DC, let’s celebrate: You picked these 5 winners for your 2023 Technical.ly Awards

Our 2023 Technical.ly Awards program kicked off nearly two months ago, when we appealed to you and scoured our archives for nominees across our five signature categories. We then curated lists of 25 nominees before turning back to you, our tech communities, for votes.

And vote you did. We counted over 8,000 ballots in total, with DC accounting for about a quarter of them, by the time the virtual polls closed on Nov. 30.

Before you find out who won, remember to prep for next year by checking out Technical.ly’s 2024 editorial calendar, with 12 themes we dedicate additional reporting to each month. And if you can’t get enough of our awards, you can always nominate a person or company for one of our RealLISTs. The first of these, our RealLIST Startups, returns early in 2024!

“We’re still in 2023!” you might be thinking. “Tell us who won this year!”

Of course, DC. Meet your winners:

Invention of the Year — Gallaudet University’s AR football helmet

A rendering of the AR helmet. (Courtesy AT&T)

Athletes and coaches from the DC school partnered with AT&T to create a football helmet that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing players communicate with the sideline through augmented reality. Coaches choose a play via a connected tablet, and players can see an AR version on a lens built into the helmet.

Tech Community Leader of the Year — Kiante Bush

Kiante Bush. (Courtesy Kiante Bush)

Bush created Venture for T.H.E.M. to fund early-stage entrepreneurs from historically Black colleges and universities. The accelerator and funder hosts weekly Founder Fridays workshops, hosts monthly Rocket Pitches pitch competitions and connects founders to mentors. The social enterprise startup was recognized as a top 50 finalist for Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition contest.

CTO of the Year — Viveca Pavon-Harr

Viveca Pavon-Harr. (Courtesy Accenture)

Pavon-Harr left a career in academia to work as the chief data scientist of Accenture’s govtech arm Accenture Federal Services, as well as an innovation lead and director of the Applied Intelligence Discovery Lab. In these capacities, Pavon-Harr oversees 800 workers.

Tech Company of the Year — Adlumin

Adlumin CEO Robert Johnston. (Courtesy Adlumin)

The NOMA-area cyber and managed security company closed a $70 million Series B round this year, as well as ranked on the Inc. 5000 list for the third time and earned a Deloitte Fast 500 designation.

Culture Builder of the Year — Tremain Davis

Tremain Davis. (Courtesy Tremain Davis)

The chief strategy officer at Gaithersburg-based University Startups manages how the edtech company works in the communities it serves. He’s also a longtime community leader and founder of social impact consulting firm Think PGC. His nominator said he embeds impact and mission into every touchpoint of University Startups.

Technical.ly Awards 2023 is underwritten by Comcast. This article was independently reported and not reviewed by Comcast before publication. Comcast is a Technical.ly client.