Date And Time:
Sat, May 4, 2019, 8:00 AM –Sun, May 5, 2019, 5:00 PM EDT

Location:
Daskalakis Athletic Center
Drexel University
3301 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Presented this year by Comcast, Philly Codefest is a 36-hour hackathon that encourages students and professionals from all experience levels and backgrounds to work together to develop innovative solutions to help solve real world challenges.

Philly Codefest is a free software and hardware hackathon that is open to anyone. No coding experience is necessary – just bring your creativity!

2019 THEME: ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Philly Codefest 2019, Drexel's premier hackathon for social good, will be dedicated to generating real-world, scalable solutions to help end economic inequality in Philadelphia. According to a 2018 report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, more than a quarter of Philadelphians — about 400,000 people — live below the poverty line, with Philadelphia's poverty rate ranking among the highest of the nation's largest cities. Codefest 2019 will be the first hackathon in the city of Philadelphia to address economic inequality head on, with projects and challenges centering around the following categories:

• Financial literacy and security
• Food insecurity
• Environmental safety
• Digital divide
• Healthcare access and the opioid epidemic
• Affordable housing and homelessness
• Voter access
• Employment equity

Click here to check out some of last year's winning projects.

Attendees will form teams to work on projects, and then will present their final creations to a panel of judges – comprised of Drexel faculty, sponsors and Philadelphia tech community leaders – for a chance to win awesome prizes.

Learn more at PhillyCodefest.com and follow us on Twitter at @PhillyCodefest to stay up-to-date on Codefest- related announcements!

Tuesday, May 14
Gerri C. LeBow Hall
3220 Market Street 
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Come meet representatives from Comcast, the Corporate Partner of the Month of May! Learn more about the company, enjoy give-aways, and talk to employees about potential opportunities.

Tuesday, May 14, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Gerri C. LeBow Hall
3220 Market Street Rm. 344
Philadelphia, PA 19104

If you are a student who wants to meet and network with employers but you don’t have a lot of time, this is for you!

“Who’s Hiring You?” allows you to connect with employers who are on campus to specifically meet and HIRE YOU!

Burlington, Comcast, Cigna, Connor Strong & Buckelew, and CSL Behring will be here to discuss their full-time and co-op opportunities with current undergraduate students.

Stay for as little or as long as you would like. Make those professional connections and build up your network to help you achieve your career goals!

Tuesday, May 21, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Gerri C. LeBow Hall
3220 Market Street Rm. 7th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104

The LeBow College of Business hosts Prospanica Philadelphia’s Diversity in S.T.E.M. Panel &Networking Event sponsored by Comcast. Network and hear from panelists from GSK, Comcast, Drexel’s CCI, and TD Bank.

Speakers

Haydee Lara
PhD Exploratory Biomarkers Scientist, GSK

Haydee Lara is an Exploratory Biomarkers Scientist at GSK since September 2016. She provides histology and digital pathology support across several disciplines such as Oncology, Dermatology, Metabolic and Inflammatory Diseases, among others. Haydee is also interested in personalized medicine and gene therapy and has previously done research in genome editing, stem cells and nanomedicine. In her free time she volunteers in science education, mentoring and enjoys hiking.

Joyce Rancani
Director of Business Information Security, Comcast

Joyce Rancani is the Director of Business Information Security in Comcast Business. In this role, Joyce works in collaboration with the Comcast Cybersecurity to build security-in for Managed Enterprise Solutions. Prior to this role, Joyce architected and implemented security into Xfinity Mobile’s platform, infrastructure and overall design.

Joyce is also the Comcast Security Guild co-chairperson. The Security Guild is a collaborative platform to drive innovative security practices, professional development, network opportunities and community outreach to increase security awareness.

Prior to joining Comcast, Joyce worked at Lockheed Martin and L-3 Communications where she architected security designs, performed hands-on security updates on Department of Defense systems and presented updates to DC regulators.

Joyce is passionate about building effective, cross-functional collaboration between engineering, security and operations. She believes there are many positive benefits of grooming, educating and empowering teams to become security champions. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Computing and Security Technology) from Drexel University.  

Thomas Heverin, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor, Drexel University College of Computing Informatics

Thomas Heverin is an Associate Teaching Professor at Drexel University and teaches classes in the BS in Computing & Security Technology (CST) program including classes in ethical hacking, computer forensics, network forensics, cloud security and cybersecurity.

He earned a PhD in Information Studies from Drexel in 2014. After earning his PhD, he worked as a cyber security systems engineer supporting the U.S. Navy. In that role, he led the development of artificial intelligence techniques to conduct cyber risk assessments of ship systems. He also served in the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer and holds the CISSP certification.

Thomas mentors cybersecurity students and he volunteers in K-12 schools conducting hands-on workshops in cybersecurity.  

Hubert Rivera
SVP, Sr. Contact Center Manager II, TD Bank

As SVP, Sr. Contact Center Manager II at TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank Hubert leads all aspects of the Day to Day Core Contact Center Operations for Retail Banking in Mount Laurel, NJ. He oversees the 500+ employee team in TD Bank’s only 24/7/365 Center.

Prior to joining TD Hubert spent ~6 years at JPMorgan Chase in various roles, which included Collection Strategy/Risk where he managed a $1.2B national portfolio of ~400 Vendors recovering ~$70MM in payments monthly. He led the Customer Experience initiatives for 7 Lines of Business at the Bank in the time he spent in Consumer Practices. Hubert was also the Head of the Multicultural Center of Excellence (COE) where he was an advocate for the Customer Experience initiatives of JPMorgan Chase’s Card Services Spanish speaking populations within the bank’s Product Marketing Group.

Before joining JPMorgan Chase he also spent 11+ years at the 3rd largest national non-profit Credit Counseling Agency where he led various organizations, including the Contact Center, Customer Support, Business Development, Industry Relations, Project Management, and Creative Services.

Hubert holds a BA, Organizational Management from Warner University and an MBA from the University of Maryland. A strong proponent of both the Employee and Customer Experience he acts on his passion of developing high performing teams. He is a champion for Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Leadership, Minorities in Leadership, and also supports environments of high levels of Autonomy, Purpose, and Authentic Leadership.