Higher Education : Innovation + Job News

Temple University's summertime app-developing program for underserved and minority students, the Urban Maps and Apps Studios, has been active for three seasons now.

The university-wide initiative kicked off in 2012 as part of the school's bitS (Building Information Technology Skills) program, which aims to "engage high school students to examine the communities where they live," according to its website, and to teach those students technology skills that can be applied to problems in their own neighborhoods.
 
Inside the Urban Apps and Maps Studios, students spend six weeks studying digital design and software application development. The ultimate goal? Design apps that will help tackle community challenges.
 
One team of 11 students involved in the 2014 summer program has created such an application. Known as Gotcha, the mobile crime-watch app allows users to anonymously post the details of petty neighborhood crimes such as shoplifting, without involving authorities.

Thanks to funding from the Knight Foundation, which will bring a portion of the Gotcha team back during the upcoming academic year to continue its work, the app may eventually become available in the iTunes and Google Play stores.

"There's a big gap of content that's related to -- and designed by -- the very youth that [Urban Apps and Maps] engages," says Temple's Michele Masucci. "And so part of what we're trying to do is to take one of the largest blocks of digital content consumers and turn them into digital content producers." 

"[Apps & Maps] is something the kids really love," she adds. "It's a technology they can carry with them into their futures, whether they decide to go to school, or to take more of an entrepreneurial turn. We're trying to address the interest and need that the students have."

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Michele Masucci, Temple University
 

Many people have had the experience of killing time at a neighborhood pharmacy by checking their vitals at a blood pressure kiosk. But now, at a QCare clinic located inside an East Falls grocery store, customers can take advantage of the very first kiosk in the nation screening exclusively for behavioral and mental health issues.
 
The kiosk was the result of an annual design challenge organized by the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, a local philanthropic group that works to change how behavioral healthcare is practiced in the Greater Philadelphia area. In 2013, the Foundation's design challenge addressed the stigma of mental health conditions on college campuses. 

Also known as convenient care clinics, the popularity of retail clinics within pharmacies has grown exponentially in recent years. Some experts estimate that as many as 3,000 such clinics will exist nationwide by 2015. And yet nearly all currently exist without the infrastructure to deal with mental health issues.  
 
The Scattergood Foundation hopes to alter that by bringing its kiosk to other retail clinics in the future. In the meantime, Philadelphians can access the iPad-powered stand at QCare's 2800 Fox Street location, inside ShopRite.   
 
Gregory Caplan, a foundation project manager, points out that while the results generated from the kiosk don't represent a formal diagnosis, anyone who completes the screening -- the process takes just a minute or two -- will be offered a list of specific mental health resources. To experience the screening online, click here. 
 
"The main point [of the kiosk] is to get people to realize that mental health is just as important as physical health," explains Teresa Moore, who also worked on the project.  
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Sources: Gregory Caplan and Teresa Moore, Thomas Scattergood Foundation 
 

The independent workforce in Philadelphia certainly isn't hurting for shared workspaces. In fact, during the TEDxPhiladelphia conference in late-March, a speaker shared a PowerPoint slide featuring the logos of roughly a dozen local co-working spots, a number of which have opened over the last two years.
 
Now the University City Science Center and Drexel University have announced the launch of the city's latest flexible workspace, known as the Innovation Center @3401. In order to differentiate themselves, they've crafted a specific mission.

"We don't think of the Innovation Center strictly as a co-working space," explains the Science Center's Christopher Liang. "It was designed very purposely to house a mix of residents."
 
The Center was also designed to fill a gap in the University City incubation and startup spectrum. The Science Center's Quorum, for instance, is a social gathering place for local entrepreneurs, while its Port incubator is home to offices and labs.
 
"We've been talking for some time about how we can broaden our offerings to include companies that maybe don't need wet labs," says Liang. "So, the Innovation Center is related to a desire to be more inclusive of the entrepreneurial community -- particularly the tech companies that are starting to become so important to the city."
 
The Center is currently accepting applications from potential residents, which will include a mix of investors, entrepreneurs, startups and stand-alone professionals.

"We're less concerned about the structural format of the residents," adds Liang. "[We're] more concerned with their ability to fit within the general theme of [being] tech and digital creatives."
 
The Innovation Center @3401 plans to open its doors in early June.
 
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Christopher Liang, University City Science Center

When Campus Philly launched 10 years ago, urban life in Philadelphia was a very different experience. Back then, the group's greatest concern was "making [the city] cool and interesting to students, to make them want to stay," says program manager Jen Devor.

