Emily Valdez presents Blossom Buddy as team members Dafne Hernandez and Jared Bears look on.
DPI’s Digital Bridge program wrapped up with capstone presentations held at TechNexus on Friday, July 26.
Why it matters
The presentations concluded a busy summer for the 33 students, who represented five of the seven City Colleges of Chicago, and all have an interest in computer science, computer engineering, or tech-related fields. In weekly sessions, they learned about the Chicago tech ecosystem and met local technologists, entrepreneurs, business professionals, and civic leaders who shared their journey into tech. Many of these students will transfer to four-year colleges to continue their computer science education and join the tech workforce of the future.
Six student teams pitched their original solution to a common problem or pet peeve that the group solved with technology. Teams formally presented their solutions in the form of an app or website to three judges and fellow Digital Bridge participants.
Flowers to all
While all the presentations were outstanding, the winning team developed an interactive gardening and plant care app called Blossom Buddy. The app impressed the judges enough to encourage the team to continue developing it after Digital Bridge. Congratulations to winning team members Emily Valdez, Jared Bears, and Dafne Hernandez.
Thank you!
Summer 2024 represents the fourth year of the Digital Bridge program, part of DPI’s Pritzker Tech Talent Labs programming and offered to community college students in partnership with City Colleges of Chicago and World Business Chicago’s THINKChicago.
The program provides opportunities for City Colleges of Chicago students to learn more about computer science through hands-on workshops, guest speakers, and career panels offered on-site at organizations like Google Chicago, United Airlines, DPI, and TechNexus.
The respective teams behind Passport, an app to develop and secure passwords, and Clickshop, a consumer savings app, present to the judges.
The teams behind Frequent, a personal organization app, and Transt, a public transit app, present to the judges.
JIS, a scholarship, leadership, and career planning app, presents to the judges.
Author: Jeanie Chung