Ilana Levinson – Page 4 – Seidenberg School News

Graduate Student’s Assistive Technology Invention Placed into A New Book

Every student dreams of being published before they graduate and demonstrating to the world their achievements and skills, but few students have the opportunity. This Fall semester, however, both Jennifer Simon and Janelle Wallace graduate student’s in the PACE MS in Educational Technology program where selected to have their Assistive Technology invention placed into a new book, Design and Technologies for Healthy Aging (DATHA) as part of a coalition initiative housed at the Center for Assistive Technologies and Environmental Access (CATEA). The DATHA is currently under development by Claudia Rébola, Assistant Professor, Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology. At Pace University as part of the TS642 Computer Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance class taught by Dr. Jean F. Coppola, Simon and Wallace developed adaptive iPad styles for the hand/arms and head that they call “Smile Gear.”

Every student dreams of being published before they graduate and demonstrating to the world their achievements and skills, but few students have the opportunity. This Fall semester, however, both Jennifer Simon and Janelle Wallace graduate student’s in the PACE MS in Educational Technology program were selected to have their Assistive Technology invention placed into a new book, Design and Technologies for Healthy Aging (DATHA) as part of a coalition initiative housed at the Center for Assistive Technologies and Environmental Access (CATEA). The DATHA is currently under development by Claudia Rébola, Assistant Professor, Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology. At Pace University as part of the TS642 Computer Hardware, Troubleshooting, and Maintenance class taught by Dr. Jean F. Coppola, Simon and Wallace developed adaptive iPad styles for the hand/arms and head that they call “Smile Gear.”

Product Description

We discovered that in certain cases of cerebral palsy and other physical disabilities, patients are not able to use e-Devices to their full capacity because they are physically restricted. To help solve this problem and also bring a smile to people with disabilities, we have created two touchscreen devices that are cool, colorful, functional, and simple to create. These friendly self-made adaptive tools are a refreshing change to the cold and uncomfortable metal/plastic pointers that are the norm for alternative tools. The tools we have developed are inexpensive to make, flexible for different needs and body sizes, and lend themselves to people with disabilities who have difficulty using the iPad or other e-Devices. These cool & colorful styluses are able to wrap around hands, arms, or the head to point and select apps on touch-screen devices. One special and distinctive feature about our tools is that they are available in different colors and textures even with fun accessories like eyeballs and antenna which transform these styluses into friendly creatures that not only aid those with disabilities, but that also boost their confidence by putting a smile on their faces and making them feel “cool” about using it.

For more information visit their website

Andrea Taylor, Professor, Volunteering with Digital Interactive Visual Arts Sciences (DIVAS)

DIVAS mission is to “bridge the digital divide by combining media literacy and cultural awareness along with a vast understanding of technology to encourage young women of color to pursue careers in computer science and new media.” In recent studies it has been determined that the Information Technology field is made up of only 35% women and the number of women of color within that percentage is even less. DIVAS for Social Justice is determined to tear down economic and racial barriers to encourage young women of color to become future leaders in their communities and the Information Technology/New Media fields.

You can find out more about the DIVAS on their website (http://www.divasforsocialjustice.org/) and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/groups/26315210494/).

Andrea’s role is to help raise awareness of the group, to help with funding efforts and to bring the areas of programming and robotics to the program participants. In November, 6 youth participate in a LEGO Robotics after-school program at the DIVAS headquarters in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. Ultimately, we are preparing to form a Robotics team to compete next year at the FIRST FLL LEGO tournaments.

Seidenberg Faculty Receive 3 Year Grant from NSF

In August, professors Li-Chiou Chen, Darren Hayes, Charles Tappert, Andreea Cotoranu and Xiangdong Li (CUNY-City Tech), received an NSF grant. The title of the project is “Establishing the Information Assurance Student Pipeline through Community College Outreach.” The three-year project led by Pace University involves collaboration with four partner colleges: State University of New York (SUNY) – Rockland Community College, SUNY – Westchester Community College, City University of New York (CUNY) – New York City College of Technology, and CUNY – Borough of Manhattan Community College, of which the latter two are minority serving institutions.