That effort largely involved a busy schedule of marketing and outreach efforts, such as the organization's annual College Day on the Parkway, now known as CollegeFest.
 
"Now, students want to stay," argues Devor. "It's just a matter of getting them jobs, and giving them the ability to set down roots here."
 
Campus Philly's Online Internship Fair is one way Devor and her colleagues hope to accomplish that goal. Running from March 24 through 28, the virtual fair operates via the organization's online job board, which is open for business year-round and free to students at Campus Philly's 31 partner schools. But, as Devor explains, the twice-annual Internship Fair "is a scheduled time and place for employers and students to meet."
 
Along with the volunteer, internship and job listings that students can find on Campus Philly's Careers site year-round, hundreds more internship opportunities are made available during the fair. Positions in the technology and creative economy fields tend to be especially well-represented.
 
The group's long-running efforts to retain smart students seem to be paying dividends; according to Campus Philly's research, 70 percent of Philadelphia-area college students with summer internships now stay in the region after graduation. 

Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Jen Devor, Campus Philly

Speaking at IgniteGood's Ignition Philly event last week, Dhairya Pujara demonstrated his mastery of the organization's narrative workshop, which helps participants develop storytelling skills and become better advocates. Pujara's story was clear and concise, and his connection with the audience was authentic.

It is that ability to reach people, and the value Pujara places on his experiences doing so, that prompted him to found Ycenter, a startup non-formal learning center offering international experiences.

Born and raised in India, Pujara came to the United States in 2010 to pursue a M.S. in biomedical engineering at Drexel University. After graduating, he traveled to Mozambique to work in a rural healthcare system for five months. There, Pujara realized how ill-prepared he was to use his engineering skills to solve real world problems. 

"My communication skills were challenged in this Portuguese-speaking war-torn country," says Pujara. "My first few weeks were very shocking and challenging. To collaborate with members in the rural community, I realized the need to understand and be a part of this culture. It didn't matter where I came from, my educational background or my intentions, until I set aside my ego and immersed myself in this new community." 

Pujara's experience taught him the importance of "rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty." After returning to Philadelphia from his time in Mozambique, Pujara developed the concept for Ycenter. 

"Traditional study abroad programs offered by universities are very academic in nature and very formal," he explains. "And then there are volunteer programs, which are not structured for attaining concrete learning objectives. Ycenter's non-formal learning program helps students supplement their formal field of studies and work on community impact projects internationally." 

Drexel Product Design Professor Mike Glaser and Dean of the School of Biomedical Engineering Banu Onaral helped give Pujara direction; Philly VIP connected him with pro-bono legal services from Dechert LLP. Students from Drexel, Temple and LaSalle have expressed interest in applying for the program.

Ycenter's biggest challenge has been raising capital, but Pujara is confident -- he plans to launch the startup's first immersive learning experience in March 2014.

Writer: Nicole Woods
Source: Dhairya Pujara, Ycenter

College students experiencing their first taste of freedom are a ripe market for emerging brands -- promoters scout campuses to hand out samples and parents purchase care packages to aid the transition. Co-Ed Supply, a company that launched at the end of July, combines these interests in curated shipped boxes targeted at students.
 
"We're really trying to reinvent the care package," says Marissa Hu, CEO and founder of Co-Ed Supply and a Wharton MBA. "We can create something of quality for all parties involved."
 
 
"We're making this a two-way street," says Hu. "It's a way to discover new products or brands."
Hu founded Co-Ed Supply with Andy Fortson while pursuing her MBA at Wharton. The company is currently in Cincinnati completing an incubator program at the Brandery; that organization provided their initial financing. They plan to return to Philly soon and hire in the coming months.

Source: Marissa Hu, Co-Ed Supply
Writer: Dana Henry

It's a big year for Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. The school is gaining a brand new twelve-story 177,500-square-foot building, launching an innovative student investment program and fostering the Dragon Fund, now one of the largest student-managed investment portfolios in the country.
 
The Fund -- which launched during the 2007 to 2008 school year with $250,000 from Drexel's Office of Endowment -- is managed by about 20 students enrolled in advanced finance classes. The group changes each academic quarter. Over the past five years, these student-analysts have earned over $200,000 in returns, despite the recession.
 
With additional contributions from the University, the fund now controls a record $1 million.
 
