The LaunchPad is part of a connected regional innovation ecosystem that includes a wide variety of collaborators. We work together to grow the entrepreneurial climate in Central New, and assist companies launch and scale. Here are the partners and a quick look at events this month.

Blackstone LaunchPad @ SU
Community Engagement @ SU
CNY Biotech Accelerator
CNY TDO
InSourcing
Launch NY
MACNY
MedTech
NYS Science & Tech Law Center @ SU
Onondaga SBDC
South Side Innovation Center
SU Falcone Center
SUNY ESF
SyracuseCoE
Syracuse CoWorks
Syracuse SBA
Syracuse SCORE
The Tech Garden
Upstate Venture Connect
WISE

June 10, 10 a.m. to noon

From:  The Tech Garden and Barclay Damon, Camoin Associates, Bousquet Holstein, BIANYS and program co-host, CenterStateCEO

Opportunity Zone Panel Discussion at The Tech Garden held prior to the BIANYS Meeting

Free – register through The Tech Garden, BIANYS or CNYBAC

June 11, 16 and 30, times vary

From:  Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Business Competition

Interactive webinar that reviews the Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Business Competition, including application process, prizes and competition specifics. Contact Rena Scroggins at rrs23@cornell.edu

Free – register at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grow-ny-virtual-information-session-tickets-62655374913

June 11, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

From: MedTech Propelling New York Forward

Zoom: Moving New York Pause to New York Forward with Matt Watson, Sr. VP of Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology & Innovation

Free – register at:  https://www.medtech.org/events/show/propelling-new-york-forward-moving-from-new-york-pause-to-new-york-forward-657

June 17, 11 a.m. to noon

From:  The Tech Garden and the Syracuse University Innovation Law Center

Webinar:  Intellectual Property Overview from the SU Innovation Law Center

Free – Register at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-intellectual-property-overview-from-the-su-innovation-law-center-tickets-105244806048

Build4Scale NY will host a webinar workshop June 8 from 1 pm. to 2 p.m. on the FuzeHub Build4Scale NY program and how it can assist and grow start-ups and small companies. Our live workshops provide key insight into difficult production issues and offer useful tools to help companies avoid common design and production pitfalls, as well as how to save costs.

Build4Scale™ is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Energy and the NY program is administered by FuzeHub, a not-for-profit organization that connects the state’s small and mid-sized manufacturing companies to the resources, programs and expertise they need for technology commercialization, innovation and business growth.  It helps companies navigate New York’s robust network of industry experts at Manufacturing Extension Partners (MEP) centers, universities, economic development organizations and other providers. FuzeHub is the statewide New York MEP center, supported by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology & Innovation (NYSTAR).

The June 8 workshop will help participants learn:

• An overview of Fuzehub’s Build4Scale program and its membership benefits.
• Key exercises about how to lower costs using BOM and BOP.
• How to optimize product design using Design for X and Lean Design principles.
• How to use these strategies together to create a successful business plan.

Learn more and register here.

Join Syracuse University alumnus Mike Gursha for a Fireside Chat via Zoom Wednesday, June 10 at 3 p.m. to informally talk about “startup life” — from building a team and company culture, to finding smart partners and smart money.  The event, which is part of a series of “Tea Talks” in partnership with The Republic of Tea, is open to the community.  The Zoom link is here.

Gursha will be sharing his perspective as chairman and CEO of Portland based Rookie Road, Inc., a one of a kind digital destination that provides the rules, lingo, and gameplay for a variety of sports in an easy to understand way. He became CEO in 2016 after serving as a special advisor to the founder.

Before Joining Rookie Road, Inc., Gursha was appointed as the inaugural entrepreneur-in-residence at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, one of the nation’s top schools of communications. At Newhouse, Gursha worked with students, faculty & staff on entrepreneurship & innovation, lectured at Newhouse and other schools on Syracuse University’s campus and helped administration/senior leadership with new strategic ideas around innovation. He also co-taught a course called New Ventures in Media.

Prior to Newhouse, Gursha was the vice president of strategic initiatives at Curemark, LLC, a New York-based biotechnology company focused on the treatment of neurological disorders. Gursha was one of the initial team members at Curemark and, over the years, held various positions with the company, including director of business development.

