HIGHER ED TODAY
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, O 26 CT. 29-NOV. 4, 2021 BTR
KIDS & EDUCATION
Bronx students celebrate
On Oct. 15, visually impaired or
blind elementary and middle school
students from the New York Institute
for Special Education (NYISE)
celebrated White Cane Day during
a scavenger hunt on the campus
grounds. Students utilized their
white canes to lead them to different
areas of the scavenger hunt, and read
braille clues along the way to solve the
scavenger riddles.
White Cane Day has been nationally
observed in the United States since 1964
to celebrate the achievements of people
who are blind or visually impaired and
the important symbol of blindness and
tool of independence, the white cane.
The New York Institute for Special
Education, founded in 1831 as The
New York Institution for the Blind, is
one of the oldest and most respected
schools in the nation that provides
specialized services for children with
disabilities. Located in the Bronx
since 1924, NYISE provides quality
programs for more than 300 students
from New York City’s fi ve boroughs,
Westchester County and upstate
On Oct. 15, visually impaired or blind
elementary and middle school students
from the New York Institute for Special
Education celebrated White Cane Day.
White Cane Day has been nationally
observed in the United States since 1964 to
celebrate the achievements of people who
are blind or visually impaired.
New York, including more than 120
children from the Bronx, ages 3-5, who
attend its preschool.
On Oct. 15, 2021, visually impaired or blind elementary
and middle school students from
the New York Institute for Special Education
celebrated White Cane Day.
Photos courtesy Chris Busone
Visually impaired or blind students celebrate White Cane Day.
Researchers from the City University of
New York have developed a device that integrates
indoor navigation with augmented reality
to help emergency responders find their
way through poorly lit, potentially dangerous
spaces to evacuate people in danger.
The group of researchers, composed of
faculty, staff and a graduate student from The
City College of New York, Borough of Manhattan
Community College and the CUNY Office of
Research are currently refining the technology
that one day could save lives. Their invention
will be marketed as a smartphone app, providing
real-time maps and turn-by-turn navigation,
and eliminating the need for the costly
sensors and 3D scanners currently on the market.
The minds behind this exciting project received
training and funding from the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and are the beneficiaries
of CUNY’s decade-long push to provide
academic researchers with the acumen, resources
and networks needed to translate their
inventions into commercially viable ventures.
The thinking is that if CUNY’s brightest
scholars in the sciences, engineering and tech
can produce breakthroughs that address realworld
problems, their discoveries will have
multiple benefits — diversifying the STEM
workforce, establishing new pathways to employment
for our graduates and in turn, driving
a more equitable, inclusive economy.
CUNY’s focus on leveraging the creativity
of its research community can be seen in an array
of new university programs that advance
these goals to the benefit of society and our region’s
economic development.
City College recently won a $750,000 “Build
to Scale” grant from the U.S. Economic Development
Administration (EDA) to fund the
creation of the Center for Co-Innovation and
Medical Technology, which seeks to translate
product concepts to the marketplace through
the development of medical technologies that
address unmet clinical needs. The project,
which will bring many new STEM-related jobs
to Harlem, will also receive $750,000 in local
matching funds from City College and a philanthropic
donor.
The same enterprising spirit can be seen in
the Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s summer
announcement to bring its Blackstone
LaunchPad entrepreneurship and skill-building
program to nine CUNY colleges, a $6 million
commitment to support career mobility.
Students will receive resources and guidance
to expand their mentorship networks, enabling
them to pursue job opportunities and create
their own start-ups.
Leading the Push
And notably, starting in January, CUNY
will oversee the New York Region Innovation
Corps (I-Corps) Hub, an exciting, $15 million
federally-funded program established by the
NSF to provide entrepreneurial training and
mentoring to diverse academic researchers.
The award is the largest the NSF has ever conferred
to CUNY and will allow these inventors
to develop their scientific and engineering discoveries
into products and build the enterprises
needed to bring them into the marketplace.
The New York Region I-Corps Hub has a related
objective: giving our brightest minds the
guidance they need to bring their innovations
out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.
Through it, CUNY will lead a consortium
of eight local colleges that includes Columbia
University and New York University, which
will work together to identify product opportunities
and spearhead the creation of student-
and faculty-run startups that address realworld
concerns.
Working in teams, guided by industry professionals
and buoyed by seed money from the
NSF, faculty and student researchers will work
to identify promising product opportunities
and form start-up ventures to commercialize
them. CUNY will oversee approximately 30 ICorps
teams after the program launches.
The I-Corps Hub will enable faculty and
graduate student researchers like those who
produced the indoor navigation system to
sharpen their technological discovery, scale
its production and bring it to market. Their experience
illustrates the I-Corps program’s immense
value.
Initially, they conceived the technology as
a tool to help the blind and visually impaired,
but a seven-week I-Corps workshop last spring
guided them through a rigorous process of customer
discovery, which showed a limited market
for such a product. Through more than 100
interviews with architects, building managers,
construction workers and firefighters, however,
they determined their product could fill a great
need for safe navigation by emergency responders.
The inventors adapted the technology and
it is being piloted at 10 sites across New York
State. They are now seeking a patent.
It’s a great example of our work to harness
the ingenuity of CUNY’s community, and to expand
access and support for entrepreneurs at
a time when their innovations can be vital to
our region’s pandemic recovery and long-term
growth.
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