PennApps: how the University of Pennsylvania hackathon group started and what’s next [VIDEO]

Boris Treskunov, a Penn sophomore, puts the finishing touches on his project in the final hours of the PennApps hackathon on Sept. 18.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

The Dining Philosophers, a student computer science group at the University of Pennsylvania in its third year of existence, has become known for its hackathons.

The group’s flagship is the PennApps hackathon, which kicked off in 2009, was followed up in fall 2010 and this past spring, and celebrate this weekend its latest and largest yet.

The group’s signature competition attracts students from Penn and other local universities to build a piece of software or hardware in 48 hours for a grand prize. The field of participants has become larger with each successive event, welcoming some 180 students this weekend, but the purpose of them has remained the same: to give students an opportunity to learn and build on their skills.

That mission will push forward what the group will become.

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Goldstar: California discount event ticket merchant launches in Philadelphia

Philadelphia is the next market for discount live-event ticket merchant Goldstar, launching this week months after selling its five millionth unit in April.

The free membership based service, first founded in 2002, operates on something of a daily deals-type mentality with weekly summaries of good seats made cheap by concert and sports venues itching to unload excess inventory. Goldstar takes a cut off service charges, rather than a fee from venues.

Visit the site HERE.

Philadelphia follows 20 other markets for the business, based in Altadena, Calif. outside of Los Angeles. Its two million members can access more than 1,200 half-priced tickets daily.

Cliq, Storably and Inhabi demo at a packed Philly Tech Meetup

Cliq CEO and Founder Alex Pooyan Khorram demos to the Philly Tech Meetup crowd at Quorum.

In yet another sign of growth in Philadelphia’s startup community, Philly Tech Meetup has evolved from a few dozen members gathering in a Penn classroom to drawing over hundred people to Quorum in University City in less than a year.

If you are unfamiliar, Philly Tech Meetup borrows its format from New York Tech Meetup: startups demo projects live in front of the local tech community. After a roughly 10-minute demo, audience members are free to ask questions about the startup and offer feedback. After the demos, everyone heads to the bar.

Last night at the Science Center, many attendees stood in the back of the room as Philly Tech Meetup cofounder Rohan Mehta emceed demos from Cliq, Inhabi and Storably. After the jump, we break down each demo complete with video:

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Comcast, Verizon deals ‘imminent’ for Microsoft Xbox Live TV: Roundup

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates

• Rating the Comcast-NBCU Merger: The New Culture Settles In [The Wrap]
• Verizon, Comcast deals imminent for Microsoft Xbox Live TV [RapidTV News] — “Microsoft is eyeing partnerships with Comcast and Verizon to bring live TV to the Xbox 360, according to reports.”
• Comcast’s $9.99 Internet for low-income families goes nationwide [ars technica] — The program recently launched in Philadelphia.
• Regulators praise Comcast’s $9.95 monthly high-speed offering [Fierce Cable] — FCC commissioner Julius Genachowski praises the Internet Essentials program.

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Ex-Venmo employees to launch Inhabi tonight at Philly Tech Meetup

Online, it’s easier to find your soul mate than your next apartment.

Former Venmo employees Dave Friedman and Jameel Farruk (Director of Engineering and Director of Marketing at Venmo, respectively) have teamed up to help bridge that gap with Inhabi, a service that acts as a match-maker between landlords and renters.

Renters can log on to the site and fill out a form with information such as whether the renter prefers hardwood floors, if coin-op laundry is a deal-breaker and other similar apartment features. Landlords then receive a notification when a renter matches one of their properties.

The renter will then receive a request from the matched landlord to see complete contact information to facilitate a showing. The more landlords pay, the more leads are available for them to contact. Just like dating sites, the renter will remain semi-anonymous, only identified by a first name and last initial.

The company is unveiling itself tonight at Philly Tech Meetup with a wider Philadelphia launch at the beginning of October. A small beta has been live since September 7th in Boise, Idaho and Portland, Oregon to see if the site would catch on in cities where the company had no physical presence.

