Over 500 people attended AIM Tech Celebration last Thursday at MCC’s Center for Advanced and Emerging Technology. The event featured live music from Kethro (aka Make Believe Studio’s Keith Rodger), dancers and jugglers, 3D tech displays, and an awards ceremony. KMTV’s Maya Raenz and the AIM Institute’s Scott Rowe hosted.
AIM Tech Celebration is an annual ceremony designed to celebrate the local tech community. The event provides opportunities to meet new colleagues, share ideas, and enjoy themselves while honoring some of the brightest minds in an already luminous field. It also serves as the primary fundraising event for the AIM Institute, an innovative not-for-profit that grows, connects and inspires the tech talent community through educational programs and career development.
Here’s the list of 2019 Tech Celebration winners:
The Aksarben Foundation’s Nebraska Tech Collaborative (Tech Community Builder Award) – The Nebraska Tech Collaborative is a workforce development initiative created by the Aksarben Foundation, its leadership network, and partner businesses.
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Amanda Crone (Tech Student of the Year) – Amanda is a Senior at Thomas Jefferson High School and a current leader in the AIM TRIO Upward Bound program, dedicated to inspiring younger students to succeed in high school and enter college. A natural leader and evangelist when it comes to technology, Amanda likes to spend her free time reading, playing games and volunteering at the library.
Dr. Lynn Spady (Tech Educator of the Year) – Lynn Spady teaches K-6 enrichment with the Westside Community School District and is the 6th grade accelerated math teacher across the district. Dr. Spady is implementing a blended approach to teaching math where students are given the independence to drive their own learning, doing part of the work face-to-face with her twice a week and the other part online using various resources she’s developed.
Douglas Rauch (College Tech Educator of the Year) – Assistant Professor Douglas Rausch is the Maenner Endowed Chair, Director of the Center for Cybersecurity Education, and the Program Director for the Undergraduate and Graduate Cybersecurity program at Bellevue University. He teaches multiple courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs in security architecture, cryptography, governance/risk/compliance, and penetration testing.
Ocuvera (Startup of the Year) – Ocuvera was founded in 2013 with the idea that software can save lives by empowering every nurse with the tools to provide safer patient care. Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, Ocuvera’s product is a video-based monitoring system that uses a 3D camera and artificial intelligence to monitor patients in hospital beds for behaviors that indicate fall risk, and send an alert to nurses so they can react before a fall occurs.
Visio Health and Technical Solutions (Best Technology Product of the Year) – Visio and The Working Clinic offers advanced connectivity to deliver high definition medical diagnostic video to doctors, connecting them with employees at the workplace. The Working Clinic allows board-certified doctors to deliver the full suite of primary care services to employees and their dependents via advanced diagnostic medical-grade imaging and high-definition video conferencing to reduce cost and improve satisfaction, employee health, and convenience.
Marina Brown (Tech Champion of the Year) – Marina Brown is an Application Development Manager with Werner Enterprises, where she leads developer and data science teams to create cutting edge logistics software. In her more than 15 years in technology, Marina has consistently brought forth and evangelized technology innovation. She strongly believes that, through technology, we have the unique opportunity to empower groups of people that were previously marginalized. She speaks publicly about the continuous engagement and encouragement of young women entering the technology industry.
David Giuliani (Tech Innovator of the Year) – In David’s role as manager of the Kiewit Innovation Center, David took 3,000 square feet of empty space in the new Kiewit University building and transformed it into an impressive, interactive showcase of Kiewit innovation. He interacts with thousands of Kiewit employees and other visitors each year, introducing them to new construction practices and cutting edge technology including drones, virtual and augmented reality, and robots.
Matey Kirilov (Tech Leader of the Year) – Matt Kirilov is the organizer or co-organizer of several Agile and professional coaching meetups in Omaha and in Bulgaria. He leads the OmahAgile and Leancoln initiative, and is active within several coaching and agile organizations. Matt currently works as an Enterprise Agile Coach and is the co-creator of the course From Scrum Master to Coach Training Series.
Werner Logistics (Tech Enterprise of the Year) – Werner Logistics is a division of Werner Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest transportation and logistics companies. Recent tech improvements include implementing machine learning algorithms that have helped increase productivity of users nearly 60 percent, and developing a strategic partnership between business and IT leaders on all initiatives to increase accountability.
To help AIM continue to grow current and future generations of tech talent, please donate to the organization’s youth-in-tech programming. Check out this short video for reasons why.
