#innovation update

[takepart]

A California middle school teacher makes imaginative use of cutting-edge design software.

Holy moly—Sign us up for this class ASAP!

[innovateky]

The SimpleWash app co-created by Kent State student Camden Fullmer has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, the LA Times, was named the ABC News “app of the week” and even got a shout out on the Rachel Ray show. It’s been used thousands of times by college students for its ability to purge your twitter and Facebook accounts of certain text-based posts. Those statuses from freshman year about your wild weekend? Gone. Were you tweeting mean things about your ex-girlfriend after the break-up? Say goodbye to those embarrassing tweets.

In this episode of the Innovation Update, Josh talks with Camden about the inspiration for SimpleWash and when he first took an interest in programming. To give SimpleWash a try, visit simplewa.sh.

[innovateky]

Website updates and a new podcast

What a good week this has been for Innovate Kentucky:

Our website has been redesigned. Recent news is now easier to access and all the links that were hidden on the drop down menus are now displayed on the homepage. That includes links to our STEM career database, related articles, podcasts, infographics, lesson plans, reports and contests. We've also added a Facebook "like" button at the bottom of the homepage and will be changing our "Innovation Quote" (also at the bottom) every week. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Episode 16 of the Innovation Update is up. In this installment, Josh talks with Grechen Huebner about Kodable – an iPad game that teaches kids at the basics of programming – and the KidTech Summit, which is happening March 23 at the Oldham County Public Library. The event is free and open to the public. Stop by for some hands-on, minds-on learning.

Books reviews are coming soon to the website. There's an excess of books out there about STEM, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Which ones should you check out? We'll let you know after we read them by posting our thoughts on the website. Stay tuned for that helpful new resource.

[innovateky]

IF Lexington and Forensic Engineering

This week is off to a great start! In case you missed it, here are some things we've posted this week on our website:

Episode 15 of the Innovation Update features an interview with Kent Lewis, who is heading up IF Lexington. The 2-day event starts this Thursday with a student-only event and concludes Friday with a day that is open to the public. Admission for Friday is $55.

Jonathan McGehee is a forensic engineer who works for VCE Inc. in Nashville. Before that, he was just a kid who respected and enjoyed the work his father did as an engineer. Jonathan is the latest entry in our ever-growing STEM career database.

Our repository of STEM education and innovation links grows bigger every day. If you want to stay informed, check back every day to see what's happening in Kentucky and across the country.

[innovateky]

In this episode of the Innovation Update, Josh talks with UK’s Sue Scheff and WKU’s Melissa Rudloff about the Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative conference and the Girls in Science STEM day, and also why encouraging girls in STEM is vital to Kentucky’s future.

[innovateky]

What is Innovate Kentucky? We're glad you asked.

In this first episode of the Innovation Update podcast, host Josh Raymer talks with Corey Alderdice – who helped write the grant that led to the creation of Innovate Kentucky – about the new initiative, including its background, funding, goals and different components. Want to subscribe to the Innovation Update on iTunes? Click here.