The semi-annual event is targeted to women (and their friends) with little or no programming experience. It gives them an introduction to the Python programming language through lectures and interactive exercises.

The sessions were taught by Dana Bauer, Mjumbe Poe, Maneesha Sane, Sarah Gray, Pam Selle, Tim Gross, and Bennet Huber. Monetate engineers Jeff Patti and Jason Stelzer served as teaching assistants.

Monetate uses Python extensively, so we’re especially happy to support the efforts of PhillyPUG and PyStar Philly to broaden and diversify the Python community in Philadelphia.

To help organizers and participants of the various groups get to know each other better, Monetate is sponsoring a meetup of meetup groups to usher in Philly Tech Week.

The free meta-meetup, organized by Technically Philly, is at 7 p.m. April 16 at Zivtech. Pizza and beer will be provided.

Interested in attending? Simply RSVP on the Technically Philly event page.

By the way, if anyone else is organizing a meta-meetup of meetup groups, we’d like to get to know you better. May we propose a meta-meta-meetup?

Our engineers dream up high-tech solutions to high-tech problems. We’re beyond tech savvy — we’re tech masters. We’re on the cutting edge. Every day, we write software that is changing the game for online retailers and other big websites.

And yet …

… this is the queuing system for printing 3D objects with the office’s MakerBot.

Jeff Patti, a backend engineer who’s been the 3D printer’s primary guardian since it arrived at Monetate headquarters a few days ago, mentioned the Post-it-based queue to me this afternoon.

“We’re a tech startup and that’s the queue they come up with?” I scoffed.

“It’s very effective,” he pointed out.

I can’t argue with that. Sometimes, low-tech is the answer.

It turned out to be the perfect incentive.

We hit the target, and he made good on his promise. Earlier this week, a MakerBot Replicator 2 arrived at Monetate headquarters, and I think I heard a choir of nerdy angels singing as it entered the door.

For their Hack Days project, engineers Jeff Patti and Mike Hand decided to experiment with the printer.

They began by printing some of the objects that came pre-loaded with the Replicator, such as a comb, a set of linked chains, and a bracelet.

Then, then printed a few projects downloaded from Thingiverse, such as a Yoda-shaped pencil holder, a junction for a toy train set, a model of Winterfell from “Game of Thrones”, and a hardware enclosure for a Raspberry Pi.

They also experimented with creating custom objects, such as the puzzle piece that serves as Monetate’s logo, using Blender.

Check out the photos below to see the MakerBot in action, as well as some of the objects printed during Hack Days.

We were given two days to work on a project of our choosing. Many of the hacks were directly related to Monetate — such as improvements to existing products and internal tools, or proofs of concept for new features — but some were simply efforts to learn a new programming language or API, or to expand one’s skillset in some other way.

Although there’s no guarantee that anyone’s Hack Days project will eventually make it into the product pipeline, many of the projects from previous Hack Days have indeed “graduated” and have dramatically changed the way we do business.

At the end of Hack Days, we presented our projects to everyone at Monetate headquarters. Below are short summaries of the presentations.