In August, professors Li-Chiou Chen, Darren Hayes, Charles Tappert, Andreea Cotoranu and Xiangdong Li (CUNY-City Tech), received an NSF grant. The title of the project is “Establishing the Information Assurance Student Pipeline through Community College Outreach.” The three-year project led by Pace University involves collaboration with four partner colleges: State University of New York (SUNY) – Rockland Community College, SUNY – Westchester Community College, City University of New York (CUNY) – New York City College of Technology, and CUNY – Borough of Manhattan Community College, of which the latter two are minority serving institutions.

The overall goal of the project is to produce more and better prepared information assurance professionals.

For more information about this grant or to become involved in the project please contact Li-Chiou Chen, lchen@pace.edu

Community Service of Seidenberg School Highlighted at Leading Convention in New York

Dr. Jim Lawler presented a keynote presentation and project workshop on Empowering Individual Advocacy through Visual Storytelling Projects at the 63rd Annual Convention of NYSARC, Inc, in Albany, New York, in October 2012. The workshop reviewed projects of self-advocacy that Dr. Lawler and his Seidenberg students do for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities at AHRC New York City by integrating multimedia technologies. This is the fourth consecutive year that Dr. Lawler was invited to this major convention on disabilities in New York State that continues to showcase the technologies of the Seidenberg School.

Pictured in the photograph are representatives of the AHRC New York City non-profit organization with Dr. Lawler.

Seidenberg School Welcomes Jessica Lawrence on November 28

Join the Pace Computing Society on November 28th to welcome Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director for New York Tech Meetup (NYTM), at Pace’s Seidenberg School. She will be joining us to share what it’s like to coordinate a 26,000 member non-profit organization–the impact of which is visibly present in the success of many NYC startups and technology entrepreneurs including Tumblr and Foursquare. Our own alums Jeremy Pease and Rob Caucci presented their own start-up, Space Splitter, at the most recent NYTM. This monthly event, and Jessica herself, are at the heart of NYC’s booming tech industry.

Jessica’s work as an organizational and promotional force in the technology industry of our own city is impressive. This is a talk you don’t want to miss!

What: State of New York Tech: Jessica Lawrence

When: Wednesday, November 28th

Time: 12:15pm

Where: Multi Purpose Room

Seidenberg Alum at New York Tech Meetup (NYTM)

New York Tech Meetup (NYTM), if you haven’t already been, is a must for anyone interested in the NYC tech scene. My first time attending was on Tuesday, November 13th–a special NYTM dedicated to the work in, by and for academia. There was a wide array of students and professors presenting their own work, and also professionals building software for use in education. The work shown was mind-boggling in many ways–from DOM, a student developed bookmarklet that transforms any website into an interactive 3D environment, to Qeexo, a group at Carnegie-Mellon exploring new ways of interacting with touch devices.

I was especially excited to see Jeremy Pease, an alumni of the Seidenberg School, and his partner Rob Caucci, also a Pace alum, present first. They demoed their start-up company, Space Splitter. Space Splitter is “Forever changing the way roommates manage their household finances and relationships.” This is a perfect description of Space Splitter–a platform to use when you and your roommates can’t remember who is supposed to buy toilet paper next. Admit it, we have all been there, and Jeremy made sure to remind the audience of that (to their overwhelming amusement). I must admit, Rob and Jeremy are quite theatrical–the audience was absolutely engaged throughout their demo.

Our friends Emmett Butler and Diego Garcia, both students at NYU, came onto the stage soon after. They just released a game called Heads Up Hot Dogs, published by Adult Swim Games, about dropping hot dogs on people’s heads. Yes, I did say hot dogs on people’s heads. These hot dogs are dropped right from your fingertips onto the heads of oblivious pedestrians, to chagrin of your pixilated uptight businessmen, joggers, cops and whomever else may be wandering the frank-fest streets of Heads Up Hot Dogs. Emmett and Diego gave a demo of their game that showed off the drag and drop touch screen dynamic. I don’t think he was trying to make jokes, but Heads Up Hot Dogs is so fun and quirky that the audience was giggling uncontrollably every time Emmett said the magic words “hot dogs.”

Once the presentations were over, and we were all inert from the shock of everyone’s overwhelming talent, we got to head upstairs to the after party! There were tables set up for the presenters to show off their work and a great crowd to boot. Everyone grabbed drinks, networked and had an awesome time chatting.

My experience at NYTM was incredibly positive and I must admit that I regret not having gone before. The people there are friendly and enthusiastic about technology. If you want to meet the best of the best then I recommend checking out the next NYTM event. You can check out their website here: http://nytm.org

Written by Nina Freeman