Earlier in his career, Gursha’s interest in technology led him to Google, where, at age 18, he spent two summers working in the new business development group at the Mountain View, California headquarters. During his time there, he assisted the team responsible for improving the Google Search Index and supported the director of business development on early-stage partnerships for Google Health. He also spent several months at Time Inc. Home Entertainment, working on new product development for major brands such as People, InStyle, Sports Illustrated & Time magazine.

Gursha serves on the board of directors for America On Tech a non-profit focused on technology education. He also serves of the board of directors of the contemporary art council for the Portland Art Museum and is a member of the Whitman School of Management’s advisory council at Syracuse University. In addition, he serves on the board of directors for PowerSpike, a private venture backed company started by Syracuse University alumni and incubated in the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at Syracuse University. 

Gursha is interested in mentoring other SU student startups.

Gursha graduated Magna Cum Laude from Syracuse University in 2010 with a dual degree from both the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. He got his entrepreneurial start as a student when he won Whitman’s Panasci Business Plan Competition for Dream Water, a sleep-aid beverage to improve quality of sleep.

When the Blackstone LaunchPad first opened its doors in April 2016, one of their first student ventures was Thrive which grew into a nonprofit focused on providing portable energy solutions and sustainability education in Nepal.  It was co-founded by international relations student Brian Kam (’16 Maxwell) with economics and policy studies student Ryan Brinkerhoff (’16 Maxwell) and biology student Joshua Moon (’16 Arts and Sciences). Four years later, the team is still working with the LaunchPad, now as alumni mentors, and sharing their story with others interested in impact entrepreneurship.

Thrive’s story began in January 2016, half a year after Kam spent a summer doing relief work in Nepal in the wake of a devastating earthquake.  Inspired to do more, he enlisted his friends Brinkerhoff and Moon, and walked into the LaunchPad with help becoming incorporated, getting federal charitable status, creating a business model and raising seed funds to launch their first pilot project in Nepal.

Since graduation, Thrive has grown into a mission-driven nonprofit that created many sustainability and workforce development projects working with high schools, colleges and community groups in Nepal to create concrete impact.  Thrive’s renown and reputation for success has grown so much that they have been included in an academic journal as a case study this past year. Socio-Tech Innovation: Harnessing Technology for Social Good, is an academic journal studying successful models of entrepreneurship and technological innovation for social good.  Headed by The New School, a university in New York City with a strong emphasis in social research and pioneering paths, this book features successful social ventures, for example Thrive, in order to analyze the steps and factors of creating long-lasting, impactful companies for social good.

Thrive was first approached to publish in this journal when Kam, Brinkerhoff, and Moon were invited to attend the First International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship hosted at King’s College in Kathmandu, Nepal.  They hosted a presentation and sat on a panel surrounding their work in Nepal after the massive 2015 earthquake struck Nepal which caused widespread devastation.  The Thrive team ended up spending years supporting communities in Nepal in the rebuilding and aftermath of the tragedy.  The project was of great interest at the conference.

A professor from India, intrigued and impressed by Thrive’s work, approached the team and invited them to write a case study in the upcoming Socio-Tech Innovation journal. After spending a year and half writing their observations about the needs and developments in Nepal and Thrive’s work in addressing them, the case study underwent a peer review process by professors gathered from universities across the world and was accepted into the book with only a single edit.

One of the major themes of the book is how social ventures successfully scale-up, as sustained growth can be a significant problem for nonprofits or social companies. Brinkerhoff identifies this problem as having little room to fail for non-profits. If for-profits fail to meet their goals, they generally still have some amount of money from sales to work from and can maneuver enough to survive.  When nonprofits undertake charitable projects that are not successful, they can only rely on their donors and collaborative partners to try again. “The primary challenge is to generate funding,” said Brinkerhoff.

He credits Thrive’s ability to scale-up in part due to the business competitions the LaunchPad hosted, as well as their success at the New York State Business Plan Competition, and the team’s commitment to partner with other nonprofits to undertake their projects.

The team attributes the journey of Thrive from a small startup to a company invited to participate in an international conference and publish in an academic journal to their business model of engaging local Nepali communities in their work.  Too often, nonprofits bring to a community or country that needs assistance a concrete plan of the needed solution and how to distribute it in that area. However, nonprofits often fail to recognize that one solution will not work the same across different communities, because different areas have unique problems and needs; and that humans don’t want to simply be handed products to fix their lives but they actually want to be engaged and play a role in transforming their community.