"It's very difficult to get experience in investment," says Daniel Dorn, associate professor of finance at LeBow. "Industries look for people with experience already. We wanted the students to get exposure."
 
To make the most of their gains, Lebow held ArchiTECH, a competition that paired students with faculty to develop best-uses for the new building. The winning team -- which included Dorn, Ed Nelling, a professor of finance, and David Hunt, a senior finance major-- created a program where student-analysts teleconference with investors from New York, Orlando and further abroad. They can also post their investments online for review by the broader finance community.

"We thought of ways to intensify this experience with industry," says Dorn. "We wanted to extend the classroom."

Such innovations are examples of "reverse mentoring," a new approach wherein students advise academics. "The Office of Endowment considers the Dragon Fund to be one of their investment managers," says Dorn. "It's the students who pitched their services to the university."
 
Source: Daniel Dorn, LeBow College of Business
Writer: Dana Henry

The Campus Philly Opportunity Fair, taking place June 20 at Penn's Houston Hall, isn't just about jobs. In addition to featuring over 40 of the region's largest and fastest growing companies -- including Bentley Systems, Monetate, Artisan and Urban Engineers -- the event will host local civic organizations and a series of workshops aimed at helping recent grads. The big picture goal: keeping students in Philadelphia.

The fair is free to anyone who graduated from college in the past five years. To develop a diverse roster, Campus Philly partnered with the City of Philadelphia and 29 local universities.

The idea for the fair was first conceived in 2008. At the height of the recession, they wanted to help graduates find local employment. The event has since evolved to meet the demands of a changing job market.

"Students often come to us not knowing where to start," says Ashlie Thornbury, director of career programs for Campus Philly. "They want to know who to talk to and how to get plugged-in."

Organizations like Generocity, Young Involved Philadelphia, the Mayor's Office of Civic Engagement and the Citizen's Planning Institute will encourage new grads to get involved with local issues. Workshops cover topics such as managing social media identity and developing career paths through volunteering. There will also be representatives from local graduate programs.

In the past five years, Philadelphia has experienced a population bump after fifty years of decline. Much of this incoming population has been under 30.  

"The Opportunity Fair a great way to showcase all that our region has to offer a recent graduate," says Thornbury. "Philadelphia has become a destination." 
 
Source: Ashlie Thornbury, Campus Philly
Writer: Dana Henry

When the GreenLight Fund, a Boston-based nonprofit network for children and families, decided it was time to expand, they searched nationally for the right city. After a year of research and many lengthy visits, they chose Philadelphia.
 
The fund has launched with $2.3 million dedicated to establishing two nonprofits -- Single Stop USA and Year Up -- in the region.
 
"A lot of it came down to where there was receptivity, where were folks excited about the model -- Philadelphia rose to the top of that process," says Matt Joyce, executive director of the GreenLight Fund Philadelphia. (Joyce works out of The Exchange, a coworking space for the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors recently profiled in Flying Kite).
 
To effect change on a local level, GreenLight works with community leadership to identify needs, then searches nationally for best-practice programs they can import. In Philadelphia, they met with members of city government, the Philadelphia Youth Network, the Philadelphia Education Fund, and the Community College of Philadelphia. From these discussions, college persistence and workforce development were identified as central issues for local youth.
 
The program is partially funded through the Social Innovation Fund, a federal program. Additional funding was provided by the William Penn Foundation, the Barra Foundation and the Bank of America Foundation.
 
GreenLight has operated in Boston since 2004, where they’ve established seven programs -- all are still operating and some have become independently sustainable.
 
"We were looking for an appetite for innovation and new ideas," says Joyce. "Among the folks we talked to, there was a lot of interest in trying to get some of the best ideas from around the country launched in Philadelphia."
 
Source: Matt Joyce, The Green Light Fund
Writer: Dana Henry

One of the hidden advantages of going to college in Philadelphia is accessibility to the local startup community. Practically every other week there’s a startup weekend, hackathon or Philly Startup Leaders (PSL) event.  
 
When Dias Gotama, an International Information Systems major at Drexel, started attending these events he was surprised to find there weren’t many other students. 

"An entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing really fast in Philadelphia," says Gotma. "A lot of events that happen aren’t well targeted to students -- they’re either really expensive or organizations don’t know how to reach students on a granular level."

Nvigor -- a student organization he cofounded with fellow Drexel student Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, a Penn student -- hopes to change that.

Students who sign up with Nvigor receive a list of events culled from the PSL listserv and Philly Startup Digest. Nvigor also helps organize student scholarships for pricey events such as Lean Startup Machine and Startup Weekend Health.
 
