s, coined the phrase “If you build it, they will come,” meaning that people don’t realize they want or need something until it is right in front of them. Today’s most relevant way to build a field of dreams is to integrate technology into subject matter, which is just what NC State computer science students Khalia Braswell and KaMar Galloway have done. Their collaboration with Dr. Fay Cobb Payton on a critical healthcare outreach effort is changing mindsets, increasing communication and bringing people together to talk like never before.

Read the rest of this NC State University article.

NOTE: Khalia was a member of the 2007 BDPA High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team trained by BDPA Charlotte chapter.

Racing Towards Diversity, 1/1/2013 (Craig Brown)

Branching Up. From the top of a 25-year IT consulting career, Craig Brown sees too few people of color climbing the ladder of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). So he's doing something about it. Brown has launched a foundation, STEM Resource Group, to invite young students into the field, and an accompanying staffing firm, STEM Resource Partners, to help them find jobs when they complete their education.

Read the rest of the Racing Towards Diversity article here.

NOTE: Dr. Craig Brown is national BDPA vice president and BDPA Houston chapter president.

St. Louis American, 11/7/2012 (BDPA St. Louis, Toni Love)

Local Youth Place 2nd in National Computer Competition. A diverse group of students representing the St. Louis Chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates earned 2nd place in the High School Computer competition at the 2012 National BDPA conference held recently in Baltimore, Maryland. The High School Computer Competition is a national competition of students solving a business problem using web technology. Each St Louis student will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

"Students coming together from different economic, geographical, educational and ethnic backgrounds is diversity at its best," says Toni Love, BDPA’s coordinator.

Read the full article in the St. Louis American.

Rolling Out, 10/20/2012 (Felicia Jones)

Tech Workshop: Black Girls CODE Takes Over Spelman College. Black Girls CODE, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization, hosted a computer programming workshop for young girls ages 7-17 at Spelman College on Saturday, Oct. 13. As a part of BGC’s Summer of CODE campaign, the one-day workshop taught over 90 girls the basics of HTML, CSS and basic front-end web development.

Read the rest of this Rolling Out article.

KARE Channel 12, 10/20/2012 (Sifora Tek-Lab, Gabrielle Knight)

Minnesota Aspirations for Computing Award. Anna Grecco (Thomson Reuters), Russell Fraenkel (Advance IT MN), Gabriella Knight (BDPA), Sifora Tek-Lab (BDPA) talk about the Minnesota Aspirations Award... https://awardportal.ncwit.org/comps.state.php?competitionId=80&action=detail

Business Courier, 10/12/2012 (BDPA Cincinnati)

BDPA Cincinnati Chapter Annual Education & Scholarship Banquet. BDPA Cincinnati Chapter is pleased to announce that Vincent Brown, founding partner of Global Novations, will be the keynote speaker for its 17th Annual Education & Scholarship Banquet. Mr. Brown has over thirty years of consulting experience in the areas of diversity and inclusion, team-building, leadership development, strategic planning and executive coaching. He also leads the innovation, intellectual property and new product development components for the company. In addition, he co-authored a book, The Phoenix Principles: Leveraging Inclusion the Transform Your Company and several others. Brown will address the theme ‘Transformation of the IT Professional’.

Read the full Business Courier calendar listing.

PR.com, 10/9/2012 (BDPA New York)

BDPA New York Chapter to Host 4th Annual Cyber Security Awareness Event. The New York Chapter of BDPA announced today that it will host its 4th Annual Cyber Security Awareness Event on Thursday, October 18, 2012 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, at UBS, 299 Park Ave, New York, NY.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is a national public awareness campaign, throughout the month of October. The overarching theme for National Cyber Security Awareness Month is “Our Shared Responsibility.” The most serious economic and national security challenges we face are cyber threats. America's economic prosperity and competitiveness in the 21st Century depends on effective cyber security. Every Internet user has a role to play in securing cyberspace and ensuring the safety of themselves and their families online.

Read the full PR.com press release.

