Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) has officially opened nominations for its tech industry awards ceremony. Financial services provider BMO will host this year’s event to celebrate the influential and innovative work of Black professionals in the industry. Despite this initiative being the first of its kind, this isn’t the first time BPTN has opened doors for Black professionals. Earlier this year, founder, Lekan Olawoye announced the launch of the Obsidi platform, a conduit to opportunities for black professionals. “We know that Black professionals and Black-led organizations are crushing it both in
Nigerian filmmaker and artist Malik Afegbua is challenging the misconceptions around African beauty, especially within the older generation. Artificial Intelligence has grown to become a trendy part of internet culture today. Despite being a controversial tech tool, one scroll through your internet feed will show you how many people are gearing toward an AI world. Malik Afegbua’s fashion show which displayed photos of elegant old-fashioned seniors in the chicest African attire, took the internet by storm. The series of images, called Fashion Show for Seniors, has garnered over 100,000
This article by Chuma Okoro was originally published on Medium. In the last decade, it seems there’s been a surge of black men jumping into the tech industry. What happened?? I think there are 4 main reasons. 1: 6 figure → 8 figure The historical number of 6 figures has always been a theme in society. The idea was that if you can secure a job that pays you 6 figures, you would be set for life. Those same ideas exist today and have even grown to the idea of
A new report by the RAND Corp. has revealed that the success of Pittsburgh’s tech sector heavily relies on the city’s ability to diversify its tech hires. What did the report reveal? The report titled “Assessing Pittsburgh’s Science and Technology-Focused Workforce Ecosystem” has disclosed that, among other challenges, Pittsburgh faces a declining population that severely impacts its workforce. According to the report, approximately 18% of Pittsburgh’s employment works in science and technology-focused occupations, which is higher than the national figure of 16%. However, Pittsburgh’s workforce does not reflect the makeup of its population,
Has your phone ever died while you were outside and couldn’t find a charging point anywhere? We’ve all been there. This common problem is why WiGL – pronounced wiggle – is working to make wireless electrical power accessible for everyone. Dr. Ahmad Glover, founder and interim CEO of the Wireless-electric Grid Local Air network (WiGL), is designing a network that says goodbye to cords and wires. What problem is WiGL trying to solve? The world relies heavily on portable battery power. As a result, the battery has become one of the most
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Tampa Bay Wave have come together to launch the city’s first-ever tech accelerator for Latin Americans. What is the LatinTech accelerator program? Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Tampa Bay Wave has secured funding to launch the city’s first-ever tech accelerator for Latin Americans. The program aims to provide minority-owned companies with the support they need to scale successfully and remove the barriers against them. “Since the launch of the new Chamber [in 2019], it was our goal to produce a Latin tech accelerator. We thank Congresswoman Kathy Castor for
Black founder-turned-investor Monique Woodard has announced the launch of Cake Ventures‘ new $17 million fund to help pre-seed and seed investments. Cake Ventures’ first fund After closing her first fund in March 2021, Woodard shifted her focus to create a fund that would help underrepresented founders often overlooked by Silicon Valley. The $17 million fund will focus on pre-seed and seed investments. Woodard’s focus is to help businesses drive demographic change within three main areas: aging and longevity-minded population, increased earning power of women in society, and the shift to
Another day, another AI revelation. DoNotPay, also known as the “world’s first robot lawyer,” will appear in court for the first time to help a defendant fight a speeding ticket. The robot’s AI system will represent a defendant by instructing them to respond to a criminal judge. According to reports, the lawyer is set to take on two speeding ticket cases in court next month – one in person and another via Zoom. “The law is almost like code and language combined, so it’s the perfect use case for AI,”
Content moderation on social media has taken a turn for the worse. Meta has announced that their leading subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, has officially closed. The third-party contractor, contracted by the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has decided to move away from policing harmful content, resulting in several employees without work permits. Following the announcement, 200 employees from the moderation hub in Kenya – representing approximately 3% of the team – will be let go. The news announced on Tuesday, comes months after Meta was sued in East
Who said braids weren’t professional? Fionnghuala “Fig” O’Reilly is committed to redefining what is deemed “acceptable” in the workplace. The pioneering engineer sparked the attention of hundreds of Twitter users after a photo of herself rocking feed-in braids in the lab went viral. After becoming the first Black woman to represent Ireland in the Miss Universe competition and becoming the only Black woman in her class to graduate with a systems engineering, O’Reilly is used to beating the odds. The engineer, who has spent her whole life navigating her dual
