Meet the contenders: Vote for the winners of Philly’s 2024 Technical.ly Awards 

It’s once again time to make your voice heard. And in this case, voting is easy.

Philadelphia’s tech community has seen a very full 2024, replete with innovations, celebrations, unexpected twists and some truly shocking news. Technical.ly’s here to help point the way through all of it — and to hear from you. 

Connecting and engaging with our community is what we’re all about as a news organization. That’s why we ask for your nominations to help fill out our RealLISTs that run earlier in the year, and why we ask for your suggestions for the Technical.ly Awards. 

We have six new categories this year, each with four finalists curated from your submissions and our own reporting. And now it’s all up to you to choose the winners. 

The deadline to vote is Nov. 18, and we’ll announce the winners by Thanksgiving!

Learn about the nominees below, and submit your votes here. 

Educator of the Year

Who’s the Madam C.J. Walker of your community? The person, program or organization that made the greatest strides in helping people or companies in the local innovation community become more knowledgeable and aware.

• Rob Thomas — Thomas is the first VP of technology instruction at tech workforce development organization Launchpad. After joining the team late last year, Thomas has shown dedication to the students and the wider tech education community, his nominator said. 
• Jeffrey Babin — Babin is a longtime professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and School of Engineering and Applied Science. His nominator said he is both a dedicated teacher and investor who engages with Penn’s entrepreneurial community. 
• Data Science Philadelphia — Also known as Data Philly, the community meetup group hosts monthly talks about predictive analytics, applied machine learning, big data, data warehousing and data science. 
• Coded by — This tech education nonprofit celebrated its 10 year anniversary this year. The org welcomed a new CEO and rebranded from Coded by Kids to Coded by. 

Program of the Year

What brought all the buzz this year? The activation or effort that was the most memorable, touched the most people or made the most difference in the local innovation community.

• Capital Readiness Program — The University City Science Center launched this accelerator program last year as a resource to help healthcare and med tech startups prepare for fundraising rounds. This year, it hosted companies from outside the United States for the first time. 
• Pennovation Accelerator — Pennovation Works hosted its seventh accelerator program this summer, inviting 12 local startups to a six-week program. The accelerator ends with a pitch day and this year robotics company Sahay AI was chosen as the overall winner. 
• Digital Navigator Network — Run by the City of Philadelphia along with community organizations, this program brings digital equity resources to communities. Last fall, the network expanded beyond the city into the suburbs with programs in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. 
• Philly Data Visualization Meetup — This meetup group hosts regular community events about all things data viz. Topics range from programming to data, journalism, maps and creative coding. 

Power Move of the Year 

Making waves: The strategic move that made the most difference to the region overall. 

• Temple University opens iNest — The North Philly school opened its Innovation Nest this spring as a hub for university affiliated startups. The innovation hub includes both office and lab space for spinout companies. 
• Phenom acquires a fifth company — Over the summer, this AI-powered HR tech company acquired its fifth company in four years, adding Tydy for its onboarding and offboarding technology. 
• Crossbeam merges with Reveal — Data-driven partnerships SaaS company Crossbeam merged with Paris-based Reveal. The two platforms are very similar, and customers often suggested they join forces, founder Bob Moore told Technical.ly. 
• Spark Therapeutics appoints new CEO — Local cell and gene therapy company Spark Therapeutics in September welcomed Sylke Poehling as its next CEO in September. Poehling previously worked for Roche, which in 2019 acquired Spark for $4.8 billion. 

Money Move of the Year 

The financial transaction that made the biggest splash in the local innovation community. 

• Bentley Systems acquires Cesium — Local companies strengthened their ties this fall when  Exton-based infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems acquired Old City-based 3D geospatial platform Cesium. Financial terms were not disclosed.
• Stuzo gets acquired for $190M — New York-based PAR Technology Corporation acquired Philly-based software provider Stuzo this spring. The $190 million deal was paid in cash and stocks and the company changed its branding to PAR Stuzo. 
• ZeroEyes raises $53M — AI-powered gun detection software company ZeroEyes in July raised a whopping $53 million Series B. Cofounder Sam Alaimo credits raising so much in a tough fundraising market to the company’s mission to end gun violence. 
• Arrivent Biopharma files for $100M IPO — To kick off 2024, Newton Square-based biopharmaceutical company Arrivent Biopharma filed for an initial public stock offering worth $100 million. The company previously raised over $250 million. 

Product of the Year

Think of this as the Sliced Bread Award: The technology product, service or upgrade from your market that had the most impact this year in society at large.  

• Jawnt Pass — Transit tech company Jawnt in February debuted a commuter debit card to be provided by employers, so workers can load the pass with pre-tax dollars directly from their paycheck. 
• Navy Yard autonomous shuttle — Philadelphia welcomed Pennsylvania’s first all-electric autonomous shuttle in February. The self-driving vehicle was funded by a grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Travel Options Program to improve air quality and street congestion by reducing single occupancy vehicles. 
• ViaNexta — Owners of the local coffee brand Win Win Coffee launched this platform to connect coffee farmers directly with coffee buyers. Formerly called CoffeePLUG, the platform cuts middlemen out of the supply chain process so farmers make more money from their crops.  
• WealthMore — This platform provides financial planning resources and access to wealth advisors that can help users make decisions about  investing, home buying, estate planning, tax optimization, retirement planning and college planning.The platform specifically targets young people and people who are less likely to have access to financial advising resources. 

Creator of the Year

The online creative who best represented your hometown by sharing original, informative or engaging content — on social media or elsewhere.

• Jaylen Sanders — Sanders is a technical lead at Comcast, but also identifies as a “creative engineer.” Technology work requires people to tap into the creative side of their brain, he told Technical.ly. Sanders was a 2024 RealLIST Engineer and is passionate about making the tech industry more accessible for people of color.  
• Alex Pearlman — As @Pearlmania500, Pearlman recaps local news on his Instagram and Tik Tok accounts, where he has 191k and 2.7M followers, respectively. Most of his videos are in rant format, where he shares opinions and current events. 
• Sean Malseed — Malseed is the brain behind the computer tinkering account Action Retro on YouTube, where he has 139,000 subscribers. His content includes refurbishing old computers and messing around with them to see what they can do. 
• Lindsay Tabas — Also known as Lady Engineer on her social media, Tabas, a 2024 RealLIST Connector, makes content about technology, design and entrepreneurship on her YouTube channel and her podcast