Message from BDPA Indianapolis Chapter President

Terry Morris

This year the National BDPA organization celebrated 40 years in Washington, D.C. at our annual technology conference. Over this period, BDPA has been leveraging local chapters across the country to support the professional development of their respective memberships, engage the youth of their community in STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math) activities, and promote minority interest and exposure to innovative technologies. BDPA Indianapolis is checking all of these boxes and creating others.

One of the primary areas of focus for BDPA Indianapolis has been our youth engagement. Last year our leadership team focused on creating a vision to “empower our youth in a high tech world”.

This year we have made bold steps to realize this vision as seen through our HSCC Accelerator, the HSCC competition team, and the IT Showcase student sponsorship. Each of these examples are discussed in more depth throughout this newsletter. We are currently working with Eli Lilly and the IUPUI School of Informatics to develop and implement a program for elementary age students at the Joyce Kilmer Academy.

As it related to our professional development agenda, we have been having a banner year with great content and excellent attendance. We have continued our focus on SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud). Part of our Professional Development strategy is showcasing great technology firms in the Indianapolis area. So far we have visited the likes of Interactive Intelligence, IBM, and Eli Lilly. We have two remaining sessions planned this year where we intend to visit Allegient and Apparatus. They will be discussing “Analytics” and the “Internet of Things (IoT)” respectively.

In addition to our core program delivery, we have had a record number of members (80+) and our local chapter financial sponsorship support has doubled this year.

In short, BDPA Indianapolis is on the move. We are aggressively seeking to make a difference in our community and deliver outcomes for Indianapolis youth and our professionals.

Sincerely,
Terry Morris, president
BDPA Indianapolis Chapter