Greetings, bright and future scholars! Last week, the NSBE(National Society of Black Engineers) Region III had their Fall Regional Conference here at the Hilton Hotel in Memphis, TN. The conference went on from Friday, November 6th to Sunday, November 8th.

Before I went to the event on Friday, I volunteered at White Station High School for their NSBE Takeover Event. T.O.R.C.H (Technical Outreach Community Help) is a NSBE program which gives outreach opportunities that impact non-NSBE members and NSBE members alike. The purpose of T.O.R.C.H is to show how science and engineering can be fun through the demonstration of engaging and interactive STEM projects. This event was also in collaboration with the Navy. We had some representatives demonstrate STEM activities to the students and give a talk about what it is like to be in the Navy. 

The event was fun. Using buttons, a piece of wood, and a balloon, I taught the students how to build a car with the balloon as a propeller so that it can move in any direction. 

When I attended the event, I was the only NSBE representative from the University of Memphis. However, I met some NSBE representatives and STEM students from other universities outside of Memphis such as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, University of Central Florida, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Mercer University.

Here is a group picture I took.

I enjoyed the short time I had with these guys. We mostly talked about our childhood and the good ole days when life was stress-free and the only things we had to worry about was completing video games and waiting for new episodes of our favorite TV shows to premiere. But along with that, we talked about our college experiences, why we chose our major, what we are learning from college, and how it is shaping us to be mature and responsible adults. I wished our interaction was longer though, but I enjoyed the brief time nonetheless.

After the NSBE Takeover Event was over, I changed clothes and took me and my friend Kareem DaSilva to the Conference. Here is us on Friday, November 6th.

Nothing much happened on Friday, but Kareem and I managed to network with new people both from the city and outside of the city. That night, at 9:30PM, we entered the 1st Annual NSBE Region III FRC Hackathon! 

Now, for those of you who do not remember or know what a Hackathon is. A Hackathon is an event where groups of people come together to collaborate on programming, software, and hardware projects. Sometimes, a Hackathon is a competition with prizes, but other times it is not. The last Hackathon I went to was 3 days long. This Hackathon was 12 hours. From 9:30PM to 9:30PM.

Now, at this Hackathon, we were given a scenario where the NSBEconnect website disappeared from the world. There are no backups and it would take too long to create a substitute website. We are given 12 hours to create a mobile platform that would take the place of NSBEconnect. Our software must include user interface, a mapping system (geoanalytics), user profiles, and a registration system. 

At first, I wanted to build a website using Bootstrap, HTML, jQuery, CSS, Javascript, PHP, JAVA and Ruby on Rails. But Kareem told me a better (and easier and quicker) idea to solve the problem: Build An App! 

Prior to this, I had no experience in app development. I mean some of the syntax were similar to web development and other programming projects I have done before but this was an entirely new and different way of coding to me. 

So, this is my first time developing an app and we created an iOS app for iPhones. Kareem wanted to build an iOS app and I went with that idea. One of the problems we had was that I had a Windows laptop but I needed a macbook to create an iOS app. Luckily, Kareem had one and it was tough taking turns with one laptop but we managed to make it work.

So Kareem and I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning building this app, then we left and went home to get some sleep. I woke up from my nap, sent Kareem some code to test so he can test the app on his macbook and he said that everything worked well and he submitted the final project.............at 6:30AM.

So, Saturday, November 7th was a very busy day for me and I only had 4 hours of sleep. I woke up, got ready and volunteered at Dunn Hall, the Computer Science Department at the University of Memphis. NSBE was having a PCI(Pre-College Initiative) Computer Science Department Tour at the U of M. I helped instruct pre-college students on programming practices and getting used to and understanding the concept of a computer being told everything you tell it to do based on the code you have written. We used the example of telling a human being to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The students thought it was amusing seeing a human pretend to be a computer and take everything literally and make mistakes on making a sandwich based on what they were told to do literally. 

