IT Student Focuses on Self-Improvement Through Technology

“It started when I was 3 years old. I knew how to save something on Microsoft Word and my dad didn’t,” Tony Iacobelli said.

By age 3, Iacobelli, now a sophomore in UC’s School of Information Technology on the Cyber Security track, felt a spark ignite between him and technology. Nearly two decades later, he is president of UC’s IT Student Association (ITSA), a member of the UC Robotics Team and helped coordinate UC’s regional hackathon, dubbed RevolutionUC.

Through Iacobelli’s various campus involvements, he works to promote IT not only as a career, but also just as, “Hey, it’s pretty cool.” One of his primary goals is to increase collaboration, as well as awareness and the same love that he feels for technology, throughout UC. He believes that another side effect of such efforts will be a greater understanding and excitement for eLearning.

“If we can expose people to all of the cool things that technology can do and then bring it back to eLearning, that’s where I see the real opportunity is,” Iacobelli said.

He wants students to realize that if there is something they wish Canopy could do or a new feature they would like to see, there are resources available to see it through.

This was evident at UC’s hackathon in November. A hackathon is an event spanning multiple days where people come together to creatively solve problems through computer programming, though previous programming experience was not required. Among other tasks, participants were challenged to come up with certain eLearning hacks. The winning group created a full proof of concept for facial recognition software that would tie in with Blackboard. The idea being that as students walked through a classroom door, the facial recognition software would create an accurate list of attendance. 

According to Iacobelli, the goal of the hackathon is to come out with a new skill, which falls in line with his mantra: Leave whatever you started in a better state than when you came. He believes eLearning can be used “as a vessel along the journey” toward helping someone better himself or herself.

“ELearning, to me, is just how do we use technology to help people learn better,” Iocabelli said.

Only halfway through his second year at UC, Iacobelli isn’t sure what’s in store for him in the future just yet, but he hopes that technology can help someone new, even if it just makes a day go a little bit better or puts a smile on someone’s face. He loves technology because it helps everywhere.

“Better yourself and better someone else, and the best way I can do that is through technology,” he said.