Geneca, 10/8/2012 (Daphne Jones)

BDPA CIO Reception. Join technology executives from across Chicagoland for an evening of networking and discussion. Geneca will host moderator Daphne Jones (senior vice president and CIO of Hospira) for this year’s BDPA Chicago Chapter’s CIO Reception.

“Leading in the C-Suite: Answering the Call to Enable Value” will cover an array of areas such as the CIO career, role, relationships, competencies and how they create game changing value.

Read the rest of this Geneca event posting.

Eureka-Wildwood Patch, 10/5/2012 (James Fields, Toni Love)

Eureka Student Among St. Louis' Winning Team in National Computer Competition. Eureka High School student James Fields (shown in photo, 3rd from the left) recently competed, along with a group of students representing the St. Louis Chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates, at the 2012 National BDPA conference held in Baltimore, MD.

The St. Louis team earned second place in the BDPA's High School Computer competition, a national contest of students who are challenged with solving a business problem using web-based technology. Fields and the other St. Louis students each received $1,000 scholarships as a result of their achievement.

"Students coming together from different economic, geographical, educational, and ethnic backgrounds is diversity at its best," said Toni Love, BDPA’s coordinator and application development specialist for Ameren.

Read the rest of the Eureka-Wildwood Patch article here.

Diversity/Careers in Engineering and Information Technology, 10/1/2012 (Monique Berry)

BDPA Conference 'Transforms the IT Professional'. More than 500 professional BDPA members and 125 students gathered in Baltimore, MD in August for the 2012 National Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) Technology Conference. This year's theme was "transforming the IT professional."

In today's world, "clouds are no longer associated with the weather and phones are truly smart," says BDPA president Monique Berry. "We, as IT professionals, must always remember…to use IT to engage and transform the world we live in.

"The reality of that can be daunting," she notes. Attendees to the conferences got plenty of chances to learn about the latest technologies and, even more importantly, to "build and strengthen relationships, which are the cornerstone of an effective career and life," Berry says.

Read the rest of the Diversity/Careers magazine article.

Nimbo Cloud Computing Blog, 9/21/2012 (BDPA New York)

Nimbo presents at BDPA Meeting: Cloud Intelligence and Big Data, What does it Really Mean? Washington Leon-Jordan, Nimbo’s VP of Technology was the presenter at the September 2012 program meeting hosted by BDPA New York chapter. His topic focused on cloud computing and big data.

Washington touched on how new technologies are shaping the way we do business, connect with people and interact with the world around us. He stressed the societal benefits of big data and cloud computing. These benefits stem from our newly discovered ability to pinpoint patterns and correlations in research fields such as healthcare and criminology. The presentation was followed by a discussion about the state of cloud security and ways for developers to get started with cloud.

Read the full Nimbo Cloud Computing Blog post.

Inside Higher Ed, 9/19/2012 (Dr. Juan Gilbert)

Clemson Computer Science Professors, Juan Gilbert (2nd from left)

Critical Mass. Of the 56 Black computer science professors nationwide, a full 10 percent are clustered in one place: Clemson University. Clemson boasts six African American tenure-track or tenured professors. Its doctoral students account for 10 percent of African American computer science Ph.D. candidates, too. Those numbers come from the Computing Research Association, which surveyed 267 institutions and found that Black computer scientists account for just 1.4 percent of computer science faculty.

Read the rest of this Inside Higher Ed article.

Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/17/2012 (Mike Espey, Hassan Hassan, Melcon Hinds, Daniel Sheppard, Herchran Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Adwait Walimbe)

BDPA Southern Minnesota Students win at National Competition. BDPA Southern Minnesota students won two awards at the annual national conference in Baltimore last month. In the IT Showcase, a competition for college students from around the country, Adwait Walimbe (Southern Minnesota Chapter alumni) placed third.

The High School Computer Competition team, which included Mike Espey, Hassan Hassan, Daniel Sheppard, Herchran Singh and Prabhjot Singh, placed fourth.

"While our goal this year was to win, I'm most proud of our students for their resolve to compete at the highest level in web development programming," Hinds said. "Their commitment to spend three hours each Saturday between December and May should be applauded. The preparation, work ethic and teamwork that these students show throughout the year leading up to the competition, as well as time spend helping the next generation of students in the program, leave me in awe."

