City Hall hosts screening of tech-focused Black In America documentary

Left, facing camera: Navarrow Wright; Right, Mayor Michael Nutter. Photo Credit: Ryan Dennis via Skai Blue Media

Monday evening in the Mayor’s Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall, Mayor Michael Nutter and more than 30 influential African-American technologists watched a screening of the fourth installment of Soledad O’Brien’s Black In America documentary series.

The latest episode turned the spotlight on a lack of black entrepreneurs in the technology industry, focusing on eight minority entrepreneurs entered in the NewME Accelerator that are hoping to get recognized, and get funded, in Silicon Valley.

According to the documentary, less than one percent of funded tech startups are African-American owned.

After the screening, the Mayor and the attendees discussed ways to improve that statistic.

The conversation was moderated by Chief Technology Officer Navarrow Wright, who leads technology initiatives at Interactive One, the web branch of Radio One, an African-American-focused media outlet which owns 69 radio stations across the country. Navarrow was a mentor for the NewMe Accelerator entrepreneurs featured in the documentary.

Starting the conversation, Mayor Nutter asked how black entrepreneurs could improve their chances in Philadelphia’s technology community. “I’m not moving to Silicon Valley,” he said.

The group identified a number of core priorities, noted after the jump.

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Workshop School: experimental project-based learning charter at Navy Yard follows HybridX program success [VIDEO]

Simon Hauger, one of the lead organizers of the Workshop School, an alternative high school experience launched this academic year at the Navy Yard.

Four years ago, Stefon Gonzalez was a freshman at West Philly High School.

Like others interested in working with his hands at the school since the late 1990s, Gonzalez joined the Hybrid X Team, an after school program that grew national fame for building electric and bio-diesel cars that outperformed college-level teams. Now Gonzalez is finishing his high school career at an experimental, project-based program at the Navy Yard.

This fall, the Hybrid X group, started by West Philly High teacher Simon Hauger, has launched the Workshop School, which embodies the science-driven, hands-on learning of the after school program but expands it to a full school day. Featuring 29 seniors from three different public high schools, Hauger’s effort is housed in a Victorian building overlooking hulking ships at the Navy Yard.

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Robotics reaches Philadelphia students at all levels

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

Without raising the alarm of an artificial intelligence-fueled planet takeover, robots are everywhere in Philadelphia.

The Transformers franchise, which has grossed over $1.5 billion to date, is set to release its third installment this summer.  YouTube is inundated with videos of robots doing everything from walking to playing the violin. Honda is set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its humanoid robot Asimo this fall.

Philadelphia is quietly becoming a hub for the continually exploding robotics industry, especially in the robotics research and education fields.

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Olney’s Central High School Robolancers team makes case for STEM

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

The Central High School Robolancers in Olney should be designing a robot for a different task than usual: one that gives out a good pat on the back. The team of robot-building students placed in the quarterfinals of the local-regional For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology robotics competition in Philadelphia, and took first-place overall in the local-regional Boosting Engineering Science and Technology competition.

The Robolancers competed in grueling competitions which required them to put in long hours designing, building and programing their robots. (Photo courtesy of Central High Robolancers)

After winning the BEST regional, the team traveled south to Alabama for the BEST south-regional competition, where they took sixth-place overall. The top eight teams competed in the national BEST competition in Florida, and the Robolancers placed second in video presentation and third in engineering notebook.

The team also competed in the local underwater Marine Advanced Technology Education competition for the first time this year, placing first in presentation but taking second in the overall competition after a blown fuse disabled their robot. They then went on to Texas for the international MATE competition in Houston earlier this month.

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International Society for Technology in Education debuts ‘Say Hey (I Love School)’ music video that is actually pretty good

The jam-packed annual International Society for Technology in Education conference and exposition is currently taking over the Convention Center, having launched this weekend.

Technically Philly will have more coverage this week, but we loved this music video, featuring Temple University’s Broad Street Line and Alliance for Progress Charter School’s 4th grade class, inspired by Michael Frante’s pop hit ‘Say Hey (I Love You).’

Web Start Women launches web development classes tonight, marks growth in community

Tonight will mark at least the third recent, focused initiative to bring women closer to the forefront of the technology community here in Philadelphia.

Web Start Women, a group dedicated to teaching basic elements of web design and encouraging and fostering startups, will host its first paid CSS class in South Philly, the first of four weekly classes dedicated to the subject.

Founded by University of Pennsylvania web design lecturer Susan Buck and psychology scholar Nicole Noll, the group launched informally in April, and is already building traction alongside and with local groups like Geek Girl Dinners and TechGirlz.

Susan Buck

Buck teaches a web development course in Penn’s fine arts program, and has a background in multimedia arts and science, including a masters from New York University’s interactive telecommunications program. She also works full-time at Photojojo.com, a unique photography gadget shopping website based in San Francisco.

“I’ve been at this for a while, interacting with mostly men in the field. I often have the experience where I get an e-mail from someone, and they assume I’m not the developer on the project. They often ask me to pass the message on to the developer,” she says, noting the disparity between men and women in the technology field.

What gave Buck the edge to get into an industry lacking women?

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TNT: Study shows two times as many U.S. science, engineering graduates as needed

A new study co-authored by a Rutgers professor shows a steady number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates, but a plummeting retention rate of highest-performing students. Source: Study "Steady as She Goes," linked below.

It’s a common refrain of politicians, educational advocates and many business leaders. The output of science and technical graduates in the United States is dangerously behind other countries.

But a new study [PDF], led in part by a Rutgers University professor, posits instead that the last 30 years has seen no significant change in the number of U.S. graduates in so-called STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — fields.

However, this new research shows the highest-achieving students in those majors are increasingly fleeing those fields at a higher rate than in the past.

“It’s a mistake to focus solely on boosting the number of science and math students,” says Harold Salzman, the Rutgers sociologist who teamed with B. Lindsay Lowell, a demographer at Georgetown University on the study. “Employers want more employment readiness, not more employees.”

That comes in contrast to a national dialogue in recent years.

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