#SRQHacks debuts in Sarasota this weekend

For 26 hours this weekend, 13- to 18-year-old students will be immersed in computer science, programming and innovation.

For the first time, #SRQHacks will come to Sarasota starting at 5 p.m. on Friday at New College of Florida’s Sudakoff Conference Center, 5845 General Dougher Place.

The event’s organizers, the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, hope to encourage a path forward for under-served students interested in technology careers. But the hackathon is also about more than exposing students to the information technology and computer science industries.

“It’s not just to introduce them to programming but also light a fire of entrepreneurship,” said Norm Worthington, a member of the hackathon’s steering committee. “To get them to think, ‘I could start a project or a business.’ ”

Worthington is CEO of Sarasota-based Star2Star Communications and the winner of the 2016 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Worthington and his wife, Susan Keating, have long been involved with the Education Foundation, he said, and the foundation approached him to participate in the inaugural hackathon.

Star2Star donated $15,000 to the event, and Worthington and Keaton personally donated $5,000, he said.

Worthington has spent 35 years in the software industry and through his experience has found that talent isn’t in short supply.

Opportunity, though, is a different story.

“If we’re going to build a strong technology base and be able to introduce people to a workplace that can carry on this sort of activity, we’ve got to be able to identify them wherever they come from and bring them into the workforce,” he said. “I know the challenge out there for kids from low-opportunity households exists, but the opportunity to become aware of it and to fulfill that possibility is in many cases far too limited.”

University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee assistant professor Giti Javidi said beyond learning about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, students will learn many “soft skills” that will help them succeed in any career.

“Through programs like the hackathon, they learn about critical thinking and problem solving, as well as computational thinking,” Javidi said. “In a sense by doing this type of project or different types of apps and doing programming, you’re teaching them about skills we think are very, very important for any kids to learn before they come to college.”

The idea for the hackathon came from a Facebook employee. Dan Boxser, a member of the hackathon’s steering committee, has a daughter-in-law who works for Facebook in California. She presented the idea for a local hackathon to Boxser, who, along with a couple other community contacts, approached the Education Foundation about hosting the event.

Jennifer Vigne, president of the foundation, said the hackathon “organically evolved” from there. The students will spend the weekend working to design and present a mobile application or website aimed at addressing one of several community issues established in September at a town-hall style forum.

Out of the forum, the foundation was able to determine what the Bradenton-Sarasota community’s most important issues are from a student’s perspective.

“The things that matter most are the students and what challenges and obstacles they’re facing,” Vigne said. “Those are social injustice (issues), including diversity, bullying, gaps they see in college and career preparation and not knowing what tools and resources are available for them.”

By 2020, estimates for job vacancies in computer science and information technology will top 1 million, which translates to almost $500 billion in unearned salary, according to Ehsan Sheybani, a faculty member in the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee’s information systems and decision sciences department.

“If you look at the percentage of people who are not getting the benefit of the education system and so on, it mostly is in disadvantaged families. And that tells you if we can do anything, we should do something because they have potential but not opportunity,” Sheybani said.

Beyond Star2Star, several other community organizations, including the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, the Sarasota Police Department and Sheriff’s Office, and WUSF Public Media donated more than $71,000 to make the event possible.

The event runs from 5-9 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday, and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday.

Businesses interested in sending mentors or students interested in attending the hackathon can call 941-927-0965 for more information.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 4:35 PM with the headline "#SRQHacks debuts in Sarasota this weekend."