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iSchool Professor to Present Social Radio App at STEM Fair

Project development generates a lot of discussion in the School of Information Studies, and Kaufmann Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Dr. Lee McKnight will be discussing it directly with one of his own projects this week. On Thursday, McKnight will present the social radio application WeJay to Manlius Pebble Hill High School students.

What is WeJay?

WeJay is one of many new products stemming from Syracuse University research, produced by Wireless Grids Corporation this year. WGC spun out of SU in 2004 and has continued to collaborate closely with university on a variety of research and development projects since then.  The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Fair at Manlius Pebble is “only the first of what will be many more invitations and opportunities to address how wireless grids may motivate and facilitate student collaborative learning, including in STEM subjects,” says McKnight.

WeJay is a novel wireless grid social radio application with several functional uses. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s ‘Partnership for Innovation.’

“SU doctoral students are preparing to use WGC’s WeJay software in their studies as well,” says McKnight. “One particular example is a scavenger hunt around Harlem that DPS student (and new Wireless Grid Lab assistant director) Grace Giraldo is designing, using WeJay. Another example is using WeJay to enable students with disabilities to create their own radio station, which SU iSchool DPS student Sarah Chauncey is facilitating through her own studies.”

SU/Manlius Pebble Hill Relationship

The ninth graders at Manlius Pebble Hill High School will have the opportunity to “engage in discussions with professionals who utilize STEM daily in their occupations,” says MPH News Digest.

Syracuse University faculty and students collaborating with Manlius Pebble Hill High School facilitates academic innovation. The presentation will introduce students, as MPH News Digest writes, to “amazingly novel ways in which STEM is being employed right here in Central New York to solve problems and to inspire students to think about fields of work they perhaps have not yet considered.”

Stay tuned for more! McKnight is presenting the WeJay Project to NASA Glenn Research Center on October 14th, and iSchool doctoral student and Wireless Grids Lab Assistant Director Joe Treglia will speak to ITT Technical Institute students at the Liverpool campus next week.