Techie MU innovators get national attention
Technologically progressive MU students and faculty from different departments have been playing nicely together. And for that they’ve been rewarded — or, rather, awarded — with a 2009 Campus Technology Innovators Award in information-technology funding from the national magazine Campus Technology.
The program getting recognition: MU’s Interdisciplinary Innovations Fund. Fueled by a combination of corporate sponsorships, student fees and department budgets, the fund provides startup money for collaborative, student-driven information-technology projects.
Journalism student Tony Brown and computer-science student Peng Zhuang present NearBuy, their iPhone application that won MU’s iPhone Developer Competition. The contest was supported by the Interdisciplinary Innovations Fund. Photo by Karen Stockman.
Since its creation in 2008 by the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Mike McKean and the MU Information Technology Committee, the fund has supported half a dozen interdisciplinary undertakings in software development, sustainability and filmmaking. Projects unite diverse academic disciplines (engineering, journalism, film, plant sciences, architecture, computer science, business) as well as non-academic units (residential life, student life, campus facilities, student organizations).
Creative participants break down boundaries of traditional educational models, with students both taking the lead and venturing outside the classroom. During MU’s iPhone Developer Competition, for example, students created iPhone applications that have been downloaded by countless users worldwide; the winning team attended the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco.
Multiple projects use technology for environmentally friendly innovations. On the Show Me Solar team, Mizzou architecture students and Missouri S&T engineering students have designed and built an energy-efficient house as part of the international Solar Decathlon competition to be held in Washington, D.C., in October.
Here on campus, Sustain Mizzou students helped create the Mizzou Dashboard to monitor energy use in MU residence halls. Several MU groups came together to boost Columbia community-garden production using dining hall compost and high-tech data logging.
Want in on the action? Grants are awarded annually following a process of project proposals, presentations and review by the IT Committee. Start working on your proposal for spring 2010.
MU student Ben Datema presents the Mizzou Dashboard project during the Missouri Energy Summit. Attention-grabbing flyers announced a student competition. Photo by Shane Epping.
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