The group is working with the City's Office of New Urban Mechanics on a curriculum for students interested in civic-minded startups. In addition, they’re planning a Student Startup Conference for the upcoming Philly Tech Week.
 
Nvigor recently received sponsorship from Smart IMS -- they will pay for the group's membership at Culture Works, an organization that provides management resources and operational support. Eventually, Nvigor hopes to help students get part-time jobs or apprenticeships at emerging companies. They also plan to expand their services to suburban schools.
 
"If students come to these events, and they like them, word will spread about Philadelphia’s startup community," says Gotama. 

Source: Dias Gotama, Abhiroop Das and Pulak Mittal, Nvigor
Writer: Dana Henry

With the recent success of companies like Flyclops, Final Form and Cipher Prime, mobile game-making is carving a niche in the city's creative economy. Now the community needs a home-base -- enter Nathan Solomon, founder of Philadelphia Game Lab, a combination co-working space and incubator.
 
"Over the past ten years, with alternative distribution channels, the industry as a whole is much more interested in actual creative stuff," says Solomon. "Philadelphia's not in a really great position to pull together teams of over a hundred people, but we are in a really good position to pull together people who have technical expertise and creative drive, and want to make their own games."

The Lab will open its doors at 22nd and Walnut Streets in late March. It will admit small "teams" (usually two to six people) and skilled individuals seeking teams. In addition to benefiting from the networking and support that comes with a game-centric community, teams can better access capital via partnering funders. Opportunities for mentoring and a Quality Assurance (QA) Lab for beta testing are also in the works.
 
While shrinking startup costs have made the game app industry more accessible, the market is highly competitive. "You don’t need to find that special backer or special publisher anymore," says Solomon. "At the same time, it's really, really hard to make a good game."
 
The Lab will open with four teams and hopes to serve 12 teams total. Solomon says he’s also planning programs with local universities designed to expose students to game making as a vocation.
 
Source: Nathan Solmon, Philadelphia Game Lab
Writer: Dana Henry

Thanks to the limitless growth of open data, online organizing and open source software, civic participation has never been easier. Of course, while many Philadelphians engage with those virtual channels, few know how to build them.
 
Fortunately, South Philly's P'unk Avenue has launched an apprenticeship program to put purpose-driven urbanites on the fast track to technical competency. The web development shop -- whose recent clients include the Philadelphia School Partnership, PlanPhilly, The Food Trust, the Delaware River Waterfront Plan, the Conservation Center for Arts and Historical Artifacts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia -- is offering six months of real-world experience to nascent techies. They are currently considering applicants for May; a stipend is included.
 
"From the beginning [P'unk Ave] has always had that mindset of this being a place where people learn and grow," says founder Geoff DiMasi, a former multimedia professor at University of the Arts. "We’ve always been good at teaching people -- why not formalize that?"
 
P'unk Ave's "prototype" apprentice Joel Smith was teaching high school in South Jersey and seeking a career change before joining the company. He considered graduate school but wasn’t convinced it was the most efficient path.
 
"Literally, from the first day [of apprenticeship] I was building websites with a fair deal of autonomy," says Smith. "I was in an environment with professionals who were invested in my growth, but actually doing meaningful projects."
 
In addition to sharpening his code-writing skills, Smith has helped P'unk Ave compile a "cannon" of texts related to industry standards. DiMasi says he sees the apprenticeship becoming a signature of P'unk Ave while offering a gateway for passionate Philadelphians -- particularly minorities and women -- to join companies like his.
 
"You can teach people how to build a website, but you can’t teach them how to care about changing the world," he says.
 
Source: Geoff DiMasi, Joel Smith, P’unk Ave
Writer: Dana Henry

Drexel University has been making headlines as a leading innovator in higher education. In addition to launching the Center for Visual and Decision Informatics, the school spearheaded the ExCITe Center (featured in the December 4 issue of Flying Kite). Now they’re taking it a step further, announcing the foundation of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, slated to open in fall 2013. 

The curriculum has not been officially announced, but founding dean Dr. Donna DeCarolis says Close will put less emphasis on traditional business programing. Instead, the new school will stress actionable skills such as teamwork and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Students will develop expertise in a particular discipline -- whether it's engineering, science or the arts -- while building business know-how.

"It’s important in a very broad way that we teach our students how to be entrepreneurial in their personal and professional lives," says DeCarolis.

