Toyota Brings HBCU Coders to Black Enterprise TechConneXt Hackathon

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Enterprise will present its annual TechConneXt Summit on Monday, Oct. 9 through Tuesday, Oct. 10, at the San Francisco Marriott Waterfront Hotel with the hackathon taking place on Saturday, Oct. 7th through Sunday, Oct. 8th.

The Summit will include a live BE SMART Hackathon presented by Toyota with 15 groups of sophomores, junior and senior students from HBCUs: Alabama A&M University, Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Dillard University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Howard University, Johnson C. Smith University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, Southern University and A&M College, and Tuskegee University. Each team will be made up of experienced hackers.

BE SMART Hackathon sponsor Toyota, will challenge the 15 teams to use their creativity and skills to develop a unique new program. Teams will be judged based on the viability of the program, its utility to individual users, and the efficacy of the technological platform and will be evaluated by an elite group of judges that includes Hahna Alexander, co-founder & CTO of SolePower L.L.C.; Chris Norwood, founder/executive director of Bay Area Tutoring; and Jerry Higgs, Ph.D., principal member of the technical staff for AT&T. A cash prize of $40,000 will be awarded to the winning team ($10,000 awarded to each student of the winning team); Samsung Galaxy Tablets to the second place team; and Chromebook laptops to the third place.

During the Summit, the teams of students will also be taken to corporate tours hosted by Google and Intel as part of their participation in the Hackathon. The students will also be immersed in daily workshops centered around recruitment and career development.

Black Enterprise TechConneXt is a hard-hitting, two-day Summit that brings together leaders from Silicon Valley and the surrounding tech ecosystem to exchange ideas and provide information about the professional and entrepreneurial opportunities that exist across all areas of technology.

TechConneXt attendees will enjoy:

• BE Tech Talks & One-on-Ones: Leaders in tech will share their insights
• Corporate Showcases: Companies will share key opportunities that exist within their firms
• Innovation Lab: Get a glimpse of early-stage tech innovations and meet the tech stars behind them
• Learning Lab: Intimate coaching sessions with industry leaders to help tech entrepreneurs fund, launch, and market their companies
• Networking: A fantastic meeting place to network with tech peers, VCs, and corporations looking to diversify their talent pool.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Troy Carter, Founder & CEO, Atom Factory; Global Head, Creator Services, Spotify
• Diishan Imira, Co-Founder & CEO, Mayvenn
• Freada Kapor Klein, Ph.D., Co-Chairman, Kapor Center for Social Impact
• Julian Mitchell, Columnist, Forbes
• Guy Primus, Co-Founder and CEO, The Virtual Reality Co. (VRC)
• Karen Civil, Author, Entrepreneur, Brand Curator
• Tony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer, Salesforce
• Bozoma Saint John, Chief Brand Officer, Uber
• John Thompson, Chairman, Microsoft
• Mitchell Kapor, Co-Chairman, Kapor Center for Social Impact
• Madison Maxey, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, LOOMIA
• Brian M. Krzanich, CEO, Intel Corp.

And many more

To register and find out more information, visit www.blackenterprise.com/techconnext. You can also search #TECHCNXT for additional updates and information about the Summit on social media.

The 2017 TechConneXt Summit Presenting sponsors are Accenture, AT&T, Toyota, and Prudential; Platinum Sponsor, American Airlines; Gold Sponsor, Salesforce; Corporate Sponsors, Dell, Google, IBM, MillerCoors, and Walmart; and Technology Sponsors Kapor Center for Social Impact and Twilio.

ABOUT TOYOTA

Toyota has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 33 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 46,000 people (more than 36,000 in the U.S.).  Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.7 million cars and trucks (2.45 million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.  

Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com. 

ABOUT BLACK ENTERPRISE

Black Enterprise, your ultimate source to build Wealth for Life, is the premier business, investing, and wealth-building resource for African Americans. Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers. Every month, Black Enterprise magazine provides 6 million readers with information on entrepreneurship, careers, and financial management. A multimedia company, BE also produces television programming, business and lifestyle events, Web content, and digital media. Visit www.blackenterprise.com for more information.

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