Stevens Honors Students at Fourth Annual Founder’s Day

Hoboken, NJ, February 18, 2011 --(PR.com)-- As Stevens Institute of Technology celebrated its Fourth annual Founder’s Day on February 16th, the university did not simply commemorate the achievement of alumni and professors. It also honored the ideas of hard-working, innovative students, the lifeblood of any university. An awards ceremony for the winners of Stevens first Ideation campaign saw four student receive iPads for their campus-changing ideas, so that as Stevens remembered past achievement, it also turned to those with the greatest potential for innovation today: Stevens students.

As part of the Ideation campaign using ID8 Systems software, students were asked, “How can Stevens improve the student-faculty experience?” Original, innovative answers poured in as students proposed their best and brightest plans. Ideas were shared in a virtual stock market, in which any participant could launch an idea with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) or buy or trade stock in other proposals. Overall the market featured 187 ideas, more than 7,000 trades, and more than 1,200 comments by 800-plus members.

Three ideas floated to the top, and the administration is working with the Student Faculty Alliance to implement them. The students behind the ideas also received iPads. They will be honored along with their “investors” in a dinner held Tuesday, February 22. “The campaign proved that students have bright ideas for the school, and at Stevens, have a voice,” said Dr. George Korfiatis, Provost and Interim President.

The winning ideas:
Kathryn Gardiner and Timothy Ryan proposed Hands-On Recitation Classes that encourage interaction through discussion, practice problems, and group work to better understand the subject. Sean Donovan suggested a Course-Study Database that helps people to more easily schedule classes and study-groups. David Dewan pitched The EZ Scheduler, software that will make course scheduling easier.

Kathryn and Timothy said they were excited to see that their idea was being implemented. “This is something that affects every Stevens student. It can truly make a difference across the board,” Timothy, a Biomedical Engineering major, said. “It’s better when you can go over the information on a personal basis with a professor to understand.”

“Having people bid money on our idea was very rewarding,” Kathryn, an Art and Technology major, said. “It was a great encouragement. It’s one thing to have a great idea, but when people are investing in it, you realize that you really have something great.”

“And the iPad was nice enticement as well,” Timothy added.

Kyle Yandell ’11, a member of the Student Faculty Alliance, said the organization was very pleased with the results of the ideation campaign. “SFA took an interest in it because we saw that it was an excellent way to facilitate communication between the students and the faculty. This level of communication is truly unprecedented. We’ve never had this many students able to get their ideas to people that can actually make a difference and see that they are implemented on campus,” Kyle said.

“I would attribute the program’s success to the fact that for a long time, for Stevens entire history, students have had brilliant ideas, ideas that they could use to make a difference on campus. With this, a good idea will catch the eyes of the right people. I think a lot of students really responded to that, and that’s where the interest came from.”

About ID8 Systems:
ID8 Systems, a company spun off from Stevens Enterprise and Development and Licensing, provided the software for undergraduates to launch a virtual stock market of ideas to improve the University. The company was founded by Stevens own Dr. Peter Koen of the Howe School of Technology Management. Five Stevens students worked on marketing and implementing the ID8 campaign as part of their Senior Design project: Corey Lee, Marc Weisi, Daniel Riggle, Robert Bishop, and Arik Zeevy.

Investor Award Winners:
Takahiro Akiyama, Lisa Anderson, Shaun Anyi, Harinder Bawa, Suraj Bawa, Nicholas Barresi, Jason Benensky, Nicholas Berrios, Randall Bishop, Robert Bishop, Kyle Blanco, Nicholas Bowman, Christopher Bramble, Jason Brouhard, Michael Cahill, Lawrence Chan, Christopher Corrado, James Coyle, Chelsea Cresci, Charles Cronin, LiAna Curry-DeSalas, Cody Curtiss, David DeWan, Steven DiPaola, Rushabh Doshi, Sean Donovan, Kristine Du, George Ebinger, Adam Elewa, Nicholas Fanelli, Christopher Fairfield, Christine Feiner, Daniel Fleming, Mikayla Floyd, Kathryn Gardiner, Kenneth Gerdes, Matthew Glassman, Matthew Goczalk, Joseph Gombar, Lorenzo Grompone, Elizabeth Hagan, Neal Hasrajani, Stephen Hayes, Norman Horing, Jessie Huff, Rita Jackson, Jenny Jean, Allison Kahn, Kyle Kampo, Maximilian Katz, Kevin Kennedy, Christopher Khalayleh, Ryan Kiczek, Anthony Kosaka, Andrew Lalli, Jonathan Landis, Gregory Langton, Timothy Laverick, Evan Lewis, Vincent Lipoma, Alex Lon, Clara Luneke, Brandon Ma, Olivia Maffei, Mahdi Masri, Bruce McNair, Sean McNamara, Hamza Mohamed, Amith Nayak, Matthew Neuteboom, Vania Nettleford, Monica Ng, Evan O’Connor, Dylan Ozyjowski, Jeffrey Padham, Eric Palmer, Dharm Patel, Amrita Patnaik Caroline Pawalowski, Maickel Peck, Alexander Pollara, Yevgeniy Polunin, Matthew Prestia, Regina Pynn, William Reilly, Paul Rochette, Mathew Rower, Larry Russ, Timothy Ryan, Raphael Salas, Jonathan Samuel, Matthew Schettino, Justin Schneider, Kaitlyn Schnellbacher, Matthew Sherman, Shobi Sivadasan, Jeffrey Scott, Eric Shaw, Richard Soni, Christopher Sorrentino, Jennifer Souka, Doug Stewart, Clair Strom, Richard Szeliga, David Thielke, Robert Truppner, Steven Tufaro, Justin Ure, Bradley Warren, Marc Weisi, Andrew West, Michael Whalen, John Wright, Justin Yandell, Daniel Zambrano.

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