Before Venmo, Inhabi CEO Dave Friedman spent ten years in real estate, two as a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker in Philadelphia. He also founded PhillyLiving.com in 2005.

The company just finished a stint in Providence-based incubator BetaSpring and, according to Farruk, was a finalist for TechStars in New York. The company is currently seeking investment.

PennApps fall 2011: hacked microwave-driven video player wins $2,500

Varun Sampath, Teddy Zhang and Kevin Conley pose with their winning microwave on stage in the Towne Engineering building on Penn's campus.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

They hacked a microwave.

This was the buzz on engineering quad at the University of Pennsylvania this weekend as a team of four Penn seniors took home the grand prize of $2,500 and a chance to present their handiwork to Google engineers at the company’s New York branch. They had won the 2011 PennApps Hackathon.

The hackathon was a competition where 41 teams of around four people had to build an application between 6 p.m. on Friday through noon Sunday using all the coding and software savvy they could muster.

This was the third year of the twice annual hackathons.

While most groups focused on building apps for mobile phones, the winning team of Kevin Conley, Ben Shyong, Varun Sampath and Teddy Zhang added a hardware element into the mix.

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Startup Roundup: PennApps and the state of Philly startups

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with a weekly email newsletter by clicking here and selecting the Startup Roundup button or follow Startup Roundup’s RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

The PennApps hackathon took place this weekend, bringing together more than 160 people that created 40 new applications during the 48-hour event, including µWave a microwave with a display that searches for popular YouTube videos based on the cook time you enter. Demos are live, and voting is open until Friday for Student Choice awards. Our coverage of the event is coming this week.

PhillyTechNews covers three new companies that recently opened shop in Philly, including West Conshohocken’s Yorn, Vita Products and Storably.

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Philly Tech Week 2012 organizer guides + sponsorship packages (with early-bird discounts) now available

Thanks to our friends at Devnuts, the initial splash page for Philly Tech Week 2012 is live with some fresh branding. We urge you to sign up for our email newsletter to get the latest information.

Last year’s event attracted over 4,000 people to over 65 events. This year’s event will be held from April 23 to 28 and will be bigger and better.

PTW 2012 is still more than six months away, but there are several ways to be involved early.

1. Plan an event – For more details, take a peek at our organizer’s guide.
2. Sponsor – PTW is made possible through our generous sponsors. Download our sponsorship one-pager for more info, complete with discounts for those who sign up before November 1st.
3. Offer a venue – We are in need of conference rooms, auditoriums and offices to host events for Philly Tech Week. If your space is available for events, please contact Sean Blanda.

Also, this year we’ll be taking a different approach, organizing our calendar into five tracks (subject to change):

1. Art/Creative
2. Access/Policy
3. Media/Transparency
4. Design/Development
5. Entrepreneurship/Investment

OpenAccessPhilly: civic action group from City of Philadelphia to host forum Oct. 28

A public/private stakeholders group convened by City of Philadelphia representatives charged with moving forward good government initiatives is hosting a day-long forum to develop action for the future.

The OpenAccessPhilly forum, called “Crowdsourcing at the Intersection,” will be held Friday, Oct. 28 at the University City Science Center Quorum space. The winners of the OpenDataRace are scheduled to be announced at then.

RSVP for the free event here.

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Top 10 best Philadelphia entrepreneurship blogs

Entrepreneurs of today have the distinct advantage of sharing online widely their experiences and thoughts on building businesses.

In Philadelphia, that’s certainly the case, so we at Technically Philly got to wondering just what entrepreneurs are behind the most insightful, helpful, consistent and interesting blogs. So we asked all of you, on Twitter and Facebook.

While we might humbly suggest Technically Philly is a fine resource for Philadelphia entrepreneurial spirit and our reporters tend to share as well, in the spirit of our irregular Top Ten Tuesday feature, we wanted to focus on those individuals who are adding real value to the conversation.

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