The current model many nonprofits take of independently designing a solution and doling it out where they see problems can often result in tensions and resentment across communities and fail to adequately address or mitigate problems. 

Thrive realized that their products and solutions needed to be tailored individually to each community and seeks to do that by partnering with educators and researchers in each area they work in to ensure their solutions are effectively implemented. “Social entrepreneurship needs to realize that the first instinct isn’t the best way to do it. It is about learning as much as you teach, and always being open to doing things differently,” said Brinkerhoff.

Thrive’s path from an idea to help Nepal to an impactful nonprofit featured in a book studying successful social innovation is one that speaks to the dedication of Kam, Brinkerhoff, and Moon in truly understanding community’s needs and implementing helpful solutions. Their drive and path to truly helping others is one that showcases a successful and modern model for social entrepreneurship.

The team has currently put a pause on their work in Nepal to focus on professional development.  Kam just completed a nursing degree at the University of Rochester, Brinkerhoff just finished his second year of law school at Rutgers and Moon just completed his Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) and is in the process of starting medical school.  The goal is to take their Thrive experience and put to work in the areas of public policy, public health, and global initiatives – putting their academic foundations and entrepreneurial experiences to work.

They continue to be active members of the LaunchPad as members of the Founder’s Circle, and as mentors.

Story by LaunchPad Global Media Fellow Claire Howard

Kathryn Ruscitto G’91 (Maxwell) and Elizabeth Ruscitto G ’12 (iSchool) and ’07 (Whitman) will join the LaunchPad for a conversation called “Leading In” about women trailblazing their personal and professional journey.  The interactive chat on Wednesday, May 27 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. is the next in our popular “Tea Talk” series in partnership with The Republic of Tea.  The mother and daughter are both  SU graduates and accomplished leaders in their respective fields, sharing perspectives across generations.  Both have built mission-driven and diverse organizations in their respective areas of expertise, with a focus on innovation.  Both are also actively engaged mentors to Syracuse University startups.  The conversation is open to the public via this Zoom link.

Kathryn Ruscitto is a graduate of the Maxwell School in Public Administration at SU and received her bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Le Moyne College.  Her career has included not for profits, government, and as CEO of St. Josephs Health, a system of 5,000 employees with an annual budget in excess of $800 million.  She led investments to revitalize the community, a strategy to join Trinity the second largest U.S. health system, and a $750 million construction project to create a state-of-the art green patient tower.

She is a founding board member and chair of grants for the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, a $4 billion dollar foundation investing in improving the social determinants of health care. In addition, she has helped launch the CNY Lyme and Tick Borne Disease Alliance, and is a Chair of the Board of View Arts.  Over the years she has served as a board member of local and national health care and philanthropic organizations.  She is a LaunchPad mentor, advising a number of student startups.

In the third age of her life she is focused on acting as an advisor, board leader and advocate for emerging leaders.  “The most important contribution I can now make is opening doors for emerging leaders,” she says. 

Elizabeth Ruscitto is the owner of Elizabeth Ruscitto Consulting, based in Boston and the San Francisco Bay area.  She is a technical executive with 15 years of experience in building and scaling global software, hardware, and community programs.  As a seasoned leader, she has created mission-driven, cross-functional teams with a strong sense of culture and meaningful growth. She was previously director of Developer Relations at HubSpot and Director of Developer Programs and Platform Integrations at Leap Motion.  She has also been a facilitator for Techstars’ Startup Weekend globally.

Elizabeth got her launch in the startup world as a Syracuse University student, where she was employee number one and the community program manager for the Student Sandbox when it launched in 2010.  She was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Student Sandbox and was the co-founder of the original IDEA Connect Board at Syracuse University while pursuing her M.S. at the iSchool.  

Since graduating from Syracuse, Elizabeth has helped companies build communities with more than 3.5 million members through thoughtful brand stories, servant leadership, and global-first program creation. Her expertise is in community development, growth and behavior models, scaling developer ecosystems, product go-to-market strategies, and accelerator program development.

Tea Talks are virtual fireside chats, structured like good conversations over a cup of tea with thought leaders on topics related to innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. The LaunchPad at Syracuse University is pleased to present these conversations in partnership with The Republic of Tea.