After I was done, I picked up Kareem and we went to the FRC. That morning, I was part of a panel where my fellow STEM Ambassadors(Rachel Stein, Corinna Carter, Michaih Ley Bayani, Caitlin Mcgrath, David LeVine, Jordan Avery, and Julianne Nelson) and I talked about our majors, college experiences, and what we learned from high school that prepared us for college. The audience were high school students and it was nice answering all of their questions and encouraging and motivating them to follow their dreams and future goals. 

Afterwards, I attended a talk given by Jean Blanc, Public Relations Chair of the Memphis NSBE Professional Chapter. He talked about relocation for a job and the benefits and downfalls that may come with it. It was a good talk. Learned new things about making a decision on whether I want to move out of Memphis or not and what factors I should consider. Jean was born in Haiti, but raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to Memphis for a job opportunity as a Technical Liaison Engineer at Thomas and Betts and he loved living in Memphis ever since. He is also one of my mentors. Here is a picture of us.

To the left of me is Jean and to the right of me is Quincy Beasley, the PCI(Pre-Collegiate Initiative) Chair of the Memphis NSBE Professional Chapter. (Jean and I were helping out at the NSBE. Jr. meeting last month and I am going to assist Quincy again this weekend for this month’s NSBE Jr. meeting).

After Jean’s presentation, I went to the FRC Career Fair and passed out my resume to many employers such as ThoughtWorks, a global technology company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and Google (Yes, Google was there!).

After that, Kareem and I got ready for our Hackathon Presentation! I was a bit nervous but everything turned out surprisingly well and we impressed the judges! Our app included a login/registration form, geoanalytics, event planning, statistics, a password saving system, etc. We went above and beyond the other participants in the Hackathon. And we worked on this app for a total of 9 hours straight! We did not even get a chance to eat.

Later, at the closing ceremony, they announced the winners of the 1st Annual NSBE FRC Hackathon. Guess what? 

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kareem and I were so happy and glad.

Here is us working on the app the night before.

Here is us with Karl Reid, the Executive Director of NSBE. He congratulated us for winning 1st place in the Hackathon and told us that we represented the University of Memphis very well.

We also got an invitation to continue working on the app at the NSBE Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, during the summer as an internship opportunity. Also, we received another invitation to showcase our app at the National Conference in Boston, Massachusetts along with Danielle Jones, a PhD Computer Science student from the University of Memphis.   

I could not have won the Hackathon without Kareem. He is actually an app developer at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis. He created his own app before and posted it on Google Play Services. He is even developing an app right now. He has prior experience of app development and guided me throughout the development of our app, pointed me in the right direction, and helped me in every way he could. We both accomplished something amazing and are satisfied with the results. Together, we created the NSBEMobile App! 

The programming languages that were used in the building of this app was Objective C and Swift. Swift is similar to Javascript, which I had previous experience in and was not all that hard to learn because of the similar syntax. 

All in all, we had a good time! Enjoy the pictures below!

This is the University of Memphis NSBE Chapter President, Sidney Babalola, and John Brito, the President of the Memphis NSBE Professional Chapter.

This is Sidney and Marsalas Whitaker, the president of the University of Memphis NSBE chapter before Sidney. Marsalas was a former Biomedical Engineering major at the University of Memphis but he is now an entrepreneur and co-founder of SweetBio, a biotechnical startup that specializes in making membranes for oral tissue regeneration.

This is me and Sidney.

(Left to Right) This is Kareem, me, John Brito (President of the NSBE Professional Chapter), George Eason (He is in the back. He is the President of the NSBE Chapter at Christian Brothers University), William Yates (Treasurer of the NSBE Professional Chapter), and Grace Johnson-Bann (Secretary of the NSBE Professional Chapter).

I am glad I attended the conference and I am glad I gave Kareem the chance to attend it. Listen up, future scholars! Do not ever limit yourself to anything! Kareem and I created an app within 12 hours. If we can do that, then you can do it too. NEVER SAY NEVER. Believe in yourself and you will discover your true potential and propel to greater heights and achieve the proud sensation of success!

The future is looking bright for all of you STEM Majors. I guarantee it. As long as you make the right decisions, stay motivated and optimistic, you will be on the path towards greatness.

-Herve Aniglo