On a recent Friday morning, a group of about 20 people sat in a classroom at Ulster BOCES to learn about three seemingly unrelated topics: robots, patents and BOCES itself.
It was the monthly meeting of the Institute of Business Innovation, a networking organization of representatives from various industry sectors who regularly get together to share knowledge. The group consists of leaders from 12 sectors, including manufacturing, finance, health care and tourism. Vincent Cozzolino, the group”™s executive director, provided an example of the type of cross-fertilization that occurs: One member from a nonprofit organization for special-needs children learned about the techniques of “lean manufacturing” from another member and is now applying the concept at the nonprofit to improve efficiency.
Andres Fortino, associate provost of Brooklyn-based Polytechnic University, started the meeting with a presentation on patents. After outlining the types of products, creative works and services that qualify for some type of protection, be it a patent, trademark, copyright or trade dress (which applies to product shapes, such as a Coke bottle), he noted that protection is always advisable when “copying brings you harm.” However, in some cases, knock-offs and imitations can actually be valuable. Prada handbags, for example, are so expensive they”™re not mass marketed, but the proliferation of look-alikes actually helps publicize the brand.
Some artists and companies give away their creations to build appeal, such as musicians who distribute their music free over the Internet and a technology firm sharing the details of its software in the public domain, to help create demand for its products. For example, Sun Microsystems “gave away Netscape so that people would buy the server,” said Fortino.
Dr. Leah Akins, department head of engineering, architecture and computer technologies at Dutchess Community College (DCC), followed with a PowerPoint presentation of a robotics education program for youths initiated by a New Hampshire-based organization called For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST. Participating teams of elementary and high school kids work on a specifically themed project and then compete with peers at a tournament held in a stadium or other exciting sportslike setting.
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Lego connection
In February, DCC is hosting the region”™s first local Lego league tournament, which is for elementary school children. This year”™s theme is “power puzzle” (last year it was nanotechnology). The goal is to teach kids how energy is made, stored, used, consumed, and the waste disposed of.
Using a robot, each team installs solar panels, connects power lines, replaces an SUV with a small car and does other energy-related tasks on a playing board. The kids also select a building in their community for an energy audit and talk to experts about ways to make it more energy efficient. Finally, they build a model related to their project out of Legos interlocking plastic blocks and design an accompanying poster.
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Each team requires a robot, software and a coach. The total cost, including the registration fee, is about $700. IBM has sponsored six teams on its campus, but for the most part FIRST is new to the valley. Akins said recently teams have been established at the Arlington and Wappingers school districts, in both cases with paid coaches. Almost all the teams are at middle schools.
“I”™d like to see every school district have a program,” Akins said. Businesses can get involved by providing financial support, offering a building for the energy audit, providing volunteer coaches, or helping out at the upcoming tournament at DCC Feb. 2.
Akins said participating students have a blast, and FIRST has an excellent track record: Participants tend to major in science or engineering in college and are more likely to do internships. An inner-city school in Cleveland that was slated to close instead became a science-engineering magnet school after FIRST was launched there. Nationally, more than 32,500 high school students have participated.
“This is a big play for the Hudson Valley,” said Cozzolino. “We need help in getting the word out and finding companies to sponsor it.”
Howard Korn, Ulster County BOCES director of career and technical education and adult services, made the third presentation, an overview of the programs at his institution. He generated sympathetic nods as he described the necessity of teaching reading, writing, math and communications courses in the career-training programs, plus more basic skills like time management. “Kids don”™t have the skills to show up on time,” he said.
BOCES offers a literacy program for adults (many of them English as a second language students); 25 career programs; and continuing education, which Korn said was “very lucrative. The money we make helps support the school district.”
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New skills
The biggest career program is health care, including classes in nursing, surgical technology and dental assistance. Other specialties are computer design, aviation (taught on a flight simulator), cosmetology, criminal justice, early childhood education, and several trades, including carpentry, electrical and welding. Korn noted technology has changed the skill sets of vocational training: auto mechanic students, for example, now need to take courses in science and electronics.
High-achieving students can participate in an off-campus program called New Visions, which covers the fields of journalism and communications, visual and performing arts, health care (which is the only competitive program), education and legal services.
The Ulster facility supports eight school districts and has 1,150 students. Thirty-three percent are special-education kids, and 46 percent of the student body reads below the ninth-grade level. “They come in the door as 11th-graders, and half are deficient in reading, language and math,” Korn said.
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However, he said after the first year, “88 percent read at about the ninth grade ”¦ our kids do well with the Regents.”
Korn said one of the outstanding features of Ulster County BOCES is the high degree of individual instruction. “It”™s a hands-on approach,” he said. Students get “guidance from occupational specialists.” BOCES also has “a great partnership” with SUNY Ulster, with some students dually enrolled. He said Ulster”™s BOCES was part of a 12-center consortium rated among the top five BOCES in the nation. Enrollment is up, and the ESL program in particular has grown and expanded.
The group then took a tour of the facilities. A supervisor in the cavernous garagelike space where students learn industrial trades said one project was designing portable housing for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
The tour also visited the new lab for photovoltaics, where classes on solar energy systems and their installation are held. Almost 200 people have participated in the 40-hour program, many of them homeowners and some coming from as far away as Delaware, New Jersey and Puerto Rico.
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