If you’re missing campus and want to keep your creative juices flowing this summer we have a solution. The LaunchPad is offering its first ever free virtual Summer Startup accelerator program to keep you connected to campus and be part of the innovation community. From June 15 through July 20 you can participate in a self-paced virtual accelerator program, culminating in an Innovation Showcase the week of July 27. You’re a perfect candidate if you want to work on a team of like-minded innovators and creatives, meet amazing mentors and explore ideas that solve problems through entrepreneurial solutions. It’s six weeks of fantastic fun, meeting great people, and working on something exciting together.

The program is open to all SU students — whether you have an idea that you want to accelerate, or wish you had one and want to work on a high-performance team. Here’s how it works:

1. Apply to participate by e-mailing the LaunchPad at LaunchPad@syr.edu
2. If you are working on an idea, tell us what skill sets you are looking for in team members.
3. If you don’t have an idea, but want to be part of a team, tell us about your skills sets.
4. We’ll help make matches and build great teams.
5. Meetup virtually and get to work, learning things that aren’t always taught in classrooms. We’ll guide you through the rest with top notch industry and alumni mentors, and a roadmap to help get you to a showcase project or venture idea.
6. Participate in team mentor matchmaking and fun group social events.
7. Apply for mini-grants to help jumpstart the best team ideas.
8. Pitch your work in an Innovation Showcase to industry experts and investors.
9. Get noticed and create a terrific resume building experience.
10. Earn a “Summer Startup” certificate of completion that you can promote across social media to celebrate the very cool thing you did this summer.

The program will run side-by-side with a LaunchPad Summer Startup program with Techstars and the LaunchPad at Syracuse University. You’ll also be able to virtually participate in some of that programming as well, getting double impact.

Best of all, the program is self-paced, helping you make it work on your schedule.

Don’t miss this opportunity. Applications will close Friday, June 5. E-mail us now: LaunchPad@syr.edu

Take five minutes and help us learn about student views on entrepreneurship in this quick survey Your responses will help the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars network understand the challenges you experience and your thoughts as the next generation of American entrepreneurs. This is an anonymous survey and the LaunchPad network is interested in hearing from student entrepreneurs to share with leaders, policy makers and the larger entrepreneurship community. Find the survey link here

Quinn King ’20 (VPA Industrial and Interaction Design) has been selected by Whipsaw for its first national senior showcase featuring the top 10 industrial design students in the U.S. from the class of 2020.  They will present their senior projects to a group of top industrial design professionals, firms and academics.  Participating universities nominated one senior project that stood out for its bold vision and originality. The works being featured in this event will give a sampling of what’s to come in the next generation of 2020s design.  King was nominated by the School of Design to represent Syracuse University for his work on a military grade wearable intravenous delivery system he developed for his startup, MedUX, a LaunchPad venture.

The esteemed group of panelists includes Whipsaw CEO Dan Harden, IDSA San Francisco Chapter President Basak Altan, IDEO Cofounder Mike Nuttall, Head of Global Customer Experience Design at Amazon Nasahn Sheppard, and Manta Product Development Co-Owner and VP of Design Betsy Goodrich.  The event is Thursday, May 21 from 5 – 7 p.m.

Whipsaw is a product design, user experience, and engineering consulting firm with studios in San Francisco and San Jose, California that creates solutions that connect with users on both rational and emotional levels. Since its founding in 1999, over 800 Whipsaw-designed products have shipped to market in many industries for startups to international corporations.

King co-founded MedUX with Alec Gillinder ’20 (VPA Industrial and Interaction Design) and are both LaunchPad Rubin Family Innovation Mentors.  In addition to being one of the highest performing ventures in the LaunchPad program these past two years, they were accomplished design students.  Now, at the conclusion of a demanding five-year degree program they recently graduated and are pursuing the prototype the developed through the Invent@SU program and turned into a startup venture at the LaunchPad. 

They have been widely recognized by the university for their accomplishments and featured in many Syracuse University publications.  Among their accomplishments as student entrepreneurs:

• Winners of Invent@SU Competition
• Winners of the Impact Prize Competition
• Winners of the Panasci Business Plan Competition, Whitman School of Management
• Winners of the Syracuse University ACC InVenture Prize Competition
• Second place national winners of the ACC InVenture Prize national competition at NC State
• Winners of the ‘Cuse Tank Competition
• Winners of the Upstate NY Global Student Entrepreneurship Competition
• Finalists in the nationals of the Global Student Entrepreneurship Competition
• Winners of the Medical Device Challenge by the CNY Biotech Accelerator at Upstate Medical University
• Participants in the Blackstone LaunchPad Techstars Propel Program
• Selected as Rubin Family Innovation Mentors at the LaunchPad

Together, they built a product roadmap and business model, and worked diligently through the LaunchPad’s investment ready process, working with investors, strategic partners and customers.  They built a first-class team of advisors who are committed to helping them bring this to market.  They used their prize winnings as non-dilutive equity to finalize their designs, file two provisional patents, and a non-provisional patent, manufacture samples in partnership with an upstate company, hire a FDA consultant, and enter into conversations with distributors on a path to market.  They are actively engaged with conversations with European partners on how to enter the military market. 

