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2024 HDC and BIG AI Recap: AI, Industry Trends and More!

AIM Institute thanks the attendees who participated in this year’s Heartland Developers Conference and Big AI, presented by Farm Credit Services of America. The two-day event featured keynote speakers Dr. Radhika Dirks, CEO & Founder XLabs and RIBO, and Matt Waite, a Pulitzer Prize winner who developed PolitiFact; each discussed vary aspects of AI. Other key speakers included Farm Credit Services of America’s Executive Vice President and CIO Russ Wagner and Vice President of Strategy Enablement Jaclyn McLaughlin who spoke about the importance of customizing agile transformations to meet an organization’s unique needs.

Leading tech news media entity Silicon Prairie News provided excellent in-depth coverage of the event—read SPN’s highlights/narratives here. We also are very grateful to our other sponsors, including Lunavi for sponsoring the Tech Bash held at Let It Fly Sports Bar in downtown Omaha. AIM is happy to announce the 2025 Heartland Developers Conference, presented by Farm Credit Services of America, will be held October 6-7 at CHI Center. More info here: https://bit.ly/3MJxRuR

Mission Moment: Local Students Tackle Cybersecurity in Summer CyberPatriot Program

Through AIM Institute’s Youth in Tech Program area high school students participated in a CyberPatriot program this past summer. CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air & Space Forces Association to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Students learned the basics of Windows and Windows security as well as Linux and Linux security. Students then used these learnings in a CyberPatriot competition where they identified and solved issues.

Meta Provides $25,000 for AIM’s Youth in Tech Program at Papillion La Vista Community School District

Thanks to a generous $25,000 grant from Meta, AIM will deliver its Youth in Tech program for students of the Papillion La Vista Community School District. near Meta’s data center in Sarpy County. Youth in Tech sparks curiosity and builds foundational tech skills during critical interest-forming ages to lay the foundation for a stronger, more diverse tech community for years to come. Through fun, hands-on activities—such as drone piloting, 3D printing, robotics, and basic coding—Youth in Tech cultivates long-term interest in technology and encourages inquisitiveness about tech careers.

AIM Code School Helps Participants Navigate Basics of Technology

AIM Code School, a Nebraska State Department of Education accredited school, launched two technical training cohorts shortly after the new year. First, its Foundations of Technology cohort helped participants navigate through the basics of technology including: networking, IT infrastructure, at- home troubleshooting and WordPress site creation. The instructor facilitated the class in a Spanish/English bilingual format, making this AIM’s first bilingual course offering, which received positive feedback from students.

AIM’s popular Foundations of Web Development certified participants all with refugee status. Students learned to produce front-end code necessary for website creation. Additionally, this skill set allows students to begin creating work samples that can be used to network with and apply to local tech companies. AIM’s community partner, International Council for Refugees and Immigrants, connected these participants with AIM. This class included students from Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Tajikistan. 

Summer Mission Moment: Students Learn Programming at Google Code Next

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Throughout June, AIM’s College and Tech Access program hosted 17 middle and high school students from Omaha and Council Bluffs school districts to participate in the Google Code Next Summer Academy.

Students were able to engage in an intensive learning program focused on front-end programming skills including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This group of students submitted final projects featuring their own e-commerce websites. The websites are impressive with multiple built-out tabs, links, and other design features.

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AIM has completed year two of a three-year grant funded by Google, which brings front-end coding skills to the fingertips of college-bound students. The curriculum is fully developed by Google Programmers, called Googlers. Students were able to interact with local Google employees throughout the duration of the Summer Academy held at AIM.