Twin Cities Black Data Processing Association (BDPA) will hold its Seventh Annual Awards Ceremony on Friday, January 6, at Metropolitan Ballroom, 5418 Wayzata Boulevard, Golden Valley. There will be a reception at 5:30 pm and dinner at 7 pm. The theme for this year’s event is “Ignite, Inspire & Empower: The GPS of Future Technologists.”
The keynote speaker will be Monica Anderson. In 2007, Anderson graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering and is now an assistant professor in the computer science department at the University of Alabama. She is the creator of PREOP, a program which allows computer science novices to program robots graphically using an intuitive object-based interface.
Anderson has authored 41 publications and has garnered grants in excess of $1.1 million. She is an executive member of the ARTSI Alliance, a national consortium of researchers who use robotics to increase the number of African Americans in computer science.
The ceremony will recognize young people who participated in the 2011 BDPA Twin Cities Community Youth Technology programs, the Community IT Youth Camp, and the BDPA Twin Cities high school computer competition team that took fifth place in the 2011 National BDPA High School Computer Competition in Chicago. The ceremony also will recognize the Community Supporter and Volunteer of the Year.
Reservations for the Twin Cities BDPA Seventh Annual Awards Ceremony is $65 for BDPA members and $75 for nonmembers. For more information about this event or BDPA, contact Dorothy Richburg at 651-777-9119 or 651-470-4881, or go to http://2011bdpatcawards.eventbrite.com.
This information was provided by the Twin Cities Black Data Processing Association.