Step up your entrepreneurial game this Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23 at the New York Business Plan Competition conference and awards ceremony. Nine Syracuse University teams made it to the main stage for the finals, but there are several ways all student startups from across New York State can get involved this weekend and make top-notch connections.

Here is the agenda for Friday, May 22:
8 a.m. – 1 p.m. – NYBPC mentorship
1 p.m – 3 p.m. – Workshops
3 p.m. – NYBPC Finals Presentation
4:30 p.m. – Winners Announced
5 p.m. – Structured Networking

Here is the agenda for Saturday, May 23:
8 a.m. – 8 p.m. – NYBPC mentorship

For a detailed agenda, go to https://www.nybpc.org

Here’s are some free ways to engage with top startups, investors, industry experts and mentors from across NYS.

Learn from the best:
Register here for NYBPC workshops from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders from a variety of industries and specialties. You can listen, interact, and learn from panelists. Learn more about the workshops and speakers here. Free tickets are available, and you can attend for free when you register here. Topics include:
• Supporting a Medtech Startup
• How to Launch a Drone Startup
• The Power of Customer Discovery: An I-Corps Program Discussion
• Building a Product-Based Start-up
• Finding the Right Incubator
• Raising Venture Capital
• Leveraging America’s Seed Fund: Using the SBIR and STTR Programs

Sign up for one-on-one mentor matching: Networking facilitated by matchmaking software will match you with people who share your interests. You’ll meet business professionals, investors, and mentors who want to meet you! We’re helping you make meaningful connections at New York Business Plan Competition by facilitating connections with people who are currently doing what you want to do. Register here.

Celebrate the winners: Across 50+ colleges and universities all over New York, professors coach, program directors advise, and business leaders mentor students around innovative solutions to all kinds of challenges. See who will win after over 500 students statewide competed for a chance to be in the finals. Eighty-eight teams moved on to the finals and now only six first-place winners and one grand prize winner are left. Awards announcements are 3 p.m. on Friday, May 22. Register to watch here.

The Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at Syracuse University is proud to be an event sponsor, and to have hosted the Compete CNY regional qualifier for the state plan. Of the 88 teams that made it to the finals, 9 are from Syracuse University, one from LeMoyne and one from Colgate in Central New York. They include:

Technology and Entertainment
• Amabassadoor, Bruno Gonzalez Hauger (’21 Whitman), Syracuse University
• Girl Power, Nancy Wang (’20 Whitman), Syracuse University

Consumer Products and Services
• FSCL, Sam Hollander (’23 Whitman), Syracuse University
• Finger Lakes Drone Services, Luke Didion, LeMoyne College

Energy and the Environment
• EcoBamboo Living, Justin Diaz (’23 Engineering and Computer Science), Syracuse University
• CLOVO, Megan Martis, Colgate University

Health and Well Being
• Visos, Matt Shumer (’22 Whitman), Syracuse University
• PAANI, Nikita Chatterjee (’20 Maxwell) and Brianna Howard (’20 Falk), Syracuse University

Military and First Responders:
• Youth Government Services, Daniel McMurray (’19 and G ’20 Maxwell), Syracuse University

An innovative, interdisciplinary program focused on inclusive entrepreneurship and design is being offered for the 2020-21 academic year in a partnership of the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars (LaunchPad) at Syracuse University Libraries, the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education (InclusiveU) and the  College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) through a generous donation by Gianfranco Zaccai ’70 H’09 and the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence (Intelligence++). The program will provide new courses open for fall enrollment and will culminate in a design and entrepreneurship competition with $30,000 in prizes.

The inclusive entrepreneurship and design course, DES 400-600, is taught by Don Carr, professor in VPA’s School of Design, with support from Beth Myers, assistant professor of inclusive education in the School of Education and executive director of the Taishoff Center, and Linda Dickerson-Hartsock, adjunct faculty member in the Whitman School and executive director of the LaunchPad.

