&imwidth=160){kind=avatar}
When Detroit Pistons President of Business Operations Melanie Harris heard about the NBA Foundation's Tech Challenge, a competition that brings together students from local colleges and universities to tackle a real-world business challenge, she knew it belonged in Detroit.
For the past two years, the program has been held in Houston, providing young people with opportunities to build their careers and skills while gaining access to valuable resources. With Harris’ backing, the challenge came to Detroit for the first time recently.
“Starting with manufacturing through to where we are today, Detroit has the tech and history, so I thought there was no better NBA city than here to host the challenge,” Harris said.
Held around the corner from the Henry Ford-Pistons Performance Center at TechTown Detroit, the competition brought together four teams of five students from Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Eastern Michigan University and Pensole Lewis College.
Each team was given the same challenge:
How might the Detroit Pistons leverage technology to deepen the connections between the team, the city of Detroit and the next generation of fans?
“The challenge is about the opportunity to learn by doing, meeting new people, creating a project and presenting it,” NBA Foundation Executive Director Ruth Jurgensen said. “Those are incredible skills to be able to receive a reward for, but also get immediate feedback and real-world experience."
Harris joined TechTown President and CEO Ned Staebler and former Michigan basketball player Jordan Morgan, a sports tech startup executive, on the judging panel as the teams pitched their ideas to community members, employees, parents and fellow students.
“All of the college students were amazing and did a great job trying to address the challenges that the Pistons proposed,” Staebler said.
Technology and Sports
As part of the Pistons’ “Basketball for All” initiative, the organization has renovated 60 community basketball courts in 44 Detroit parks since 2017.
After visiting and researching the parks, the Pensole Lewis College team knew its business proposal would start there.
“We studied our consumer, came up with a product, a problem and found a solution,” Pensole Lewis College color design student Jayden Parker said.
To attract the next generation of Pistons fans, the students pitched immersive watch parties at community courts using inflatable domes, along with an app that would alert fans to court activity and upcoming events.
The idea was a hit as Parker, Arielle Campbell, Justin Woods, Chris Pizana and Austin Tolson were named the winners of the challenge. The team won $2,500, custom NBA Tech Challenge sweaters and one-year memberships to TechTown. All participants received gift cards for their contributions.
“With this competition, I realized that I really like tech, and it brought my interest even more, especially since we won,” Campbell said.
Parker's mother, AnGela Gosa, said: “I was so happy I cried. I'm so proud of them. They were nervous but did really well.”
Since its inception in 2020, the NBA Foundation has served 1 million youth through programming that supports school-to-career pipeline opportunities.
“This was a great opportunity for both the NBA Foundation and the Pistons to come together in support of our community in Detroit,” Harris said. “As we continue to increase our level of gameplay, the platforms that we are on are more and more elevated, and it gives us an opportunity to double down on the community impact we've already had and elevate that to more national and global stages.”