Cyborg Mobile

A letter from Kobie Hatcher: As Board Chair and Founder of NextWave Society, I’m constantly amazed by our community's generosity. Seeing students with limited disposable income step up to donate is truly inspiring. Their belief in our mission fuels everything we do.   Right now, our New Technologists program, which creates real opportunities for future tech leaders, is at risk without enough funding. After ten years, we know it works. We’ve seen the impact and how it changes product teams for the better. We can’t and won’t let it go.   If students with so little to spare are willing to give, imagine the impact that leaders and innovators like yourself can make. This program not only changes lives but also creates better product teams, leading to better products with less bias in AI and fewer detrimental algorithms.   Every donation matters. Let’s keep the program evolving and continue creating opportunities for the next generation of leaders. Your support makes all the difference. You can make your contribution by clicking this link https://bit.ly/4grFS4K.   After making your contribution, verify with your company regarding the availability of matching funds. Below are the matching fund guidelines for companies where many of our TNT alumni are employed: Microsoft: aka.ms/give (powered by Benevity). Amazon: Amazon Giving Portal (powered by Benevity). Apple: Apple Benevity Portal and click on Apple Matching Gifts Program. Google: Google Benevity Portal and click on Google Matching Gifts Program. Nike: Nike Community Impact Fund. SAP: SAP Benevity Portal and click on SAP Matching Gifts Program. Starbucks: Starbucks Community Champion Portal. - Kobie Hatcher

Our crowdfunding campaign is still going strong, and we’re so grateful for the support we’ve received so far (we see you, alums!)🙏 Every contribution helps us empower students from under-resourced backgrounds through technology training, job placement, and critical soft-skill support. We’re working toward our goal to expand opportunities and create lasting impact, but we’re not there yet. Your donation can make a difference — and with a generous $100K match from an anonymous donor, your impact is doubled! Here’s how you can help: Donate today: https://bit.ly/4grFS4K Double your impact: Many companies match employee donations — check if your employer participates! Matched donations: An anonymous donor is matching contributions up to $100K — your gift can go twice as far. Spread the word: Share this link https://bit.ly/4grFS4K with your network. Your generosity makes a difference✨ . Donations enable us to reach more students, expand resources, and create new opportunities. As a thank-you, donors will be acknowledged as: Patron: Up to $500 Advocate: $500+ Champion: $1,000+ Thank you for your support! Let’s keep building the future, together.

You know what keeps me going? When leaders value collaboration over competition. I spent the past week Micron Technology's headquarters in Boise, as our University Networks Team and key collaborator SEMI Foundation, welcomed over 140 representative of universities, community colleges, government, and industry with one central mission: advancing and innovating STEM curriculum to bring the world of semiconductors to a more expansive and diverse student population, so that we can truly catalyze our future workforce. It's also important to recognize that we must not only educate students, but also provide practical support to ensure their success and longevity in the field. This is no small feat, and in the U.S., we have some ground to make up. But this is why centering collaboration above competition is so, so beneficial - you quickly realize that you can take learnings from other sectors, leaders, and organizations, and adopt/adapt as needed. This is where the incredible work and leadership of Kobie Hatcher, the CEO of Cyborg Mobile, comes into play! He shared his learnings – and immense success – on engaging underestimated student communities in the software sector, many of whom have non-traditional paths into tech. We learned that his workforce development program, The New Technologists, seeks out students from historically marginalized communities - from first-gen corporate to those with racially and gender diverse backgrounds - and provides a holistic model of education and support for their participants. The goal is to ensure that they not only gain access to the tech sector, but they THRIVE. And the cohort participants from this program doing just that! It's a fantastic and accessible model for the semiconductor industry, and was so inspiring to our attendees. I get it, semiconductors may not just roll off the tongue … but neither did “software engineering” just a few decades ago, and look at us now? 😉

Since the release of ChatGPT, like a lot of people, I have been very intrigued by AI and the use cases of such a powerful technology. I was curious about how it worked and had a desire to learn more. As I was still in school, I decided to let my curiosity pass me by, but as time went on I felt more of an inclination to apply myself to learning this technology, especially since I was soon to graduate with a degree in Computer Engineering from Stony Brook University and had internship experience at Cyborg Mobile and Microsoft in Software Engineering. This year, I decided to take it more seriously and learn much of the basics of becoming an AI engineer (before even finding this roadmap). This helped me land my current position at Cyborg Mobile as a Software Engineering Intern, where I am helping them build AI applications for various use cases (SLIMs, as mentioned on their page) Last month, after seeing a job posting for NLP, LLM, and GenAI engineers, I realized I could go even deeper with learning AI. I decided to take courses, gain certifications, and build small projects to learn about the full lifecycle of AI applications, and how to create valuable products for people and businesses. From this point onward, I will continue to follow the roadmap below by taking courses and building projects from the best educators such as Andrew Ng, NVIDIA, DeepLearning.AI, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and more. I'll be doing my best to share my learnings as I go through this process, and to put my skills to use, I would love to build something for you or someone you know! If you would like help building an AI application, learning more about my journey with AI, or connecting further with me, you can reach me at elijah.farrell.work@gmail.com.

📣 Exciting Announcement! 📣 We are hiring our Inaugural Executive Director! This leadership role will be instrumental in shaping the vision and strategy of NextWave Society, driving impactful programs, and championing our mission to create lasting change. What is NextWave Society? NextWave Society is a nonprofit focused on uplifting and empowering the next wave of leaders from alternative pathways. Our goal is to create a future full of innovation and opportunity, where every voice has the chance to lead and inspire. #technonprofit #nonprofit #nextwavesociety #leadershiprole #innovation

✨WELCOME COHORT 10!✨ Today we kicked off our tenth cohort with 70 New Techs from all over the world. Excited to spend the next 7 weeks learning, building, and having fun along the way! #newtechs2024 #microsoft #techinternships #newtechnologists