Thunder Bay’s tech future on display at Lakehead University this week | CBC News

A new event taking place in Thunder Bay this week is showcasing the city’s tech talent.

Lakehead University’s Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) is hosting DevFest, which is taking place on-campus. And while DevFest events happen annually across the U.S. and Canada, this is the first year Thunder Bay has been home to one.

“This leads to a technology community in Thunder Bay,” said Drashtant Chudasama, GDSC lead and organizer of DevFest.

The two-day event began Wednesday with a series of guest speakers, including representatives of the Thunder Bay Public Library, Rent Panda, Uride, and TD Bank.

DevFest wraps up today with a hackathon, which gives students a chance to tackle real-world tech problems faced by local businesses.

Success in the hackathon could lead to contract work for students, Chudasama said.

“They can put it on their resume,” he said. “That’s the skill, the networking, the teams, how they’re going to form and how they talk with each other.”

“The undergrad students talk with graduate students and they get to know each other,” Chudasama said. “That’s the thing for the hackathon.”

One of Wednesday’s guest speakers was Richard Togman, CEO of the Thunder Bay Public Library and co-founder of Rent Panda.

“I think what the students are doing is fantastic,” he said. “They’re really showing up for themselves. It’s a student-led club that’s organizing this event, and I think we see the future, right?”

“It’s in technology, it’s in engineering and maths and sciences, and for the students to take it upon themselves to do the work, to put in that legwork, the least I could do is help them out and share my experience with them.”

Togman said Rent Panda hired Lakehead students to help with software development. However, even though that company only launched in 2016, it was difficult then finding web developers and software engineers in the city.

“To have new pools of graduates coming out with the skills that are in demand in the business community is fantastic,” he said. “I’ll say, as well, at my job at the library, we’re doing a massive overhaul of our website and our digital infrastructure, so it’s not just the kind of exciting, for-profit tech businesses that are needing this talent, it’s our community-based institutions, it’s local government.”

“These skills are in high demand, and for Lakehead to be producing this kind of talent and the students to be putting in this kind of effort, it really shows a lot of promise.”

Chudasama said plans are underway to host more DevFest events in the city in the coming years.