Paul Broccardi is a senior Computer Science major from Warminster, Pa. who combines the skills learned in his major and beyond to help others and educate the local community. 

At Arcadia, he works with the networking team in the infrastructure department, maintaining and fixing Wi-Fi and internet connections across campus. He was also the captain of Arcadia’s Overwatch esports team but took a step back to focus on his capstone project.

His capstone, which he will complete this spring, was to revitalize the Boyer Hall Observatory by making it function completely remotely. Now, any operator with a computer and a connection to the telescope can open, close, and rotate the dome, to point the telescope to the desired location before focusing and taking images. 

Upon graduating, Broccardi will begin a network engineering internship with URBN in Philadelphia as he pursues a career in that field. He hopes to one day work for Cisco.

Though his plans for his future lie in network engineering, this hasn’t stopped Broccardi from exploring astronomy as a hobby

On April 3 at 7 p.m., he will deliver a lecture on eclipses and safe viewing at the Huntingdon Valley Library (RSVP Here). On April 4 at 4 p.m., Broccardi will give a presentation on the upcoming eclipse in Boyer Hall Room 117 in anticipation of the solar eclipse that will be viewable from campus on April 8.

“I’ve been finding it a lot of fun to make my eclipse presentation and my capstone project at the Science History Institute. I made a big poster for that and it was a cool experience,” he said. “I find that I enjoy speaking to people about my interests and this gives me the opportunity to do that.”

If weather permits, the Astronomy Club will host a solar eclipse viewing event on Haber Green starting at 2 p.m. on April 8. Solar glasses will be provided, and attendees will be able to view the eclipse through telescopes using solar filter attachments.