To educate the community on information technology and raise donations for children in South Florida, NSU’s College of Engineering and Computing will host the fourth annual ITPalooza on Dec. 3 from 1 to 11 p.m. in the Carl DeSantis Building.
James Parrish, chairman of the Department of Information Systems and Cybersecurity, said that while ITPalooza is meant to provide educational opportunities for the IT community, it’s important to note that it is a charity event.
“Over the past few years, we’ve collected tens of thousands of dollars to really help the underprivileged kids in South Florida have a much better holiday season,” he said. “Getting Toys for Tots involved just seemed like a logical decision, so the tech community can give back to the tri-county area.”
Toys for Tots was started by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to collect new and unused toys from communities for redistribution to underprivileged children.
This year’s conference will include a pre-conference event about advanced data analytics with Microsoft’s new Cortana Analytics program on Dec. 2, educational breakout sessions, a hiring fair, holiday party and the annual hackathon.
In previous year, the hackathon was during the day of ITPalooza and was produced by the event committee; however, this year, the hackathon will be produced by AT&T Developer Program and will take place on Dec. 4 and 5. Attendees will build information technology solutions and mobile applications in a competition for prizes. The first place winner will receive a $1000 gift card, and other prizes will be given for various categories.
There will also be free Microsoft certification training, which Parrish said is beneficial for attendees of any industry.
“Technology is impacting every sector of our economy, whether it’s bio, business or engineering — everything uses technology,” Parrish said. “Technology is important, and students need to grasp a good concept of technology fundamentals to be successful in any discipline.”
Approximately 2000 people are expected to attend this year’s event, and Parrish said that the number of people has grown almost 100 percent over the past four years.
“This is the one place you can go in the year to see the progress of technology in South Florida,” he said. “It’s not just a networking event; it’s an educational event and a hiring event.”
Parrish said that the event wouldn’t have been able to grow as much as it has without the help of those involved, including Event Chairman Alex Funkhouser, Team Lead Rick Sebaly, Public Relations Specialist Jessica Rodriguez and the volunteers who have driven the event every year.
“It shines a spotlight on the IT industry here in South Florida… ITPalooza is actually a very nice vehicle to demonstrate the vitality and the strength of the technology industry in our region,” he said.
To see a full schedule of events or purchase tickets, visit itpalooza.com/schedule. For more information, email info@itpalooza.com .
