On October 21st, Red Bull Basement will be joining forces with MLH to do a live streamed panel during Local Hack Day: Learn. This panel will feature hackers who have turned their passions into more than a side project. Similar to MLH, the Red Bull Basement program aims to empower the next generation of young innovators to develop their ideas and use tech to find solutions. This panel will cover everything from hackathons to incubator programs and beyond from several young innovators. You can look forward to hearing from hackers such as Xyla Foxlin, Julian DiVito, Sabrina Cruz, and Christopher Gu.
Sign up for a reminder on the livestream here!
Who will be speaking on the panel?
The panel will feature Xyla Foxlin and Christopher Gu from the MLH hacker community in addition to Sabrina Cruz and Julian DiVito. Learn more about the program and the stories of these hackers by attending the panel on October 21st at 12 PM ET. Submit questions ahead of time or ask live at the Q&A following.
Xyla Foxlin
Xyla Foxlin graduated in 2019 from Case Western Reserve University with a B.S.E in General Engineering and a concentration in Mechatronics and Creative Technology, as well as a minor in Studio Art. She is a firm believer that femininity and engineering are not mutually exclusive, and aspires to be the kind of role model that shows young girls the way they present themselves has no bearing on their technical skill. She began YouTubing in college with the channel Beauty and the Bolt, as a way to provide public makerspaces access to free tutorial videos. Eventually Beauty and the Bolt filed as a 501c3 nonprofit where Xyla serves as Executive Director. For more information, visit xylafoxlin.com.
Julian DiVito
Julian is a recent business graduate from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. While in school he fell in love with tech and helping others. He is passionate about mental health and is currently working to improve access and overall care to University students.
Julian DiVito and Karan Ballal (not pictured) created the idea for Sightly — a program that empowers students with anxiety through Virtual Reality, which they submitted to Red Bull Basement and came out as the Canadian National winning team in 2019. After a year of refining the concept with a group of mentors, and with advice from a panel of experienced project developers, they’re now working to take the next step and make Sightly available through Virtual Reality headsets in campus wellness centers across Canada.
Sabrina Cruz
Sabrina Cruz is a digital media producer best known for her YouTube presence where she makes educational content by combining her skills in research, writing, and motion design. She has amassed an online audience of over 350,000 while studying for her degree in mathematics and economics. Learn more at Sabrinacruz.ca
Christopher Gu
Christopher (Chris) Gu is a 5th-year computer science student at Missouri University of Science and Technology. In his time at MS&T, he co-founded their first ever hackathon, PickHacks, and continues to help hackers at his school and in the Midwest access tech opportunities and resources. Chris is also known for his work creating augmented reality filters on Instagram, such as Guess the Gibberish, Which Dog Breed R U?, Head Beat, Karaoke Roulette, Roast Me, Pronounce, Slit Scan, and many more, which have garnered over 4.3 billion views. Check out his filters at @gu_christopher and other work at christophergu.me.
Matt Stefan (Moderator)
Since launching his first e-commerce website to sell custom t-shirts in high school, Matt has been fascinated with business and technology. In his post-secondary years, he formed an interdisciplinary team of students to launch Festfeed, a custom mobile app platform for events. They quickly became one of The Next Big Thing’s Top 20 Under 25 in Canada. Now, at 26, he’s spent the last three years as the acting Chief Marketing and Technology Officer of FrontRunner Technologies – a high-growth startup that is changing the face of the Digital Out of Home (DOOH), commercial real estate, and retail industries simultaneously.
What is Red Bull Basement?
Red Bull Basement is a program that encourages students to turn their ideas into realities through the use of technology. Hackers from around the world can submit ideas for the opportunity to compete in a pitch competition. One team will be selected per country to participate. All you need is an idea to apply!
What is Local Hack Day: Learn?
Learn Day is a week-long conference hosted online that you can share with your community. You can pick up the new skills you need by participating in workshops and talks with a community around the world. Over the course of 12 hours, attendees will experience a series of workshops where they’ll learn skills such as publishing their first website using AWS, learn Python by scraping tweets from your favorite celebrities with Capital One, and plenty more at our beginner-friendly technical workshops. This is an event for all skill levels, from beginners to the most veteran developers. Workshop attendees will learn skills that they can apply in their projects, schoolwork, job, and beyond. Sign up now!