How does Baltimore tackle challenges, opportunities and the need for creativity in the tech ecosystem?

Baltimore has a lot of assets to its name, including top-flight universities, a recent federal Tech Hub designation and, of course, the Orioles (too soon? We’ll get ‘em next year. Let’s go Os!).

Recent Os losses aside, Technical.ly and several of the leading developers from our latest RealLIST Engineers roster recently discussed the city and its tech ecosystem’s fortunes, challenges and transformation, as well as the need for creativity and potential of AI, in a moderated virtual conversation.

Here are just some of the highlights from their comments, based on questions we asked during the chat:

So I’m curious: When all of you look at Baltimore, what do you feel like are the local tech community’s biggest challenges and opportunities?

“The main fact that we have one of the best universities in the middle of Baltimore, where people are always coming in with you know, engineering brilliance makes it a hub where, you know, there’s thriving intellect always coming through,” said Valentine Okundaye, data engineer for EcoMap Technologies. “So I think that an opportunity is sort of getting those people to be sort of connected to the people who are already here”.

Okundaye, who is involved with the local Code & Coffee meetup, highlighted this educational asset as helpful to building and maintaining a strong local tech scene. His thoughts segued into SpringWEAR founder and CEO Rafael Casas’ personal experience of starting his business in Baltimore after completing his Ph. D. One of the first suggestions he said he received was to go to an UpSurge Baltimore event at Alma Cocina, where 2022 RealLIST Connector Kory Bailey launched the Equitech Tuesdays meetup.

“I’m not gonna lie, the first time I went I chickened and I just sit at the, sat at the bar and I wasn’t ready to do my pitch,” Casas said. “And funny thing, I ended up sitting next to D. Watkins and just ended up having like an hour conversation with him, of just sharing his development as a person and just, like, the confidence and just, you know — how do you go from building to taking your next step, and how do you, how do you manage the ego?”

Watkins, like some of the engineers who made the RealLIST, has deep roots in Baltimore. Watkins’ professional roots are mostly within Baltimore’s creative sector,  which Cornelius Hairston, senior software developer at Use All Five, agreed the tech sector should find more connection with.

“I think one of the big opportunities I would like to see Baltimore kind of expand and kind of close the gap between [is] its creative community and its tech community,” Hairston said. “Baltimore is an art town and we have MICA in our backyard. We have a huge art scene, a huge music scene. And I think a lot of those skill sets translate very well across both industries. And also, even like [for] the startup founder, Baltimore’s cost of living is great.”

He compared the economic opportunity in Baltimore to cities like LA and NY, which are more cost-prohibitive but have more of the sector variety that he’d like to see in Baltimore.

“I would like to see more companies that’s not government contractors or cybersecurity kind of take advantage of the creativity that’s in Baltimore,” he said.

Do you feel like you’ve seen the tech community in Baltimore change over time in a way that’s been positive since you’ve been in this region?

Clarity Cyber CEO Mike Ridge drew on his nearly three decades in the region when noting the hard-to-qualify change that took place in local tech.

“I came about 30 years ago, and [it’s] hard for me to tell if I’m just more aware of it or, and I’ve changed, or that it has, it has grown,” he said. “I like to believe that I’ve grown too. It’s a difficult thing for me to answer. There’s a whole lot more opportunities.”

Ridge, like other commentators, noted the importance of creativity, as well as the difficulty of teaching it as one ages and loses some of that potential. Underscoring the need to nurture the next generation of technologists, he also added: “So sometimes I’m described as a hacker, okay. And hackers are highly creative, but how do you teach that?”

Sameer Ahirrao, CEO and founder of Ardent Privacy, has been in the Baltimore area for about 18 years. He gave kudos to the state for its recent investments in early-stage startups and accelerator programs like Techstars, which has partnered with UpSurge on a special equity-minded accelerator.

Jason Harris, founder and facilitator of The BlkRobot Project, noted the growth of tech-related spaces and initiatives like the Baltimore Robotics Center (in which Ridge was involved) and B-360 that provide STEM opportunities for youth. Like Okundaye, he mentioned the presence of institutions like Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, along with the hospital systems, contributing to the city’s tech ecosystem.

With the latest developments in generative AI, how do you see the tech changing your specific jobs and how are you currently using generative AI, if at all?

Ridge discussed the practicality of automation, which he categorized under AI and machine learning, for tasks such as managing email lists.

“Who wants to put all that together?” he said. ‘Just just use the tool and be, and be done with it.”

Jewell Brey, head of research and development at Vectech, mentioned their company’s use of AI in the hiring process. Harris shared that he employs AI tools like Midjourney and DALL-E in his work.

Harris also mentioned a pricey lawsuit pressed against De La Soul by musicians who considered the 90s jazz-rap group’s sampling a form of theft. Some folks currently view generative AI in a similar light. Neither “creativity” nor “plagiarize” appeared in the recent executive order outlining some best practices and suggestions for AI tech creation.

“All the hoopla we hear about it [AI], it’s, I mean, this is the same thing we heard when, you know, De La Soul made “Me Myself and I,” Harris said. “You know, it’s just sampling, what we’re talking about. And that is going to sort itself out in the courts.”