• Shaun Gallagher used Phonegap to build an Android dialer app targeted to senior citizens.
• Jeremy Clewell used an Arduino microcontroller and four microphones to build a telepresence unit for video chats. Essentially it uses sound localization to detect who’s speaking, and it turns a video camera to face the speaker.
• Ashley Sheppard built a magnifying glass tool for product images that can be deployed on clients’ sites.
• Kris Molendyke, Jeff Patti, and Patrick O’Brien worked on an algorithm to interpret browsing behavior on retail sites.
• Jon Aldinger recorded a screencast explaining how Monetate’s script gets inserted on clients’ sites.
• John Warner built a lightbox that displays a grid of products.
• Becky Hernandez-Cuebas created a training video for clients: “How to successfully test your Action Builder campaign.”
• Ram Parthasarathy created userinfo.js, a standalone Javascript technographics library.
• Gil Raphaelli built “HipCat,” a utility for piping messages to HipChat, using our internal authentication credentials instead of HipChat tokens.
• Tom Janofsky completed work on a data visualization app that he had started during a previous Hack Days session.
• Steve Galvan sharpened his CSS and Javascript skills by working on a website redesign.
• Geoff Young created a dynamic image action for email campaigns.
• Kim Killaly dug deeper into Javascript by writing a function that generates the Fibonacci sequence.
• Mike Bewster built a browser-based monophonic synthesizer with programmable filters using the HTML5 web audio API.
• Mary Beth Gombola used CSS to create eye-catching animated buttons and banners.
• Tristan Hoffman created an Intranet site for the delivery engineering team.
• James Minshall and Theresa Monaco created a responsive-design version of the Monetate homepage.
• Luke Walker, Eric Heydenberk, and Geoff Johnson created a tool that makes it easier to create targeted campaigns on client sites.
• Chris Conley experimented with using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to generate structured data.
• Dave Riley created a UI for documentation about actions that can be used in client campaigns.
• Chris West built a targeted slideshow action.
• Anthony So created a simple visualization of a string parsing solution.
• Jeff Patti and Mike Hand created 3D objects using a MakerBot Replicator 2.
• Rob McGinley created backbone-components, a fork of backbone-ui that provides a component hierarchy model and allows easy creation of forms via an object dispatch method.

Below are some photos from the Hack Days presentations:

Finally, as a refresher, check out these wrap-up posts from previous Hack Days:

December 2012

September 2012

May 2012

December 2011

In our first engineering podcast, Karl Shouler, Ram Parthasarathy and Patrick O’Brien discuss PyCon 2013 and their impressions of startup culture on the East and West coasts. Other topics included Raspberry Pi hacking, the poor form of naming snowstorms, and the upcoming Monetate Hack Days.

Eat, drink, geek out, and be merry with other conference attendees at Philadelphia Bar & Restaurant from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Monetate is one of the sponsors of Tap Overflow, and a bunch of our engineers will be there, so if you’d like to learn more about the company in a low-stress social setting, this is a great opportunity.

Although tickets are free, you’ll need to register in advance. Hope to see you there!

Maggie Kovalski

She had heard about Monetate in the news, and when one of our software engineers — a former colleague of hers — mentioned that we were looking for a project manager, she decided to apply. “I really wanted to be somewhere where an understanding of technology was top-down — that was a big driver for me,” she says, and the fact that our CEO is himself a software engineer impressed her.

Her in-person interview involved giving a brief presentation and then breaking out into several small sessions led by people with whom she’d be working closely. She met not only developers and other project managers but also leaders of other teams within the company. She was so impressed by that interview process that she actually recommended it to her former employer to find her replacement.

In her free time, she enjoys working out — she runs just about every morning and also likes to swim — and she tries to spend as much time as possible on the beach in Ocean City, N.J.

A few other tidbits

These questions are taken from Get to Know Monetate’s Engineers

Favorite browser: Chrome, although Safari might also be a contender

Favorite movie: “On Our Own”

Hidden talent: She can recall what outfit she was wearing on every first day of school, from kindergarten through college.

Mike Zito

Outside of work, Mike likes playing video games and fixing up cars, a hobby that he picked up as a kid by working alongside his uncle. He’s done engine swaps, worked on transmissions, and pitches in with friends who need a hand.

A few other tidbits

These questions are taken from Get to Know Monetate’s Engineers

First programming language: Java

Favorite programming language: No favorite.

Favorite browser: Chrome

Favorite movie: “Gattaca”

Hidden talent: “I can do World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros. in 22 seconds.”

Dave Riley

He heard about Monetate through several tech meetups in the Philly area. He specifically remembers attending RedSnake Philly and “I figured if a company sponsors neat events like that — for the betterment of developers outside of work — they must be a cool company,” he says.

In his free time, he likes to swim, play soccer, hang out with friends and family, and read.

A few other tidbits

These questions are taken from Get to Know Monetate’s Engineers

First programming language: C

Favorite programming language: Javascript

Favorite browser: Chrome

Favorite movie: “The Dark Knight”

Hidden talent: “I can sing.”