Drexel University's College of Computing & Informatics (CCI) is proud to host the fourth annual
Philly Codefest, a 36-hour software and hardware hackathon with the goal of developing innovative solutions to help solve real world challenges. The event will take place on Feb. 20-21, 2016 in Behrakis Grand Hall in the Creese Student Center on Drexel’s University City Campus in Philadelphia.
More than 400 students and professionals from Philadelphia and beyond will form teams to produce new software applications (using anonymized data) and hardware devices aimed at tackling a variety of national and local challenges in domain areas such as community health, transportation, energy, agriculture, art and information technology, among others.
Teams will then compete in a science fair-style competition where they will present their ideas to a panel of judges comprised of respected members of Philadelphia’s tech and academic communities.
Karen Griffith Gryga, chief investment officer at
Dreamit Ventures, will serve as the keynote speaker at the Philly Codefest 2016 kick-off ceremony on Feb. 20. Dreamit is a leading technology accelerator for entrepreneurs which has worked with and launched over 220 companies since 2008 including
SeatGeek,
Meerkat,
LevelUp,
Notehall (acquired by Chegg), and
Adaptly, among others.
"Hackathons are a great way to get the creative juices flowing, test and practice your ability to effectively collaborate and communicate under the stress (and fun) of time pressure and to explore problem solving and risk taking in a casual environment,” said Gryga. “Dreamit needs partners such as Codefest to continue to stimulate the entrepreneur community as well focus helping teams validate and de-risk their ideas and ‘#GettoA’ Series A funding rounds.”
Gryga, an experienced venture capitalist, investor and entrepreneur with over 20 years of startup and emerging growth company experience, is also founder of the DreamIt Athena program, which focuses on female founders.
Codefest’s collaborative environment allows teams to push the boundaries of innovation and take creative risks for a chance to win one of several prizes, including categories such as Best Hardware Hack and Best User Interface. During the competition, participants will have the opportunity to interact with technology leaders, mentors and some of the most sought-after companies in the Philadelphia area and the tech field at large, while building relationships with peers in the community.
This year’s Philly Codefest is made possible thanks to the generous support of the following sponsors: Drexel University College of Computing & Informatics,
Integrichain,
50onRed,
Lockheed Martin,
Linode,
Cloudmine,
Capital One,
AWeber,
FIS Global,
Microsoft,
The University City Science Center,
PwC,
Etsy,
TherapyNotes, and
Monetate.
Due to an overwhelming response, Philly Codefest registration is closed, however, a waitlist is available for student attendees at
phillycodefest.com.