Read the full Post-Bulletin article.

IT-oLogy Blog, 8/15/2012 (Nathaniel Abraham, Tyra Foulks, Brandi Taylor)

BDPA Greater Columbia Chapter Brought Home the Gold by Placing 1st at the BDPA Technology Conference. BDPA Greater Columbia students and instructors did an OUTSTANDING job representing the chapter, its sponsors IT-oLogy, Wal-Mart, BlueCross BlueShield of SC and the State of South Carolina at the 34th BDPA National Technology Conference held in Baltimore, MD July 31 – August 4, 2012. The chapter also received high marks in several other category competitions.

Read the rest of the IT-oLogy Blog post.

Compuware Community Clicks, 8/13/2012 (Cameron Hughes, Austin Little, Charles McIntosh) )

BDPA Detroit Team Finishes in Top 10 in National Competition. It wasn’t easy, but they did it — with skill, hard work and determination. The BDPA Detroit team built an application from scratch, finishing in the top 10 in the National High School Computer Competition, Aug. 2-4 in Baltimore. Team members Austin Little, Charles McIntosh Jr. and Cameron Hughes were upbeat about the experience. Little, 17, of the University High School Academy in Southfield, was a second time participant in the competition. While he lamented spending lots of time fixing things as they built the application, he was positive about competing: “We learned a lot, and it will benefit us in the future,” he said.

Read the rest of the Compuware Community Clicks article.

PR.com, 8/9/12 (Renetta English, Earl Pace)

BDPA New York Receives Multiple Awards at the 2012 National Conference.  BDPA New York was awarded the National Chapter of the Year Award and Management Award for the second year in a row at the 2012 National BDPA Conference, in the Hilton Baltimore, Baltimore, MD. BDPA co-founder Earl Pace, Jr presented the National Chapter of the Year award to the chapter for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the mission and objectives of the National Association at the 2012 Award Gala.

Read rest of the PR.com press release.

Market Watch, 8/8/2012 (Juan Gilbert)

Computing Professors Receive NCWIT Research Mentoring Award for Work with Students. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) has announced the inaugural recipients of its annual Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award. The recipients were selected for their outstanding mentorship, creation of high-quality research opportunities, recruitment of women and minority students, and efforts to encourage and advance undergraduate students in computing-related fields.

One of the 2012 NCWIT Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award-winners:

• Dr. Juan Gilbert: IDEaS Professor and Chair at the Human-Centered Computing Division, Clemson University School of Computing, Clemson, South Carolina. Dr. Gilbert's research lab is home to nearly 8% of the nation's African-American computer science PhD students, many of whom joined his group through a summer research experience. Of his undergraduate proteges, 88% have continued on to graduate school.

See the list of the other NCWIT award winners.

Black Enterprise, 8/7/2012 (Aniesia Williams)

Entrepreneur Aniesia Williams Takes Care of Business at The Challenge. A few years ago, Aniesia Williams, now Chief Branding Strategist of The Beleza Group Agency, found herself in this very predicament, started her business, and has been growing ever since. From 2009 through today, Williams has led The Beleza Group to become a sought after multifaceted consulting agency for several different types of brands including businesses, nonprofits and celebrities.

"Right now we are working with National BDPA, one of the largest and diverse nonprofits. We are working with Rodney Green of course, one of the highest profile black directors of golf in the country. He has done the golf clinic at the Black Enterprise Golf & Tennis Challenge for the past twelve years."

Read the full Black Enterprises article.

Compuware Community Clicks, 8/2/2012 (Ron Bell, Cameron Hughes, Austin Little, Charles McIntosh II)

Detroit Computer Wizards Go for the Gold in National Competition. Develop another award-winning application. That’s what the team of three students from the BDPA Detroit chapter plan to do starting today at the National High School Computer Competition in Baltimore, MD. Twelfth graders Austin Little and Cameron Hughes, joined by eleventh grader Charles McIntosh II, will vie for the gold with 18 other teams from around the country.

Read more.