The Close School was founded with a $12.5 million endowment from the Charles and Barbara Close Foundation. It is one of the first freestanding schools devoted to entrepreneurship in the country. Close will offer incoming freshman a "living and learning community" where students dorm together and engage in venture-related activities. Sophomores and juniors can opt for an "entrepreneurship co-op," and receive funding and mentorship to work exclusively on their new enterprise.

Entrepreneurship, explains DeCarolis, is not just about starting a business. The ability to develop an idea and follow it through is increasingly valuable. Even within the corporate structure, today’s executives look to their employees for new ideas and a demonstrated ability to innovate.

It's also about flexibility. "Students that graduate today, by the time they're in their forties, will have had ten or so jobs," says DeCarolis. "Many of those jobs will be self-employment."

Source: Donna DeCarolis, Drexel's Close School of Entrepreneurship
Writer: Dana Henry

Students can make great entrepreneurs, but VenturePact—founded by Penn students Randy Rayess and Pratham Mittal—is proving they can also be wise investors. The emerging firm is releasing its first class of startups.
 
A few months ago, First Round Capital launched student investors with The Dorm Room Fund (featured in a December issue of Flying Kite), entrusting $500,000 worth of capital to undergrads. VenturePact, on the other hand, didn’t begin with major cash. The group invests technical handiwork -- building out the startup’s product -- in exchange for a fee and partial equity.
 
Development can be outsourced, but it’s tough for non-techies to evaluate quality: A product riddled with bugs can still look great on a screen. VenturePact’s "partnership" model changes the incentives.
 
"Now that we have equity stakes, we want to build the best possible businesses," explains Rayess. "We want to keep them and nurture them."
 
VenturePact received over fifty applications at inception, but accepted only three: Accompliss, an app that helps hotels connect with guests; AirCare, a video-based professional coordination app tailored to the healthcare industry; and Boupp, an app that helps the fashion industry consult with customers on emerging trends.
 
The new platforms will be maintained by Penn students, who will receive school credit through VenturePact’s fellowship program. Rayess expects to eventually offer incubation services to startups, connecting them to mentors, publicists and venture capitalists.
 
VenturePact received a significant publicity boost in September 2012, when First Round Capital CEO Josh Kopelman tweeted about them. They’ve since connected with the venture arms of IBM and General Electric, who expressed interest in sending incubated companies their way.

Source: Randy Rayess, VenturePact
Writer: Dana Henry

The seventh PennApps -- held January 18 through January 20 -- was the largest student-organized hackathon to date worldwide. Over 450 students from universities across the United States, Switzerland, Canada and Germany competed for cash prizes during the 40-hour app building session. On the final afternoon, Irvine Auditorium at 34th and Spruce Streets was packed, as the top twenty teams presented demos to students and national talent scouts.

"Team after team, for twenty straight teams, just killed it," says Pulak Mittal, a PennApps organizer and Penn junior studying computer science and business. "One of our goals as organizers is to put Penn on the map as a top ten technology school. The feedback and the experience of everyone at [the hackathon] indicate that that’s actually happening."

Amongst international contenders, Nop Jiarathanakul, a Penn graduate student in computer graphics engineering who worked solo during the hackathon, placed third for his project Web Tube. The hack is a lightning-speed web browser with an old-school TV monitor graphic interface.

Representatives from many of this year’s sponsors -- which included Microsoft, Yahoo, Venmo, Dropbox, Ebay, Facebook, First Round Capital, Kayak, The New York Times, Twillo, AppNexus, RedHat and Tumblr -- awarded their own prizes to Challenge teams. Winners from Penn were WebTube, Social Development and Urban Sustainability, Uncloseted, Enligne, OnShift, Skynet Command, and Beets.

Mittal says this semester’s PennApps broke the "mobile or web dichotomy" inherent to software hacks -- many teams produced hardware aimed at enhancing everyday objects including backpacks and bikes.

With several listings on Hacker League each week, hackathons have become a phenomenon. As Mittal points out, some hacks even go on to become startups--Firefly,Snapsite, and PayTango came from past PennApps. Traditional computer science education is valuable, he believes, but so is building.

"You see all these other ways technology is changing education," he says. "But I think education in the technology space might be changing dramatically as [hackatons] become something people go to consistently. It will be interesting to see what hackathons contribute in terms of people going into the industry. I’m glad to see PennApps at the forefront."

Source: Pulak Mittal, PennApps
Writer: Dana Henry