With an emphasis on interdisciplinary and collaborative innovation, the two-semester program is available as an elective to both undergraduate and graduate students from any school or college at Syracuse University, including students with intellectual disability from InclusiveU. It will be taught in the LaunchPad at Bird Library.

“The Libraries is a central hub for the campus community, providing the environment to utilize research and create new information,” says David Seaman, dean of Syracuse University Libraries and University librarian. “Hosting this program at the LaunchPad will not only infuse innovative thinking but will provide the tools and resources to bring great ideas to fruition and market.”

This flagship program is made possible through the support of the Zaccai Foundation for Augmented Intelligence, founded by Gianfranco Zaccai. The Zaccai Foundation seeks to develop, stimulate and leverage technological, educational and organizational innovation to enable and empower individuals with intellectual disability, their families and their communities to improve quality of life, enhance independence and productivity, lower cost and benefit society.

Zaccai, a renowned global innovator and designer, will serve as a mentor for the course. He was co-founder of Continuum, now EPAM Continuum, a global innovation by design consultancy with offices in Boston, Milan, Seoul and Shanghai.

Zaccai is a champion of holistic and interdisciplinary innovation research, design and development. His vision has resulted in many highly successful category-defining products, including the Reebok Pump, P&G’s Swiffer and the Omnipod Insulin Delivery System. For more than 35 years, Continuum has been recognized for outstanding innovation and design for projects spanning medical devices to consumer products.

Zaccai is former chair of the Design Management Institute and past president of the Aspen Conference. He holds degrees in industrial design from Syracuse University and architecture from the Boston Architectural College. Zaccai also previously served on the VPA Council and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in Industrial and Interaction Design by Syracuse University.

His wife, Carmencita Bua, was formerly head of operations at Continuum and is now CEO of Tenuta Donna Gilda a Meleto Social Farm, an organization that provides neurodivergent college students an abroad experience that enhances their educational opportunities, communications skills, curiosity and harmony among nature and family members with support from a therapeutic team of experts. The organization also offers a Gap Year Program for high school students who need extra time before approaching college life.

She is a graduate of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Law School of Pisa, Italy.

The Syracuse program is especially important to the couple, as parents of a Whitman School student, Guglielmo Meriggi ’22, as well as parents of a young adult with an intellectual disability. “I am confident that this program will be revolutionary in stimulating brilliant students, educators, and researchers to deeply explore and meaningfully innovate a better future,” Zaccai says.

“We have an opportunity to blend in-context research, people-centered design, and the strengths and skills of diverse people and disciplines in a way that can change the world for the better for people of all abilities and talents,” he says. “That’s why we’re so excited to partner with Syracuse University—we see the potential that a cross-disciplinary, multi-dimensional, innovative approach can bring to our society, and we want to propel young people to be at the forefront of developing real-world solutions.”

Concepts developed throughout the course will be presented to a panel of experts in a culminating competition in spring 2021, with $30,000 in seed funding awarded to the most promising ideas for further development.

“By taking an inclusive design approach, we’re able to consider innovative ways to address a wide range of challenges and in doing so unlock the potential of numerous individuals,” Carr says. “Thanks to ADA [the Americans with Disabilities Act] legislation, there exists an awareness to create public spaces, services, transportation and telecommunications that are accessible. However, the exploration of design ideas that address Intellectual Disability [ID] offers a new set of affordances to move beyond compliance and envision ideas that embrace an ever-wider range of opportunities.”

The program was developed with the support of Quinn King ’20, founder of MedUX and a Rubin Family Innovation Mentor at the LaunchPad. King had a keen interest in working on the project as a student founder with a design company that focuses on user experience and because he has a close family member with an intellectual disability.

“To my knowledge, this is the only program that integrates students from various disciplines with students with intellectual disability into collaborative teams to problem solve design solutions,” says Myers. “Incorporating perspectives from all users and participants will most certainly result in an enhanced and sustainable user-focused experience.”

For more information about the program, contact Don Carr at dwcarr@syr.edu, Beth Myers at bemeyers@syr.edu or Linda Dickerson Hartsock at ldhart01@syr.edu.

Written for SU News by Cristina Hatem, Syracuse University Libraries Graphics by Quinn King ’20, VPA Industrial and Interaction Design